Mike's Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge #9 – Sweet Potato

Disclaimer: That is a sweet potato and not a Christmas poo...

The temperatures are plummeting and the Beijing skyline is full of feathery white snowflakes. The city may be transforming into a winter wonderland, but of course that will not stop me from continuing my cheesy Chinese chow challenge.

At this time of year, you would be foolish not to seize the opportunity of scoffing a baked sweet potato. There are a number street vendors selling these winter warmers all around Beijing. If you see someone standing next to a metal drum, then it’s likely they are baking a batch of sweet potatoes! Once you choose the potato you desire, the seller will weigh it and tell you the cost - but don't worry, you can buy a spud the size of your face and it will still be a pretty cheap snack.

Many happy customers can be seen gnawing on a freshly baked potato straight out of the serving bag. I decided to give my sweet potato a cheesy challenge upgrade. After I selected the most scrumptious-looking spud, I took it back to my apartment. I then sliced it open and added baked beans with grated cheese on top.

I was instantly transported back home to the UK, with memories of jacket potatoes, bonfire nights and cosy autumnal evenings flooding back in a delightful nostalgic daydream.

The baked beans and melting cheese were the perfect companions to the fluffy, warm potato. This is a seasonal treat that cannot be limited to just once a year. I feel confident that a cheesy baked bean sweet potato will be a regular item on my winter menu.

Mike's Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge #8 – Harbin Kao Leng Mian

Recently, my work load has intensified. However, this has not kept me off the bustling streets of Beijing. If anything, being so busy has just increased my hunger and subsequently deepened my dedication to finding delicious Chinese street food and adorn it with tasty cheese.

Sometimes, the street sellers have to take zoom off on their little frying-snack-stalls-on-wheels (henceforth known as fry-mobiles) when there are police in the neighbourhood. But when the police are preoccupied with doing policey-type-things in other parts of the city, there's generally quite a gaggle of fry-mobiles that cluster around the subway station. This provides me with ample opportunities to select a new snack and combine it with dairy products in a controversial yet fulfilling experiment.

One of the many snack stalls on wheels

With the temperature getting cooler, I decided that this time I would opt for 哈尔滨烤冷面 (Harbin Kao Leng Mian)。This is a wide, flat noodle that looks very similar to a lasagne pasta sheet. It is then coated in cooking oil and fried with onions, coriander and slathered in a paste of your choice. It can be made with a spicy, savoury or even a sweet flavour. Once it has been fried, it will then get folded over and sliced into bite-size chunks. 

Once I'd bought my warm cup of kao leng mian, I took it back to the safety of my apartment where I added a fine cheddar. As I have found with other Chinese street snacks, grated cheese works so well with food that's been coated with chili. It cooled down the heat of the chili and the melted cheddar tasted great with the fried noodle (unlike when I've dabbled with parmesan cheese in the past). 

I decided that I would also add a healthy dollop of red onion chutney to the cheesy fried noodle concoction. Some people may say that this would make the meal far too oniony (especially people within close proximity to me after I finished eating it). However, I think that the onion chutney gave the fresh onions a wonderfully tangy boost and it wasn't too overpowering. 

I am already plotting my next Chinese Chow Challenge...stay tuned!

Mike's Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge #5 – Chao Bing

Following the disappointment of my noodle and Parmesan Cheese experiment, I decided to go back to basics and use a mild cheddar cheese with one of my favourite fast food dishes; chao bing (炒饼). It may look like a noodle dish, but it is in fact strips of shredded pancake stir-fried with cabbage, egg, peppers and bean sprouts. It can also be stir fried with meat (肉炒饼). If you want chao bing without meat, ask for su chao bing (素炒饼). 

I collected a portion of chao bing from a local street stall and quickly made my way back to the apartment while the food was still hot. The chao bing from this particular stall is always tasty and a little bit spicy.

Once I grated the cheese onto the chao bing, I instantly knew that cheddar was the better choice of cheese in this situation. The Parmesan cheese would have to wait for another opportunity to redeem itself. The cheddar began to melt and after I had the first delicious bite, I breathed a sigh of relief – I had discovered a great pairing! My Cheesy Chinese Chow Mojo had returned!

After gobbling up the remaining cheesy chao bing, I made a promise to continue on the never-ending quest to find other Chinese cuisine that can be enhanced with the addition of cheese. 

Until next time, my fromage friends!

Tôi không biết “炒饼” bằng tiếng Việt là gì, nhưng nó là một món ngon.
炒饼 và phô mai bào ngon lắm!

Mike's Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge #2 - Stinky Tofu

Spurred on by the success of my previous cheesy endeavour, I decided to take the Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge to a new level. 

First of all, let me set the scene: If you walk around the streets of Beijing, it is highly likely that at some point you will encounter a smell that is displeasing to the nose. The unfriendly, uninviting and unenticing odour could stem from a smorgasbord of sources, but one strong contender for the overpowering smell may well be the unforgettable fragrance of stinky tofu. 

Stinky tofu (臭豆腐) is given its name for a good reason. The smell of the fermented tofu can be considered unappealing to many people. I have eaten it on a couple of occasions and the taste is far better than the smell suggests. It could almost be likened to the oxymoron of a terribly delicious smelly cheese. 

This idea got me thinking. Why just add cheddar to this smelly snack? Why have a stink when you can have a stench? I knew what had to be done. I bravely took the stinky tofu back to my apartment and carefully added slices of smelly blue cheese to the bowl. This experiment was not for the faint-hearted…or anyone with a sense of smell. 

As the cheese began to melt in the stinky tofu soup, the pong was almost unbearably overwhelming. My nose did not appreciate the situation I had created. I gingerly took a bite of tofu and a sip of the broth. To my astonishment, I had struck malodorous gold. It may have had a putrid aroma, but the taste was peculiarly palatable.

It has certainly given me food for thought. I will continue on my quest to add cheese to Chinese street food and snacks. Although perhaps next time, in order to give my poor nose some respite, I will try something with a slightly less offensive reek.

Gần đây, tôi đã ăn đậu phụ thối và pho mát xanh. Hôi quá...nhưng ngon =))

Mike's Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge #1 - Jian bing

After sampling many of the Chinese street food snacks that Beijing has to offer, I have acquired an understanding of what I enjoy and what I should avoid. I quite often indulge in tasty market food or get a hankering for some fried nibbles when I suffer from hunger pangs. 

On the weekend, I woke up craving a jian bing (煎饼) which is a savoury egg pancake. This crepe-like delicacy can have a variety of fillings but usually contains spicy sauces, spring onion, coriander and a crispy cracker.

I have come to realise that this pancake makes a great breakfast, lunch or dinner. However, this time I wanted something more. Something groundbreaking. I wanted to push the boundaries of everything I had come to know and understand.

What if this time, I didn’t just accept the fillings I was given inside my delicious jian bing package? What if I wanted to improve on perfection? It was then that I made a drastic decision that was to change my eating habits forever. I was going to grate cheddar cheese onto my jian bing.

I have yet to discover a jian bing stall in Beijing  that offers cheese. It dawned on me that I could be uncovering something that would rock the very core of the street food world. Experimenting with cheese should not be taken lightly. I anxiously collected my jian bing from a nearby location and hastily returned to my apartment where my block of imported Irish cheddar awaited.

Usually, I eat the jian bing straight from the bag but this time I presented it carefully on a plate while I got the cheese grater. The burden of responsibility weighed heavily on my shoulders as I sprinkled a generous amount of cheese on top of the pancake.

What happened next can only be described as a breathtaking moment of bliss. The cheese began to melt slightly and as I munched on the jian bing, I felt that the cheddar was the yang to the spicy sauce’s yin.

As a culinary pioneer, I now feel that it is my duty to continue on this experimental quest. I cannot stop now that I know the treasures that lay within a cheesy jian bing. Many questions remain unanswered. What would happen if I added a smelly cheese to a stinky tofu (臭豆腐) concoction? What if I sprinkled some brie on a Chinese meat sandwich/肉夹馍 (ròu jīa mó)? What about if I paired meat kebabs/串儿 (chuanr) with some tasty cheese pieces?

I don’t give edam about what people may think of me, I understand this journey will be a grate one. But enough of the cheesy puns, I have a gouda amount of snacks to eat and perhaps some will not taste so pleasing. I must Caerphilly select my next experiment. You can expect more updates to the ‘Chomping Cheesy Chinese Chow Challenge’ soon. 

Tôi rất thích thức ăn nhẹ ở Trung Quốc. Bây giờ tôi muốn dùng thử một số thức ăn Trung Quốc và thêm một ít pho mát. Thức ăn nhẹ và pho mát sẽ ngon không ? Tôi đã ăn bánh đa mặn và pho mát. Nó khá là ngon!

The whole world in a park

Last weekend, I visited Beijing World Park (北京世界公园 Běijīng shìjiè gōngyuán). 

Not since my students introduced me to Baigoogledu (a dual search engine simultaneously displaying the results from Baidu and Google; and more importantly sounding like a funky cockerel) had I felt so excited about a new and unknown China experience.

The park boasts replicas of famous landmarks and buildings from around the world. “What better way could you spend your weekend?” I hear you ask…I may need some more time to answer this question.

From the moment Liz and I arrived outside the park, an eager lady wielding a camera greeted us. “Hello! Photo!” she beamed, as she purposefully placed us together and individually for a number of shots. Then she disappeared while we bought our entry tickets. As soon as we made our way to the gate, we noticed the lady sprinting back in our direction. She was on a mission. Once she caught her breath, she hastily and proudly revealed two small photo keyrings. After our wonderful tacky souvenir from the Watermelon Museum, Liz and I knew we had unwittingly already gained our memento for our latest adventure.

Stepping into the park, I was more than happy to see that the usual drove of people appeared to be occupied elsewhere. The park was (by Beijing standards) very peaceful!

Eat your heart out, Phileas Fogg! Eighty days to travel the world?! Pah! I managed it in an afternoon. Following a brief stop in Moscow, I was stunned and distracted by a rather humorous sign. English errors are a common occurrence here; however this one is certainly a favourite of mine.

It seems that some of the landmarks are more impressive and preserved better than others. Of course, the replica of The Great Wall was quite striking.  
Travelling through Europe and the Americas, we passed by the pyramids in Egypt and finally took a welcome break in Africa. I sat down on an elephant while contemplating where to go next.

The White House!

The journey then took us on a trek through Asia and down to Australasia. 

Taj Mahal

Angkor Wat

It was only when we got closer to the exit that we realised we had not been to Rome and Italy. Thankfully we rectified this blunder. It may be a cliché, but this photo with the leaning tower of Pisa was a necessity.

Had to be done!

It was definitely an enjoyable day and each replica came with a short description of the landmark and location. I was happy to see a famous landmark from Hanoi and made sure to have my photograph taken next to the One Pillar Pagoda.

Leaving the park, Liz and I waved by to the camera lady who was still loitering and hoping for further victims. We walked towards the subway station and grabbed a couple of roasted sweet potatoes from a street vendor. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon! It was made even better when we managed to get seats on the long subway journey home! Score!

Om nom nom!

YES! Seat on the subway!

Tacky souvenir? YES!

Cuối tuần qua, tôi đã đi Công viên thế giới Bắc Kinh. Hay quá nhỉ! Tôi có thể đến thăm những cảnh đẹp nổi tiếng trên toàn thế giới, ở một công viên! Bạn có nhận nơi này không? =))