Day 43 (2)

October 2, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Where were we?



Oh, yeah. So, we (Ianuar, Shelly, and myself), rounded the far western corner of the City Wall of Xi'an, passed the North Gate, and ran right into...lanterns?

The second half of our journey around the City Wall of Xi'an was filled with giant lanterns. I'm not sure what they were for exactly: Either they light them up every night, or they had something to do with the National Day festival the day before. In any case, the northern expanse of the wall was acting as a staging area for the lanterns.

Here's an overview of some (by no means all) of the types of lanterns we saw:


Tigers. The first section of lanterns we encountered on the Xi'an City Wall.

It's the Year of the Tiger, so the first round of lanterns were all cartoon tigers in-keeping with this year's theme.


A Row of Tigers. Is a group of tigers a pack? A pride? What is a group of Tiger Lanterns? A brightness?

Although there were a great deal of tiger's, they were by no means all the wall had to offer:


Flowering Trees. Large tree lanterns with pink flowers.


Creepy People. Most of the lanterns were in less than new condition, this was especially true of the humans represented.


Faberge Eggs on Lotus Blossoms? I'm not sure, but this missing egg is indicative of the state of repair of most of the lanterns we saw.


The Insect Kingdom. This section reminded me of A Bug's Life.


Cloisonné Elephant. One of several cloisonné animals.



Star Road. Shooting stars over the Xi'an City Wall.


The Sea Lion. This guy was all on his own, not sure about his "theme."


Egypt. Tucked away all by itself in one of the wall's alcoves.


In Need of Repairs. Most of the lanterns could use some kind of work.


Totem Poles. North America was not over looked in the lantern processional.


Moon Goddess? Could be...

We finished our ride around the wall and head off. We had discussed visiting the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower, but took a detour down a street market:


Xi'an City Center Street Market. Off the road, and along the city wall to the south.

We shopped around a bit, enjoyed the scenery. One man was making candy animals out of something like caramel:


Caramel Animals. Made by a man on the street in Xi'an.

We turned down a scenic street...



Beautiful Street. One turn off of the market.

...unfortunately, the only thing to look at was the scenery.

We left the market and went toward the Towers. Ianuar and Shelly didn't want to go inside today, which was fine since I was pretty tired.


The Bell Tower. The outside, anyway.

We walked around a little more, took in some so of the culture.



Window Dressing. A lot of the shops downtown hired women to wear strange outfits out front or in elaborate window scenes.

Exhausted, we made our way home...


Yeah? Right in the middle of the city, no less.

Hayden

Day 26

September 15, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence, China

Blah. Jordan is sick. I'm not, thank goodness, but I haven't been sleeping very well and his sickness isn't helping much.

I slept in today, and skipped my classes. It's not as if they take attendance, and we're still in review territory. You would just not believe how exhausting it is to not be able to actually communicate something to some one else. Ever. Even when some one does speak English, conversations can be little more than superficial. Ah, well.

So, for this Wednesday, please enjoy this Chinglish:


Jianmin. "the series high qualityfoodstuff were produced carefully.it is your firstchoice of present."

At present, I guess it is my first choice, mainly because it leads me to rather an interesting end note to a previous discussion. Jianmin is a brand of what is essentially just a very high-gluten flour they use to make cakes and that sort of thing. Gluten in Chinese is "mianjin" (面筋, lit. "bread muscle"). It's really chewy when cooked and a little spongy. One of the many ways in which is is prepared is skewered and grilled. Said skewers are spiral cut in order to allow them to cook more evenly, and then rolled in spices. The result is a spicy, chewy sort of cake. A cake, mind you, that doesn't contain ANY sheep's penis at all, and is sold by street vendors ALL over China.


Mianjin (面筋) 2. Roasted, rolled in spices, and delightfully sheep's penis-free.

Phew.

Hayden

Day 20

September 9, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Provence - China

The school arranged to take the foreign students for their medical exams today. I had already gotten mine, of course, but decided to go along in order to (finally) pick up my results. I was informed on the bus that the school would have picked up my results for me, but by that time it was already too late.

We arrived, I got my results, and then I left on my own, as it would probably take two or three hours for everyone else to finish. The results of the medical exam, in case you were curious: Perfectly healthy. Well, it said something about a slight "sinus arrhythmia," but also that I was free of any disease that would require quarantine or deportation. So, you know, that's good.

My plan was to take the bus back, but as I was walking to the bus stop, a taxi pulled up and let a lady out. So, I had my first ever taxi ride.


Taxi Driver. Only about $1 to get me all the way back to school.

The taxi dropped me off at the gates of the school, so I did a bit of walking around. Nearly three days without an appetite, I thought I'd try to find something to eat on my walk home. A street vendor was grilling up some skewers and I stopped to ask him what it was, assuming it was spiral cut potatoes. I said "这是土豆吗?" ("this is a potato?") to him, and he responded with some word I didn't understand ending in "肉" ("meat"). I thought "oh, well" and bought one. It was chewy, so "organ meat" was my first instinct. I ate the not-a-potato wondering the whole time what it might be.

((NOTE: You might not want to read the rest of this misadventure. I'm just saying, it goes to a weird place. Maybe you could just go Google "fluffy kittens." That will turn out better than this.))

I meant to ask Xiao Liu about it, but never remembered. I brought it up in class while we were on the subject of restaurants. One of my classmates, he's from Indonesia, told me that he had been told that those spiral skewers were dog meat. My teacher said "no, no, no!" emphatically. They were NOT dog meat. I was relieved, but what were they? The texture had been weird and spongy, so I suggested “豆腐" ("tofu"). She said that sounded right and the conversation ended.

Cut to the internet: I searched and searched for the answer, mostly because I wanted a picture to post on my blog. And, unfortunately, I finally found my answer:


Street Vendor. Picture stolen from http://www.livingstupidly.com/?cat=1&paged=2.

It was sheep penis. Grilled. On a skewer.

It seems weird to say this, but somehow, this was bound to happen sooner or later...

Hayden

Day 2 (2)

August 22, 2010 - Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China

There are many shops and restaurants along Shi Da Road, the street that leads from my hotel to Chang An Road. The noodle restaurant that I ate on my first day was on Shi Da Road, for instance. There are a number of restaurants specializing in different menu choices. In China, it seems, most small restaurants will serve only one sort of dish. One restaurant serves food with rice (没饭), while another serves noodles (面). Some sell dumplings （饺子),others cakes (蛋糕). The restaurant I ate at on my first day was exclusively a noodle restaurant.

In addition to the restaurant stalls, like any major city, Xi'an has street vendors. On my first day I noticed this gentleman:


The Chestnut Seller. I noticed this man selling roasted chestnuts on my first day in Xi'an.

He was roasting chestnuts in a large wok on Chang An Road. I took the picture with Sami in mind; I knew she would appreciate the value of roasted chestnuts being available anytime.

On Shi Da Road, there is a table in a break in the sidewalk about half-way down. I noticed the man my first day out and I asked Xiao Liu what he was making. She answered me, but I don't yet have an ear for listening to Chinese. The next day, as I was walking down Shi Da Road, I noticed some people waiting in line at his table. I decided to stop.

What he was making was rather familiar to me. It looked just like a crepe, and the basic production was much the same. I would find out later that what he was making was called 煎饼 (jiānbǐng, lit. "pan-fried flat cake").







The Jianbing Man. The man at the table on Shi Da Road prepares my jianbing.

He ladelled out batter onto a hot, round griddle, and moved it around with a small bamboo device. He then cracked an egg on top, smoothed the egg out as well, and sprinkled on some green onions. He then flipped the entire thing over and brushed the other side with a series of red sauces. He filled it with some vegetables I didn't recognize, and asked me if I wanted hot peppers. I did. He added two crispy pieces of some kind, flattened them down, and folded the whole thing up. I asked how much, and, sensing my confusion with the currency, he smiled and showed me the bills in his basket: 2.50RMB ($.37). He put the jianbing into a small plastic bag, the sort we use for produce back home, the sort that everyone uses here to take food home, and I walked back to my hotel.

I ate the jianbing with some chopsticks, not knowing exactly how I should eat it. I guess maybe its meant to be held, it is street food, afterall. I dunno.



Jianbing (煎饼). It tasted quite a bit better than these photos look.

The jianbing was quite good, like a savory crepe filled with Asian vegetables. And spicy, those peppers weren't messing around (believe me when I tell you if some one here says something is spicy, it's SPICY). Yesterday, while Xiao Liu and I were out, we passed the Jianbing Man's table. He waved at me as I was passing. I guess American's who speak almost no Chinese don't buy food from him everyday. I stopped and said "这是很好吃!" ("This is/was very delicious!"). He smiled and thanked me.

Hayden