Beijing, China: Give Me All Your Dumplings and Also All The Other Foodby Randi / August 6, 2017
Time for a confession: I must admit that Z is the one that planned this trip. Doing the Trans-Siberian was always his dream, and it was his planning that created our route doing the Trans-Mongolian version of that, then touring China, then going back to London via the Silk Route. Literally all I was responsible for this summer was figuring out our one day visit to the Great Wall, which you most commonly access with a day trip from Beijing. That’s all I was doing, really. I decided I wanted to do the hike from Jinshanling to Simitai, a 6 or so hour hike that seemed challenging (yay activity!) but also beautiful, and not absolutely covered with tourists like some other sections. Yay, I made a decision! Go me!
Jinshanling is currently closed.
It’s hard to find information when all the internetting results are in a language you don’t speak, so we didn’t really know until we got to Beijing that we needed a new plan. Simitai itself in another direction was an option, but it’s the less beautiful, more treacherous/wild of the two, so it didn’t call to me. There were a couple other wild sections we could have gone to, but we aren’t expert hikers enough to deal with dangerous segments, and the more wild sections are at least a 3 hour drive away, and we didn’t want to waste yet more of our time driving after Mongolia. And Badaling was never an option – it’s the closest, yes, and it’s beautiful, but it’s the most touristed. It’s like Forbidden City levels of people, but on the Wall, when it’s even more important to get unobstructed views. We decided on Mutianyu, a good mix of all positives – gorgeous scenery, mainly paved with only a bit that’s wild, not toooo far (like 2 hours), popular but not crowded. There’s also a cable car you can take up to save time from climbing the 1000 steps or whatever it is, and a toboggan slide you can take down. Yesss. We booked our bus with the asshat who has a table in the 161 Wanfujing Hotel, that I talked about in the Beijing city post, and it was pretty reasonable price for the two of us to get picked up at the hotel by bus (giant bus instead of minibus like the guy told us, ugh), get a giant lunch (was good too!), and have a guide explain stuff to us. Not having to deal with the public buses going there was worth it. AND the bus made a lot of toilet stops on the way out, so that was good.
took forever to get a picture that wasn’t full of posing people
We packed my day backpack full of water, coconut water, bananas, pretzels, and random vegetarian meat jerky and other fun snacks and set off at 7:30am. Because it was a big bus, we made stops at other hostels to pick up as many people as possible before starting the real the drive – which wasn’t that bad, except for the super annoying Americans sitting around us who were like ‘totally finding themselves’ and also liked to talk about all the weird meats they’d eaten. ORIGINAL. Anyway, once we arrived at Mutianyu, we bought tickets for the cable car, which are 40 RMB for a return journey, if I recall correctly. We wanted to walk up the 1000 steps to get to the wall (we love climbing stairs!), but we were told that that would take almost half the time we had for the entire day’s exploration, and we would much rather use that time to go farther along the wall to the wild section, which we did, than just climb stairs with no view. Smart decision. The cable car was kind of long and rickety but they always seem longer and ricketier than they are to me. Scary! But fun! We wanted to buy tickets to take the toboggan slide down (I mean come on of course we did, is it a luge???) but they had closed the slideway because it was going to rain later. Boooo.
My disappointment at the slideway closure vanished when we got off the cable car at the top and made our way onto the main part of the wall. Guys, it really is Great. More than great, it’s one of the most spectacular things I’ve ever seen. Better than I could have expected just seeing pictures. It’s amazing, and even high expectations could not hold a candle to the real thing. Even just realizing that you’re here, on the real Great Wall of China, is the coolest feeling.
We met an Australian mother and daughter and became friends and did most of the hiking with them. The daughter was literally the Aussie version of me, down to the same thick frizzy long brown hair in a braid that tended to the left side. They were so nice and we enjoyed huffing and puffing alongside them. Mutianyu is no joke of a hike, people. There’s one section that is another 1000 stairs (maybe not really but felt like it, at least 100s), just going straight up, and other stair sections with super steep scrambly bits that you need to use your hands for too.
this section of steps was SO steep and they were sooo small
that’s not me
We went farther than most people ventured so we could see the wild, untamed section, the part that is mostly forest overgrowth on some old stone path instead of the solid path.
wild section begins
It was cool to see but not much fun to climb on because I was too busy maneuvering my footing and trying not to fall to enjoy the scenery. Still, that was only a small percentage of our hike. Most of it looked like this:
So flinging flanging gorgeous! Ugh it was amazing, it really was. It was much more difficult that I expected, with the heat and the steep steps and stuff, but it was so much fun. And to be really at the Great Wall itself was so special. You can’t actually see it from space, apparently, but it’s cooler than space is. I don’t like space.
We saw some amazing shirts on the wall, continuing one of China’s best trends for our amusement. And we saw a lot of kids – Mutianyu is apparently good for families, they say – including these adorable girls doing a jumping shot:
Do you see the one’s shirt? It says “mermazing”. I want it.
Not only shirts, but the signage on the wall itself was also amusing. Whyyyy is there a travel ban in this most famous tourist spot?
The only negative about this section is that there is only a bathroom at the cable car entrance point at tower 14 of the 26 that compose Mutianyu. So we got off at tower 14, hiked to 24 ish where it became wild, then went as far into the wild as we could given the time and the, well, wildness of it. Then we went all the way back down to 14 and then past it to see the preteen towers (more of the same, all beautiful), and there was only a toilet at 14, that whoooole time. That’s hours! Now I wouldn’t want them to change this historic monument by building facilities where they don’t necessarily belong, but, like, maybe I do. Just one little toilet in say tower 20 would be amaazing, k thanks.
Aside from that, it was the best experience. I could not get over how magnificent it all was and how special it was to be there. It was by far the biggest highlight of our summer so far.
Aside from that, it was the best experience. I could not get over how magnificent it all was and how special it was to be there. It was by far the biggest highlight of our summer so far.
don’t mind the super sweaty mess
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Irkutsk, Siberia: Short Stay In A Whatever Town
After the three days of train of the last post, during which I went just a little batty (silly spoiled me judging the Russian trains so harshly so the universe decided to teach me a lesson because I had NO idea what was coming with the Chinese trains), we landed in Irkutsk. We were truly in the heart of Siberia now, spending one day in Irkutsk before bussing up to Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal, promised to be an idyllic, beautiful site and the time we get to relax. Lol.
IRKUTSK
guess who
We were so antsy from our long train that we just wanted to walk around the city all day. Well, shower, and then walk around the city all day. We walked to our hostel, Baikaler, which was about 30 minutes walk, which seemed fine when we were deciding to do it, but then after like 10 minutes in the heat with our packs and not having slept well for 3 nights, well it wasn’t the greatest idea we ever had. The Baikaler hostel was a little hard to find, with the door around the back of the street in like an alley, and then up three flights of stairs. It’s a tiny place, with only like 10 beds and one private room (ours thank goodness), and no real common area. There was a tiny couch right at the front door, but that whole front area was the size of a bathroom and filled with everyone’s shoes and all the luggage being left by people checking out that day so it was cramped. Also, there was only one toilet and one shower for the whole place. Luckily we got to shower within the hour because we’ve never been so disgusting. But a toilet line at night is not my idea of fun.
don’t know what anything is
After we were clean, we went out into the city and immediately got dirty again because the air quality is much, much worse. Walking around Irkutsk, I actually had trouble breathing, like I had asthma. It was really bad, probably because the cars are all of lower quality and producing the most incredibly toxic emissions you’ve ever seen. All over Siberia we noticed this, how obviously awful the air pollution was. Sucks. We went into the very first cafe we saw for First Real Meal in Days, called Baikal Love Sit & Eat Cafe. They were out of the things on the menu that seemed vegetarian but the lady was nice and made me a (nother) tomato and cucumber salad as well as a plate of rice and peas that was quite good. I didn’t take pictures because I was just so excited to eat, even though it was my approximately one millionth cucumber tomato salad.
Touristing in Irkutsk
After fooding, we walked to see two Decembrists house museums. The Decembrists were a group who made an uprising in Russian government in 1825 and were so successful that they became a pretty popular indie rock band. See, we didn’t really learn much about them because, despite two museums here and more we saw later in other places, every exhibit on Decembrists refuses to talk about what they actually did politically. All they talk about instead is how they dealt with their exile to Siberia and what they made of their lives in exile with families and stuff. Seriously, it’s almost like they aren’t allowed to talk about it? It’s so obvious that they are all missing a huge part of the story and like, that can’t be an accident. So I looked it up. They were protesting Tsar Nicholas I’s assumption to the throne after his elder brother removed himself from succession. I mean it sounds like that’s perfectly fine; if you are accepting monarchy and bloodlines of men who you give the power to rule you then why wouldn’t the younger brother get to go if the older brother says nah? Isn’t Harry going to be my King if Wills turns it down? Oh no that little pistol George goes before Harry now! But he’s a baby! He can’t even read! I don’t want a King who can’t even read!
The two museums operated on a joint ticket that gave a slight discount so we did both – the Trubetskoy and the Volkonsky Museum. I think I liked the Volkonsky one better but it could be because we went there first when I still had the mental ability to lie to myself about having any semblance of energy. That ended quickly. We weren’t sure if we could take pictures – the museum attendant literally followed us room to room and guided us into the next when we seemed done with each one (soo awkward, and more of that to come, we learned) but we snuck a few pictures:
one of the house museums, Volkonsky I think
old prince volkonsky is crazy |
and mary is plain |
andrey’s family |
totally messed up |
And Balaga’s just for fun!
BALAGA’S JUST FOR FUN!
We magically walked by a cafe afterwards that had fresh juices and smoothies. I totally wanted a watermelon juice! I watched as the girl picked up a small whole watermelon and cut it and put some of it in a blender and I was like yesss it’s just watermelon this is amaaazing. I loved it! I didn’t take a picture but I got a picture of the menu. Such a lucky find as I started crashing. It didn’t help a great deal (it’s mostly water!) but at least was yummy. They had smoothies and milkshakes too, so Husband got a milkshake. They had chocolate, banana, and ‘plain’, and we asked ‘so is plain just vanilla?’ and the staffers looked at us like we had 3 heads and were like ‘…no, it means it’s plain…’ Husband ordered it and I was like of course it just means it will be vanilla, we just don’t know the right word for it? But no it wasn’t vanilla. It was plain. Unidentifiable but unmistakable just ‘plain’ flavor.
For the next few hours, we walked around Irkutsk’s main street, which is pretty whatever, trying to decide what to do. I couldn’t contribute to the conversation because I was so tired. No, I wasn’t just tired, not just that sleepy feeling you get late at night when you’re like oh I could really sleep right now! Not that. I wasn’t just tired, I was exhausted. I wasn’t like oh I need sleep, I was like oh my body is breaking down worse than Trina in “Falsettos” in the one part of “Falsettos” that I completely enjoyed. I was that kind of exhausted that celebrities pretend they have when they end up in the hospital. My everything hurt. I could feel that my heart was tired and was like pleeeease sleeeep dumb person whose body I’m in! But there was no sleep to be had. (No sleep till London in October, I fear. At least not the kind I need.)
one nice building in Irkutsk
There was a decent 24-yaca supermarket on the main road that we went to for supplies. Oh I don’t think I’ve shared this yet: Everything that is open 24 hours says on its awning “24 yaca” well it doesn’t say yaca it says the Russian word for hours that pretty much looks like that, and is pronounced chassa. It ends in an ‘a’ only because 24 ends in 4 and you use the ‘a’ ending for numbers ending in 2,3, and 4, and a different ending for ‘1’s and a different ending for numbers ending in numbers 5 and up. ISN’T RUSSIAN FUN. Anyway, in St. Petersburg and Moscow, we would get excited every time we would see a ’24 yaca’ sign thinking it was a minimarket or bodega where we could get a bottle of water, because that seemed like what most of the ’24 yaca’ places were. But guess what, they are mostly banks. THERE ARE SO MANY BANKS, in every city, and they are all 24 yaca! You can’t give me water! But guess what even more? In St. Pete’s and Moscow, the MOST prevalent 24 yaca places were FLOWER SHOPS. Every corner had more all night flower sellers than they had markets, coffee shops, even banks. It was ridiculous! Who is buying all these flowers at 4am?? My god.
Anyway anyway, the supermarket in Irkutsk that we went to had more carrot and yuba (tofu skin) salad, so I got some of that for the next day. Soo yummy. I’m sad I won’t find any more of that for a while. We stocked up on some beans, bread, and peanut butter (yassss finally) and of course waters before searching for a dinner place, kind of early so we could go the hell to sleep. We looked around at a few lackluster menus before deciding on an Italian place called Prego (Prego mille!). We actually weren’t looking for a change from Russian food, but for such a small boring city it was weirdly international and it was super hard to find just a Russian restaurant. In a 20 minute review of the main street, we found a Belgian place, a Japanese, a Chinese, another Japanese, two Italian, an Indian restaurant, 18 ice cream carts, 4 coffee shops, 3 Subways (they’re everywhere, still don’t want it), and one Russian cafeteria that looked suuuper dodgy. At Prego, they had a decent looking green salad (with lettuce! not just cucumber and tomato – though of course they were in it too), and a very good little plate of eggplant caponata. The best part was that the salad came on big pieces of flatbread, lol. My favorite combo!
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So, our time in Irkutsk was pretty tame. A few small-scale meals, a few tourist attractions, a lot of crankiness. We would be back at the end of the week for another afternoon, during which we pretty much just ate and bought more water at the supermarket; I’ll include that meal at the end of my next post. It’s a small town, and people really only go because they need a break on the Trans-Siberian and Irkutsk is the jumping off point (to start negotiations) to get to little villages on Lake Baikal. The next morning, we would leave for one of the most lauded of these villages (and one of the hardest to reach), Olkhon Island. We considered its remoteness at first romantic, promising some solitary, far-from-other-people peace and tranquility and beauty. And with that, I give you my final LOL of this post.
Zagreb Vegan Scene: The Art of Raw
The view from our table at The Art of Raw. Fance.
The Art of Raw Food is a food club and restaurant in Zagreb that lays claim to being the only 100% raw vegan restaurant in Europe. IN EUROPE! That’s a pretty good claim to fame in itself, but now it can also say it was my favorite restaurant so far in Europe, period.
Maybe I’m inordinately impressed by raw food, maybe I was in awe of the owner’s previous, long-term experience at the famous & fancy Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia. Or maybe it was just incredible food, with incredible attention paid to everything. All of these considerations made this experience one of my all-time favorites.
Several weeks before my trip, I emailed Darko, who co-owns the establishment with his wife, to reserve a table. You must do this in advance, as it is more of a club than a restaurant. (When we paid the check, we got membership cards. You can bet I’m looking forward to using that again.) Saturday hours were only 12pm-6pm, so I booked us for lunch as soon as they opened.
The restaurant was a little tricky to find. It’s on the third floor in an apartment building, and you have to check the little name plates at the door to buzz in. Once inside, I loved the place. It felt like a shabby chic home, with the kitchen out in the open in the front room, and two comfortable, airy dining rooms off to the side. We were the first customers and chose a lovely table right in front of the open terrace.
Darko and his wife, Lena, own and run the place. Lena was also our server. They were both so kind and friendly. We talked a lot, especially with Darko about Philadelphia and raw restaurants in the USA.
Once we sat down, they brought a dish of cherries. If you haven’t heard, Zagreb is lousy with the stuff. No, seriously, the cherries I had in Croatia are the best I’ve ever had, so we devoured these quickly.
The restaurant was a little tricky to find. It’s on the third floor in an apartment building, and you have to check the little name plates at the door to buzz in. Once inside, I loved the place. It felt like a shabby chic home, with the kitchen out in the open in the front room, and two comfortable, airy dining rooms off to the side. We were the first customers and chose a lovely table right in front of the open terrace.
Darko and his wife, Lena, own and run the place. Lena was also our server. They were both so kind and friendly. We talked a lot, especially with Darko about Philadelphia and raw restaurants in the USA.
Once we sat down, they brought a dish of cherries. If you haven’t heard, Zagreb is lousy with the stuff. No, seriously, the cherries I had in Croatia are the best I’ve ever had, so we devoured these quickly.
Mmm, juice. I mean mmm, noodle juice.
To start (and to get my fill of vegetables before moving on to Bosnia), my boyfriend and I both ordered juices. I had spinach, cucumber, lemon, and mint juice, while my boyfriend had pineapple, mint, and lemon. Both were great, although I’m used to ordering my 24-36 oz. green juices and so finished mine way too fast.
Lena also brought us a dish of fig carpaccio. This blew my mind. Thinly sliced fresh figs, covered in olive oil and salt and pepper. They did not taste like any figs I’ve ever had. Who would have thought of doing this? The oil and salt really softened the figs and they fell apart easily. The usually sweet figs were now savory and they were just wonderful. I love when novel but really simple concepts succeed with flying colors.
Lena also brought us a dish of fig carpaccio. This blew my mind. Thinly sliced fresh figs, covered in olive oil and salt and pepper. They did not taste like any figs I’ve ever had. Who would have thought of doing this? The oil and salt really softened the figs and they fell apart easily. The usually sweet figs were now savory and they were just wonderful. I love when novel but really simple concepts succeed with flying colors.
Fig carpaccio
Stuffed mushrooms
For our first ordered course, we chose the stuffed mushrooms and the sushi. The mushrooms were stuffed with a tomato sauce and a dollop of cream, which melded nicely. They tasted great, but weren’t mind-blowingly different from other stuffed mushrooms I’ve had.
Raw sushi, omg
The sushi, on the other hand? Mind blowing. I fancy myself an amateur vegan sushi connoisseur, and I’ll never pass up the opportunity to have it. This was one of my favorites.
Just look at that detail! So many vegetables are stuffed in there. The sushi I’ve had recently (and frequently) in NYC is amazing but heavy, stuffed with fried tofu and grilled mushrooms and covered in heavy creamy sauces. This raw sushi was light and delicious and a welcome change of pace. I just loved it.
Just look at that detail! So many vegetables are stuffed in there. The sushi I’ve had recently (and frequently) in NYC is amazing but heavy, stuffed with fried tofu and grilled mushrooms and covered in heavy creamy sauces. This raw sushi was light and delicious and a welcome change of pace. I just loved it.
Raw Pad Thai
For our entrées, we ordered the pad thai and the empanadas. I would recommend both of these dishes. Surprisingly, this raw pad thai was the first pad thai I’ve ever truly enjoyed. Cooked (authentic) pad thai always leaves me feeling meh. Perhaps it was because this raw version had to focus on really selling the flavors, rather than relying on greasy fried components. Whatever it was, it worked and was delicious.
Empanadas
The empanadas, however, again blew me away. In what I assume was a dehydrated seed and vegetable bread wrapping (which was great) was a savory nut mixture that satisfied my constant taco craving. Spring greens also filled the inside, but what sold it was the topping. A thin cream sauce held diced cucumbers, carrots, peppers, peas, and black sesame seeds. You can ask my boyfriend – I was raving like a lunatic about those peas. How often do you find perfect, fresh peas? And they were perfect. The whole dish worked deliciously. I want it now.
We were pretty stuffed, but of course we needed dessert. We ordered the torte, a creamy filling on a chocolate nut crust. It was pretty good, not too sweet which I liked. Strawberries filled the bottom half and flower petals were scattered in berry sauce. It was lovely.
We were pretty stuffed, but of course we needed dessert. We ordered the torte, a creamy filling on a chocolate nut crust. It was pretty good, not too sweet which I liked. Strawberries filled the bottom half and flower petals were scattered in berry sauce. It was lovely.
Strawberry torte
This torte would have been more than enough for dessert after we were already stuffed, but then Darko poked his head in and said he was going to make some superfood ice cream for a little girl in the next room, and would we want some? Like I would ever turn down ice cream! I am that little girl in the next room! I’m glad we decided to go for it, because this was one of the best parts of the meal.
Raw superfood chocolate ice cream
This was some of my favorite ice cream ever! And I went to Vida Vegan Con and had samples of like 50 different kinds. It was insanely chocolately but tasted light, more icy than creamy. It reminded me of the chocolate cream ice at Rita’s Water Ice, which I used to love. At first we were wary of the enormous portion, but we ended up debating whether it was proper etiquette to drink the remaining liquid from the bowl. (We stopped ourselves, barely.) Boyfriend is still raving about it, and he doesn’t really dig raw food like I do. (He’s also an omnivore.) If you go, make sure you can have this!
The whole experience took more than two hours, so if you are trying to squeeze in a rushed meal, this is not the place for you. But I didn’t mind in the least. It was a special meal and was worth the time. I would say it was also worth the money, but it was so cheap! Given the quality of the food, service, and attention, I expected a meal equivalent to at least $100 USD, at least! Instead, it was 200 kuna, or $40. Can you believe it? I spend more than that at my local raw place for just juice and one dish. +1 for Zagreb.
Overall, this was an amazing restaurant. I wish it was in a more convenient place for me, but it makes it a special destination spot. Darko and Lena are great people, and I hope you get to meet them.
The Art of Raw Food, Zagreb
Overall, this was an amazing restaurant. I wish it was in a more convenient place for me, but it makes it a special destination spot. Darko and Lena are great people, and I hope you get to meet them.
The Art of Raw Food, Zagreb
- Water speed: Good; we were given big glass bottles to refill our glasses, which I always love
- Bathrooms: Fine, clean. A little weird that the sink is next to the dehydrator, but whatever – the toilet is separated!
- Service: Great
- Food: Wonderful. Go if you can!
- Bonus: Everyone was so friendly. We loved talking to them about Croatia, raw food, and America.
