Beijing Bounty

Jan 10
Breakfast- I enjoyed the same meal as yesterday except for the dumpling. I was quite upset while serving myself to find that the custard dumpling was not present. Instead I settled for another of questionable contents with an uneasy mind. I was not disappointed when I poked a hole in it to find my taste buds arch nemesis. MUSHROOMS. Since I have a duty to fulfill, I ate it so all who are reading this could know that it was downright nasty.
Meal rating
Food: 4
Service: 5

Lunch- After walking through the Forbidden City, we were driven to a building and ushered downstairs where there was a Italian/Chinese grotto style buffet. (Side note: An interesting thing happened as I’m typing this. We (my dad and I) are sitting in a Starbucks enjoying a bottle of San Pellegrino Terme when two men with ids saying SCTV2 approached us and asked us if we spoke Chinese.) Well back to the story. Yes, she was in the water the eel began to charge when... Oh oops, wrong story. There I was surrounded by an awesome array of choices, what to eat… what to eat. So I opted to have roast duck, fried rice, steamed veggies, Italian vegetable soup, pizza which I should mention was a white sauce with a bit of tang, salad and green tea. My show case platter is a red wine roast beef; it was excellently cooked to medium well and was soaking in juices. This was also the first time that I saw squatty potties.
Meal rating
Food: 7
Service: 6
Overall: very cool setting but the tables were a little cramped for my flailing arms style of eating

Dinner-At this point mom and dad stayed at the hotel room because dad wasn’t doing too well (and we all know how that turned out), so I went with the group to a restaurant near the top of a high rise. When I sat down I was served my choice of either Coke or Sprite, of which I chose Coke, and along with that green tea. Soon the food arrived, first two plates, then two more, and then they just kept coming. Out of all the good looking (and not so good looking) food, I ate steamed rice, sweet and sour pork, either lemon chicken or lemon pork, I couldn’t tell there was so much lemon, pork and vegetables, a roast beef stew, steamed parsley stems, cooked asparagus, and what tasted like a somewhat spicy and thin tomato soup. But I have saved the best for last, a dish of cooked duck that had half the head on the plate. I did in fact eat the skin, whatever meat I could find, and the brain from the head. Gross sounding I bet, but to tell you the truth the brain really didn’t have that much taste to it, just a different texture, kinda like the inside of a pea. Now although it was fun to see the reaction of the women at the table at that point, the best part was actually the way the skin of the duck was done. It was golden brown crispy with a hint of garlic and butter. After the meal Dominic (the guy that is my age that I hang out with) and the two girls went to look at the fish tanks where they saw a certain Mr. Turtle get scooped up and carried off by a waiter. It was very funny.
Meal rating
Food: 8
Service: 8
Overall: an excellent dinner with the service to match it.

Picture forth coming...have to get it from another family when we reach Guangzhou.