playing with our food...

we made a friend...well two...here that like to say "deeleecioursh" for fun when something is, you know, delicious. i've subconsciously picked it up as i tend to absorb random words other people use, and decided to dedicate a post to stuff here that we find deeleecioursh. this is also to remedy earlier posts in which we may have alluded to the fact that we're not loving the food...still true about northern chinese food (at least for me), but there's plenty of other good things here, and even better that we are learning we can (try to) make.

the top 5 things we would encourage you to eat should you come visit us...
(we reserve the right to alter this list as the seasons change and/or write new posts on this as we discover new things that are yummy)

• hot pot (huo guo) -- the split pot kind, half clear broth, half spicy. this is most definitely worth it, esp when the weather outside is shivery. meat, veggies, tofu, fresh shrimp balls...all piping hot and so yum it makes us hungry just thinking about it. you can have it healthy, or not so healthy, but all of it is cooked to order with as much sauce as you personally like. just don't go too crazy on the spicy side or you may regret it later

• korean bbq -- oh my, it's ridiculously cheap, and ridiculously good. you can pay well under ten bucks a person at a relatively "nice" place for so much food there isn't enough room on the table. i don't even eat that much meat, so if i'm raving you can only imagine. it comes with all different kinds of soup and bibimbap and side dishes...all the side dishes you want (as long as you're willing to keep asking the fu yu yuan for them)
  

• kao yu (baked fish...if you translate it directly...but that SO understates its deliciousness) at the xiao chir (little eats place) -- our friends took us to this place down the street where appearances are deceiving...it's that place that had the fake flowers in the pringle/lays can vases. but if you order right, it's so worth it. for kao yu, you get this large buffet-sized pan of whole fish roasted with hot spicy peppers and green onions and ginger and veggies. kept hot at your table with a little flame under the pan. yum.
  

• peking duck (beijing kao ya) -- this isn't my favorite, but it's a must eat in BJ. D likes it, but is waiting for visitors to eat it as he can get sick of it with too much frequency. i'd go along too, for fun. i like the yellow ducky outside..

• take out / delivery -- okay, this isn't just one thing, but a lot of little dinky places deliver here (as long as they're in the mood or not too busy...nothing's standard). we often order from a place called moonhouse that makes yummy sammiches and salad with a korean tinge. also this korean place where you can get a yummy beef rice dish and spicy hot yummy soup for 20-25 kuai apiece (like 3 bucks). even mcDonald's will deliver although i can't figure out why you would want them to. D disagrees on this one.
  

we've also been experimenting more in the kitchen, spurred on by necessity (having people over, cooking for small group, etc.) and with encouragement from our more experienced friends. by experimenting, it's really like...this doesn't exist/requires a really far trip to an import store/is really expensive in chinar...what do we substitute it with? or even better...how do you make it? it's kind of fun to learn that a cup of heavy whipping cream combined with 1-2 tbsp of vinegar turns into sour cream. or that it's possible to "make" onion soup mix. or that salad dressing requires pretty near perfect proportions to get it tasty (i crave Brianna's blush wine vinaigrette every other day, D misses his Hidden Valley Ranch). last week, M&J bought little pumpkins and experimented (successfully) with roasting them for punkin soup and punkin pancakes, both of which we got to enjoy as well. the things you'd never learn at home...

one of our friends here has been learning to make granola, and generously shared a baggie with me. hearing that it's possible to make with find-in-chinar ingredients, i started experimenting. burned the first batch, but here's the second...not something i'd sell, or that could even be labeled deeleecioursh...but just decent enough that D and M and J are willing to eat it...if only to be kind :p it's not bad if you have it with yogurt.