Taste + Texture (Beijing Part 1)

Some kind of meat that you roast for a bit before you eat.

It tasted like beef but did not look and feel like beef!

I quit asking.

Just like any other "business" trip, it was another whirlwind travel adventure. My unemployment gap was cut short because of the regional workshop they wanted me to be a part of. I was not supposed to sign up for the "extended-but-temporary-contract" but when I found out that they were doing it because they wanted me to join Beijing, I just gladly agreed :-)

For weeks leading to the trip, I had guilty mommy moments - especially with people all around me saying that I was a bit crazy traveling with a big tummy. But my doctor gave me the go signal, so what the heck! Plus, I vowed not to treat pregnancy as a sickness. (But don't worry guys, I also promised that this will be my last plane travel before I give birth.. I already declined a Palawan and a Boracay trip!)

We flew to Beijing for a two and a half day workshop with our regional colleagues for some best practice sharing. I met people from East Asia working on projects similar to ours -- delivering access to finance for small / medium enterprises. Some of the programs included expanding microfinance, developing appropriate banking and finance products for those in far flung areas, and formalizing loan channels for small businesses. There were also discussions about how our company could get involved in low cost housing, greenhouse gas abatement and sustainable and responsible financing.

It was all pretty interesting, but I have to admit I had a LOT of spaced out moments. Anything with numbers really make me blank out. Note to self: I have to get used to this finance stuff, I have to expand my knowledge and get over teenage math and economics trauma!

Anyway, the trip was a mixture of work, culture, sights, smells, tastes and camaraderie. China's currency is the Yuan or the Renmimbi, RMB or CNY for short (I don't know why they call it a variety of names).

It was around 6.5 RMB to 1 USD or roughly 7 PHP = 1 RMB. I thought it was an expensive city ... or maybe just because we were living in the expensive area. Allow me to share with you some highlights of my trip:

Shangri-La's Kerry Centre Hotel, Beijing

Located about an hour's drive from the airport, Shangri-La's Kerry Centre Hotel is located in the middle of what they call the Central Business District. Compared to the previous hotels I've tried while working for this company, I thought it was the least luxurious. Personally though, it was very luxurious for me :-) It's a working traveler's dream. You get free broadband access in your room and breakfast buffet everyday worth 168 Yuan.. (at 900 Yuan a night, dapat lang!!!)


The breakfast buffet at the Coffee Shop was okay ( by far the best breakfast buffet I've ever had was at the Parklane in Cebu!), the hotel bar was really nice (with couches, bar stools, private nooks with wide screen TVs for the World Cup junkies.. I enjoyed a mocktail called delight with strawberry, kiwi, dragonfruit, pineapple and orange.. thanks Paula!), and we discovered this yummy dessert bar called Bento and Berries which sold their cakes at 50% off after 9pm. It was also from this dessert bar that I order steamed milk to bring to my room before going to sleep.

Stirfried and Duck Overload

Bullfrog in chili sauce... it wasn't the chili that I was worried about.

Authentic Chinese food is wayyy different from what we get here in Manila. My boss said (his wife is Chinese) that each region has a different cuisine, and what we usually get in Manila comes from another part of China.

I've experienced Chinese lauriat meals before, but what I had for the past few days topped those. We ate at Chinese restaurants for a total of 3 times, with the "learned" people ordering for us -- and it was just an ENDLESS stream of food! No complaints, they were all good, but stuffing one's tummy with tasty stirfried food one meal after another is not particularly healthy...

Everything laid out infront of us looked pretty much the same. Sliced, diced and smothered with sauce. I was really careful with asking before I ate. They kept on telling me, when you eat Chinese, you don't ask - you just eat. You savor the taste AND the texture. Thanks to Milan, I had a taste-and-texture tester and was thankfully spared from the super spicy or terrible things. We weren't able to go the food alley where they served scorpions on sticks tho, which is good because I really can't be THAT adventurous with a baby on the way.

We had too much food that I forgot the names of the restaurants. :-) Probably the most important meal of our trip was our company-sponsored dinner at the famous Quanjude restaurant. Net research says that the Peking duck served at Quanjude is the best in Beijing, due to its secret recipe used to feed Chinese emperors! I'm not a duck connoisseur but I really liked it ! Ah, but after 5 peking duck rolls , I was about to shout Quack!!!!-that's enough.

Your typical Peking duck roll: Thinly sliced duck, cucumber, baby onion and hoisin sauce. Mmm. I rolled about 5 of these..

That's about it for the taste and texture part. I've uploaded more descriptive photos on Facebook. I was also able to see a little bit of Beijing on my last day, watch out for that post!