Daniel Boulud and I

My most recent pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

I was able to experience the newest addition to world famous chef Daniel Boulud's restuarant empire last night. Maison Boulud has literally just opened in the past couple of days in a little square of the city called the Legation Quarter. The LQ houses about 6 or 7 former embassies and Maison Boulud is located in what is the former US Embassy. What a unique set up for a restaurant!! Lots of history in it too (obviously). The red/pink room where President Richard Nixon spent some time is still in perfect form and has been converted into a private dining area within MB.

Daniel stopped by our table and chatted with us. It was his first day in the functional restaurant and he claims that we took the very first pictures of him in his new restaurant. Sorta cool.

Here's the crew that enjoyed the dining experience. Chef Daniel Boulud is in the middle with the suit jacket and lavender shirt:

StreetMeat galore (this post is in memory of Andrew D'Auria's love for street food when he was a resident of NYC)

New pics of a night on the town w/ 3 classmates on a quest for simple, common food and I have added 3 new photos in the Laura's BBQ album too: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

So last night I ventured to "Ghost Street" in the quest for quality and non-illness causing street food. Here is one explanation for the nickname: http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_curiosity/2006-07/25/content_84043.htm

Another explanation was that years and years ago there were large gates all around the city and they were each assigned a specific function. For example, whenever the Army went out to battle it had to leave through a certain gate. Whenever it returned from a battle it had to re-enter the city through a certain gate. So apparently there was a large gate right next to this neighborhood we went to that functioned as the gate where dead people were carted through. I don't think it mattered whether you died of natural causes at the age of 98, were runover by a rickshaw, or were killed in battle... your body was simply removed from the city at this particular location.

So at some point in the past this neighborhood got popular for late night dining on the street and a larger volume of people started showing up to eat than anyone expected. Some clever person claimed that the spirits from all the nearby cemetaries and graveyards were coming to eat at "Ghost Street"... and there you have it.

Raynaldo, Xavier, and Xiuxi (sp?) took the subway and walked around this area for awhile. We were sort of disappointed to see that it was more a massive stretch of casual restaurants than actual street food vendors, but that's OK. We got there sometime between 9 and 10pm and probably didn't get back home until around 1230am-ish. We were told that Ghost Street doesn't get hopping until after 2am, but we all had stuff to do the next morning so we didn't feel like staying out that late.

The cuisine in the restaurant:

• Chicken sternum - Seasoned wonderfully but the texture was terrible. There is no reason to eat something that was that difficult to chew


• Sheep/Pork tendons - Pretty good, but I forget which animal it was from. Decent taste and texture. A keeper in my book, all things considered, and a million times better than the beef tendons I tried my first week here.


• Kidney (from some animal) - not the greatest. It wasn't awful, but I really was not a big fan. It looked a tad gross and I just wasn't that into it. I let Xiuxi finish my skewer.


• Mini-lobsters - They were exactly like the crawfish you get in Louisiana. Very tasty, just extremely messy to eat. We were given plastic gloves when these suckers came to the table. Quite good though.

The cuisine in the hutong we went to after the restaurant because we were still hungry:

• A plate of green beans almost identical to edamame you would get in a sushi restaurant. Delicious, and they go great with beer.


• Heaps of boiled peanuts. Quite delicious.


• Pig's blood - I passed.


• Chicken hearts - good


• Chicken wings - just like the good old US of A

The hutong meal was more relaxing, more laid back, and of course ridiculously cheap for 4 grown men to eat until satisfaction. See the album for brief description of what may or may not be on this plate.

Grillin' and Chillaxin' - Beijing Style

19 pics from a fun party/BBQ we had at my classmate Laura's house: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

So just because you are in Beijing during the summer doesn't mean you can't grill, relax, chill, enjoy some drinks, etc!! My classmate Laura Johnson played hostess to a little shindig at her place. There was a good turnout, I would say about 30 of the 55 full time BiMBA students showed up. Some brought their significant others, some brought their children, and most importanty, every brought their appetites and a rockin' attitude.

Laura's friend from Oxford, Mark, was in charge of the cooking. I watched him for a moment and offered some pointers in the nicest way possible. He responded in the most sincere and appreciative way, "Christ, that really makes perfect sense. You bloody Americans are born with these natural grilling skills. I guess my excuse is that there are only about 2 days per year of weather in the UK when you actually can do something like this. Thanks mate."

Mark showing a valiant effort. The end-product winded up being tasty:

Random action shot of some classmates:

JD and some pals enjoying the day:

The weather held up for most of the day which was excellent. Once 90% of the crowd had dispersed we moved the festivities inside Laura's home. Here is a picture of our lovely host Laura, with Reynaldo (Guatemala) and Xavier (Spain):

Segue: Alas, some real progress in Chinese class. My teacher says in recent days I have gotten markedly better. Still a long, long road ahead, but what little legitimate progress I have made, I will notch on my belt.

2nd Annual Culinary Coin Festival @ the Ritz in Beijing

new pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jdorrian2334

What better way to celebrate a full recovery from an ailment than to attend a Culinary festival in which some of the top restaurants in Beijing participated, in addition to 3 top chefs being highlighted. I actually had not had a single glass of wine since I had gotten here on May 8 until the festival at the Ritz. When it hits your lips it just tastes so good!! I had been craving a nice glass of red for the past 2 weeks, but wine is really just not a popular beverage of choice in this city/country. There are a couple of wine bars in Beijing that I have not been to yet, and a few restaurants have some amazing wine lists, but you can't buy any legitimate wine in any liquor stores (Great Wall brand wine does not count).

Volker Drkosch, Claudio Sadler, and Eric Johnson were the 3 chefs being highlighted at this event. Drkosch is a 1 star Michelin chef, Sadler is a 2 star Michelin chef, and Johnson is a former chef/partner from Jean-Georges. Quality pedigrees indeed. After the 3 hour open house and cocktail session each chef retired themselves to a different restaurant within the Ritz and served a set menu. I ended up going to the meal that Sadler prepared, here is the menu (the swordfish was the best item on the menu):

Sadler came over and chatted with our table. He has 2 restaurants in Italy (1 in Milan, and 1 somewhere else). He was a nice guy. He mentioned that he was opening a place called Sadler in the Legation Quarter of Beijing. The Legation Quarter is the area of the city where all the old embassies were located and it is currently being gentrified. Actually, Daniel Boulud is opening his debut restaurant in China there too. It is going to be called Maison Boulud. Sounds like there should be great eating and I would guess quality shopping in that area. I know all the restauranteurs are scrambling to iron out all the kinks of their operations prior to the arrival of the Olympic crowds.

Thanks to Yasmin and her brother I have been in contact with the woman (Jen Yang) who is in charge of opening Maison Boulud and plan on meeting up with her on the evening of Monday June 17. I am sure these places will absolutely pack the tables during the Olympics with all the multi-national tourists who have plenty of money to spend, but I am curious about whether they will be able to sustain their businesses once all the foreigners go home. Sure, there is a decent expat population in Beijing, but I am not sure it is large enough to support the growing number of high end restuarants that seem to be popping up. And in re: to the locals, well, I don't see them frequenting these types of places for 2 primary reasons: 1) the style of the cuisine 2) the price of the food. From my observations the under 40 crowd LOVES KFC, and of course, pre-packaged ice cream bars.

I wish I could buy futures on the Diabetes situation amongst the two youngest generations of the Chinese populations in cities here. They eat like such crap, the number of cases of diabetes just has to increase... it has to. Interesting idea... there is already a weather exchange (called the CCX, for I think, the Chicago Climate Exchange) where you can "invest" in weather situations. Maybe I will start a Disease Exchange.

Claudio Sadler, here's looking at you (or rather, here's to you looking at us I guess), thanks for the great meal.

A wicked intestinal virus; my first 2 classes are complete

So, I do not feel compelled to share all the details of said virus, but your truly prevailed victorious over the illness. Battling a 102 degree fever, flashing from the sweats to icy chills, and a weird burning sensation in my lower left abdomen was not fun, but it seems it has passed. The medical treatment I received was on par with Western standards for the most part, which was comforting.

My first 2 classes are complete. Decision Making, done. Advanced Finance, done (though I have to still take the final exam because I was sick until the hours leading up to the test). Only one more academic class to tackle and that is only on the weekends. So during the week I believe I will up my Chinese classes to 4 out of 5 weekdays.

Here's a picture of my Advanced Finance class. It is pretty much all of the full time BiMBA students who began the program in 2007.

FACT

The Dutch Women's National Volleyball team is the most attractive group of female athletes I have ever seen united on a single team. I could watch them bump, set, and spike for days on end.

They deserve a blog post solely dedicated to them.

1on1 Mandarin redeems itself; If you're not a professional athlete don't play basketball for 2 hours straight if you're 30 years old

So it seems the 1on1 Mandarin saga has come to an end. They have redeemed themselves in that they have offered to discount my remaining 70 hours of lessons in an effort to compensate for the fiasco which took place a week or so ago. In addition, apparently on Friday of last week, Mike (the source of all the trouble), was forcefully bought out of his stake in the firm and is no longer involved in the day to day operations. Now, I do not think that my situation was the catalyst for the event, but I can't help to think that a bit of karma was in play here.

I played basketball with a bunch of guys from my finance class on Monday afternoon. We played for 2 hours straight, my lungs were fine the entire time, and I didn't tear an ACL, sprain an ankle, or get a tooth knocked out. That's a victory in my book. Having fun, getting exercise, and avoiding a foreign hospital are all "wins".

This photo - a couple of my 3-on-3 teammates/adversaries:

This photo - the other end of the court where a bunch of undergrads were playing:

Waking up Tuesday though was a different story. I haven't been this sore in ages. I feel like I must have been using a few muscles in my legs that were on the verge of atrophy. What's sad though is that I am in good shape, and I still feel this way. I guess that makes a case for smoking 2 packs a day and being 25lbs overweight. If that was my current state I don't think I would have been able to go full speed for 2 hours, and hence wouldn't be as sore. Hmmmmmm....

I met a really nice pair of people last night while I was walking around. I was on the far end of my neighborhood where I had never been before and I was trying to locate a restaurant I had read about. So we're wandering around and a guy comes up to us and says, "Are you two twins? My friend and I have a bet that you two are twins". Now, it must be stated that they had only seen Jon and I from the back, so I guess they saw two 5'7"ish guys both w/ curly brown hair and simply made an assumption. We laughed, said no, and then asked them if they knew of the place we were looking for. They said "no", but said they'd help us find it. So Liu Zheng (guy) and Summer (girl) guided us for 15 minutes until we zoned in on the establishment. We hung out for a while with them. Really nice people. Maybe I am biased because they gave me a self-esteem boost when they argued that I couldn't be a day older than 25 years. I guess I still have those boyish good looks. Or at the very least, boyish looks.

I am going to make a best effort and try and hang out with them again later this week. It will be nice to have a true Beijing native as a friend here. I can practice some Mandarin with him/them, and they can show me the hidden secrets of this city.

Liu Zheng an aspiring organic chemist who is studying DNA and genetic manipulation (yikes!) and Summer an aspiring diplomat and translator

Mark Twain was a smart man...

I randomly found this quote today. I don't think I had ever read it prior to today, and if I had read or heard it, then I forgot about it.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.