The Romance of Spain on Every Plane
Photo Friday #28
Not a photo and not taken by me, so technically I guess this is not really Photo Friday material. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but share this vintage advertisement as it does combine two of my passions: travel and Spain.
BTW, I think you’re more likely to encounter a redhead in Galicia or Asturias
And it’s pretty darn hilarious, in a mildly offensive way. I can just imagine those Mad Men coming up with something like this. Of course, the advert will seem all the more ironic to those who have actually flown Iberia in recent years – the romance is definitely gone, people. Iberia has a pretty sketchy reputation in regards to service/on time, etc. So bad that I know many Spanish who won’t even fly with them anymore, if they can help it.
Found at Felisuco, this is an advert found in a July 1970 National Geographic magazine. More Photo Friday featuring travel photos here.
I don't know if any of my readers out there are interested in web design or not, but this article at Smashing Magazine is a very thorough assessment of the state of web design in China. For the geeks (like me.) :) (0)
Chatang – A Meal in a Cup
WanderFood Wednesday #1
Today, instead of my usual Wordless Wednesday posting, (which usually ends up being quite wordy), I’m joining in on WanderFood Wednesday. Find out more about WanderFood Wednesdays here.
For my first WanderFood post, I’d like to talk write about one of my favorite cold-weather snacks available here in China: Chatang. I refer to this as a beverage, but actually, chatang is not really a drink – it’s more like a meal in a cup!
Cup of goodness – chatang
What is chatang?
茶汤 ＝ cha tang = literally, tea soup
Where this name comes from, I haven’t a clue, because there is neither tea nor “soup” (at least the American idea of soup) in this snack. My Chinese friends call it soup, when referring to it in English, but in my mind anything that is slurped up through a straw is not a soup. (Note that in some places, chatang is eaten with a spoon.) Wikipedia refers to chatang as gruel, but I find gruel to be one of the least appetizing food words in the English language. For me, this is an energy drink. Basically, it is boiled water combined with a mix of millet flours, and goodies such as sugar, black sesame seeds, goji berries, peanuts and raisins thrown in. The liquidy part becomes a bit syrupy thanks to the glutinous flour. I can’t get enough of this 1RMB snack. (Note that your chatang could vary in color, consistency and ingredients depending on location.)
Chatang is not only delicious, it is also entertaining as the preparation of the snack is a spectacle. Of course, a laowai ordering chatang and taking pictures of the process is also a spectacle in its own right. 
The guy below in the black was astounded that I was interested in this and asked me a zillion questions, only some of which I could answer. The vendor was shy, but enjoyed seeing the photos after I snapped them.
Copper chatang pot decorated with dragons
The water for chatang is traditionally boiled in a large copper pot decorated with dragons. The pot has an inner ring where the hot charcoal pieces are placed, heating up the water in the outer ring. This is a similar design to the traditional Mongolian hot pot used for cooking lamb. (And is pretty genius when you realize that northern Chinese cities in the winter are often plagued by cold winds that could easily extinguish exposed flames.) The chatang pot sits atop a hinged base, allowing the vendor to tip the large pot over to pour the water into the waiting cup or bowl.
Close up view of spout decorated with dragon
Adding the goodies
After the water is added to the flour, the vendor adds in all the goodies. You can request specific things, but I usually just let them do their thing. This particular vendor mixes everything up in a metal bowl and then transfers it to a plastic cup. She includes a wide straw for drinking up all the bits and pieces. Her whole setup is placed atop a tricycle wagon, a really common practice among the mobile street vendors of Linyi. The small alley where I found her this day last December is usually packed with food vendors of all kinds. The DH and I have been known to nosh from one end of the street to the other!
Personally, I love hot cereal type foods, like oatmeal, porridge, cream of wheat, etc. so this thick, syrupy drink with dried fruits, nuts and cereal grains really appeals to me. The DH doesn’t care for hot cereals, so he doesn’t usually order it.
Chatang is one of my favorite street food snacks and I can’t believe it has taken me over four years to blog about it! Aside from its great flavor, I love the huge copper pot and the special ritual of preparing it. My friends tell me that chatang is common throughout north China and is also known as mian cha (flour tea). According to several Internet sources I read, the drink originated in Tianjin, a port city just southeast of Beijing.
Update: Another Chinese friend informs me that she knows this snack as 莲子羹 lian zi geng or lotus seed soup.
See more WanderFood Wednesday posts here.
Harbin and Yabuli Posts Coming Soon
How to write about a bad trip without sounding like a whiny, nincompoop expat with too-high expectations?
I’ve always tried to present an accurate picture of our travels in China and elsewhere and for the most part our experiences have been positive. I don’t like to complain and denigrate, although I am sure I have been guilty of doing so a time or two.
Now that this disclaimer is out of the way… I have been putting off posting about our Spring Festival trip to Harbin and Yabuli mostly because it was one of the worst trips we’ve yet had in our travels together. I have needed time to think about why that is. I’ve needed time to focus on what I wanted to share, because it wasn’t all bad and there are funny moments and insights I want to relate to you all.
I think this little disaster of a trip all comes down to lack of preparation, traveling over the Spring Festival holiday period, and a general frustration over being in China when we kind of wanted to be elsewhere. Thinking that it would be a good idea to do this trip over Spring Festival was a huge mistake. The DH and I are big independent travelers, but I think for this trip, just this once, a package tour would have eased so much stress and made everything a lot better.
Anyway, I am now finally going through my pictures, uploading them and wading through several rough drafts of posts related to the two destinations. I think I am ready to write about it!
Instant Coffee Taste Off
I’m a little “frazzled” in my quest for decent coffee here in Linyi. Here the results of a mini-tasteoff:
Instant Coffee Taste-Off!
Outside of the US & Canada, instant coffee is ubiquitous, and especially in Asia, more common than brewed! What’s an espresso drinker to do?
As you might have figured from my constant complaining, there is very little coffee selection in Linyi. There are no Starbucks here, (although there are in many cities in China), we have to make do with McDonald’s coffee, which is cheap and not too bad tasting, or brewed coffee at one of several “coffee restaurants,” which are also not too bad tasting, but expensive. But what about at home or at work? I’m working out the best system for making good coffee at home, but at work I’ve been forced to go the instant coffee route.
Here are my choices and my comments:
- 1. Nescafe Regular Instant Coffee: Bleah! This is made from dehydrated and sprayed coffee, resulting in a strange dark brown powder. This is actually just brown water. No flavor, no aroma, no zip. Can’t drink this, although I used to drink it all the time back when I still drank milk and sugar in my coffee. That milk and sugar were covering up a real sin.
- 2. Nescafe Gold Instant Coffee: Not so bleah. This is actually made from dried coffee crystals. The crystals are light brown in color. It has a bolder flavor and coffee aroma. I can drink this, but to be honest I have to put twice as much coffee crystals as are recommended.
- 3. Starbucks Via Columbia Instant Coffee: Now we’re talking. This is a dark brown powder and a barista in Denver told me it is made by “exploding the beans.” I don’t know if that is true or not, (or even what that means), but this powder bears no resemblance to the Nescafe Regular powder, smells great and dissolves easily in hot or cold water. And the flavor? Knock you out! The flavor is strong, full-bodied and very similar to a cup of American joe from an actual Starbucks. Smells good, too. I’ve also tried the Italian Roast, which is even stronger. Excellent stuff. Too bad Via is currently only available in the US (and possibly Canada?) I’ve got a hook-up, however, and I’ve got a nice stash of this hidden away.
I have also seen instant coffee available from Maxwell House, but I find it is very similar to the Nescafe Regular. On the premium level, our local supermarket also stocks Davidoff Instant Coffee, which is very similar to Nescafe Gold. Doing some Internet research, I found an Italian brand “espresso-like” instant coffee, but it is not available here in Linyi.
One day I will live in a city where I have easy access to inexpensive and ubiquitous cafés for my coffee fix, or I will have mastered the use of a French press or Italian stovetop coffee maker (with access to good coffee!) Until then, Via and Nescafe Gold will get me by.
In the interest of supporting China, I tried a latte made from organic coffee beans from China’s own Yunnan Province while eating at Element Fresh (in Beijing and Shanghai) and I really liked it. So I’m on the outlook for some Yunnan beans, too.
And for those of you who wonder why I bother with coffee when living in the land of tea – I love tea, too! All kinds! I think I just like hot beverages in general. I’ve noticed a steady rise in the numbers of Chinese coffee drinkers at McDonald’s, so although that is completely unscientific, I think the Chinese are slowly becoming coffee-fanatics, too.
Yup, well, I did it again and changed the blog theme once more! This is the theme I used last year, but some incompatibilities led me to change it. An update meant I was able to use it again. This one has always been my favorite. What do you think? (0)
Gypsy Cab Lady – You’re The Best!
I love my gypsy cab lady!
Everyday she waits outside of my apartment complex for potential customers. She drives a little red four door Chevy Spark, which in my opinion says a lot about her personality. Every time she sees me, she starts waving and laughing and I can’t help but accept her offer of a ride. She usually drives me to work in the morning, because lately I have been unable to wake up early enough to catch our 7:15AM work bus.
Even though I have taken plenty of rides with her, I have never really been able to have a conversation with her. (I’m pretty much incapable of true Mandarin conversation with anyone, but even less so with her.) We don’t understand each other, but that doesn’t stop her from gabbing away the entire ride. I just sit there thinking I am so stupid because I can’t understand anything she says. Anyway, today I told her that the weather was good, not cold and I guess Spring is here… and she understood me. Then something strange happened. She explained to me, and again I understood her, that I speak Putonghua, but she doesn’t. So it turns out that all this time I couldn’t make out what she was saying because she speaks some kind of local dialect, that probably uses words very similar to Putonghua (and surely they are written with the same characters) but her pronunciation is all wacky. So when she spoke in Putonghua, I could understand her a lot better (but not everything – she talks a mile a minute.)
Finally she figured out that if she speaks slow Putonghua, I might understand her. This is how I came to know that she is 46 years old. When I told her I am 34, she freaked out. And this is the moment I decided she is my favorite Chinese person. She went on and on about how I look younger, how I don’t have any eye wrinkles, how I am not fat, how my skin is so pale. Keeping up with Chinese modesty values, I told her that it was all untrue… but I could have hugged her.
(Putonghua = Mandarin Chinese)
It never fails - I will be feeling down and frustrated about Linyi and something/someone makes me smile. So checkout girl at the supermarket - thank you for speaking absolutely perfect and charming "supermarket" English with me. You made my day and you should be proud of your delightful customer service. (0)
It’s Market Day
Wordless Wednesday #35
Market Day sellers in front of our apartment complex
Every five days a moving market sets up in the street in front of our apartment complex. You can buy books, shoes, toys, clothes, small tools, fruit, plants and household items such as brooms, dustpans, dishes, etc. I snapped this quick pic as I waited for my gypsy cab lady to pick me up today for work.
