Authentic Chinese Dinner in Beijing

Jeff and I were staying in an American chain hotel while in Beijing. They had a huge breakfast spread covering several ethnicity's cuisines. Most days I filled up here before I went out sight-seeing so I wouldn't be too hungry. My tour guide did well finding me American food during the day when we did get hungry. I didn't want to leave China though without trying something new. I had just the chance when we went out to dinner with Jeff's coworkers. They took us out for a nice authentic Chinese dinner.

Ready for dinner!

Chinese lanterns up and down both sides of the street

Nothing like a Chinese beer to start things off!
NOTE - We had to request cold beers because it's not uncommon to drink them at room temperature!

Perusing the menu. . . yes it's more like a giant pictures book!
Thank goodness for the pictures, because I didn't know what most things were!

Now I may have been able to peruse the menu for a few minutes, but I didn't do any ordering. As is customary in Asian culture Jeff's coworker ordered for the table. Then everything is served basically family style and you serve yourself. I tried to take pictures of all the foods so you could see what things looked like.

Jellyfish - the WORST thing I've ever eaten in my life!!! Definitely didn't think I was going to be able to swallow the one bite I tried.  Thankfully Jeff was the only one who saw me gag!

Marinated eggplant with peppers was really good.

Lotus plant - Jeff and I were both indifferent on this one. It wasn't great, but
not terrible. . .  really just a bland dish you didn't want to keep eating.

Kind of like cashew chicken at home with a kick. It was quite tasty!

These fresh green beans were so yummy! I could have eaten the whole bowl.

Now for the main courses!!

First up . . . Squirrel Fish!!
Looks frightening, but was surprisingly delicious!

You can see that they serve it with the mouth of the fish wide open.... quite a presentation!!

Second - PEKING DUCK, a Beijing specialty!!!
The chef comes to your table and must have a masters degree in carving skills!
As smooth as ever he trims every last piece of meat off the duck for the beautiful presentation shown below.

Here is the carved duck presented after it's been carved.

You can see in the picture above to the top left of the duck are some white tortilla looking things. These are little rice wraps that you use to make a little duck burrito :)  There are three different sauces provided which you can see in the picture below. Then you have the option to put in some cucumber, melon, lettuce, or pineapple with your duck. It was soooo yummy!!! I've never had duck before and this was so delicious!! Just looking at these pictures makes me want to enjoy it again!!

Here's another shot of all the fixings for the duck wraps.

Jeff enjoying his duck!!

What's for dessert?! Chocolate? No. Ice cream? Nope.

How about a warm sweet yam!?!

You think I'm kidding, but I most definitely am not!

Looks tasty, huh?! :)
Actually not too bad, just not what I envision about when I hear the word dessert.

Now this post wouldn't be complete unless I showed you some pictures of food from the local markets around our hotel in downtown Beijing. I have to say that people eat some very interesting things that I would definitely not ever be interested in trying!

Starfish, sea horses and live scorpions on a stick. . . .so creepy!!

There's an entire street lined with vendors where you pick what you want and they fry it up for you right there. There were people everywhere eating all this stuff!

Baby sharks, octopus and who knows what else!

 Spiders, medicinal centipede (as if there's any other kind?!), 

snake, sheep penis, and water beetles. Hungry?!?!  :(

I think I'll just settle for a nice protein bar ! 

Neither Jeff nor I had the desire to be adventurous
 enough to try any of these foods.