jet-lag, shmet-shmag

Four states, five cities, seven towns. Fourteen nights only. Sold out tour.
Then 7,000 miles back around the globe.

I can pretend we were part of a grand performance tour these last couple of weeks. I sang duets on Glee Wii. I danced The Experience a-la Michael Jackson.  I performed shtick and voice over routines. I was chauffeured around, drank champagne and partied 'til four in the morning. I even wore sequins at one point during our East coast tour.  I got paid in QT (that's quality time for those not in the know) with friends and family and four legged fur balls.

ahh, the life of a temporary ex-pat.

Who had time to check blogs or write posts when there was so much else going on?!

Christmas celebrations, New Years Eve, and everything in between was fabulous. We were spoiled with love and gifts and all the special foods that we missed. A big thank you for friends and family remembering us with Christmas cards that were sent to our parents' houses. Also, another big thank you for the special annual Christmas-time CD with hand-selected tunes that kept us rockin' while we were home. Up and down the NJ parkway can be a long ride without good music. Time with family and friends was all too short. Plane rides were all too long.

And now, here I am again. Home sweet Beijing in 2011. In our tricked out apartment - aka, an apartment with a brandy-new toaster oven and (AND!) an air purifier. So, now we can breath easy. (how could i resist that line?) We did a little shopping today to say the least. Something had to keep us awake when our bodies are telling us, "sleep, sleep my precious."

Despite jet-lag induced wake up calls at 3:00 AM, and the hunger pangs that follow, life in Beijing is back to normal. Which means, more specifically, that life in Beijing is back to the unexpected,  roller-coaster, what does that mean, oh, I understand that, er, no I don't, but I am still happy, wait, someone from my school recognized me on the street-isn't that great? want to try that new, weird, tasty thing? kind of life.

Did I mention we got a toaster oven? And it does more than just make toast! I could make a whole chicken right now.
And an air purifier?! **

A few other new exciting happenings worth mentioning today:
(1) There is a new bus stop waiting area on our street, but no buses actually stop at that specific point. However, if I wish to stay dry, out of inclement weather, or people watch, it is nice to know I have a place to stand with strangers and a superb vantage point. Perhaps there I can discuss the weather with others and talk to neighborhood dogs.

(2) The scaffolding that surrounded one of the nightclubs on our street has finally been removed. Thank goodness! I wouldn't dare make an appearance there with that eye-sore of a front door. Girl's got to get her groove on. Now I will go straight away to change into my clubbing clothes (all black of course), and stuff a wad of money in my pockets to spend on a good night out.

(3) The Holiday Inn Express down the street from us is complete. It was under construction with practically just the foundation poured when we moved here four months ago. We toured the lobby of the hotel today, and I am mighty impressed. Migh-ty. Never in my life did I think I could be impressed with a Holiday Inn Express. There is even a very feng, very shui, garden in the hotel's backyard, modern furnishings in the lobby, and no-smoking signs that seem to be heeded thus far. Good job HI. Kudos to you.

(4) More completed construction -- we now have access to another little park area around the block. I am certain long, interesting, life-altering thoughts will be contemplated there and moments of brilliance and wit will be discovered there come warm weather.

(5) Not really that exciting, but perhaps worth mentioning. Our corner store guy did not greet us with a "Long time, no see!" or "Welcome back, where've you been?" But, I know he missed us, nonetheless.

(6) Food can be Fun and tasty! We discovered a Sushi Express restaurant today in the Ginza Mall named "I <3 Sushi" (there is literally a picture of a heart in the title). As you sit at a counter lined up in a row, individual sushi or sashimi portions roll along on a conveyor belt. You can watch the fish go by again and again before you decide which morsel to consume, or you can pick up every plate one by one if you are feeling famished. It's built in entertainment and an indecisive eater's dream or nightmare depending on how you look at it. The chef at one end keeps the plates refreshed and the variety interesting. Each plate costs the same RMB amount - six kuai. Lunch today was a whopping $7 for both of us!

(7) Spring Festival is just around the corner. In preparation, we - meaning I - am stocking up on all things red. We already have our sign on the front door (even though there is still a Christmas tree in the lobby), lanterns in the living room, and a plush red bunny in preparation of the celebration(s). After all, 2011 is the year of the hare, which I discovered only after asking Z, "Why are there rabbits everywhere?! Rabbit posters, rabbit cartoons, red rabbit plush, rabbit lanterns, rabbit coasters, rabbit hats, rabbit mugs?"

(8) Ding! Toast is done!



** for those looking, we bought ours at Wal-Mart - Yadu brand, model no. KJ130-TGS for just under 1000RMB. There's the cadillac model out there that costs 11,000 RMB, but, despite our lungs' pleas, we don't have that kind of mula to spend.

I'll be Home for Christmas

There has been a Christmas tree surrounded by a row of faux poinsettias in our lobby since we moved into this building in September. Who knows how long the tree has been standing since before then? So, you could say that I have been anticipating this Christmas for a while now; it's hard to ignore Santa's trappings when I am greeted by them every day, heading out into either sunshine or snowflakes.  OK. So, no snow. yet. But you get the point.

Speaking of the jolly fat man, if Santa can make it all the way around the globe in one night delivering presents, how is it that I must endure a 14 hour plane ride to get only half-way around the globe? I have presents to give, too. Couldn't the big guy loan out some of his elves and reindeer a few days before Christmas to this girl from Jersey?

I wonder if Santa appreciates his time traveling talents? I will have a touch of that Christmas magic with me over the next 24 hours because I will arrive in Newark at the same date and time on the calendar as I departed Beijing. I'll be a little more weary than when I left Beijing, but it's magical nonetheless. Oh, so is the plane food. magical. And the other passengers. especially magical. And the anticipation of Newark. mag.i.cal.

Does it feel like the end of the first semester of college for you, too?

just a spoon full of sugar

Martha always knows how to cheer me up! In between reviewing all of my Mandarin notes and listening to my Mandarin lessons, Martha showed me how to sweeten the deal by making my own candied mandarins! (I couldn't resist!)

Without the properly advised "very sharp paring knife," it took me more than the 45 minutes Martha instructed it would take me to peel four lemons, three oranges and two grapefruits. The prep time also included bicycling to a fruit vendor, waiting for the vendor to reappear (but, where did he go? wasn't he just here a second ago?), then searching for the perfect fruits amongst his bevy of the almost-frozen variety (it's pretty damn cold out). I am certain I paid more for the grapefruits than I should have, but with all the waiting and searching and bicycling and having-to-have-them-ing I was doing instead of studying, those citrus gems were mine nonetheless.

And now, in their boiled down, sugared form, they are my sweet, bright, tart, gummy-like goodness. Covered in chocolate, too.

They also make for a citrusy twist to martinis (I saved the simple syrup that resulted from the recipe just for that purpose).

Little rays of sunshine bursting out of a cloudy day.

boiling away in simple syrup

sugared and waiting to dry

just a little chocolate next...

it's beginning to look a lot like...

I have been a bit cranky lately. Could it be the post-party blues? Could it be today's fourth load of laundry flooding the kitchen floor? Could it be my lack of motivation to finish Friday's lesson plan? Could it be that as much as we sweep and clean, even our dust has dust?! Could it be the upstairs neighbor's nighttime romps - his thud, thud, thudding (c'mon buddy, can't you at least change it up a bit?) and her best When Harry Met Sally diner scene impression - that keep me awake at night?

I know my crank-factor is tuned way up today for reasons beyond dusting, studying and not-so-neighborly low-budget adult film re-enactments...but my soul searching has me stuck in this rut. Just so you know, this is not me complaining about Beijing. I love it here. We've made a nice home for ourselves; we entertain a little here and there; we've made friends; I talk to the doormen when I can; I say ni hao to every high-rise Chinese speaking pooch in our building (I am speaking literally here about dogs. Last week, one stole my glove right off of my hand!).

Could it be because my brain is shutting down? Or maybe it's not my brain, but it's my voice and tongue and mouth that are not following my brain's signals, working in unison to produce the correct sounds. Green light, GO, damnit! This week I hit a road block with my Mandarin - more like I swerved into the other lane unexpectedly, and hit a pot hole. The other day, I had no idea what my teacher was saying for five whole minutes. Five. 5. Five. Whole. Minutes. That's an eternity in another language! I was just in the midst of reciting my mantra to stop myself from tearing up in front of her, while she looked at me with that "I know you know what I am saying" expression, when I regained my Mandarin consciousness and slowly made my way back into the correct lane (just trying to maintain the highway analogy). This was supposed to be a blog post about Christmas and Season's Greetings and Holiday Cheer! 

But instead...Sorry, I've gone all Charlie Brown on you.

Here, let's have a look at this:

OK. Now a feel a bit better.
plus, while writing this I opened the bag of Christmas M&Ms my sister sent us and ate one fifth of the bag.

thirty is the new beijing

You may think that the birthday frivolities ended with my last post.  So, look away if you must, for I am going to gloat. Unabashedly, selfishly, gleefully. I'm going to do my best bragging.  The kind of bragging only a woman who's just celebrated her 30th birthday in Beijing can do.

I'll spare you the soliloquies I've dramatized in my head about turning 30, and say simply, "I'm 30?!" Despite my own shock about the combination of date and year on the calendar, my day could not have passed more memorably, more beautifully or more tastefully. It started at midnight on the anniversary of that infamous day with a signature blue box and ended mere hours ago after a limousine ride returned us to our home sweet Gongti Xilu.

I woke early on my day, keeping my promise to myself to go to my regularly scheduled yoga class. But I could hardly contain my ohms anticipating my birthday surprise: a stay-cation, China style, at Beijing's Shangri-La Hotel - the only Chinese owned luxury hotel in Beijing.

glitter and glitz

The twinkle of the lobby was still gleaming in my eyes when we were settling into our premiere room; a  thorough exploration of the room's vast 50 sqm of luxury revealed its marble bathroom the size of my current living room (with a tv imbedded into the mirror), a view of the cityscape and third-ring-road, a king size bed and its more threads than I can count sheets, and a walk-in closet happily greeting us with its lush bathrobes patiently awaiting our arrival.

Another surprise and another signature blue box! This time a gift from my parents. I put on my baubles, and we headed to a lunch of tai basil beef salads with a view of the garden and pavilion. Even on a cold December day the sun was shining and the skies were blue (blue in Beijing!).


After lunch, another another surprise! An afternoon of pampering at the hotel's Chi Spa. My own room, my own steam shower, my own afternoon of relaxation, of Himalayan Healing bliss. I was like buttah.

Should I go on?

After my embarrassingly spoiling indulgent delight, there were cocktails before dinner. The hotel's happy hour showered us with free flowing glasses of Veuve Clicquot for me and Jack and Coke on the rocks for Z. There were little blue dishes of crunchy puffed corn, brie and cucumber tea sandwiches, little appetizers of the Asian persuasion, smoked tuna and creme fraiche, perfectly stacked bright beautiful rings of roasted vegetables, salmon burger sliders, fresh fruit, cheese and honey, miniature seaweed salad dishes, winter melon and beef...

We still had dinner on the horizon.

A happy coincidence of the celebration was my parents' gift to us for our birthdays - dinner out on the town.  With the help of the world wide web, they chose Blu Lobster without knowing that Z was simultaneously planning my birthday at the restaurant's host hotel.

Dinner was divine. Remember that post about keeping meals simple and forgetting the frou-frou of fusion cusine? Oh, yeah. Neither do I.







Under thousands of crystal lights hovering above our heads, backlit in blue, the duck pate, black olive tapenade and pesto were a nice start to the meal.

























The amuse bouche of potato cappuccino was inventive and light.   The tomato soup that followed (two soups, why not?) was simple and a perfect touch to a winter evening. I "mmmm'd" my way through every bite of my lobster cannelloni, but saved room for the banana and chocolate cheesecake. And the wine...

Should I go on?

A birthday cake from the Shangri-La surprised us in our suite after dinner.

This morning, another signature blue box. This time from the whole gang. I sparkle like the blue lights in the restaurant.

Then a breakfast of more house-made goodies, warm baked breads, fresh squeezed juices, dim sum delights, smoked salmon, kimchi, omelets, crisp bacon...Then, without abiding by the rumored 30 minute wait, a private swim in the infinity pool. A dip in the whirlpool, the sauna, the steam room. And then again. Are you full and relaxed yet?

Did I leave the Shangri-La? It's possible I'm still there.

Not just any birthday in Beijing.

les gourmands

Have you ever done something absurd just because the opportunity presented itself?

This past weekend, in a moment of hunger, inquisitiveness, birthday celebration anticipation and child-like delight, Z and I ordered McDonalds delivered to our apartment. De-livered. What glutinous gluttons!

I am almost embarrassed to tell you about it, but the sheer fact that McDonalds delivery exists at all is reason enough to have tried it and to have lived to tell the tale. Besides, it was Z's birthday, so it was a special occasion of the lazy - we don't feel like leaving the apartment today - and if you could have anything you want delivered to the door right now what would you want - variety. Hot fries, a Big Mac, and Chicken McNuggets it is! Coming right up!

I have eaten fast-food three times since we arrived in Beijing. That amounts to exactly three times more fast-food consumption in the past three months than in all of the past year in the States (not counting that drunken evening that involved over indulging in White Castle's menu of miniature munchies).

Let me tell you: there may be no better fry than the one that is delivered piping hot to your own front door.

On the flip side of that fast food frenzy burger that same day, was this: dinner at a fabulous Chinese restaurant with six new friends. Since I too, am a December baby a mere three days apart from Z, we celebrated together in style at the China Lounge.

The glitz and swank of the China Lounge is highlighted by its high back black-and-white chairs, purple accents, modern colorful art, crystal chandeliers and sparkles of silver. The atmosphere was made all the more special because we were, by far, the loudest, laughing, group of all the quiet restaurant's patrons.

the sparkle

In between stories, and getting-to-know-yous, at a large round table for eight, we shared dish after dish of modern Beijing cuisine: pork spare ribs with a citrus crunch, melt in your mouth mushrooms with a brown sugar glaze, egg and jasmine jiaoza, spicy pickled cucumber, mini pork buns (amazing!), gong bao ji ding, tofu sticks that disguised themselves as fried cheese,  chicken curry, spicy beef... .

mini pork buns

spare ribs

spicy pickled cucumber

melt in your mouth mushrooms. who knew?!

december birthday babies

It was memorable meal with friends, followed by a drink or two at another swanky bar nearby. Our search for a good dirty martini in Beijing may be over for two reasons: (1) George's bar inside Worker's Stadium makes a real* and a really good dirty martini (2) so does my husband, especially when he's got the right barware with which to shake it.

the after party

To wrap up the evening, the after after-party was a quiet celebration between A and Z. I sang my best Mandarin rendition of Happy Birthday, while Z blew out the candles on the brownie cake I made him (compliments again of that handy metal steamer), and we enjoyed our favorite classic drink in our new martini glasses (thanks to our friend who's been enduring our complaints about Beijing's lack of dirty martinis).

beijing brownie birthday cake 

So, cheers, to us! Cheers to birthdays in Beijing! Cheers to new friends, unexpected gifts, and sharing good food together!

Cheers!



*Up until recently, the search for the perfect dirty martini in Beijing brought us only laughter, confusion and muddled olives. Despite being told that what we had before us was indeed, dirty, we have been served lychee martinis (impostors!), "did they chew these olives and spit them into the glass?" and "is this just water?"

Thanks for Giving

So, Thanksgiving in China and in American came and went this year. Although Beijing did her best to make me feel at home, it certainly was not the same.

For one, as tacky and commercial as it has become (or maybe it has been that way always), I missed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I don't think I have ever missed the parade. Ever. I missed Al Roker making corny jokes, high school marching bands, Broadway musical snippets, and Rockettes rocketing. I missed bad lip syncing by pop bands I have never heard of and who's albums I will not purchase (online or otherwise). I missed Thomas the Turkey and all his inflatable giant balloon friends. I missed Santa Claus ringing in my holiday season at the end. I even missed the dog show that follows. 

A big HOWEVER though...however, my mother took pictures of the parade on TV and sent them to me. That was a nice surprise.

                                                      So I suppose I didn't miss all of the parade this year.

I also missed stuffing and the smell of creamed onions waking me up Thanksgiving morning. No matter what else my parents may be in charge of for the day's bounty, creamed onions are always on the docket. No matter if Thanksgiving is at their home or elsewhere, I will forever associate the sweet, pungent, bubbly, baked dish with home during the holiday.

OK. So, obviously I also missed being home with our families. Thanksgiving isn't just about food and parades.

Here are a few things that I didn't miss this Thanksgiving (mostly food related):
1) A T-Gives without pumpkin pie. Z searched the city for homemade pumpkin pie and topped it off with a squirt of canned whipped cream. It was heaven. I am thankful that Chinese pumpkin pie rivals American pumpkin pie any Thanksgiving.

2) A Thanksgiving with new friends. We celebrated by going out for roast duck with new friends. Let's face it. I might be handy with a metal steamer and some brownie mix, but a turkey without an oven just ain't gonna happen up in this place. So, we replaced one fowl with another, enjoyed some bottles of red wine and we were all thankful we had each other with whom to celebrate an old tradition with a new twist.

3) A day with pickles, assorted nuts, olives and celery. It was a small gesture I could make (and find) by putting out the simple spread of snacks we always seem to have at Thanksgiving at home. It was a little homage to my grandma. All those years she filled her crystal olive dish, could she have foreseen me in China, searching the shelves of an expat grocery store for overpriced condiments just to make the day feel a little bit more like home? I was thankful for imported goods especially on Thanksgiving.

4) A day without the stress of travel and traffic. I probably felt a little stress from not feeling stressed about not traveling on the day after the busiest travel day in American. About leaving on time or not leaving on time. About making certain that I packed the car with any covered dishes or pies I was asked to bake. I never thought I would be thankful for not traveling on Thanksgiving from Boston to NJ, or North Jersey to South Jersey, or from China to NJ.

5) A day to talk with family. Even though it's happened dozens of time, each skyped conversation or g-chat to home amazes us. I can see you! oh, wait, Mom, turn on the camera so I can see you. Mom, turn up the volume so I can hear you! We were thankful to hear form our parents and friends. We were thankful to be able to tell them we are thankful for them.