5 posts tagged “china”
alas, beijing was not to be, or i'd have picked up some of these plush cuties as gifts while i was there (seen here in the window of the hong kong travel agency where we placed our deposit). these are the official mascots of the 2008 beijing summer olympics, a welcome return to cuteness for the summer games after the weird, weirder, and weirdest of the last three olympiads (don't even get me started on izzy).
from the official beijing 2008 mascot page:
each of fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name -- a traditional way of expressing affection for children in china. beibei is the fish, jingjing is the panda, huanhuan is the olympic flame, yingying is the tibetan antelope and nini is the swallow.
when you put their names together -- bei jing huan ying ni -- they say "welcome to beijing," offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of fuwa as young ambassadors for the olympic games.
i apologize to the certain (obvious?) someone who would have received jingjing -- i really wanted to get him for you.
i've always dreamed of visiting beijing, since seeing pictures, hearing stories, of the forbidden city & great wall when i was a young girl. honestly, though, i'm more interested these days in china's modern political history than its ancient glory. it'd have been fascinating to see a city in reinvention as it tries to put on a good face for the world.
maybe someday.
as promised, a mcdonald's trip report, featuring the chicken and beef fan-tastic sandwiches. first thing to notice is the packaging, which resembles a large fry cup, sealed on both ends. the sandwich is removed by pulling on a tear strip about a third of the way down, which leaves you with a convenient carry-and-eat case. as you might be able to tell by looking at the photos, mcdonald's has succeeded in making the "official" menu pictures of these sandwiches frightneningly unappealing. too much texture, i think.
the formed-rice "buns" are savory and surprisingly unmessy, imagine grilled patties of mushroom risotto and you'll have the general idea. the chicken fan-tastic contains a battered breast filet with a strongly seasoned crust, as well as mayonnaise and lettuce. at times the flavors of rice and batter come in conflict, but overall -- pretty tasty. the beef version contains slices of beef and grilled onions in "teriyaki" sauce, though i use scare quotes because i couldn't taste much flavor from inside the sandwich at all. here the strong flavor of the rice patties are a deifnitely minus.
(incidentally, two sandwiches is a bit much. the rice makes these much heavier than your average bun-equipped fast food sandwich. recommend finding a group of like-minded adventurers if you want to try both...)
anyway! fans of onigiri and omusubi probably need no further convincing. but i think the real winner here was the small nestea honey pear iced tea which i washed down my bites of sandwich with. i detest normal lemon nestea, but this flavor was super-yummy. if only we had it stateside!
as an aside, hong kong mcdonald's also have a "grilled chicken burger" on the menu, which it turns out is a sandwich containing cantonese soy sauce chicken breast, complete with skin. looked really good, but was not equipped to give it a try. i think i've exhausted my tolerance for fast food this trip, so unless there's special demand, we'll stop here.
tomorrow: off to the mainland, expect internet access to sporadic at best, so please don't worry if i disappear for a bit. drop me a line so i won't be lonely when i log in, okay?
...and we're off! wish me fun!
haven't cooked nearly enough lately, so i think i'll opt out of today's qotd. though i do make a mean maple-ginger glazed salmon, or so i've been told.
how many outfits? i'm very nervous about my upcoming trip. three weeks! i can't remember the last time i took such an extended voyage. i have no idea how to pack for such a thing. pack for heat, they say, but don't forget to pack for cold too! will i be able to launder there? my friend j tells me that in china it's often easier and cheaper to just buy new clothes when the old stuff gets dirty than it is to wash things. i find this kind of advice very intimidating.
am living a paradox as far as preparedness goes. the rough guide to china and fodor's hong kong are already being devoured in earnest; i love travel guides and maps, love the smell and feel of discovery by paper and the opportunity to meet a place in the flesh already feeling like an old friend. i remember my rough guide to egypt (i heart rough guides above all others), already dog-eared and read cover-to-cover twice before i'd even set foot in that ancient kingdom, maps covered in tentative, often revised, footpaths of pencil. checkpoints every half hour. but this time i'm at a bit of a loss. though hong kong is free for exploring, china will be fully chaperoned -- no room for wandering off the trail. haven't even had a chance to, or perhaps have chosen not to, learn the itinerary to see which locales will be hit, though one can only assume the biggies: beijing, xi'an, shanghai... in such a huge country, i thought it best to let others run the logistical hurdles. but now am feeling pangs of regret at not being able to plan the ins and outs of the trip myself.
(i really am an insufferable micromanager, aren't i? i wonder how people stand to be around me!)
calm down and let it flow, she says, my better judgment. it's out of your control, and if you forget something, well, that's another adventure for the memoirs. but all i can do is think: how many outfits?
