City Lights: Night View from the Park Hyatt, Beijing

When in Chicago, I often take out-of-town guests to view the city lights at night from the restaurant and lounge in the Hancock Tower.  Not because its a great restaurant (sorry), but more for the view.  So I was excited to learn about this restaurant, The China Grill at the Park Hyatt, Beijing.

The China Grill at the Park Hyatt in Beijing is a similar to the Signature Room, in that you mainly come for the view because the food is only "good enough".  It wasn't bad, just about on par with a nice restaurant in any major city.  Although D noted that many of the restaurants on Beijing, even the nice ones, seem to be lacking in consistency of service and no one seemed to be able to understand how to time the arrival of dishes to the table. The saving grace for me were these two dishes:  the spicy/crispy calamari and a glass of citrus sorbet layered with frozen citrus slices, which served well to cut the oiliness of the rest of the meal.  

The view, however, is spectacular.  My pictures here cannot do adequate justice to the beauty of the city lights of Beijing at night.  Here is a video of this view, which I captured as best I could with my Flip Video.  Click here for the YouTube link.

Located on the 66th floor, its not as high at the Signature Lounge at the Hancock, but the China Grill is the highest restaurant in the city and has 360 degree views of Beijing. And the views couldn't be more different.  The lights in Beijing are much more colorful on the buildings as well as the signage and the streets curve in rings, rather than the grids of more modern cities.  Beautiful.

These pictures look like code from the Matrix, but if you look closely you can see that these are the windows of some of the smaller residential buildings and their reflections along with the brightly lit Chinese characters in the commercial signage.  Its like a painting.

Here are a few images of the interiors.  One of the stairs leading from the elevators near the lounge and one of the lobby interiors.

More to come ...

Donghua Men "Snack Street" (3): Food Challenge #2... Scorpions!

After the snake skin I wanted to try something a bit more challenging. But there are so many choices.  The starfish looked impressive, but I heard they can be a bit tough.  There is sea urchin, but I can get that in the states.  That offering to the right is, I think, some animal "maleness", if you know what I mean ...

Those are cicadas up above, but I've heard mixed reviews about those as well.  Maybe too much guts for my first bug. The crickets look appropriately intimidating, but maybe I want something a bit more sinister.  Like Scorpions!  

Yikes!  Do you have anything a little smaller?

That's better!  These look like just the right balance of scary and manageable!  One stick costs about 15 Yuan or a little over $2 USD.  Once ordered they are dropped into hot oil and salted, which can make almost anything palatable! How do they taste?

Surprisingly good!  I'd eat more right now if I could!  They taste salty and crunchy on the outside and meaty and a little nutty on the inside.  Not stingy at all ;)

Here is the video of me eating them and talking to some people in the crowd.  

Click here for the YouTube link.

Donghua Men "Snack Street" (2): Food Challenge #1... Snake Skin!

Sure, its a bit strange that in a place filled with ancient culture and historic treasures I am fixated on my food challenges, but I blame it on all the travel/food shows where they challenge the host to eat crazy stuff.  But I think that, if the local culture eats it, I'll give it a try.  Especially if it gives me a chance to shock the audience a bit ;)

The hardest part was choosing.  Here are some of the more tame offerings...

This looks a little more interesting.  Squid,  and ... are those crayfish? 

Beautiful and probably very tasty, but I had to choose carefully, since I only had a limited time here (my BF was not having as much fun with this as I was and it was very crowded).  But finally I saw my first choice...

Snake skin!  Aside from making creepy western wear, they can apparently be a good snack.  

Honestly, it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad.  It was very oily and a bit ... scaly, but overall not bad.  I figured I eat eel, so why not snake?

Here's how they cook it on the grill.  They press it under a hot iron, fanning it with a paper fan:

Posing with my snake skin kebab... and trusty Flip Video camera, on which I recorded this video of me eating the snake skin!

Click here for the YouTube video.

Donghua Men "Snack Street" (1), Beijing: Everything from Soup to Bugs...

I don't know what it says about me that, amidst ancient temples, Chinese opera and the Great Wall, one of the high points of my trip thus far is Donghua Men Street, where you can find every exotic snack from the mild (fruit kebabs) to the challenging (bugs)!

 I know that you are waiting to see me eat bugs, and I promise not to disappoint!  But for now, let's take a walk past each of the stalls and choose a snack...

Click here  for the YouTube link.

WangFu Jing Street: Dichotomies at their best...

If you are looking for a place to buy your upscale European gear and still be able to grab some fried cicadas and silk worm kabobs on the way home, WangFu Jing Street has it all.  If you start at one end you can buy your Prada and Burberry, then weave your way through the crowd to the far end, turn the corner and you're on Donghua Men Street where you can snack on fried bugs until you come to your senses!

WangFu Jing street has actually been around since the middle of the Ming Dynasty and has housed commercial activity nearly the entire time.  the area was originally settled by eight aristocratic estates who located there when a particularly special water source was discovered he the well there.  The name "WangFu" means "aristocratic residence and "Jing" means "well".

Sorry some of these pics are a bit blurry, but that's what happens when you are trying to keep up with a long legged white man in a crowd like this ;)

  Next post: Donghua Men Street!

Beijing Nights 1

On the way home D humored me and let me takes pics of some of the night spots, even though we weren't stopping in.  The vibe seems to be kitchy / 70's / Vegas?  I think I just officially became too old for this.  Here we have Cargo, G3, Gaga, Cutie and Babyface: