Beijings famous Peking Duck

If there is one must eat in Beijing, it's Peking Duck!

The sweet, oh so caramelized crispy skin, with juicy insides, comes with thinly sliced scallions, hoisin and sweet black bean sauce, and little wraps to assemble everything together. This was my first and only time having peking duck, and I was so surprised to see a Chinese dish using a wheat wrap concept!

It was the most expensive item on the menu, but well worth it!

Listen to this!

Apparently the first Peking Duck restaurant was in Beijing, in 1416 called 'Bianyifang', and is STILL running today!

Check them out: http://www.bianyifang.com/

Before that, it was a popular Imperial menu item for the Emperor of China. 

Slicing up the duck in the dining room for us!

Beijing 

China

Across the Bridge noodles - Guo-Qiao Mi-Xian

Kunming is the city where everyone stops to get to the next destination. It is in the Yunnan province, and one of the most famous dishes is 'across the bridge noodles'. 

Just outside my hostel, I found a pretty local place selling them, but no one spoke any english and all the menus were in Mandarin... but thankfully this Malaysian man came out of no where, speaking both english and Mandarin, and ordered for me, (about 1.50$ for the meal), and we ate lunch together!

Read about the story behind the noodles here

Add everything yourself into the big bowl of yummy broth! Bon Appetit!

The view from my hostel rooftop (The Hump Hostel).

The restaurant is on the strip to the middle left of the picture. 

I saw an amazing show in Kunming which I HIGHLY recommend:

The Princess of the Peacock Dance

I have never seen such creative use of a stage before this. 

Kunming

China

Beijing night market

I don't really see how half of these things are edible.. but point to anything and they will throw it on the grill for you!

Yeah, seahorses on a stick?????? 

Blown sugar

Beijing

China

Street drinks

Plain yogurt drinks to go, and it costs more if you take the container... but preferably drink it up and leave it behind. 

Corn juice. Was not the most memorable

Mango smoothies all the way. 

Peanut milk! The best!

Got a bunch of wine bottles? Heres a new decorating idea!

China

The Great Wall of China

Smog Smog Smog.

As soon as it rains, the smog goes away, then slowly comes back, ruining all your pictures. 

The great wall was a fantastic experience. You have several section options to visit, which are in increasing order of being touristy. We originally wanted to go to Simatai, but due to its poor conditions it was closed. The next best option I can recommend was Mutianyu. You have a choice to take the gondola or walk. We decided to walk, which is about 1 hour of walking up stairs, and maybe longer depending on how many breaks you take! Once you reach the wall, there are more and more patches of stairs, but for some reason its additive to go further and further. 

By far the best work out of your life! Bring good shoes. 

My friends and I made it to the unrestored part, which was so rewarding. We met an awesome couple opening a bottle of wine and shared it with us! 

We did it!

Note: bring wine for celebration on the great wall!

See those stairs at the top right in a blur? Yeah, I walked those! (picture bellow)

The ultimate more stairs from hell once already being ON the wall, leading to the unrestored part

 Unrestored part of the wall

Having wine with our new friends at the unrestored part of the wall!

Great wall of China

Failed to find Dim Sum in Beijing

After walking around for an hour in search of a restaurant that clearly closed down, we decided to enter this little hole in the wall, since they had something dumpling-esk on the menu. 

What I have learned is that if you want Dim Sum, just make sure Hong Kong is on your itinerary, because you won't find it better anywhere else!!

Veg Buns

 Pork buns

pickled cucumber

Beijing

China

More foods to add to your repertoire

Before every cooking class, the teacher usually brings you to a local market to talk about ingredients. These pictures are from the market in Yangshuo (RIP dogs!). The animal areas were scary, but we also encountered lots of vegetables I have never seen before. 

Zucchini flowers

Giant winter melons 

Loofah! the natural exfoliant

Fresh bamboo

Frogs. . 

Seafood section

There will always be pig

Yangshuo market

China

Point and eat stalls in China

These were some of my favourite places to eat cheap and local. For this first place, you took a bowl, filled it with anything from the selection of vegetables and meats, then they fried it up on a wok and steamed it over rice... for ONE dollar!

This was the same concept, but a smaller town, so they had to run in back and show us what they had going on in stock! Then they fired it up noodle style!

This was a restaurant we read about in the lonely planet, and was the most expensive meal ever because the woman was totally trying to rip us off! We had to try this famous "beer fish", so it was worth it.. 

Sometimes your food escapes from the pantry . . . 

 Yangshuo

China

Pork and vegetable stir fry

Pork and vegetable stir fry

Ingredients

150g pork, thinly sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

1 handful snow peas

1 big red chilli, sliced (optional)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp soy sauce + 1 tbsp sugar

1/4 cup water

1 tsp oyster sauce

Heat wok with 2 tbsp cooking oil (we used peanut). Fry up all vegetables (or any veg you like), after 3 minutes, add pork, soy sauce, sugar, and stir for one minute. Add water, stir, then add oyster sauce and garlic till fragrant. Remove from heat and serve :) 

Garnish with sliced green onions. 

Cooking class recipes

Egg wrapped dumplings

Chinese fried eggplant

Steamed chicken with berries and mushroom

Yangshuo

China

Soy wrapped enoki mushrooms

This was in Beijing, just outside the crazy young people market. 

They has a wide selection, and I got tomato chilli sauce infused enoki mushrooms and lettuce, wrapped in a soy based pasta. 

Beijing

China