Of course, it wasn’t as good as mum’s own but it was still delicious and went well with Siqi’s Smoked Tofu and Celery stir-fry.

Dinner

Omelette on Top

Smoked Tofu and Celery Stir-fry

Spiced Rice with Prawns

There was plenty of flipping going on and pancake mix flying in every direction. We also had the luxury of ‘confit du beurre au chocolat’ which I brought back from France and which was smeared on our pancakes in suitably ridiculous amounts.

By the end of breakfast we were absolutely stuffed and resolved not to eat any more pancakes for a good few weeks to come… we’ll see!

Chef at work

The Flip

So far so good

The cook

Made with love

Chocolate Heart

Happy Pancake

Perfect Pancake

Delicieuse

No day out in China is complete without a fine meal at the end so to keep up the tradition we headed to a restaurant at the bottom of the mountain for Japanese Stir Fried Tofu and a Lamb and Noodle Soup… delicious!

One last ice cream before the winter

Walking up to the entrance

Little doggy soaking up the sun

No Tourist Site is Complete Without One

Behind the Waterfall (manmade)

Don't get wet!

Sun Tree

Deep Blue

Lazy People

Siqi on the way up

Chairlift

Beijing and its smog

Me in front of Beijing

Beijing and the Summer Palace

The Endless Concrete Path

Just in time for Sunset

Orange Evening Glow

Sun Setting on Beijing

Beautiful Sunset

Sunset over the Mountains

Sunset

On my regular market shop a couple of days ago, I managed to buy all the following for just £2.08

That includes Chinese Spinach, Garland chrysanthemum, Broad Beans, a dozen eggs, Spinach, Ginger Root, Garlic, Courgette, Chinese Onion, Tofu and Vermicelli. In fact, without the vermicelli, all of that would have cost just £1.28. So yes… the prices have gone up, even in China. However, there is nothing for me to worry about for a while yet!

In the UK, as far as I know (and unless things have changed since I left about 8 months ago) recycling is on a completely voluntary basis. Furthermore, recycling is actually quite a hassle. Our house (back in Kendal) is full of tubs of empty cans, empty bottles, cardboard and plastics ready to be taken to the local council waste disposal site for recycling - a trip that we have to make ourselves in the car every week. OK, admittedly, the council introduced a new recycling scheme where all households now get a couple of small crates for cans and bottles which are emptied every week. However, this is completely unrealistic for a number of reasons:

• Most households get through quite a few glass bottles, jars and tin cans in a week. A small crate is hardly going to be big enough.
• Plastics and organic waste form the largest part of household waste and yet neither of these are catered for in the scheme.
• There is no incentive for you to go to the trouble of scrubbing out your glass jars and tin cans and putting them in the crate. You are not penalised in the slightest if you are lazy and just chuck them in the general waste bin.

China on the other hand - lets remind ourselves, a developing nation - has got things completely sorted. Recycling here is on a freelance basis. All over the place there are people riding three-wheeled bikes with trailers who collect rubbish for recycling. Likewise there are a number of fixed recycling stations (you are never more than a 5 minute walk away from one) where you can take your recyclable waste. Instead of wasting some petrol driving halfway accross town every fortnight on a voluntary basis, here you are remunerated for the waste you hand in - you actually sell it to the recyclers!

Recycling is no big money maker but to put things in perspective a couple of months worth of waste hoarded up in a cupboard in my kitchen made me 11 yuan when I took it along to the recycling lady last week. If we put that into context, its enough to buy you a Cheeseburger and Chips in any of Beijing’s McDonalds chains (not that I like McDonalds but its pretty good price reference). In the UK a Cheeseburger and Chips would set you back about £2.00-£2.20 so I guess you would make about that much money in the UK. Furthermore, in Beijing I actually don’t really use anything tinned (Chinese people aren’t really into tinned food) and I hardly stock any jars either. For a family of 5 in the UK who get though considerably more tins, jars and bottles than I do here in Beijing you could be making pounds a week by recycling rather than throwing away your household waste.

I know things aren’t perfect here in China and there is a lot to be done. However, I think that the UK government could learn a thing or two from China and other countries who run similar schemes (Canada, Germany etc). Its all well telling everybody to save the planet but few people will actually go and do anything about it unless there is some incentive there for them to take action.

Last night I then invited some more friends round for a Thai Red Curry (Hannah, Amy, Jess) which was another success.

All in all this week has been busy in terms of culinary creation and whilst its lovely to have people round for dinner I can safely say that I’m glad that me and Siqi only have to cook for the two of us tonight!

Normal Chinese supermarkets are a bit of a letdown in this domain - occasionally Carrefour has a dedicated aisle or two which sells ‘Frosties’ breakfast cereal or ‘Nutella’ chocolate spread, all of which are pricey, but in general its pretty hard to get your hands on what you’re after. Bit of a no-go.

Another option is Wudaokou or Chaoyang - two areas of Beijing where foreigners are particularly numerous. Here you may find small specialist dealers that will sell you Mcvities digestive biscuits, HP sauce and all those other necessities that us foreigners need (or think we need). All these things come at extortionate prices but the shops rely on the fact that these things can’t be bought elsewhere and so I’m sure they still make a fair amount of money out of us.

The king of foreign produce in Beijing has to be a German Cash and Carry chain called ‘Metro’ which is absolutely gigantic. Luckily Siqi uses her mum’s membership card that lets us get in. Here you can get all of the essentials required to whip up an Italian pasta dish (pasta, ‘Sacla’ sauces, and mozzarella cheese) and you can also stock up on your biscuits, chocolates, wine and spirits. However, like everywhere else, all this might risk putting a hole in your pocket if you fail to restrain yourself!

The final option for buying in international produce is to log onto the Chinese equivalent of eBay, Taobao. Unlike eBay which doesn’t allow the selling of food products online, Taobao probably has more international produce available than all the other places I’ve mentioned above put together. So far I’ve used it to buy a massive tub of Thai Red Curry paste, Thai Fish sauce, Kaffir Lime Leaves and some other bits and pieces necessary for putting together a Thai Red Curry. The amazing thing is that all this arrived the day after I ordered it and not too pricey either. I think that of all the options available in Beijing, this is probably the best choice and also the most convenient.

To sum things up, most things can be bought over here but it all depends on how much you are willing to pay. A simple pasta dish that might be eaten two or three times a week in the UK cost me 5 or 6 times as much as making any regular chinese dish over here - hence a luxury I can’t enjoy too often.
Chinese people have a popular proverb: 入乡随俗 that applies well for eating in China. If you want to save money - then eat like the locals, don’t try and take Europe to China, otherwise your student loan is going to dry up faster than you can say ‘Topup fees’. When in Rome…