food

Hungarian Bread

Jacob Redding — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:43:19 +0000

While in Budapest I attended a Track cycling competition (the Hungarian nationals!). On my way to the velodrome I passed by a flea market walked inside and found a neat little snack shack. I looked around to what everyone else was eating then walked up to the country and pointed in a "I want that" manner. The nice girl behind the girl understood me and whipped me up one rather quickly.

It was toasty and nice..

Chinese "Hot Dog"

Jacob Redding — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 06:34:42 +0000

This is what is served at the Olympics as a "Hot Dog". Its food, ya that's about all I can say about it.

Snack Place Beijing

Jacob Redding — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:42:29 +0000

A while back Diana and I went for lunch at a local Beijing snack cafeteria. I took my camera along ;)

Natural Food store Troy, NY

Jacob Redding — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:18:17 +0000

I love natural food stores. I don't really have much else to say other than that. I love natural food stores.

Hot pot and language learning

Jacob Redding — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 17:19:38 +0000

You often learn languages in the most common of places. This evening Diana and I went out to our local hotpot restaurant (火锅饭店). The meal started off as normal except that I can now fully understand when the waiter/waitress (who, I'm pretty sure, are also the owners) ask if we want a spicy sauce or not (I get the spicy). That in itself is pretty cool but today I was also able to ask what another customer ordered. It looked good and I wanted some.

What made the evening even better, though, was towards the end of our meal when two older men sat down next to us. Their look was stereotypical Chinese businessman (rugged skin, dark suit, cigarette) and their accent was noticeably Beijing. Beijing accents are riddled with the sound of Rs and everything seems to be muddled together, that is until you've listened to it for a while. I could only understand about 5% or less of what they were saying but it was enough for me to (a) hear the "correct" pronunciation of certain words that I did know and (b) to learn new words based on context (of course I could be wrong about those new words).

For me having those two gentleman sit next to me what like a language learning treat and I eavesdropped as long as I could. Maybe someday I'll actually be able to talk with them and ask about the crazy business schemes they have.

The other item that made the dining experience truly "Chinese" was the fact that we were able to catch a glance of the "chef"*/dishwasher. He was passing dishes and washing dishes with a cigarette hanging from his lip.

China is not a smoke-free restaurant country. Quite the contrary.

*: At hot pot everything is given to you raw. You cook it yourself in a pot of spiced/flavored boiling water. Thus the chef doesn't do much else other than cut up raw vegetables and meats.