Happy New Year

Yesterday evening was "New Years Eve" here in China - the biggest holiday in this country. Many people had left town (just 7 millions left...) and gone to their home town for the "Spring Festivals".
This is quite an interesting logistic puzzle - moving 115 million people from north to south, from east to west in just a few days and move them again again after a week.

Was very interested to see the fireworks used here and the firework over Beijing during the night.
















Well the size and numbers available was far over exceptions - some of these boxes You
hardly can lift. There are sold i many street-corners in Beijing but are here quite expensive.Taking a car 1 hrs drive out from town will get the prices down to less then 33%..

Before "the blast off" we spend dinner my Shizhitings family and relatives at a Chinese restaurant having a lot to eat.

BLAST OFF! It started already around 8 in the night av was going on for 6 hrs.
Amazing but very loud fire works all over the the town.
The sky was quite clear inn afternoon but after midnight it was totally grey and you could smell the the powder every where: I am happy I do not have to clean the streets today....

Valentines Day

Many western traditions migrated to China. So even the Valentines Day.
We spent the evening together with many other couples at Morrels. Had a very nice four course dinner and as usual the food was very good. We can really recommed this place - but make shure to book a table in advance.

It was a nice dinner, and a bootle of red wine was included. The total: RMB 398/couple. I love this country

A drink to start with. - Sallad with shrimps, gooseliver, smoked and fermented salmon -Tomato soup -
Filé of veal with potato pusst (in ther shape of hearets) or grilled salmon. Some special (and testeful) Valentine Dessert to round of with.

No breakfast needed...

Alexander, Tina, Erik, Maria, Sara and Marcus enjoying the food at Wasabi

This morning (+7, blue sky ! and the sun is shining) we had no
breakfast. Still full since last nights dinner - at Wasabi.
Several colleagues is in Beijing now and with the ''sashimi-lover''
Marcus in the group it was not hard to decide where to go.

Shizhiting, Marcus and Sara with a full table
while Maria, Erik, Alexander and Tina is getting their sushi.

A lot of sashimi, sushi, chicken, Japanese barbecue and many other delicatessens.
But Marcus, these fermented beans......

Fast food

The number of fast food stores in Beijing is growing quick.
When I first came to China some years ago I was told by a Swedish
colleague that the fastes way to get sick was to have lunch at
McDonalds or KFC. He was right - I have been really sick two times
in Beijing. One chicken burger at McDonalds and a chicken wrap at
KFC gave me great pain.

So today when Bao Bao and Tao Tao wanted us to have lunch with
them at Origus I was really sceptical....

But this time I was surprised. A lot of different and tasty pizza slices
together with a great selection of other (mostly Chinese) food,
vegetables and fruit. About 15 different soft drink, milk and draft beer.

So, if You are out shopping in Beijing and get really hungry,
look for the Origus sign. There are about 30 restaurants
in town.

Did I tell You that price? - 40 RMB all included!!!!

This week at Hua Jia Yi Yuan

Every Saturday evening we go to our favorite Chinese restaurant
Hua Jia Yi Yuan in Dangxiao street jingan, close to Radison SAS hotel.
As many of my colleagues stay at Radison SAS when they are working
here in Beijing I often recommend this restaurant and also often get the
question what to order here.

So, I will from time to time here on the blog give comments about what
food we recommend.

Today we had:
- Spare ribs in brown sause (23)
- Sautered Diced chicken (Gom Bao chicken) (18)
- Sautered mushrooms with diced turnip (18)
- Corn flavor pancake (6)

and they were all very good.

Other favorites are:
- Grilled eggplant (22)
- Grilled beef steak (28)
- Grilled seafood Thai style (32)
- Sautered honey pees (25)
- Sweet and Sour pork (18)
- Sautered shredded pork (16)
- Sautered beef with vegetables (23)
- Hua's Pancake rolls (32)
- Roasted pork (35)
- Duck meat /rolls/ (28)
- Roasted duck (69)

As usual a Saturday evening I went to NieXia at SJML for some foot massage.