Qianmen Street by Night

This pedestrian is so near our hotel that we just walked round the corner and there it is...Qianmen Street

We are going to have our last dinner here

 We have been here before and now we are here again, the night before we will be back in Malay land

 The street as seen from the second floor....some renovations are still ongoing and I suppose if I do come here again, there will be new things to see and shop

 we are in the restaurant for our hot pot dinner

 lovely Mongolian steamboat that still uses charcoal as its source of fuel

 after dinner, we went back to this curio shop to buy our laswt souvenirs, each of us got ourselves a cloisone bracelet at 10 yuan, black for me, white for J and Li Leng had a pink one earlier

 Qianmen Street by night, cool and pleasant for a stroll, and makan makan

 we posed under the lanterns that reminded me of days of old 

 the other end of the street...they were shooting laser lights too as in the picture below

she is striking an Eqytian pose because her friends back home are having an IU day with and Egytian theme

 at the side roads parallel to the main road, lots of treet food were available too, but no scorpions though

Bye Qianmen Street, we went back to the hotel early with a packet of Cup Mee from 7/11 for a night cap later in the night.

Beijing Dong Lai Shun Hot Pot

 On the last night before we departed for Kuala Lumpur, Jackson our tour guide took us for a hot-pot dinner at Qianmen Street...28 March 2014

Location

• Dong Lai Shun

  Price Per Person: 94 RMB
  Phone: +86 10 83172716/ +86 10 83172726
  Address: Second Floor, No. 143, Walking Street, Qianmen Street, Dongcheng District(See the Map)
  
  

 It was a reputed hot pot restaurant and is quite well patronised with info on the place  easily available on the net...there is no Anglicised name on the signboard  though. and I googled and found the english equivalent: Dong Lai Shun

 It serves Mongolian hot pot and here is the story:Under the painstaking efforts of several generations of chefs, Donglaishun Restaurant is characterized by the fine ingredients selection, delicate processing, complete condiments and strong fire, etc. Mutton used in the restaurant is taken from small-tail sheep produced in the Xilin Gol League sheep producing area in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. More importantly, only several parts of the sheep such as rear leg, rear body and spinal flesh are chosen. At the same time, exquisite skills of cutting mutton are required in the restaurant, with such standards as thinness, evenness, uniformity and handsomeness. When served on trays, mutton slices should be translucent to such an extent that patterns of the trays can be seen through them. For this reason, mutton offered by the restaurant is instant-boiled and known for its fragrance, tenderness, and lack of odor. Moreover, diversified condiments with peculiar texture are specially prepared by the restaurant, and all hotpots used here have been modified to obtain strong charcoal fire without flying ashes. Other than instant-boiled mutton, Donglaishun Restaurant offers a variety of Muslim fried dishes including quick-fried mutton, minced chicken meat and tremella, roasted gigot and roasted duck. Additionally, it provides a variety of flavored snacks such as butter fried cake and sweet walnut soup.

 Lots of meat available for order: lamb, mutton,beef, but sorry, no pork as it is a halal restaurant!

 you have to go upstairs, the sign says : second floor

 Prices of the meat is ostensibly  displayed

 interior decor

 to give us privacy as the rooms were all taken, they just pulled a collapsible screen across, behind us
here the waiter is serving us a special sauce for dipping the meat into..beware, each bowl costs 20 rmb, even if you do not use it, and they force everyone to take one each.....that's 140 rmb already for the 14 of us....

 Hot Pots have been in Beijing since the Mongols conquered that section of northern China in 1215.   Beijing was known as Yanjing back then, and was the capital of the Jin Empire before the Mongols sacked it.

There is debate that the hot pot, though available and used by Muslims, did not become popular with the Han Chinese until the Manchu army defeated the Ming army in the 1700s. (from Enjoying a Fantastic Hot Pot Restaurant by Kenny Edwards)

 Yummy Meat ..Mutton?

 Waiter pours the soup

 Marbled meat

 what the hot pot looks like

 fried rice for the fan tongs....

 me getting ready to do the honours

 lotus root or what Ken will call soup sweetener

 rockets

 tofu

 vegetables in the soup: leeks, lotus roots and kojiberries

 simmer. and boil

 we have two tables

 ready? to eat? or to pose?

 this is too fatty for me!

pancakes as an accompaniment..

It was a very expensive meal as it costs more than one thousand rmb for two tables and to me the meat slices were tasteless and I had to dunk them in the bowl of sauce and as Uncle S says, the sauce overpowered the meat.  Some of the family members were not full enough and had to go to the restaurant opposite for Zha chiang mian.

Beijing!!!!

Amidst all the controvery surrounding MH370 and the missing jet with 200 odd passengers, we flew to Beijing last week as we had already booked our holiday since last year.....Our flight of course has been changed to MH318..The original was also MH370.....

KUL-PEK
MH370     
Dep: 00:35
Arr: 06:30


And these are the places we visited.......Phew!!!!!

Drive to Badaling -  Great Wall (includes Cable Car ride)
(approx 2.5 hours

Ming Dynasty Tombs
- 13 Ming Dynasty Emperors

2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium - the Bird's Nest
(Admission 50 yuan/person additional)

2008 Beijing National Aquatics Center - "Water Cube" - national Olympic Swimming Cente
(Admission 30 yuan /person additional)

798 Art District Zone (Dashanzi Art District)

Temple of Heaven  (packages, approx 1.5 hours)

Hutong Tour Tri-bicycle touring
Huangchenggen Ruins Park or (Shichahai Bar Street) 

Prince Gong's (GongWangFu) Mansion
 & Garden

 Dazhalan Dazhalan Block 

Qianmen Pedestrian street

Bell Tower

Drum Tower

Liulichang Culture Street
(Outside Beijing)

Glass Cultural Street

Tiananmen Square
(approx 40 minutes)

Chairman Mao Memorial Hall

 Summer Palace

 First Royal Garden
(approx 2 hours)


(optional Empress waterways cruise-)

Bridge at the Summer Palace....I ran over and posed at the top of the bridge.....a tiny speck indeed!!!

Soon Lee Restoran Dinner

This is our second time at Kopitiam Soon Lee

http://iamyourgurupntay.blogspot.com/2013/09/kopitiam-soon-lee-dinner.html

 Son treated the 2 Ss to dinner

 at Restoran Soon Lee in Seri Kembangan

I love this place because the food is superb!

 delicious and roasted to perfection: Roast Lamb (RM28.80)

 Deep fried crunchy fish with just a hint of pan-fried soya sauce...(RM34)

 Creamy flavourful salted egg prawns (RM45)

 yau mak (crispy vegetables with a liberal sprinkling of dried prawns) (RM12)

 our dishes...almost complete...service was quick and prompt!!

 the shop's specialty...foil wrapped rice wine steamed chicken with tons of shredded ginger and sliced garlic and some chilies for spiciness (RM38)

 when we opened the foil, the steam emanated with such force that it misted up the camera lens..!

 and I got this picture....

much to his amusement!!!!

I thought I had taken a picture of the steam but he showed me the lens and convinced me it was the misty lens that gave the above effect!!!
For those who can read Chinese here is our bill...

 Chrysanthemum Tea was RM12, Rice was RM10.50 plus a "small rice" for 80 sen, towels were returned and cancelled and peanuts was RM2.50.

More expensive than the last time, about 80 ringgit more?

Last year's bill for nearly the same dishes, minus the roast lamb.