September 10, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China
This afternoon, we trekked across the (southern part of the) city to Saige, a giant, four-story electronics store in the "electronics" district. They have districts here. The bus ride was...let's go with awful. It was hot, and crowded. And small: It was like a van. We arrived after what seemed like forever and made our way to the third floor to look at pocket translators. Pocket translators are something of a must here for foreigners, but they are SO expensive in the states.
Saige. It's huge.The floors are divided by what they sell: First floor is mostly cameras and cellphones, second floor is computers, the third is a variety of hand-held devices like pocket translators and eReaders, and the fourth is peripheral stuff like keyboards and webcams. There is also a large section of bootleg material:
Bootleg DVDs. Titanic 2? Too soon?I really liked the cover of the
Inception DVD. The photo on the front of
Titanic 2 was from
Revolutionary Road. I wondered if the film was just that, having nothing to do with the original at all. The description on the back was priceless, however. Something about Jack being frozen for 80 years and then thawed by researchers. He escapes the research facility...blah, blah, blah. All of this was in the best Chinglish, by the way. And I think that description comes from an MTV Movie Awards sketch with Ben Stiller and James Cameron. So, who knows what movie is in the case.
Friday Favorites:
Okay, so this is gonna be a little out of left field. For me, anyway. After Saige, Jordan and I walked around looking for the bus stop. We had planned to have dinner at Pizza Hut, because we found out there was one about 2 km from our school. In our wandering we ran across...
McDonald's. The McDonald's near Saige in Xi'an....McDonald's. At this point I was tired and quite hungry (for the first time in days!). So, you know, let's do it. We walked upstairs (apparently they're usually upstairs. First floor rents are more expensive and they have the name recognition to get people to walk up a flight of stairs), made our way to the counter, and ordered. Jordan got the equivalent of a Double Quarter Pounder, but without cheese. I ordered a Big Mac. And a small McNugget to check out their sauce options.
We sat down at a table, I opened the box, took a bite, and...its was exactly like a Big Mac. Well, almost exactly. I think there was mustard on it rather than thousand island dressing. But, that's not the point: The bun, the burgers, the cheese, the lettuce, the pickles. It was all the same. Exactly the same. It was like biting into a Big Mac in the US.
Big Mac. Just like home.Now, I'm not even really a fan of McDonald's. That's no secret. I like Egg McMuffins, but that's about it. But, in this instance, it was just right. It was the first thing I've had here that was supposed to taste American that actually did. And the fries! My god, the fries. They were so HOT. The remained at maximum temperature for more than 15 minutes! I was having trouble eating them after we had sat there and ate nearly everything else!
The McNuggets, too, were on point. Although, to be fair, they have always been a little Asian. They
are tempura battered, or something like it. The sauce options were:
McNugget Sauce. Malay, American, and Italian, respectively.I tried all three. The Italian was spaghetti sauce and the American was BBQ sauce, so, you know, smoke flavoring. But the Malay was amazing. It was satay sauce, and I know that I'm harping on American familiarity here, but we need this in the US. It's perfect on the nuggets.
Most things were just like a US McDonald's. One key difference? Well...
McDonald's Pies. I guess apples aren't as popular here.The pies here aren't apple, they're purple yam. ((shrugs))
Hayden
