Vegan Guide to Michelin Restaurants: Ramon Freixa in Madrid, Spainby Randi / July 30, 2015
Not that I’ve been to many pop-up restaurants (have I?) or other things cool people do, but even so I’m pretty sure Grain Store Unleashed ranks towards the top. First of all, they have an all-vegan menu available (if you ask for it). Second of all, they had the best water speed I’ve ever seen outside of American Chinese food restaurants. And most importantly, all the food was good, some very good, some great.
Grain Store Unleashed, housed in the main restaurant area of the Zetter Hotel, was the summer pop up of the King’s Cross restaurant Grain Store. The actual/long-term Grain Store is a supposedly vegetarian-friendly restaurant that really isn’t. Every time omnivores want to eat with me, they suggest Grain Store because it’s so veg-friendly. But I mean, come on. They have a few vegetarian options, and vegan stuff is marked — but the only vegan dishes are bread, gazpacho, and sides. No mains. There’s a note on the menu that says some dishes can be made vegan, but it doesn’t say which ones. Also, seriously, not even one already-vegan main? You do not make my list for places I will give money to if I have to do all the figuring out.
But luckily for everyone, they put on Grain Store Unleashed, a much more adventurous and much more accommodating type of dining. If they are smart and/or nice, the restaurant will decide to either do the Unleashed-style pop-up again, or, better yet, add the vegan dishes to their subpar menu. Because this vegan menu was great!
But luckily for everyone, they put on Grain Store Unleashed, a much more adventurous and much more accommodating type of dining. If they are smart and/or nice, the restaurant will decide to either do the Unleashed-style pop-up again, or, better yet, add the vegan dishes to their subpar menu. Because this vegan menu was great!
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GSU (not to be confused with probably 10 colleges) was one of the nicest meals I’ve had in London, so it pretty much blows that it was short-term. It offered three different set menu options: 4 courses for $28.50, 6 for $34.50, or 8 for $39. (As always, I mean the local currency (pounds here) but I only have the dollah on my keyboard.) I would normally be like hells yeah, give me the 8, but after close inspection, I saw that you only got a vegetable tartlet (hehehe TARTLET) out of that, plus both desserts instead of one. However, the second dessert was strawberries in Gran Marnier, which is like, first of all, I’m not going to pay you for fruit for dessert at a restaurant, thanks, but secondly, don’t ruin the fruit with alcohol. So 6 courses it was. You can also order a la carte but it didn’t make sense; 2-3 dishes and you’d be at the same cost so why would you do it!! Let’s look at all the food I ate!
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Oh, funnily enough (is it), they had an amazing drinks menu. Normally I am just a tap water person, but these drinks were so interesting that I had to get one. Hoorayfully, the non-alcoholic options were just as cool sounding as the booze. While my two companions got the lavender margarita and fig daisy (the latter just for the name, I think, sounds like a book character), I got a really great bergamot and apple iced tea, which was a low-key level of sweet (yay) and had a good tinge of bergamot and apple, even though I have no idea with the former tastes like. I do remember it being in The Body Shop toiletries from when I was like 11 but that’s the extent of it. I also have been saying it wrong my whole life, apparently, because I thought I was being smart and fancy by doing a long-o, no-t sound, but apparently the last syllable is pronounced like the apple juice company. Do not like.
So the food! They started us off with an avocado toast plate, compliments of the kitchen, which is pretty much the greatest way to start off any meal. Or any kind of event, really. Avocado toast? That you weren’t expecting? That is free? Yippee! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a 100% perfect experience, because you could tell the puree came from avocados that they bought in this country (England). You could taste that they were not yet ripe when they were cut, and also that they never would have ripened anyway. That’s what avocados here taste like. Blergh. Still, not great avocado toast is pretty good.
So the food! They started us off with an avocado toast plate, compliments of the kitchen, which is pretty much the greatest way to start off any meal. Or any kind of event, really. Avocado toast? That you weren’t expecting? That is free? Yippee! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a 100% perfect experience, because you could tell the puree came from avocados that they bought in this country (England). You could taste that they were not yet ripe when they were cut, and also that they never would have ripened anyway. That’s what avocados here taste like. Blergh. Still, not great avocado toast is pretty good.
I will never frown upon free toast
Potato paper!
Next was the ‘Vegetal oyster, potato waffle, and broccoli dip’. Intriguing! The ‘oyster’ play came from a cold green vegetable mixture on one of those thick white spoons that oysters are served on, topped with edible flowers. It was good I just have no idea what it is. The big brown piece of paper was actually the potato waffle, which was mashed potato dehydrated into a cracker. Pretty fun! The broccoli dip was delicious, like a mild broccoli-flavored hummus. I would have loved more of the broccoli dip instead of the unripe avocado opener.
Fried
Dish #2 was one of our favorites, because we love fried things. It was the courgette flower and tofu fritter, with tapenade dressing. It was like a plate of tempura, which no one is going to fight with. The huge block of soft tofu appeared at first to have a disagreeable ratio of fry-to-tofu, but it was really good. The long zucchini flower’s ratio was almost too far in the other direction, with such a delicate vegetable tempurafied. Regardless, both were great and came surrounded with a very necessary and very well-matched olive tapenade. w
Fisssh and chips and vinegarrrr vinegarrr vinegarrr
‘Pickled heritage radish, beetroot and samphire, cauliflower cous cous’ was good but needed some work. I was super excited about samphire, which I’ve recently been introduced to. Given its natural saltiness, it makes sense to pair it with pickled stuff. But it needed something creamy and/or light paired with it. It was a beautiful dish, but altogether was just a little too salty or vinegary. Cauliflower couscous I believe is always a mistake – it’s just ground up raw cauliflower so people can act like they are eating a grain when they think grains are bad. It’s nonsense and it always tastes like nonsense. Here, it did nothing to offset the vinegariness, whereas an actual grain would have provided the necessary counterpart.
Much better than green tea
One of the most impressive parts of the meal was the ‘Wild mushroom tea’. I was hesitant about mushroom flavored tea, but quickly realized that that just means soup. More accurately, broth, and really unbelievably delicious broth. My friend who knows more about MSG that I do said it tasted like MSG (that’s a good thing), because mushrooms are high in glutamates or some such science and these were cooked (brewed) into tea (broth) properly. REALLY incredibly delicious for such a simple thing!
The final savory dish was our big fun main, ‘Artichoke stuffed with veggie chorizo and walnut, summer vegetables, rouille’. Rouille I learned is an olive oil-based garlic, saffron, and chili pepper sauce. This dish was really good, and it needed more of the rouille, not just because I know what it is now but because it was really great. I can always do without whole tomatoes given to me to bite into and 100% of the time burn my tongue because the insides were just cooked and are boiling, but at least they were good tomatoes. I loved the grilled lettuce, which people don’t do enough, and it was so nice to be given a huge artichoke heart with all the work already done of deleafing it. The chorizo was great too. Pretty excellent dish!
Finally, I’m so happy that I chose wisely with the dessert, because mine was soooo good. ‘Coconut and Kaffir lime tapioca with sweet potato’ sounds a little of my beaten path with desserts, but it was one of my favorite things ever. I never really had tapioca pudding before. It’s really good. The coconut and lime combo was mild and lovely, and the little hunks of sweet potato worked well and luckily weren’t candied or anything stupid like that. I want this all the time!
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Grain Store Unleashed was such a fantastic meal! I hope they do something like this again.
GRAIN STORE UNLEASHED AT THE ZETTER HOTEL
Water speed: Really good for London!
Service: Equally good and attentive.
Bathrooms: Oh my the bathrooms. You had to go out sort of towards hotel reception but down a spiral staircase through a few rooms of really…interesting bars. You just spiraled downwards through business people’s conversations and were like don’t mind me just have to pee! Sooo weird. The bathroom door was very heavy.
Food: Really nice overall and I’m so glad I got to go.
Bonus: I learned about glutamates and tapioca.
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Urumqi, China: Qi Qi My Playmate…You’re Not So Much Fun To Play With
After our visit to Turpan, we took a super short train to Urumqi, which is the capital of the Xinjiang region. You know how state capitals are often not the best city in the state and usually not even in the top five? Like, Harrisburg you’d have to pay me to go back to. And Albany, I don’t know anyone not in government who would ever want to go to Albany. I don’t think anyone in government ever wants to go to Albany either but they have to. I still feel bad for my poor law school friends who were sent there to take the bar instead of the Javitts Center. Suuuucks. Anyway, same for Urumqi. It used to be a big deal on the Silk Road, as all these Xinjiang towns were because they had water and goods and people to help caravans and traders survive as they trekked through the desert. But now it’s just, city. And not a particularly fun one, just…city.
Urumqi is booming now with more than 3 million residents (tiny for China but big for rest of the world!) and apparently it is the biggest city in Central Asia (which I guess includes Xinjiang and the stans). Remember how in the Turpan post I said that Turpantiners consider their town to be farther from the oceans than any other place on earth? Well the Guinness Book of World Records, famed chroniclers of all things super important, give that honor to Urumqi. Let’s not quibble though, you both will always stay in my heart as the driest hottest hellholes in all of China. Okay they aren’t hellholes at all (they’re good cities Brent), they just have the same climate as hell.
After we got off the train, we did not walk out into the world as you usually do when you get off a train. We had to go through security again. To get out of the station. That’s how serious Xinjiang security is. At the exit were police and baggage x-rays and metal detectors for people to walk through and everyone diligently went through the ritual but we were pulled aside by guards seated at a table (you NEVER want to catch the attention of the seated guards!). They took our passports and wrote the info in a book, I’m guessing the Big Book of Foreigners, before letting us into their so magical city. Getting a little bit annoying. As I shared before, in China, there is no common building when people enter and exit and buy tickets all in harmony. All those activities are spread out over huge station complexes so that, if you want to pick up your tickets for your next train (as you should do when you arrive to be safe), you have to go through the rigmarole (I really don’t like that there’s not another a in there) of leaving the station, and then you have to walk around the whole damn thing and find the main entrance so you can then find the ticket office. And, guess what, to get to the ticket office, you have to go through x-rays and metal detectors and security again! I always wait outside with all the bags so Z can run in more easily. But guess what, Urumqi was not a ‘run in and hurry through security’ kind of ticket office situation. I waited in the sun for over an hour for him to return! In the picture above, you might be able to see a long line of people from the station door. That line stretched all the way back to be even with where I was standing, and that was just after the guards at that checkpoint checked you out and let you into the main line. The line to reach THOSE guards stretched down the block. The amount of time he had to wait in that line was almost longer than our train here. It was RIDICULOUS.
Fortunately, we had a nice refuge to go to next. To make up for the hole that was Turpan and our hostel, we upgraded to a room at the Urumqi Sheraton for this visit. Of course, that refuge was temporarily blocked by – you guessed it – more baggage x-rays, metal detectors, and security guards at the entrance. We couldn’t even tell when we entered if we were in the hotel because it was in a mall! So we looked up and saw cafes and stores lining the perimeter and no Sheraton Hotel signs and we were trying to ask the security guards if this was the hotel and they just yelled to put our bags on the conveyor belts which DID NOT FIT BECAUSE THEY ARE HUGE BACKPACKS AND THE BELT WAS MADE FOR EVERYDAY PURSES and they were NOT HAVING IT and finally they just let us through to the check-in on one side of the lobby and the hotel staff was nooooot good, not good at all, I must remember to complain about them. Anyway we finally got up to our room and then everything was okay. As long as we stay indoors, away from every other human, we will be fine.
obligatory hotel pics
Before this trip, I never really appreciated a Sheraton or similar mid-level hotel chain. They are clean and comfortable and have real toilets! This was the perfect thing to do at this time in our travels, because we really needed a few days without too much running around (any) and without too many things to see (we literally saw one). Instead, we ate snacks in the hotel bed (what a lovely bed I love bed) and watched horrible movies. This hotel didn’t have HBO like our other recent treat-yo-self China hotel stays have surprised us with – but it had Cinemax. Lolol you know how people used to joke and call it Skinemax? That’s not the right joke. There was nothing bawdy on, just PURE UTTER SHIT. We watched so many bad movies. There was one with Chloe Grace Moretz where somehow she keeps surviving all these alien attacks that wipe out 99% of the population and you watch and you think ‘well she’s gotta be special in some way right any minute now we will learn what makes her so different from everyone else and she will fight something and win back Earth’ but no her special skill is sleeping with a man who turns out to be part alien and HE is the one who helps save her she LITERALLY does nothing oh my god why is she the star in this disaster movie if she has NO Katnissy skills to speak of she literally just lucked out a few times then met a rando and slept with him and the man saves her and some other kids she does NOTHING and has no special abilities except not dying from bird flu or whatever. We watched this movie twice. We also watched Whiskey Tango Foxtrot twice, partly because Tina Fey is great even when she’s trying to be serious and dramatic and you’re like aw good for you hon trying new things and mostly because we have a big metal water bottle from the film that sits in our bathroom for no good reason so it’s like a part of the family. WTF was actually not bad. The third movie we watched was indeed awful. It was called Terrordactyl. I shit you not. Terrordactyl. It was like if Sharknado wasn’t funny, but was super depressing because you just feel so bad for these ‘actors’ who showed up to set and probably couldn’t make eye contact with each other because they were so ashamed of what their careers and dreams had become. We watched it only half a time.
In the mall attached to the hotel. WHAT THE CRAP IS KILLER LITTERING? IS IT THROWING PEOPLE OFF THE SKYWALK SO THEY DIE? IS THAT WHAT KILLER LITTERING MEANS?????
We lucked out with the hotel being attached to a mall because in our newfound lazy state, we didn’t have to go very far for food. Well, our first night, we did try to go very far for food. There’s one vegan place on HappyCow called Yuangqi Vegetarian, and we got on a public city bus to get there with everyone staring at us (we did not see any other tourists in this city, p.s.). It’s online info said it should be open and I was so excited to finally have a good meal after a few days without. I was so excited for their mock meats, as HC reviews claimed they had. Well I will never know because there was a handwritten looseleaf paper sign on the padlocked door that a nice passerby told us said they needed a rest today and had closed. FUUUUUCK YOUUUUU you need a rest?? I NEED FOOOOOOOOD. Dammit to hell. We could have tried back the next day but I was too angry with them.
Learning not to ever leave the hotel and its attached mall, we returned and scoped out the many restaurants on the upper floors, including a food court that was, as usual, too confusing with too unhelpful staff so we chose a Han restaurant with a picture menu. We got several vegetable dishes that were pretty good and I got mapo tofu but asked first if it was vegetarian because it always had pork, but this menu didn’t say pork. The waitress said yes and confirmed that it had no pork when we asked that separately. Of course it came with pork, and when we said (/had our phone say) ‘but you said it didn’t have pork!’ she motioned that it was just a little bit. I get that vegetarianism is super alien to most Chinese people considering their recent history and that being able to eat meat is a sign of being in an okay place finally, so it’s hard to complain about all these frequent mishaps. But like, this was a young girl and I asked her so many times. Blah. I hate wasting food so I hope someone ate it in the back. They brought me a porkless one and it was really good so at least it was sort of worth it.
This delicious spinachy dish was translated on the menu as “Casual”. That’s it.
After dinner, we checked out another floor that had tons of ice cream vendors (still none for me in three months ughhh), donut vendors, drinks of all sorts, and of course bubble tea. We were surrounded! I ordered one and asked for bubbles to be added, as I always have to do because usually only the milk teas come with bubbles automatically. I learned the right words finally and everything. Of course, it came without bubbles. I have HAD IT with these M***F***ing kids giving me M***F****ing bobaless teas! I wasn’t having it anymore and I said, hey remember I asked for boba? And the boy said ‘yes but it doesn’t come with it so you can’t have it.’ I MEAN. Luckily someone else overheard and was like wtf is going on just put the damn bubbles in, it will not lead to the downfall of your (*cough* Taiwan’s *cough*) culture if you put bubbles in milkless teas.
Anyway.
The hotel had a pretty decent gym, with tons of treadmills, weight machines, free weights, and kettlebells, the first I’ve seen of those in any place in China. There was also a separate spinning room attached which is hilarious because it didn’t seem like they had any classes, just all the bikes set up as they would be in a class. Unfortunately, the staff members ‘working’ in the gym were beyond horrendous. Two young guys were chasing each other around the gym floor trying to pour water from paper cups onto each other the entire time I was on the treadmill. I kept looking back at them and being like WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU but they were too oblivious to notice my withering glare. Finally one of them left so the other finally just sat the crap down, but then this huge guy came in, went into the office inside the gym, and put on THE WORST music I’ve ever heard – slow, painful, and exceedingly loud. I asked the seated staffer if they could turn it down considering I had to cover my ears to breathe normally through it, and he shrugged and pointed to the guy as if to say ‘it’s his music.’ Remember that this huge guy putting the music on was not an employee. Seriously I need Sheraton Corporate to care that this was happening. I went up to the huge guy, who was starting to lift, and pointed to the office and the speakers and asked for him to turn it down. And you know what he did? He laughed at me. So I went right up in his face and SCREAMED “TURN THIS SHIT MUSIC DOWN BEFORE I TURN IT OFF FOR YOU YOU GODDAMN ASSHOLE.” He turned the music off. And then he did bicep curls with a freaking machine (so dumb) while making the loudest grunts I’ve ever heard at a gym and I just laughed thinking of what all the reddit fitness commenters would say about this jackwagon.
The hotel had a pretty decent gym, with tons of treadmills, weight machines, free weights, and kettlebells, the first I’ve seen of those in any place in China. There was also a separate spinning room attached which is hilarious because it didn’t seem like they had any classes, just all the bikes set up as they would be in a class. Unfortunately, the staff members ‘working’ in the gym were beyond horrendous. Two young guys were chasing each other around the gym floor trying to pour water from paper cups onto each other the entire time I was on the treadmill. I kept looking back at them and being like WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU but they were too oblivious to notice my withering glare. Finally one of them left so the other finally just sat the crap down, but then this huge guy came in, went into the office inside the gym, and put on THE WORST music I’ve ever heard – slow, painful, and exceedingly loud. I asked the seated staffer if they could turn it down considering I had to cover my ears to breathe normally through it, and he shrugged and pointed to the guy as if to say ‘it’s his music.’ Remember that this huge guy putting the music on was not an employee. Seriously I need Sheraton Corporate to care that this was happening. I went up to the huge guy, who was starting to lift, and pointed to the office and the speakers and asked for him to turn it down. And you know what he did? He laughed at me. So I went right up in his face and SCREAMED “TURN THIS SHIT MUSIC DOWN BEFORE I TURN IT OFF FOR YOU YOU GODDAMN ASSHOLE.” He turned the music off. And then he did bicep curls with a freaking machine (so dumb) while making the loudest grunts I’ve ever heard at a gym and I just laughed thinking of what all the reddit fitness commenters would say about this jackwagon.
in the Xinjiang Museum. Doesn’t “the mortals from the last millenium” sound like a creepy sci-fi film?
We were going to go to the big bazaar, but we read that it was pretty fake and just for tourists and it all sounded very annoying and unnecessary considering that our next destination, Kashgar, has an authentic and still amazing bazaar. So we didn’t. The one thing we did in Urumqi was the thing you really have to do when there, which is visit the big museum, called the Xinjiang Regional Museum (or the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum). Named for the whole region for a reason, it houses some of the most important archaeological and historical finds that weren’t shipped out of the country, including all those mummified corpses I mentioned in the Turpan post that they found there. They were REAL mummies, my goodness. It was a little sickening. The super dry climate in Turpan (slash all of Xinjiang) helped preserve so much detail – like, hair. And freaking eyelashes! There were 21 mummies, I think, in this museum, and they included men, women, and children – including an infant-sized mummy. It was very disturbing and upsetting to see. I think I am over dead bodies, okay?
The museum included exhibits on all the ethnic cultures living in the Xinjiang region, which happened to represent all of the places we had so far visited on this long journey – Russia and Siberia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and all the other stans. So my favorite parts of the museum were things that reminded me of our travels up to this point and pointed to our next destinations. like this look at Mongolian wrestlers that were NOT wearing the traditional wrestling uniform (speedo + feather boa) that we learned about in Naadam.
The museum included exhibits on all the ethnic cultures living in the Xinjiang region, which happened to represent all of the places we had so far visited on this long journey – Russia and Siberia, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and all the other stans. So my favorite parts of the museum were things that reminded me of our travels up to this point and pointed to our next destinations. like this look at Mongolian wrestlers that were NOT wearing the traditional wrestling uniform (speedo + feather boa) that we learned about in Naadam.
I also loved seeing a view from inside a ger/yurt that had an animal right in the doorway! Just like we saw in Mongolia! It feels like that was years ago!
And of course I have to take a picture whenever there’s a dog.
But the best was this look at traditional goings-on inside a house…in which the museum staff decided it was super appropriate and traditional for the girl to be wearing a sweatshirt that says “MATHLETE”?? We were crying. Whoooo decided that? Do they know how weird it is? The others are wearing non-ridiculous garb. I still can’t get over this.
WHAT WHY
As usual, the other visitors to the museum provided some entertainment as well. I still am a little scared of this girl’s shirt:
It says “until the tears run into your mouth”. why so cry?
I can’t even put into words the immediate dread I felt when I saw this huge crowd of little kids on a school field trip. I gasped, saying to Z, “OMG ARE THEY ALL LITTLE TRUMP SUPPORTERS?” I see red hats, I fear the worst. I guess all these little Chinese kids aren’t probably Trumpers, right? Just an easy way for the teachers to keep tabs on them?
only a small section of the Baby Trumpers
After the museum, we walked around the city a little, and I found my new favorite bubble tea place, called FlyJuice. It was the best tea – not too sweet! – and it came automatically with boba AND weird white jelly! The best!
We did some more wandering, found a grocery store, and then went back to the hotel to scout more of the restaurant floors. I had a weird noodle bowl that ended up being with sauerkraut and not just plain cabbage that isn’t worth sharing a picture of. But I will share a picture of my dessert, courtesy of Happy Lemon drink stand.
Yeah, I know, I am a monster! I had two bubble teas in one day! It made me so nauseous that it actually – can you believe – put me off bubble tea FOR GOOD. Well probably not for good, but I haven’t had any since and looking back at these pictures is making me nauseous again. End of an era, I know. I guess that’s the secret to beating this type of obsession – have so much of it that you never want it again. I said to Z, “I’m like the girl in The Joy Luck Club who ate too much strawberry ice cream and then never ate it again.” Z said “what.”
So, I know we didn’t do much, but that’s our time in Urumqi. It was just a regular old city with a good museum but not much else to recommend it for tourists. It was good though because we needed a bit of a rest before the last section of our trip when we hop from place to place extremely quickly. I leave you with the sign on the door to the train platform (which some of you saw on instagram) as we left Urumqi for Kashgar (the next post).
AND TELL MY WIFE I LOVE HER
Chengdu, China: Pandas! Spicy Food! Amazing Hotel! More Spicy Food!
I was so psyched for our four days in Chengdu. My excitement was 80% because of the pandas, 70% because Sichuan food is the best food in China (and beyond!), 50% because a big city promised to have lots of bubble tea, and 99% because we were staying in our fanciest hotel yet (how good am I at percentage totals) and after months of travel I am jonesing for some luxury (clean sheets, btw, is what I consider luxury now). Guess what suckers, it ALL delivered! And how! The bubble tea was everywhere, the food was amazing, the pandas were ADORBS, and the hotel was so best ever that I actually cried when we had to leave. I’m a mess of a dork. The only negative was that people/crowds/pushers/shovers are getting on our last nerve and it’s getting old and exhausting for us to deal with. But other than that Chengdu was a great time. Maybe because we spent most of the time in the hotel. Worth it.
When we arrived after the previous sleeper from hell, we took a subway from the station to the area of our hotel, the Fraser Suites. It was rough, with our bags, trying to fight for space on the crowded mess of a subway. Oh p.s., all the subways in China are identical. They were all built standard issue by the government or something because seriously, same same. It’s helpful for figuring out how to use them. Anyway, so we were sweaty and smelly and tired but we finally got to the Fraser Suites at 3pm. We were so excited to finally have customer service in China that was at least as good as it is in England (because England’s is bad, but China’s is worse). Nooope. Why would we ever think that would happen here! The staff said our room wasn’t ready, even though check-in was over an hour before we arrived. So, unacceptable. She said to wait 20 minutes or so and I said UNACCEPTABLE. No I just pointed out that we were past check-in and there’s no reason the room shouldn’t be ready and it’s a giant place and they must have another room ready and do you see how dirty I am I need to shower! Someone else overheard and was like jfc give these people a different room we have so many! So yay, we went up to an identical room, so they say, and it was gloooooorious. I almost don’t care that they acted like they didn’t know who I was (DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM) because this hotel room was the shizz. Actually, it’s more of an apartment. And I would be happy to live there. There was a big kitchen with all the appliances you’d need – oven, stove, full-sized fridge and freezer, and a freaking blender and food processor.
But they weren’t even the best part! Guys looooook:
I WUV YOU WOBOT
A LAUNDRY MACHINE! I could wash my things every day! I could wash twice a day! Who’s gonna stop me! We did indeed do laundry every day, after we washed literally everything in our packs. It was beautiful. It was an England-style combo washer-dryer in the same machine, which my fellow UK-dwellers will know don’t dry AT ALL. But guess what suckers, of course the Fraser Suites one actually dried and like a dreeeeam! I was so happy.
There were also so many closets that I unpacked literally everything and stored my empty bag in its own closet by the front door, along with our shoes lined up on a hidden rack below it. I mean. It’s like fancy Ikea with all the compartments.
giant hall closet bigger than any in any apartment i’ve had.
From the open plan kitchen you could view the big living room, with a big comfy couch that had the section on the end that you can lay down on (what’s that called), a big TV THAT GOT HBO, and a nice desk for baby laptop.
The bedroom was gorgeous and the pillows were maybe the best ever. Big fluffy pillows are my favorite and I fancy myself a connoisseur and I think these were the best. I am gonna cry again thinking about them. There was also a button by the bed that closed the thin curtains, and another button that closed the heavy blackout drapes across the giant window wall. I know. I thought that was just something they made up for Cameron Diaz’s house in The Holiday. There was also a big TV on the wall. HBO in bed.
On the way to the big clean bathroom was a big closet area with full closets on both sides of the walkway (where I unpacked all my shit), a safe, and two big robes hanging. Erma. And slippers! The bathroom had a big tub and a separate shower, a good sink area with a hairdryer and a light-up makeup mirror, soooo many drawers and cabinets (I also unpacked all my toiletries), good little hotel toiletries including, finally, body lotion (I’m out!), and…………a television in the tub. I didn’t take a picture of it because I didn’t want to spook it and have it disappear. Guys. I was never leaving. I mean I did leave and we did stuff but come one. It was heaven.
There was also one of the best hotel gyms ever. It wasn’t quite up to the Kempinski gym in Ulaan Baatar, because there they had water bottles fully stocked in a fridge and here they just had a big cooler of not cold water with plastic cups, but otherwise, it was wonderful. Oh man. Oh and guess what, there are gym bros in China too just like everywhere else that I have to yell at for being all gym bro-ey (like bringing bose speakers to play their music for the entire gym WHO DOES THAT.)
hi gym!
Attached to the gym was a separate ‘yoga room’. I know, this is getting ridiculous. There wasn’t a lot of floor space in the main gym (so many machines!) so I brought what I needed into the yoga room often and had it to myself. It was amazing.
Down the hall on this floor were separate men’s and women’s locker rooms. Inside the locker rooms were the usual lockers, toilets, sinks, showers (with shampoo and hairdryers omg), but then around the bend was, I shit you not, a hot dip pool, a cool dip pool, a dry sauna AND a steam room. I mean I guess the only drawback was that Z and I couldn’t do the sauna-steam-hot tub-cold tub-repeat-repeat-repeat together but we barely cared. This was ridiculous. You operated the sauna and steam yourselves and each time I used it I was the only one in there. So I made it really hot and they quickly regretted it. Do it on the normal temperature.
After the sauna area of both locker rooms, there are doors to the big swimming pool. It was a very nice pool, but the lifeguard makes everyone wear swim caps which is gross because ew sharing hair things and ALSO I have more hair and a giant head compared to Chinese people and it was so uncomfortable. Did I care that much? No, have you heard about this hotel?! It’s AMAZING. The ceiling of it was set up like a starry night – not Starry Night, but a night sky full of stars that ACTUALLY TWINKLED.
Photo taken from the Fraser Suites official website
One day we were exploring a different communal floor and found a billiards room, a ping pong table, and the funniest thing ever, a giant room just filled with massage chairs. They were pretty old models but still we spent at least an hour trying all the settings. It was so f-ing hilarious. Who just has a random room full of massage chairs.
I know I am talking so g-d much about this hotel and I know it is ridiculous. But compare this to most of where we’ve been sleeping all summer! I’ve never stayed quite in a place like this (and it was under $100 a night! That’s amazing for what it is). To make everything even more amazing, one afternoon my favorite movie ever, “You’ve Got Mail”, was on HBO. I did not go outside that day. Oh no I did – there was a mall across the street with a Carrefour grocery store and several bubble tea shops. So I of course had bubble tea every day. And I found some good Carrefour treats, including the first sighting of pretzels since Russia. I almost cried. Oh what am I trying to hide, obviously I cried.
I also made good use of the kitchen and made a smoothie with watermelon and cucumber I bought. The watermelon in China is wonderful; the raw leafy greens in the produce section, not so much, so I stuck to something I could peel the gross off of.
Even better, I froze a bunch of bananas in order to make banana whip in the food processor. I used the only vegan soy milk I’ve found so far in all of China (so f-ing weird, stop adding milk powder to your soy milk!) and a lot of peanut butter, and it was perfection! I haven’t been able to find vegan ice cream in months so this was the biggest treat.
doesn’t it look amazing
Okay that’s enough about the hotel. Oh no I must share I took a bubble bath for the first time in like a decade at least and watched HBO in the tub during it. Okay now I’m done. I know what you’re here for, and it’s not to watch me cry as I reminisce about this amazing hotel that aside from some weird pipe smells was the best ever.
You’re here for pandas.
You’re here for pandas.
PANDA BUTTS
The #1 thing to do in Chengdu is to visit the panda sanctuary, the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. It’s only about a half hour ride outside the city, and there are public buses that go there but a taxi (using the meter) cost us only 48 RMB or something like that, which is like $7. The place opens at 8:30am, I think, and you are supposed to go early so you see them playing instead of sleeping, which they do when it’s too hot in the afternoon. We left the hotel before 7:30, and it was pretty hopping at 8am. Definitely don’t wait any longer to arrive, because hour by hour you could actually feel the crowds increasing. By the time we left, it still wasn’t even noon but the pathways were crammed.
The insane crowds – full of pushing and shoving and knocking your camera away so they could put theirs in front of your face for the better view that you actually waited for – were the worst part, and we were super frustrated and upset about them. But I’m sharing that negative bit first because aside from that (that’s all of China, really), this was amazing! I SAW PANDAS! They were PLAYING with each other and fake-fighting like doggies do and it was the cutest! We saw giant panda adults, giant panda cubs, newborns, red pandas of all sizes. All were amazing.
panda here panda there panda panda everywhere
The grounds are enormous, and once you enter after buying tickets (which were less than we thought considering it’s the #1 thing (but I don’t remember exactly sorry)) you’ll see a very long line for a little golf-cartish bus that will shuttle people up towards the panda habitats. This is great for people who are less mobile, but if you have no problem walking all morning, it’s much better to walk everywhere and choose your own adventure. There are signs everywhere saying ‘this way to the giant adult pandas #1a, this way to 1b, this way to 2nd, this way to the red panda A, this way to red panda Z4’ – the labeling of the various areas is very confusing and without explanation (I guess this is where privately hired guides can help navigate), but I think we just followed our hearts and saw all of them in a random order depending on what felt right. And we had SUCH good luck! We saw these three adults playing in one B section. Well two are playing, the third is just chilling nearby and making a total ‘guys, let me be, alright?’ face.
wheeee
One giant panda was HILARIOUS, laying down while he ate all his sticks of bamboo with the biggest smile on his face. I mean, of course he was smiling, he was eating his favorite food while laying down. It doesn’t get better.
We also walked to the red panda habitats and were OBSESSED. They were so flipping cute. We so lucked out and arrived at the same time as a staff member there to feed them (about 9:30, I think). She opened the gate and went into the woods area with a bucket of squash and apples (they eat like me!). One skittish reddy ran into the woods, scared of her I guess (poor little thing!), but the others were PUMPED for food and ran over. So pumped, in fact, that this amazing little guy stood up to say to her hurry up and gimme my food!
How cute is he?
And all the others!
<3
how cute
After we walked for hours to all the various habitats, we happened upon an extremely long line. Oh wow it was so long. Z got in it while I searched for a toilet – it was kind of far, and that long was just as long as the other one, of course, because no one designs a women’s bathroom adequately anywhere in the world. When we finally made it through the attraction line, we saw that it was for the ‘mother and panda’ nursey or something. We were shuffled through single file (that was quite the experience; Chinese people do not do single file willingly and I had to yell at SO MANY PEOPLE) past nursery windows, one of which had the tiniest baby panda in an incubator.
So, it was at this point in our experience that I suddenly thought, is this place actually a zoo? Or at least, zoo-like? Considering that thousands of people per day were staring at this baby, and getting kind of close to all these animals, it seemed very zooey and not the good Deschanel kind. Sure the pandas had tons of room and seemingly endless woods, no cages or confines that we could see, but still, all these people staring…it feels weird. I realized I did not do enough research into this. The institute mostly bills itself as for preservation and conservation of the endangered pandas, and a place to get them to breed more, but still I don’t really know for sure. I tried looking into it and found positive information about how it’s really the top institute for saving the pandas from extinction and trying to increase their numbers in the face of that. But, it’s hard to tell whether that is truth or whether it is government controlled propaganda. I think, overall, the pandas are well taken care of, and they are in trouble and this place helps to protect and preserve them, so I really hope it’s true. If anyone knows more please let me know.
Accepting that I went, though, it was the best ever. I loved seeing the pandas acting like total adorable goofballs as they played with their friends. Like I said, they seem well taken care of and not in enclosed spaces, but I think it would be beneficial (to all) if they had timed entry to thin out the crowds. It can’t feel normal to have that many people staring at you. But yes, I was one of them. I smiled at them though! I didn’t shout like others! Okay that’s no excuse. But look how cute.
wheeee i’m in a tree
The best thing about the pandas is, well it’s seeing them and it’s amazing oh my god. The next best nonrelated thing is that if you go when you’re supposed to, you miss the insane afternoon crowds and you are done with the #1 activity in Chengdu before noon that day! So we had a whole afternoon of swimming and sauna and HBO and laying on pillows. It was the best day.
We walked through one of the air conditioned enclosures and this little guy was chilling in there! There’s glass separating us of course
What else did we do in Chengdu besides see the pandas and be complete lazybones with the cleanest clothes? We Sichuan fooded so damn hard! HappyCow was full of great-sounding places, so many in fact that we didn’t even make a dent in the list. First, we tried the Yusuge Garden Vegan Vegetarian Restaurant that was only a 20 minute walk from our hotel (and through a very popular area that had bubble tea shops and smoothie places and crazy looking street food stalls on every single block). It was another all-vegan buffet that was stupid cheap (36 rmb, or just over $5). It’s located on the fourth floor of a building across from the big Kowloon Plaza. The food wasn’t as fantastic as some other buffets, but it was better than some others, so definitely of decent quality. The selection was more limited with maybe 15 dishes, but that’s still a lot of food when you can eat everything! (Except the bitter melon rounds. Bitter melon is GROSS!) It wasn’t mind-blowing but it was still RG!
London needs more cheap af vegan buffets
listen buffet plates are NEVER GOING TO BE PRETTY
Above is part of the dessert-y section. On the left side is an interesting sticky rice thing with lots of steamed pumpkin on it. The pumpkin should have been flavored or sweetened at least, but still interesting. But the big winner here is that they had little CUPCAKES! Do you see on the far right?! The cake was fine but the icing was AMAZING. Oh man. (I put one in my bag for later shhh.)
This was our view from our dinner table at Yusuge. The ad across the street reads, “I’m proud of my stubborn/I sing loudly in the wind” YASSS
One day we ventured down south for a long walk through the city and saw Sichuan University, the very generic name of which made us make constant jokes about Bovine University. We ate at a vegetarian place nearby.
when I grow up I”m going to Sichuan University!
I wanna go back to school
Lotus Vegetarian was not worth the trek, but if you are in the area, it’s good. We had a mixed bag – two lackluster dishes but two great ones. There were dumplings that were just okay, ‘assorted broccoli’ that was mostly cauliflower and came in a weird goo sauce that wasn’t good (and these were my necessary veggies! sigh), but then a fun random fake meat dish over super spicy cold cucumber (surprise veggies! thanks!), and fantastic dandan noodles, which we had been searching for forever at every vegetarian restaurant. Gotta have dandan when in Sichuan! So, two good dishes, two meh, and we finally got dandan, so overall it was a win. It’s the only thing in that area, I think, so it’s good if you’re there, but there’s better food to be had elsewhere in Chengdu.
Like my favorite restaurant in the entire city, Jujubeetree Vegetarian Lifestyle. We were shocked at how good this place was. It was sit-down and fancy looking yet not expensive like all the non-buffet vegetarian restaurants are.
We got enough food that I had leftovers (yayyy for a fridge and the ability to reheat!) and I went back another day for a shitload of takeout (yay again for the same things!). We had the bean curd and vegetable salad, which was beautiful. The taste was mild but with a bit of the Sichuan numbing pepper, plus peanuts. It was refreshing, with raw carrots and sprouts and various shredded green things. So good.
I also got – you already guessed, didn’t you? Because if it’s on the menu when I’m traveling in places where it’s not common, I get it even if I don’t want it. But I always want it! Anyway I’m obviously talking about a green salad, this time with carrots, tomatoes, radish, quinoa (vegetarian restaurant salads are the only places we’ve seen quinoa in the whole country), and really good strips of cooked pumpkin, in a delicious dressing. It was ENORMOUS too, so I was so happy.
Because the salad was so big, I got to take most of the other dishes home for the next day (yebop!!!). My main dish was astounding. Reviews online told me to get the pepper steak, or the sweet and sour rib dish, but neither was calling to me. Instead, I pointed to a menu entry that said ‘bean curd pudding and meatballs’. I mean. I don’t know WHY ON EARTH I would order something that sounded so revolting, but some force took hold of my finger when the waiter arrived and moved it Ouija board style over that item and made me say ‘and this.’ Well, whatever Chinese magic that was, I need more of it in my life, because this dish was one of the best I had in China.
It was a GIGANTIC pot of chili oil-soupy goodness over an open flame with incredible-textured meatballs, lots of various mushrooms, green peppers, red peppers, and pillows of soft homemade tofu, like dumplings of tofu that had been cooked in the simmering broth. It was EPIC. We were both shocked by how great it was. I mean, that name! No way! Everything was super spicy, just like we wanted, and this was the spiciest of all. Erma. So incredible.
We also needed a dumpling style dish because they were on the menu and I was there, and we eagerly decided on a variation on our theme – because this menu had WONTONS. I don’t really know what the difference is between wontons and dumplings except that wontons seem to have a little more skin folded around it (gentiles?) but who cares, these were incredible. They were filled with mushroom and cabbage and came in a bowl of chili oil (as usual!) and we were fighting over the last one. So good!!
Lastly we ordered the char siu pastry, which I’ve never had because it is usually filled with a pulled pork kind of thing, but yay for a vegetarian version! The pork filling was good, kind of sweet and it was clearly meant as a dessert version because it came out after everything else. I would have preferred a more savory version because I don’t really like flaky, buttery crust pastries (I know I know) but I could still tell that this was a quality dish and luckily Z is not crazy and enjoys delicious things.
We obviously went back, one afternoon when we were in the area, and I got even more food to take home (home, sigh, it was like a home). I did get that recommended pepper steak, which was good, but cost twice as much as the other mains, which I don’t understand, and the only veggies inside were red and green peppers, which I don’t love, and big chunks of them, so there was no way of hiding the taste with other stuff in the same bite. The actual steak was great though, with a really impressive pull-apart layered texture.
y’all ready for some tupperware pictureeeees
I got an order of sword beans, which I love, like slightly fatter green beans in a strong sauce, but not spicy – like the only non-spicy thing we ate all week, so it was like a delicious palate cleanser. They had bits of fried all over that was so good. I don’t know fried what, just fried.
I also got a huge order of this amazing sauteed cauliflower that we’ve seen and eaten all over China (this is how you do cauliflower!) that came with ‘streaky pork’, which I thought was a typo on ‘steaky’ because I don’t know meat things but Z said they mean it to be like bacon-ish. It was a delicious dish.
But the last one was my favorite, and I think it was my favorite noodle dish in all of China, which is a huuuuge thing to say. It was ‘double color spinach juice noodles’, so the noodles were green I guess from spinach juice! Immediately I’m onboard. They were covered in a spicy meaty sauce kind of like a Sichuan bolognese and then a milder but even more delicious lighter creamier sauce. It was incredible. These may have been the restaurant’s take on dandan, I can’t really tell, but it was amazing. Oh man I wish I could have more of these.
Aside from all this vegetarian Sichuan food, we had an obligatory ah-I’m-so-sick-of-Chinese-food moment one afternoon and chanced upon an incredible hole-in-the-wall Mexican place that was actually better than any Mexican food there is in London. I KNOW! It was called Good Good Mexican Grill and it was good good and there were non-Chinese people running it, which makes sense. Z had a quesadilla that he said was awesome and we shared these nachos and guacamole. GUAC GUYS.
Good Good was on the same block as 88 Vegetative Lifestyle Store, a veggie restaurant on HappyCow that has changed its menu since people last reviewed it and the new menu is NOT GOOD so (like random Western dishes like lasagna, and no good looking Chinese dishes) so we left
One day in search of our bank, we took a nice stroll along the river. It was great to have almost no one around us for a change.
As usual, we saw some great signage, like this dental clinic.
YOU ONLY GET 18 NO MORE
One of my favorite things is that we keep seeing shops that apparently want to be New Balance shops, but…aren’t.
Also this sounds like the worst art gallery EVER:
the only thing worse than elementary school art is elementary school plays
One night on the subway I saw a girl in a t-shirt that read “If I was a bird, I’d know who to shit on.” I MEAN. AMAZING.
So, yes, we mainly used our time in Chengdu to eat and laze around our amazing digs. And we saw pandas. It was the best week.
oh man I wish it was quiet anywhere
