DAY 2 Sat, 3 Sep 2011

Woohoo it's Saturday! I wake up early as usual and piddle around my room a bit, I eat breakfast and chat with the Taiwanese family who's also in my hotel. I tell them so far I may prefer Taipei to Beijing, but we'll see how I feel later, it's only been 2 days! Amy is supposed to hang out with me all day since she's off work, but decides not to meet until our cooking class at 1pm since she's tired from a long week. After eating, I watch a soap opera w Liao Ayi (one of the ladies who cooks and cleans here). She's from Gansu Lanzhou so her accent is really difficult for me to understand, but we laugh and point at the tv together. I figure out that the grandma is trying to sabotage the grandson's relationship because the girl is too poor and she wants him to marry a girl from a better family. :) 
I finally decide I should get out of the house and I call Jing Jing, a girl I randomly met at a grocery store back in Lompoc. Her big sister Ting Ting is at school in UC Irvine and her family came from Beijing to visit her. They were stopped along their California road trip for snacks and I met them! (Random meeting and making new friends? Sounds like my style huh? hah) Anyway, Jing Jing had a study class and couldn't meet me, but then later called to check if I made it to my destination. I was a bit confused as to where I was so she said ok I'm skipping class and meeting you--wait for me. I protested, but she insisted. I ended waiting an hour, I bought a mango smoothie and people watched at the station. But then time for my cooking class was approaching so I had to leave! She said ok how about I meet you after your class? I told her fine.
I met up Amy on the street and called the cooking school while we were on our way since we it was almost 1. Candice answers the phone and says, don't rush, the class is only you two. Nice! Private course for the price of a group! The class is off this famous street called Nan Luo Gu Xiang. It's busy and crowded. There is tons of shopping and dining and lots of Westerners. Amy tells me this is where the hostel she suggested is located, but I'm glad I didn't stay here. It's way too crowded, loud, and busy. We are starving and decide a small snack won't hurt. I grab this crispy red bean and cream filled snack and Amy goes to the churro stand. It's funny they have pictures of White people eating and enjoying them as if to say, see? You people like this! :p lol




Arrive at the Black Sesame Kitchen On the menu for the day: zha jiang mian black bean sauce noodles, congyoubing scallion pancake and deep fried pork stuffed lotus root. If you've never had lotus root, I hope you find an opportunity to try it. It only tastes like whatever you cook it with, but it has a very particular crunchy texture that I really enjoy. I'd only had it before Japanese style in stews or as chips in izakaya.
We also learned the 'trinity' in Chinese cooking--garlic, ginger, and scallions, how to properly use a cleaver (scary!!) and that northerns love vinegar! For the jia jiang mian, we had to make the noodles by hand. My first time! It's a bit too much to make this way very often, but really tasty. Wang laoshi (teacher) was really nice and patient, never stopped smiling and told great stories. She taught us some Beijing slang too! Usually Candice has to translate the whole time, but since Amy and I speak Chinese we could really enjoy it even more. The cooking class at Black Sesame Kitchen was a blast. I wish I could intern and learn how to cook with them for 6 months or something!

Wang Laoshi, Amy, me, and Candice

zha jiang mian 炸酱面 black bean sauce noodles

Wang laoshi helping me fold the dough for congyoubing 葱油饼 green onion pancake

Amy and I enjoying shopping and snacking after the class

After class Amy and I shopped a bit and waited for Jing Jing again. She finally called and asked if I was ok and I told her yes I'm with my friend and she said do you know her? I said yes and she said ok well I just wanted to make sure you're ok, call me if you need anything. Oh did I mention she's 14? Idk. This was definitely a cultural difference--not sure if she just didn't want to tell me no, she was too busy and couldn't help me or what.
Shopping was pretty fun, although Amy mentioned this area was overpriced since it's really touristy. 

I found a super cute panda bear for Jason!

This guy had a van packed full of every kind of stuffed animal you could imagine (meant to take a picture, but it was too crowded, sorry)

Roast duck with sugar (not my picture)

My friend Jeremy's brother (Jeremy Hung from SF, who I met in Dallas and now lives in LA) invited us out with a group to have roast duck (peking duck) at 7pm. We had a really difficult time finding a cab and didn't know which bus to take and traffic was terrible! We finally got a bus and it was like 15 stops and we still weren't exactly there! We grab a taxi after the bus and arrive about 30 mins late. Dinner turns out to be 12 people including Amy and I. Most are expats; one from Germany, one from Kenya, and the rest from the US, and one Chinese lady too. Unfortunately they started without us, but all of the dishes look good. Kung pao chicken, mushrooms, some kind of root vegetable that looked like french fries, of course the roast duck which you eat in a thin wrapper like uncooked eggroll skin, scallions and a thick sauce. Another Beijing custom is to eat the crispy skin dipped in sugar. It's delicious! Like meat cotton candy ;) 
Dinner was great. There were so many dishes I already forgot most of them, but I know I left feeling happy and full.  I really enjoyed chatting with all the people. Jeremy's bro Ed & the German Chinese guy, Michel, actually own a really cool t-shirt shop called NLGX. It's named after the popular shopping street where the cooking class was.
www.nlgx.org/ 
Afterwards a few of us went to a bar that is popular for Westerners. Saw some Europeans and Indians there, and a few Chinese. I didn't want to drink, so I had ginger ale. It shouldn't be surprising in China, but it actually tasted like ginger!! What a great day!