Xinjiang Lamb Kebabs
2008 International Beer Festival
Qingdao, China

The Qingdao International Beer Festival takes place every year in August. This year it was delayed to September due to the Olympics. You can visit beer tents from Paulaner, Heineken, Hofbrauhaus, Qingdao, etc., eat lots of barbeque foods and get on dubious carnival rides. For us, the best thing about the festival was the copious amounts of lamb kebabs prepared in the Xinjiang style. Xinjiang is the western most province of China and is home to the Muslim Uygur people who make the best bread (flatbread, naan style) and kebabs in China!

Photo Friday is like Wordless Wednesday…great photos, with a travel theme. See more here at Delicious Baby.

It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Aye, ’tis! Not that the DH and I need an excuse…

Coincidentally, today I noticed that the hotel we are staying at here at the Qingdao airport, the Red Crowned Crane, is sporting a nautical theme in honor of the Olympic sailing events. I was particularly pleased to see this display inside the revolving door at the entrance.

Batten down the hatches

Who knew they were also celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day? Blow me down!

My mind has been elsewhere lately, so much so that I didn’t even realize Mid-Autumn Festival had snuck up on me. This weekend was the celebration of Fall, when families get together and eat mooncakes. This used to be a major holiday in China, but official holidays were restructured last year and now Mid-Autumn Festival lasts only a few days instead of the week-long affairs of years past.

We celebrated with a company dinner one night and a dinner the next night with one of the DH’s former students who is now a first officer with China Eastern Airlines. And, of course, with mooncakes.

Mooncakes from Hong Kong with tiny pieces of gold leaf on top

DH and I with his former student and his new wife at a seafood restaurant on Qingdao’s beer street

Visible moon (a rare thing) and Olympic lanterns on the road to/from the Qingdao Airport

I work at an airport. I’ve lived at an airport. I’m in the process of traveling from one airport to another. I’m not too sure how it will feel to land at Barajas Airport in Madrid tomorrow after news of the tragic Spanair accident that has killed more than 150.

I will be in Spain for the next two and a half weeks. More soon…

Continuing the eating out theme, here are a few pictures of a little feast we had last night in downtown Qingdao – Mushroom Hot Pot.

Start by selecting mushrooms – there’s all shapes & sizes! (the middle black ones were so incredibly delicious I can’t even put words down about them!)

Like these

And these

Boil them up in a rich mushroom flavored broth

Enjoy them with a few sauces (this was a strange mushroom with a lace-like texture and nutty flavor)

And be creative at cooling beers (It is quite common for the beer to be served warm)

Mushroom feast for 4: 380RMB ($55 or E 37.5)