A Few Words from Beijing

This was yesterday, today the sky was blue and I was happy. I was almost blown off the sidewalk, but I rather take that battle and have a blue sky and air that smells nice. However, yesterday's morning, you must give it, had a certain beauty to it. The view from my hotel room, new buildings raise up towards the sky.

I did not try the hotel breakfast, I cannot be around sausages and bacon in the morning, it does nothing for me baby! At 5.40 most of them rush towards the shuttle bus, giving me an hours or so, of peaceful e-mail catching up time. Then hunger sets in, and I decide to give the local food court a chance. 

Chinese supermarkets confuses me, the people, the smells and the goods. The ready-made food, have everything from veggies to different pieces of animals more or less grilled. If I was hungry before, it was now all gone. And then there is the live fish section. I decided to be brave, I have actually gotten slightly more brave when walking in traffic here now, but still a chicken when it comes to food. 2 SEK could be spent on something that did not look like it contained too much meat; a round, it actually was called something- and kanji for round. I tried a bit. I recognize the consistence but not the tastes. I have during a kitchen adventures a few years back tried to make a polenta omelet with vegetables, and it had passed for food when it was warm. The leftovers had become more compact and well I could have sold it to some Chinese person.

Something smells like sugar beets in here! A strange synergy effect between the salmon chiabata that cost 20SEK and the 2SEK polenta cake, and most likely also tired girl that only slept a few hours last night. She hopes that sleep will come easier today than last night. The salmon was not that bad actually but the chiabata left a bit more to wish for, and someone had left a thick layer of flour on top of it to. Annoying it was, and messed up her dress to, it did. 

Manholes worry me. When I step on one, I think of what one of my philosophy teachers told me about putting the trust into hands of strangers, we do it everyday, everytime we step on a manhole, we expect that it will hold us. On my way to the office this morning, two manholes in particular worried me, they were right there on the busy sidewalk, without lids. Yes, that is the truth, not a single guard, no light saber in sight, no one telling me they are sorry for causing this inconvenience and pointing me where to go. Barbaric Beijing.

The walk today was pretty pain free, except above mention detail. I was blocking out the sound of traffic with high quality German metal – Accept. Upon returning to the hotel that night I also noticed that there is a second alternative, due to the cold weather, the hotel now offers a complimentary shuttle bus service, where Sony Ericsson office is the second stop of the journey. Even with traps luring and insane traffic, it feels that walking less than ten minutes in 0 C, does not call for a shuttle bus intervention.

Lunch as Dayla or something like that, but it is supposedly a specialist of Beijing duck. Chinese restaurants are noise, the staff seems constantly angry and well service is pretty close to what you can expect in Sweden. However, I manage to get a smile out of one of the waiters, and my local colleague told me “ah they like you”. And I guess he did, and I hope he did not watch my facial expressions while I was reading the menu. I know that you should be polite, you should say that you like the local dishes to make your hosts feel proud. When it comes to food I do not work that way, I may smile, I may flirt, I may do my best to make you feel comfortable, but I do not joke around about food. If I do not like it I will tell you why. Plus, I’m difficult to start with, refusing to eat meaty dishes unless the restaurant can show at least one Michelin star or a Polish boy that wants me to try special dishes from his childhood. Then again, one girl and a Chinese menu, could be a fun Youtube upload genre.

Chinese food scares me. I have stopped looking for the must disgusting item on the menu, since I know at the turn of next page, a new surprise await. Chicken feet, combs or snake hotpot. I’m happy that several years in Asia no longer make me add fish served with head still on, to the list. If that would still be the level of comfort, the Youtube videos would become legendary. Still, duck served with head on, does not amuse me. Cultural relativism in moral philosophy is not supported by me. There are things that are okay, and not okay depending on context, and then there are things that are fucked up (ducked up??). Ducks are happy-go-lucky looking little personalities, and I do not want to see them burned and served as food. Much like other theoretical philosophical dilemmas, I sometimes think about what 4 years in China would have done to my food habits. 

Christmas is a big decoration thing in both Beijing and Tokyo. This weekend I hope I can go and see some of the famous sites here in Tokyo, but this local department store gave me a preview of the feel of the season. 

Today I tried 3 new fruits, that must for sure make up for a very good day. Sugar cane, Chinese fig and a Chinese orange/grapefruit/lemon; let's just say they did not know how to translate it properly. I must say I was most fascinated by the sugar cane. And I will blame a childhood connection to the sugar industry in Sweden for that (no I was not a victim of child labour, but my dad worked at the refinery, and every day I sat in the window watching the chimneys push out white pretty vapor, waiting for him to come home. For a while there, I thought that this was the way clouds were made... I miss me daddy...)