Latest / bit of a Rambler / 132 Ramble On

Transcript

132 Ramble On · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and today I want to talk about what happened this week,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: which is just stuff. So the place I'm staying, the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: shower head was really clogged up with minerals, and if
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: you don't know, a really easy way to clean that
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: is with white vinegar. If you take out the shower head,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: or if it's on there with plumbers tape so it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: kind of tough, you can just fill up a tiny
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: plastic bag with a little bit of white vinegar and
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: then tie it around the shower head and as long
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: as the white vinegar is above the nozzles, it'll clear
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: out the mineral in a couple hours. Sometimes I'll leave
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it overnight if it's really really built up. And that's
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: what the case was at the place I was staying
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: in Beijing. Every single nozzle was shooting water in a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: different direction. It's going out the door, on the sink,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: hitting the toilet paper. It was a problem. But i've
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: i mean half of the place as I stay have
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: that same problem. Because nobody thinks about it. It doesn't
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: seem like an easy solution. You're like well, shower heads
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: get old and they stop working properly. But if they're
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: shooting water in all different directions, it's probably just a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: mineral build up thing. And the white vinegar everywhere I
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Ben takes care of it. So I went down to
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the store because there's a convenient little supermarket right under
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the hostel I was staying at. I had a private
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: room in the hostel, which I found out was rare.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was a hostel either. I think
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: it just had hotel, but it was pretty clearly a
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: hostel once I was there, because everybody was. There were
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: shared rooms with four six people. Actually, I think there
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: were only four people in each room. I don't know
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: if they had any six people rooms, but I didn't investigate.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I was very happy with my private room, so I
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: went downstairs to buy the vinegar, and then I saw
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: some pistachios and I was like, oh, man, I haven't
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: had pistachios in a long time. So I got a
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: big bag of those for four bucks, I guess. And
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: then I was looking around and I was like, ooh,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: jerky snacks, and I grabbed a couple snacks, and then
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I was looking around for the vinegar, and I was like,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: what was they have over here? And there was dried
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: mango and I was like, oh, yeah, mango. And I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: turned around and that was the beer aisle, and the
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: beer was on sale for buy one, get one free
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: for a brand I didn't drink a lot. I was like, shoot,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I'll get some of those. And I was like this
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: is great because I wanted to watch what did I?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I had something on que that I wanted to watch,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: and I was like, I'll load it up perfect and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I went back upstairs with my treasure trove of snacks
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and sat down in front of the computer to watch
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the movie, and then realized that I totally forgot the
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: white vinegar because once I went down into the Chinese supermarket,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I was like, snacks, beer, yes, and I didn't even
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: worry about the white vinegar. So I had to go
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: back down and get it and then back up, but
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: it was literally right downstairs under the place I was staying,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: so just took a couple of minutes. I thought it
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: was pretty funny and pretty reminiscent of my days in China,
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: walking into a supermarket, getting distracted by snacks and completely
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: forgetting why I went in there in the first place,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I think, especially because I could speak to people, so
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I was talking to all the employees like do you
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: have blah blahlah over here or over here? And I
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: was having a lot of fun speaking Mandarin again with everybody,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: so my brain was in a flurry. So I haven't
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: been throwing a lot of beers back lately, and I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: certainly did not want to drink any bai Geo, which
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: is the lightning liquor of China. It's this rice liquor
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: that literally tastes and smells like rubbing alcohol, especially if
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you don't get the super fancy one. The super fancy
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: one doesn't smell as much like rubbing alcohol, but it
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: still tastes like it. So I wasn't going to get
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: any of that, so I decide to get Seltzers instead,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: which looks like they're becoming more popular in China as
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: well as every other country I visit now, which is
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: great for me because I love seltzers, so that works
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: out for me. I'm just surprised how quickly they seem
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: to be taking over the world. But with Seltzer's, they're
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: so easy to drink that I can I'll just drink
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: twelve of them without paying any attention. So instead of that,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I like to buy like a big bottle, two liter
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: bottle or something of soda water, which is not super
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: popular in China, especially they don't have a lot of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: mixed drinks there and they don't yeah, they just don't
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: have a lot of mixers in general in supermarkets. It's
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: not easy to find like ginger ale or soda water,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: tonic water or whatever in Chinese supermarkets. But I'm so
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: familiar the supermarkets there that and there are so many
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that China probably has the highest capacity of actual supermarkets,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: like there's a billion billion like tiny shops also, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: you can find the tiny shops in every country, but
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: full on supermarkets, it's got to be China. There are
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: so many big supermarkets, multiple big supermarkets per block very often.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: So I just went from store to store and I
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: finally found soda water and it said sudashway in Chinese,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: which is the translation for soda water sudushway, and I
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: was like, yes, finally, and that means bubbly water because
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I used that's what I used to look for when
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: I used to look for soda water while I was
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: living in Beijing. And I took that back home. I
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: was so excited. I had everything all set up. I
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: was like, snacks, seltzer, soda water, let's start and I
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: turned on. Maybe that was when I started watching Video
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Game High School, which is a pretty fun dumb nerd show.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And then I poured the soda water into the seltzer
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and a little mug, and turns out that's just tap water,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: which I've never seen before. I've bought soda water in
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: China a bunch of times, and it's always soda water.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: It's always bubbling, sparkling water. And this maybe maybe they
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: were like, it's suda, like baking soda in water. I
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: have no idea. It was really weird. It just tasted
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: like regular water, no bubbles, and I kind of shrugged
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: it off, but I did think that was odd that
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: they have a clearly labeled Sudashway which is bubbly water,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and then it wasn't Sudhashway at all, but hey, that's
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: definitely China. Baby. So I met some people in the
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: hostel and a couple them wanted to go to dinner,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: but as happened so often, they wanted to take me
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: to They want to take me to like a popular
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: mall that's you know, lots of lights. There's crowds that
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: go there. There's a whole bunch of restaurants next to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: each other in the food court. But food court restaurants
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: never taste half as good to me as the local shops.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: But the first time you go out with Chinese friends,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: especially new Chinese friends, they'll want to go to the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: place with the biggest, newest sign and the most waiters
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. It doesn't matter what
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: the quality of the restaurant is. They just it has
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: to be a big affair. They want to be like,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and this is the big new restaurant you should check out,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: it's so popular in our city. So after choosing a
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: few things that I thought all looked bad, we went
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: to a place that was just called traditional Chinese food,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I think, which is a terrible sign, because if they're
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: not differentiating what kind of Chinese food they make Whu
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: Nan or changsha or lu Thai, whatever kind, it's probably
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: gonna be a mish mash of We'll get the blandest
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: tastes that suit everybody's taste the best, So you're not
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: going to get any of or I'm not going to
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: get any of the flavors I really like from any
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: one of the provinces. I'm just going to get sort
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: of fast food kind of thing where they just try
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to appeal to everybody's palate. And the people I was
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: with got red bean soup, which is pretty popular, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: a lot of them like Guangdo Thai, which is like
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Southern China Thai, which is just steamed and boiled stuff
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and soup. And I like a lot of the stronger
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: flavors from the northeast or central China, like Sichuan Changsha
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: really just not Guangdo Tai, not anything boiled or soup. Actually,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I like shway juniuro, which is boiled. But I like
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: a lot of the stronger flavors, and I think they
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: do too, but they don't want to order the stronger
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: flavors because it's not as healthy as boiled dumplings or
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: red bean soup. So usually what happens is all end
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: up getting the dishes I like, and then they'll get
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: like rice and red bean soup, and then they'll take
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: my favorite dishes because they taste so much more fun.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: But we'll have it in like a shared meal thing,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: and of course I'm not gonna eat the red bean soup.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Give me my good, my good stuff. But this time
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I did have my ribs all to myself. I got
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: some garlic fried ribs, and I was like, man, it
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: just doesn't like the way. I don't know, there's something
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I'm very sensitive to, how Chinese people organize their menu
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: in their restaurants and what the restaurant looks like, and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: how comfortable the employees are in the restaurant. And this
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: whole restaurant just screamed like not gonna be good food,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: like not impressive homestyle cooking. But the garlic ribs look
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: like the best thing on the menu. And so I
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: got fried garlic ribs. But when I got them, they
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: were not great. I don't know if it was that
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: the meat was old or the girl. I don't know,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: but it just wasn't great garlic ribs. Is that the
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: whole story? Geez, I think that's the whole story. Oh no.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Everyone was excited when I pulled out my gloves because
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I don't like getting my hands dirty when I eat
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: ribs or anything, and so ever since China, I always
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: carry around plastic gloves in my backpack. So when it
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: was when my ribs came out, I pulled those out
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, yeah, I'm always prepared guys,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and everyone was like, oh, tell me, you're a smart guy.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I just don't like getting oil on my hands, and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: no matter what country I'm in. Now, ever since I
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: started eating the Pgo kaw ya, the beer fried roast
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: duck with those gloves on, I always carry little plastic
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: gloves around in case I have finger food in different countries,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and I love it. I don't have to wipe my
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: hands on my clothes if there are no napkins available,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: and even after you wipe off your hands on napkins,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you still want to wash them. I do so with
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the plastic gloves, I just don't have to worry about that.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Big ups for me. But I was like, okay, that
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: those ribs were so bad that I have to go
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: find a real Chinese restaurant and a real good one,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: because there are real restaurants everywhere. There's I don't know,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: fifty per block. There's so many restaurants everywhere, and I
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: just go from one to the other until I find
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: one that can either make ganbi and dojiao huaigo a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: ro or any sichuans high, any La ros high or
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Sichuans high like Mala nyua red fried red oil, chili
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: oil fried bullfrog. And of course what's great being on
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: that mission it means I get to go eat at
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: a bunch of restaurants in a row looking for the
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: best one. So I walked around for like five hours,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and I went in a bunch of different restaurants. I
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: was looking for a sichuans high or chun ching because
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: I wanted definitely spicy mala flavor, and the mala restaurant
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: usually have the mala nyua that bullfrog dish and man.
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: I walked around for hours and nothing quite struck me
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: as exactly what I wanted, and none of them had
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the ganbi and dojiao that I wanted. I don't even
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: think I found ganbi and dojiao by the time I
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: left Beijing at all, not cooked correctly, like with the
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: little bits of crispy meat in it. That might be
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the first time I failed to find good ganbi and dojiao.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: But actually, you know, after I started getting good restaurants
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and I started meeting up with Chinese friends, I didn't
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: have that much time to explore because I only had
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: a little under two weeks in Beijing, and I was
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: running left and right trying to meet them literally every day,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: and then if I had a day off, I was
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: exploring for myself and refamiliarizing myself with the new Beijing.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: A couple of years later, it has updated again. It's
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: just crazy how how rapidly that city changes, like the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: width of the sidewalks and the types of stores that
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: are around, and the ride sharing like bicycle ride sharing.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Even the payment systems. I mentioned the payment systems amazing
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: now that I can just use my no fee credit
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: card to pay for everything in China. That was That
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: was hog heaven, man, that was so much. That made
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: things so convenient. Like, it's kind of a pain if
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you have to use cash these days. As I mentioned,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: it used to bee hundred percent cash and now it's
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: basically one hundred percent QR codes. So when I did
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: tell people to go there, I was like, and just
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: so you know, the banking's going to be a pain,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: so you should just take out a bunch of cash
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and use that, even though it's not as popular. At
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: least you don't have to deal with the banking system
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: at all in China, which is crazy that you have
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: to like sign triplicate forms on everything, and then they
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: literally rip up the triplicate forms in front of you.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: They just have to fill them out to fulfill some
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: bureaucratic regulation, but then they'll rip them up and throw
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: them away. I guess to preserve privacy. Maybe I don't know.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but it's the weirdest banking system in
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: the world that I've participated in. But now you don't
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: have to do that. If you have any credit card,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you can hook that up, or debit card, you can
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: hook that up to your we Chat account. And everybody
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: uses we Chat in the country, so you can just
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: scan any restaurant, any seller, any store anywhere and get
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: whatever you're doing. So just get a no fee card
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: and then go party in China for ten days the
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: visa free policy for a bunch of countries now. So
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: I walked around. I bought snacks and and beers and
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: small dishes from a few places, and I was just like, no,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: these noodles are crap. And I couldn't find a good
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Sichuan's high because I was looking for that Mala flavor
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: or chung ching was what I was really looking for.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: But chung Chingsai is not as popular as Sichuan's high
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: in Beijing. It's just the reputation is bigger for Sichuan.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I walked for hours and then all on
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the way back to the hotel and I was like,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: all right, I'll just try a different area tomorrow because
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna find I'm gonna find the good spot. And
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I'm maybe three minutes away from my hostel and I
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: just glanced to my left. It's right around the corner
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: from my hostel and there's I think it's even in English.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: It says like traditional Sichuan. It said that in Chinese too,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: but underword there's like subtitles tradition, traditional Schwan Food. And
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I saw it and the sign looked correct, and my
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: brain was like that's it. And I was like really, brain,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and it was like yep. So I went inside and
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: it just felt correct, and I was like, ooh, I
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: think it is traditional. Oh no, it was traditional chung Ching, right,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you know. And I'm not sure, but it was either
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: traditional Sichuan or chunng Ching. And the sign wasn't super new,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: and there weren't a ton of waitresses, and it wasn't
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: too fancy, but it looked nice, and it just looked
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: like they knew what they were doing. It just felt
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: correct to me having eaten in a billion restaurants in Beijing,
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: and boy, oh boy was it. So I go in
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and I checked their menu and they had like six
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: different nuah dishes, bullfrog dishes, which is really rare. They
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: have a dry pot, chili fried, my favorite, the Mala yuah,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: which is chili oil soup sort of like a hot
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: pot with a bunch of frog inside. They had, yeah,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: a bunch of frog dishes, and I was like, okay,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: at least I got options to try in case one
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: of it isn't as good as the rest. But when
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I walked in and smelled the chili oil, it smelled correct.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: It smelled like chong Qing ma la you know what.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: That's what it was. The sign said Sichuan traditional, But
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: as soon as I walked in, I was like, oh,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: that's chong Qing traditional oil. Like that's the mala flavor,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the numb, spicy that Sichuan ran and most Chinese people
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: don't really like. But it's famous from chung Ching, a
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: different city than Chungdu, which is the famous like center
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: for Sichuan cuisine. But it smelled like Chung Ching in
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: that restaurant, and I was like yes. So I got
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: really excited looking at their menu because everything looked amazing.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: But I ended up getting the thing I had been
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: looking for for I don't know, probably a few days
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: at that point. The mala on yuah the red chili
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: oil boiled bullfrog. And when I say red, this is
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: bright red, primary color red, but a little deeper than
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: primary color red. It's swirling with the chili oil, and
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the chili oil is blocking out all light to the
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: food in the broth underneath, so it's black under It's
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: just a very deep, rich red that I like. And
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you know, it was really interesting. They used fresh peppercorns.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: I didn't talk to too many people there because I
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: didn't know yet for sure it felt like the correct restaurant.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: But if it was bad, I didn't want to spend
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: all this time talking to everybody and then never go
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: back to that restaurant again. So I just ordered the
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: frog and exchanged a couple pleasantries and then took it
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: to go. That's the other nice thing, no matter what
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: restaurant you're in. In Beijing, even if it's a super
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: fancy restaurant, you can always order food to go, so
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: this dish is typically eaten in the restaurant. It's a
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: giant pot of frog, of chili oil, boiled frog, and
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: I wanted to eat that in my room and watch TV,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: which is totally acceptable in Beijing, so I ordered it
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to go. They brought it out. I got super excited,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: took it back home, and it's like a pretty big bowl,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe a foot around total, just packed
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: full of stewed chili oil bullfrog. And they cut it
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: up into smaller pieces, so they'll cut up the shin part,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the calf and the thigh and the back and then
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: the segments of the arm, so they're in bite sized pieces.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: But all the bone is on frog, so you have
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: to bite around the bone, which I had to get
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: used to living in China, because in the US food
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: is just so easy. It's like this is an extruded paste.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: We will heat it up, it will turn into a solid,
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: and then you can eat it. We call it a nugget.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: But in China and many Asian, many countries in general,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the meat is on the bone, just so it's fresh.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh, this is real meat on a bone,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: and you have to bite around the bone to get
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: at the meat, especially in age. I guess it's very popular.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: But I'm totally used to that now, and it doesn't
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: bother me to bite around or like nibble and munch
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: on the meat around the bone to get the good
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: meat off because that's where the meat came from. I
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: don't know, it just doesn't bother me anymore because I've
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: been doing it forever. The problem I didn't I had
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: with that before was the oil that got on my hands,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: if it was I don't know whatever, because I was
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: picking up pieces of duck neck for instance, or whatever
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I was picking up. It was just really oily. But
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: once I have the uh, plastic gloves and then using chopsticks,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: it's not messy at all. You just get good at
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: eating the meat off the bone where meat comes from.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: So I had this giant bowl of malaya, and I
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: was very excit and it was a great night because
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: it tasted. I got a few mala things before that,
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: but they didn't taste correct. They might have been Sichuan,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: but they weren't chung Qing mala, which is a very
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: different flavor, and they use a lot of Sichuan peppercorns.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Oh and the cool thing about this one they had
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: fresh Sichuan peppercorn. So Sichuan peppercorn Are these like tiny?
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: How big are they? Like? Two millimeter? Maybe roughly one
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: point five to two millimeter? Small beans? Really or peppercorns,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I guess is a better way. And you can buy
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: them everywhere in China. Even though they're not super popular,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: they're such a staple of the most popular or the
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: most revered cuisine, I should say, Sichuan's high chung Qing
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: is a city in Sichuan Province that you can buy
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: these dried peppercorns nearly everywhere across the country, and they're
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: usually black, and you just got a big pouch of them.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: You throw them in with whatever you're cooking, and everybody
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: uses them and they taste for sure. But this restaurant
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: that as soon as I tasted the red chili oil
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: my first bite, basically, I was like, Oop, that's it.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: This is the place I want to eat. And it's
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: right around the corner from my hostel, and it is
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the first place of I don't know how many I
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: tried where I was like, oh good, this food is
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: real and it's cooked proper, like they take time to
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: make everything correct. Even if it's not the most efficient
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: cooking method or the fastest cooking method, it's the most
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: efficient for making best dang food in Beijing, for sure.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: So I got really excited after trying this dish. The
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: chili oil was so fresh, and that's really the hallmark
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: of chung ching malayo, the numb, spicy chili oil. You
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: can get malayo like everywhere, but if it's cooked at all,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: or if it's cooked too long, which is a very
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: narrow window, you're going to miss out on a lot
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: of flavors. They get cooked out really fast. Or if
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the chef has fresh oil but he just cooks it
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: wrong too high heat or too long or mixes and
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: too much stuff, you lose this fresh tanginess of chung
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: ching ma layo. And this was perfect. It was cooked
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: absolutely perfectly, and it's such a rich, delicious flavor. And
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I was just cloud nine the whole time I was
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: watching TV and eating my chili oil. Bullfrogs due to Bullfrog,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: and I was like, great if nothing, if everything goes
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: wrong in Beijing. After this, then I'm just going to
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: keep going to this restaurant, eating this and I'll be happy.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: And I didn't have to do that because things kept
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: going right in Beijing. Everything was great. I had a
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: really fun time. But it was nice that I had
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: my private room at this hostel that was pretty comfortable,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: especially after I fixed the shower head so it worked
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: like new. And then I had an amazing restaurant around
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the corner from me. I think I went there the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: next day and got Did I get more frog the
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: next day? I don't know, whatever, Okay, And it was
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: finally time to meet my friends that I hadn't seen
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: in a couple of years or something. And my closest
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: friends are Terry and Sean and Shawn's family, and those
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: are outside of the people I met in the hostel.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Those are the only people I spent any time with
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: while I was in Beijing, because my other friend just
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: had a baby, so she's still chilling down in her province.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Otherwise we definitely would have spent time together. So I
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: mostly ended up alternating with Sean and Terry, who were
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: my drinking buddies but also my very close friends. Like
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: we started being friends. Both of those guys, I think, yeah,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: they were assistants at the first school in Beijing, and
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: then he just kept talking and now it's been a
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: decade and a half and we're still very close friends.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: So I saw Sean first. I went with his family
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to a Shaukau restaurant that I think I mentioned last week.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And then I went to see Terry, who the last
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: time I saw him was in Beijing and Mento Go
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: a district pretty far on the edge of the urban
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: area of Beijing. But there's this all you can eat
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: buffet that is absolutely insane that I took him to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: that I went to ten times in the month I
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: was there. I went there constantly. It was so good.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: But because it had been a couple of years, or
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: at least one year, Terry did the thing you're supposed
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: to do in Chinese culture. You choose the restaurant and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: you make all the arrangements for your friend and bring
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: him there. And I was like, dang it, because I
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: was worried he was going to do the same thing
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: take me to the fancy restaurant, but maybe not the
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: kind of restaurant that was super good. It was like
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: too fancy for its own good. It's like the prestige
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: of saying you went to Chiunjuda, which is the most
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: famous Beijing kaw yaw restaurant in Beijing, and for my money,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: completely pedestrian in its flavor. It doesn't stand out to
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: me at all. But you can say you went to Chiuanjuda,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and then everybody else in China will be like, oh,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: the good restaurant because it has that reputation. It's all
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: about face and it's funny. This was after I found
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: the good traditional Sichuan restaurant, so I was like nudging him,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: was like, hey, we should just go here. It's really good,
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: and he was like, oh, man, no, we have a
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: great hot pop restaurant. I was like, okay, this one's
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: really good though, I bet you'll like it, and it
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: has all these but he was like, no, no, this
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: is the best hotpot restaurant. We go there all the time.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Him and his wife. She wants to see you too.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Just come meet us there. It'll be so much fun.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: And I haven't seen his wife in a long time.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: She's kind of a homebody. And I think it's been
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: seven years, no ten years, actually it might have been
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: before I left China. I haven't seen her. Wow, but
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: if it was Beijing, then it would be like a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: dozen years. That's crazy to think because all three of
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: us used to hang out all the time. They were dating, Yeah,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: way back then. They were dating when I met him
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: fifteen years ago, and then I think they got married
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: after I left China nine years ago or something, and
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: they just got the civil certificate. They didn't have a
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: big wedding, so I didn't go back there, which I appreciate.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Thanks guys, in case you're listening, keep marriage is simple.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: But Terry sounded really excited about this hot pot restaurant,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and I was like, yeah, sure, if you're that into it,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: let's go do that. And he also said that it
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: was Jessica's favorite hot pot restaurant, like they went there
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: a lot. And so we went there and I actually
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: took one of my bags of yak jerky that another
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: friend ordered for me, or actually Terry brought over. Okay,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: so my Chinese friend nailed yak jerky, which is my
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: favorite jerky, to Terry's house before I got to China,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and I asked them to buy me one or two bags,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: but they bought me like six as a joke because
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: it's my favorite thing, which was really cool. But that's
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: a kilogram and a hat. That's like three and a
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: half four pounds of yak jerky, which is a lot
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: of jerky, especially considering every day I'm going to dinners
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: and lunches with friends already, and you can't take meat
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: internationally across borders generally, So that meant I had to
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: eat all six bags of yak jerkey before I left Beijing. Luckily,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: it is my favorite jerky, and I did succeed, but
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: that I was cracking a bag immediately and sharing with Terry,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: and then we were waiting for Jessica to get there,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: who needed to get ready, and then that ended up
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: taking three hours, which apparently is for the course. She
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: takes a lot long time to get ready, and she
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: really likes hanging out with her dog, so she'll get
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: distracted by getting the dog this or that, or taking
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: him out for a walk, or catering to the doggies everywhim.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: So Jessica didn't actually show up for almost three hours,
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: but me and Terry didn't notice because it was a
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: new type of hot pot that I've never had. It
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: was really interesting. And then they had beer, so I
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: had nine beers before Jessica got there, and I hadn't
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: had any beer before they wait. I came straight from Korea,
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: so I definitely had beer in Korea, oh and Japan before.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know, it was feeling totally healthy, so I
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: mean I was not My body was fine, so I
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't peeing every five minutes from the beers I was drinking,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: which I think is a warning sign. I was just
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: comfortably drinking beer and having hot pot with my friend
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: and we talked for three hours until Jessica showed up.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: I always get mal I always get the spicy hot pot,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and I found out that my friend Terry was one
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: of the last two people who ate spicy food with
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: me in China. It's just unpopular in China to eat
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: spicy food generally. And I like very spicy food, and
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I like a lot of spicy food. But if you
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: end up going to China, you'll be surprised at how
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: few people actually eat spicy food, and especially how few
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: eat a lot of spicy food. Like if they eat
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: one spicy thing per day, then they don't eat anything
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: spicy the rest of the day, and they maybe not
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: the rest of the week. It's very cheerlishly meat it
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: out in their diets. I will eat three spicy dishes
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: a day and be very happy for it, especially if
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I happen to be in China. So I was surprised
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: that we got this non spicy seafood hot pot based
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the seafood broth rather than the spicy one. But when
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: I asked Terry, he said he doesn't eat spicy food
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: anymore because it makes him sweat too much, which is
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a big thing. That's what. Yeah, that's a lot of
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: people don't eat spicy food in China because they start
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: sweating if they eat it, and I guess that's uncomfortable.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: And you know what, I thought, that was just I
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: was like, that's a dumb excuse, Like how much can
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: you sweat that? It sucks. And then when we went
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: to eat spicy food later, he was sweating like that
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: joke Jordan Key and Peel episode where the porn's on
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: his computer and he's just sweating down his face. That's
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: what my friend started. That's what Terry started sweating like
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the first time I took him to go eat spicy
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: food again, and I was like, wow, that is like debilitating.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: That's this crazy amount of sweat from spicy food. But
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: it was really interesting. That's a pretty good testament to friendship.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: That we were waiting, what three hours for the third
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: person in the party, but both of us had no
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: problem just talking about crap whatever for three hours. We
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: talked a lot about how Beijing had changed, how he
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: had changed about the spicy food, what. Actually we didn't
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: even talk about what the dish was. It was really
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: interesting though. It looked like it had this sloping fancy
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: hat they put on, and then they ultra steam everything
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: for a very specific amount of time so that it's
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: cooked perfectly. And while the seafood hot pot was not
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: as exciting as the spicy stuff I usually get, it
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: was very good. Like the fish was obviously very high
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: quality and very flavorful, especially with the broth that just
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: makes it more flavorful. It's like a fish seafood broth,
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: and then you have bits of fish inside, and there
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: were some mushrooms and stuff. The fish was actually so
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: fresh and so good. I checked their menu to see
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: if there was anything else interesting I would want to
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: try in there, and they actually had morel mushrooms, which
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever had because they're so expensive
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: in the States where I grew up with zero money,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: and then there of a European US thing. I think
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: because they're not I don't think i'd ever seen them
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: in China before either. But I was like, oh, shoot,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: these are fancy expensive mushrooms. Let's get these. And they
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: were a few bucks for a tray of frozen moral mushrooms.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: I assume they keep them on ice because they're a
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: fancy expensive ingredient, but not that expensive in China. And
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: we tossed them in and they were good, and I
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: can see why people like them, and now I want
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: to try them fresh, very interesting little flavors. But unless
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: they're one of the very popular Chinese mushrooms, which are anchy, oyster, shitake,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and king I think they're called those fat ones. If
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: they're not one of those four, then Chinese people, just
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: like most countries, if it's not the common mushroom, they're like,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: watch out, it'll kill you. So the waitress kept being like,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: put them all in heat them for ten minutes. They're
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: super dangerous, and I was like, okay, thank you, and
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: then I you know, I didn't do that. I wanted
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: to taste them moral, so I didn't cook them for
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: too long, but she was very worried about our health,
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: and we ate all of them and they were good,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: and neither of us got sick. And I'm not even
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: sure why we would have. I just think it's an
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: uncommon ingredient in China, and if anything's on common, they're like,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: just boil it for twenty minutes, you'll probably be safe then.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: And this whole time, for the three hours we're waiting
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: for Jessica to get there, I am just munching down
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: on my yak jerky, share some with Terry, and it
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: was fun. It was fun as heck, hang with a friend,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: talk for a few hours, eat a bunch of jerky,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: my favorite jerky in the world. Have a bunch of
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: crappy beers. Not a huge fan of Chinese beers, but
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: you know what, I'll drink them. And I was brought
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: over to the seafood hot pot Cuisine, which I almost
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: never get, so it was good for a change, actually,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: so I'm glad he took me there. And I'd never
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: seen that style of pressure steaming it under a weaved
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: hat on top of the hot That was really interesting
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: to see. And from the beginning, Terarry kept telling me like,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: oh yeah, just because it's coming in like thirty minutes,
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: she says she'll be here in forty five minutes, And
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: he just said that five or six times until it
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: was three hours later. I was like, is she coming,
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: because we don't have to stay here, we can meet
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: her anywhere. But after three hours she did show up,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: and she stayed for like forty five minutes, and it
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: was fun to see her again. But she really likes
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: her dog and wanted to get back to her dog,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: so forty five minutes after she showed up, she went
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: back to go take care of her dog some more.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: But for those forty five minutes straight, we were just
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: talking about how things were going and traveling, and she
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: travels also. She likes to travel, and it was a
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: lot of fun. And I remember she used to have
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: like I can't remember if it was trivia or she
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: just knew a bunch of stuff. So everyone used to
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: call her Jessica Pedia, which I think is very funny,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: pretty good nickname if your friends are like you're an encyclopedia.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: And I got five more beers after she hoed up
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: while we were talking, and then like after she had
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: left me and Terry had like two more whatever. So
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: that's about five more in total. And so I think
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I had fourteen beers at this place, twelve or fourteen.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: I had a lot, oh or maybe it was maybe
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: it was like six before she showed up. Let's say
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: nine to fourteen beers. But Chinese beers are very low percentage,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: They're like two percent, so it's more like I had
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: four regular beers. Oh, but they are six hundred millilters,
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: so they are big. Okay, I had a lot. I
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: felt fine though, Okay. And on my way back, I
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: found a snack store, which are becoming very popular in Beijing.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: And we're not a thing when I used to live there,
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: but I've noticed them more and more every each time
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I go back to visit Beijing. Oh, I might have
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: mentioned this last week. You go in and you can
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: just buy one packet, like one piece of beef jerky
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: in a tiny little self serve or single serving packet,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: one piece of duck neck or one chicken wing, or
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: one piece of seaweed or one just a whole bunch
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: of things, so you can get a like a grab
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: bag of snacks and I went into the store, and
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I was really excited to see one, and I got
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: my stuff and I turned around a corner and I
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: saw a guy stuff like one of the snacks into
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: his jacket, and he looked at me up like he
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: looked up at me knowing that he was caught, and
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: then he rushed past me and ran out the front door,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: basically with the snacks he stole. And it was such
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: a bizarre I don't know. I didn't even report him
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: because it's like one duck neck piece or whatever, and
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: food is so cheap in China. Maybe if he's stealing,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: he was, he has he must have a really bad
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: situation because like there's not really people eat in China,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: not only because the family takes care of the more
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: disadvantage disadvantaged members of the family. Like if you're really old,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: you're not living on your own in China, you're living
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: with someone in your family who can take care of you,
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: or you're at a hospice, which are inexpensive. Not many
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: people go hungry in China. It's a very inexpensive country
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: to live in. Sophie was stealing. He's either just a jerk,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: or maybe he really needed the food. I don't know.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I didn't tell anybody. It just didn't seem like my place. Well,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: I've got a bunch to get up to today, and
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: there's way more China stuff to talk about, but any
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: of the stories I start on will probably take a
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: bunch of time to get into. So thank you so
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: much for listening. You can talk to me at bit
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: of a Rambler at gmail dot com or bit of
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: a Rambler on Blue Sky and Lemmy and I will
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: talk to you soon. Have a great rest of your day.