Sichuan Cuisine is great if you like it hot and spicy - with chilli peppers all over the place - our favorite
and if you want to try something new.....
how about chicken feet, intestines, fish heads, pigeon, rat, snake, turtle etc etc
and as for KFC - it's everywhere - as befitting the first Western Restaurant Chain to open in China
my wife didn't have much recollection of our previous trip to Kunming - all she could remember was:
1. there were lots of KFC's
2. some guy getting thrown out of a liquor store into the street, wild west style. to which she always adds "and it wasn't my husband" as if I would make a habit of that!
I stayed at the White Hart hotel Guangzhou so many floors my room was above the clouds! Have a guess what the meal of the day was? Barnsley Pork chop! the best I've ever tasted! Posted by DUNMIDOSH
nice
We were in Guangzhou 25 years ago - no sign of Pork Chops - in fact by the time I'd finished reading the specials on the menu I was finding it very difficult not to vomit there and then - rat embryo anyone. Food there has improved enormously since then.
Meanwhile general Chinese infrastructure is pretty impressive
great roads, railways and bridges
driving not so hot though
here is the view we had after our car stopped, and they drive on the right btw.
our driver had insisted in doing a chicken run around a blind bend in heavy rain, only to have a jam around the corner. he braked, lost control, and we skidded across the road towards the oncoming traffic and the 100m drop into the valley. fortunately the oncoming traffic was able to weave around us as we hurtled at them, and we stopped before going over the edge.
so, no, mr rancid, no chicken chow mein thank you.
although the chicks were cute
and the pork was fresh - although as they had just removed 16,000 dead pigs that had floated downstream into Shanghai, we were a bit worried about that as well.
i don't even like soft beds - medium firm is my preference. but i'm speaking from a European perspective. in china a pile of bricks would be regarded as a soft bed. seriously. even in western hotels the beds are hard, and as for the chinese-owned ones!
so i have to put the 2nd pillow, if there is one, on the bed under my hips, just to be able to sleep. i would rather sleep on a hump-backed bridge than a pile of bricks
sorry for the delay - been playing all 15 tournies in the community night - it's a brutal schedule - 8 running at the same time at one stage - but all gone now
very difficult to find a bar that does slimline drinks in China, even in the big cities.
outside the big cities, very difficult to find anyone who knows how to make a G&T. they tend to put a measure of gin in a large glass, then fill it up with tonic. now i know i like my G&Ts strong, but you can't taste the gin in their version at all. we found a solution to this problem. drink long island iced teas instead, which i can now ask for in chinese, and be understood! remarkably LIITs are often on the drinks list and not much more expensive than G&Ts. However as they contain 4 times as much spirit than a G&T, but are served in the same size glass, there is less mixer, and hence you get a drink way stronger. In fact the one night we drank three of them (after our first scary car trip) we got kicked out of the taxi we were trying to take back to the hotel! we didn't argue - you don't argue with chinese taxi drivers - and the next one along was happy enough to take us. he saw us coming though and wanted to overcharge us - but i didn't mind paying the extra 50p he wanted.
in supermarkets out of town gin is very difficult to find - instead there are 100 different types of white spirit, the best of which tastes like recycled paraffin. drinkable vodka is easier to get, if expensive, so we drink vodka & coke instead (and coke light can be found in the bigger supermarkets).
actually didn't miss playing at all - having too much fun on hols with my wife. but did miss the forum. skypoker is blocked by the great firewall of china, so no access to any skypoker pages. so posted a bit on the TPT website, but did miss following what was happening in the skypoker community.
2. a decent gin & slimline tonic very difficult to find a bar that does slimline drinks in China, even in the big cities. outside the big cities, very difficult to find anyone who knows how to make a G&T. they tend to put a measure of gin in a large glass, then fill it up with tonic. now i know i like my G&Ts strong, but you can't taste the gin in their version at all. we found a solution to this problem. drink long island iced teas instead, which i can now ask for in chinese, and be understood! remarkably LIITs are often on the drinks list and not much more expensive than G&Ts. However as they contain 4 times as much spirit than a G&T, but are served in the same size glass, there is less mixer, and hence you get a drink way stronger. In fact the one night we drank three of them (after our first scary car trip) we got kicked out of the taxi we were trying to take back to the hotel! we didn't argue - you don't argue with chinese taxi drivers - and the next one along was happy enough to take us. he saw us coming though and wanted to overcharge us - but i didn't mind paying the extra 50p he wanted. in supermarkets out of town gin is very difficult to find - instead there are 100 different types of white spirit, the best of which tastes like recycled paraffin. drinkable vodka is easier to get, if expensive, so we drink vodka & coke instead (and coke light can be found in the bigger supermarkets). Posted by GELDY
In Response to Re: China : lol hope you had a great time geldy Posted by stokefc
indeed we did
actually the correct fare was 70p, but we got used to paying £1. they would often ask for more, but when we haggled in chinese they would usually back down. on that fateful night though speaking english without slurring was a challenge so £1.50 it was.
In Response to Re: China : nothing wrong with China specifically - it's everyones problem now, thanks to the West. Globalisation and all that. Apparently money is more important than people. Posted by percival09
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Thanks for posting
Mick
Bring back Area 51