Yipin China

I first heard about Yipin China here, and then I kept noticing it as I walked from Angel Station up Liverpool Road to my fave Pizza Pub, which is where we were going to when a last second change of plan saw us opening the door to this wonderful Chinese restaurant.

Guizhou Province - Xijiang, Basha and Zhaoxing

We’ve never been to Guizhou before, it’s pretty much off any tourist trail in this part of China, especially for first timers who bypass it to/from Xi’an/Guilin and vice versa.

But it is defiantly well worth a detour. It’s one of the poorest provinces in China, roads are bad and poorly maintained, villages are far apart and a little isolated. But this makes the end result so much better. Plus there are a lot of minority villages here, which was the whole reason for coming.

Our wonderful hosts saw us off at the kind of bus stop in Hongjiang for the one hour trip to Huaihua, where we caught the train to Kaili, laden with fruit and warm goodbyes we were ready for our next adventure.

Luckily in Huaihua, we had enough time to grab some noodle soup from a small eatery close to the station. As with a lot of cheap places in China, they were using the same thin mass produced and cheap rice noodles. Not so yummy, but the stocks were always good.  As with everywhere in the world, food around train stations is nothing to write home about, but I am a people watcher and these places provide me ample opportunity for me to indulge in this past time.

When we first went to China over 10 years ago I don’t remember the shear quantity of small eateries that there are here today, or maybe I just never paid as much attention to it as I do today. But I’m happy for it.

There is nothing special about Kaili, apart form it is a good base for visiting the minority villages in the area.

It does however have an awesome night market, which thankfully stretched up the street adjacent to our hotel. This was a good place to get some cheap eats and watch the world go by. We ate well that night.

The journey to Xijiang, one of the largest Miao villages in China is pretty amazing. Roads that wind their way up and down and around mountains, giving you excellent views of the countryside below, as long as you don’t suffer from car sickness that is.

The inhabitants of this village or small town have made a very good job of restoring parts of the village, although a simple stroll from the main clean street will bring you to the real Xijiang.

Just wandering around the less developed part brings up many surprises and we met many a lovely person, who were probably wondering why two foreigners were in this part of town when everyone else was down below in the nice clean part.

Surrounding the village are rice fields and rivers, which mean that food is in good, supply here.

Guizhou is not known for its culinary delights, but it does have a sour fish soup called Suantangyu (酸汤鱼).

Quite by chance we managed to try this here at a small eatery on the main street. Quite by accident we had two perfectly innocent fish killed for our enjoyment. The chef even brought them through the front of his small joint to show us, still wriggling in the blue plastic bag before he knocked them on the head and begun chopping them up for the pot.

Suantangyu is basically a hotpot with a sour stock. The fish were already simmering away in the cauldron of fire when it was brought to our table, and we only had to add the other ingredients as and when required. Rice was served separately and made a great vessel for soaking up the delicious stock.

It wasn’t the best meal we had on this trip but it was one of the more interesting ones, the sour notes of the stock were from the tomatoes and were rather a surprise. I’ve never used the good old tom as a souring gent before. Interesting.

Xijiang like other minority villages include in the entrance fee a cultural performance. This one was really like no other except this particular group of Miao have a very bizarre duck dance. Sadly I do not have any video evidence of this, a shame as it was really funny. But with them grabbing people from the audience to make fools of them, we left pretty quickly, as being the only two non Chinese we knew where this was heading. I found a video of a similar thing here. Enjoy.

The road trip to Conjiang was long and dull. We followed the river, but passing through what seemed like an endless building site for 6 hours was not very fun at all.

Basha itself is an interesting village. It’s only 7km’s uphill from Conjiang, but it could be several centuries away.

It’s an amazing place, the people still live and dress as they have always done. They are clinging onto their culture here with full force. Thankfully.

With luck we met up again with a Chinese couple on the bus, who we met in Xijiang briefly. For the life of me I cannot remember their names, but they were pretty cool, except he had this thing that he didn’t like westerners because we called Tibet, Tibet and not Xizang, as it is called in Chinese. But apart from that we were aok. They were to be our translators for the next few days. And boy were we glad to have them.

They basically found us all somewhere to sleep and had arranged dinner for us as well in a simple hostel in the village.

Today another animal bit the dust before our very eyes. This time a chicken. I’m pretty sure it knew it was getting to the end of its time. It must have seen some of his mates or loved ones go into the pot over the last few months, that his all was resigned to it. It was quick and I’m sure it felt no pain as the cook wrung its neck.

I cannot remember what we ate, but there were a lot of dishes all cooked in the local style we were told. The chicken tasted lovely and it had lived a good life to provide us with a good evening. It would have been proud.

Basha is one weird place. As I said it has a feel about it of being centuries old. It is one of the last remaining villages in China where the men are allowed to carry guns. The ancient rifles are carried with pride over the shoulder, although I am really not sure how effective they are these days, as I’m sure they are just for show. But this is China so anything is possible.

The village below is still how I imagined it was 100 years ago, except for the sight of electricity and satellite dishes not much has changed.

The people still wear their traditional clothes, even the men, which is a big surprise, as I’ve found it’s normally only the women who keep to their traditional dress. But not here. 

Most of the men still have their hair long as they used to have in Imperial China. It was good to see that modernization was being kept in check here.

Zhaoxing is by far the most quintessential minority village in China. The largest group are the Dong and they lead a lovely life here in this relaxing town.

The town has a couple of large streams running through it, with wooden houses and shops either side, with bridges to cross and wooden Drum Towers to see it is peace in China. If you can ever imagine such a thing.

Slowly this will change with the opening of a new motorway in the hills above Zhaoxing and several miles away a new train line is being built.

One day soon this small peaceful village will see more tourists, progress and will loose its charm, but for now it is a sheer delight.

The villages surrounding the town are well worth the hike. An hour or so will bring you to a couple of villages where the only people you will encounter during the day are the scores of children and the old people watching over them.

Zhaoxing was one of the highlights of our trip to China, not a lot happened there, but this we liked. Its minor isolation has kept the peacefulness preserved, but with everything in China today, progress is forever advancing at a furious rate.

We loved Guizhou and really want to return here one day. Not sure when that will be but soon. Next stop Guangxi.

Foto Friday # 85

The catch of the day in Istanbul, Turkey.

Good Times @ Randall and Aubin

Sometimes you find a place and for some reason you love it more than you should. The menu may be limiting, the food may not fantastic, but the atmosphere and vibe make up for a whole lot more, and to me this counts for nearly everything.

It’s been a while since we were last in Randall & Aubin, a long while. We have good memories of the place, seen some wild shit happening inside its doors, some really wild shit.

It is one of the few places where I don’t actually mind queuing up. In fact I get rather disappointed when I don’t have to wait outside on the street for our turn to sit down and eat.

Queuing does have its benefits, you do end up ordering a bottle of wine and drinking it while you wait. Life in Soho gets more fun after a bottle of wine or two.

Nothing seems to have changed really inside Randall & Aubin. The chefs all look the same, the waiters have changed, but they do seem to still look the same. The women are still tanned and gorgeous, and the men camp as hell. Hey it’s Soho, what would you expect.

We have fun here, it’s a place to lift your spirits, to enlighten your soul, to make you feel young again, and at the moment I need that a lot.

As I said I’ve seen some crazy shit here. I remember once, a stunning looking girl came outside to chat to some friends who were in the queue behind us. All I really heard was her friends asking her to come and go dancing later, and she replied “no I can’t I’m working, I have a punter inside.” This kinda threw me, as she was the 2^nd most beautiful girl in Soho that night. The wife obviously being number one.

After we sat down and ordered, I noticed that she and her punter visited the toilets looking very fresh and returned looking completely dishevelled 10 minutes later. Good times were a rolling. This actually happened twice. The 2^nd time the guy could barely walk back to his stool. Respect.

The food is really incidental to the restaurant. It’s pure Soho, you come to be with friends and have a good time. You drink, you eat, you flirt, and you have a great time. It’s what life should be all about. Plus the best thing, they have a mirrored disco ball. Soho baby Soho. Gotta love it.

Foto Friday # 26

Some beautiful fish for sale in the market in Tahiti. It was kinda sad, as we had been diving with them only the day before.

A Midweek Weekend Away Part 2 - Santa Fe De Antioquia

Santa Fe de Antioquia used to be the former colonial capital of the state of Antioquia. It was founded over 450 years ago.

We stayed here for about a week 10 years ago. Not doing a lot, as there really isn’t that much to do. It’s a weekend getaway for those stressed out souls of Medellin.

We were in need of a few days of peace and quiet. Somewhere to relax and forget about making empanadas and chutneys for a few days. As we had a big order for a delivery on Tuesday, we decided to head to Santa Fe on Thursday. Stay for 2 nights and head back and work our arse off for 3 days.

Santa Fe hasn’t changed that much since we were last here. Just more people were here. The vast majority of the buildings are still standing from the colonial era, and the local council has done an excellent job in keeping the town looking as it did several hundred years ago. Well that’s why people come here.

Santa Fe is in a valley and is a lot lower than Medellin. It is hot and humid. The area produces a lot of great fruits, and these can be brought from stalls that line the road coming into Santa Fe.

So in a hot, humid place every hotel worth its banana has a swimming pool. This is what we or Lina was craving. We felt like a splurge and stayed at the former Governors mansion. It turned out to cost half of what we thought it would. Excellent news. It had air-conditioning and a swimming pool. Sorted.

The plaza is full, and I mean full of bars, restaurants, shops and stalls selling local products like tamarind, to which they make into small sweets coated in sugar.

As we are still in Antioquia the array of eateries all had the same food on their menus. Grilled meats, fish, beans and rice. No matter how far we travel we still can’t get away from it. As with most places in the world that caters for tourists. The food was pretty bad. Colombians seem to have this thing for over cooking their meat. I was pretty scared eating some ribs as I had just had a filling. Eating tough meat on one side of your mouth equals a sore jaw.

We did find one place that did some well cooked food. Even if it did include beans and rice. I was expecting a small piece of tongue, but to get the whole thing with beans, rice, platano, egg and arepas left me feeling like a bloated cow for the rest of the night.

Even though we were kinda sick of the sight of empanadas, we did eat a few of them here. But we opted for what is known in Colombia as “Empanadas de Iglesia” They are nothing special, it’s just they are cooked by old women in front of a church. Hence the name. The old lady had 3 different ones. A cheese filling, a chicken filling and a meat filling. So we brought one of each. As I said they are nothing special, but it was nice to sit in a small plaza feeling the late afternoon sun on our faces.

On Friday and Saturday nights, Santa Fe changes from a small quiet colonial town into a full on party town with the arrival of hundreds of people from Medellin. All the locals are out and about in their best clothes flirting with the new arrivals to see if they can have an even better weekend. A lot do.

It was interesting to see the two sides of Santa Fe from Thursday night to Friday night. It’s a shame we don’t have many of these places that are within a short distance of London. A few places spring to mind but not too many. Brighton being the best of the bunch.

There are a few more towns we shall be visiting over the coming months. But Santa Fe I am sure is the best one in Antioquia.

Fishy Fishy Fishy Fish

Day 2 in Tokyo, and we had an early start to goto the Tsukiji Fish Market. Now this was an incredible sight. There were row upon row and column upon column of stalls selling huge copious amounts of different types of fish. From the largest mussels I have ever seen to Blue Fin Tuna, caught at sea at least a few weeks ago and completely frozen, that it took two guys with the sharpest knives you have ever seen to cut them in two. It was truly mind boggling, that a place can house so much fish, and also that a city and its surroundings can eat so much. Oh to live in Tokyo, would be a fish chefs dream. I really can not put into words what I saw there, you are just going to have to come and see it for yourselves.

Some facts : Tokyo Central Wholesale Market handles about 2,888 tons a day of marine products, equating to about 2.8 billion yen a day in business. Some 450 kinds of fish are received. The Tuna auction starts at 5.30am, about the time we were getting up, and is over within an hour. So we are told.

We decided to goto a Sushi bar next to the market, where else can you get such fresh Sushi. Popped ourselves at the bar and ordered a set. The speed at which the chef worked was unreal. He deftly shaped the rice to pop the fish onto it. Cut small slices of fish so accurately and quickly it was scary.

What we ate was truly sublime. The only problem was that it lacked atmosphere. We were the only people there, plus the chef was watching us but not watching us if you know what I mean. It was really off putting. But apart from that it looked and tasted great. The picture you see does not do it justice. The artistry involved is great. I wonder how long these guys train for before they are let loose on the general public. Overall it was a bit of a let down, mainly because of the atmosphere.

Later that day after a busy morning sight seeing and visiting a few Cherry Blossom sights, we found a Tempura restaurant. Now these are easy to find as you just get this whiff of cooking oil and follow your nose. As we had already had Sushi that morning, we only had some prawns as a kinda snack to keep us going. Really crispy tempura batter, lovely firm prawns and the dipping sauce was good also. Would have preferred something stronger but hey ho.

Leaving Tokyo behind us we headed up into the mountains to see the Snow Monkeys in Yudanaka. Arrived into this small town starving. After walking around for an age before we went to the Ryokan. We found a small place that sold noodles. Luckily the chef spoke some English and Spanish. So we ordered two bowls of noodles with fried tofu, local mushrooms, pork and a fried egg. Really did hit the spot as we were both starving, and the inclusion of egg added an extra dimension to these lovely noodles.

After a hard days monkey watching, (or being watched by the monkeys) we headed out to find some food. We had heard about a place that made its own soba noodles. Never gonna miss an opportunity to eat some noodles. Unfortunately it was closed. So we wandered back to a Sushi place we saw on the way, again it was closed. Now this all turned out quite lucky for us, as we stumbled (literally) upon a Chanko joint. Now, Chanko is the desired food of the Sumo Wrestler. It is a huge pot of stock bubbling away with the cheapest veg and meat cuts in, as in the Sumo Stables, the Master has to feed everyone, and the newbie trainees do not earn any money whilst they are training. So everyone sits down and it goes in hierarchal order. The Masters get their pick first then the lowly trainees get what ever is left. They do this twice a day.

It was a very atmospheric place full of locals either having a full meal or drinks and sashimi after work. So we seat down on the tatami mats and a pot appears before us on top of a gas flame bubbling away, with lots of veg and mushrooms in it. So we tucked in. The thing here that I have noticed is that everywhere here all soups and noodles etc have such great stocks. I’m guessing that they use Dashi or miso stock as a base and add to it for the desired dish. On such a cold night when we left we were positively glowing and warm.

The following day we heading off to Takayama, it kind of represents how some parts of Japan looked a hundred years ago or so. They produce a similar version to Kobe Beef there called Hida Beef. Looking in some butchers shops and some cuts going for 12000 Yen for 100g, (roughly works out to be about £65 a kilo) it is hellishly expensive.

We stayed at an old Temple and the Master there “Tommy”, advised us if we wanted to, to eat at a restaurant called Suzuya, if we wanted try Hoba Yaki, a local speciality, as this place did it the best and was the cheapest. It basically is some miso paste, smeared onto a cedar leaf, with some vegetables, noodles, mushrooms and some famous Hida Beef, all cooked on top of a naked flame. Once the miso starts to sizzle you just mix everything together and eat away. To be honest it, the dish itself has been the low point of our trip here, the beef tasted great, very soft and the fat creamy, but overall so-so. The restaurant only seemed to cater for large tour groups, as there was one from Germany in that night. Should have warned us off.

Tommy also recommended another place, a Tempura joint. As if by chance without looking for it, we found it, decided to poke our heads round the door to see what it was like and look at a menu. Really small place fronted by the chef and a waitress. It had 7 seats at the bar and a few tables with tatami mats in a room adjacent. I had a good feeling about this place, so we sat at the bar and ordered a couple of beers (gotta stop drinking beer as getting too bloated) and some Tempura sets. One with 2 prawns and 6 veg, and another one with an eel and 6 veg. All were made right in front of us and were all exquisite. Actually Tempura does go very nice with beer, but so does Sushi and Sashimi also, and with Sake too. We had two dips for the Tempura. One was a normal dipping sauce with some dashi in it, the other was curry powder and salt. He made a clear point of making sure we understood, not to dip the Tempura in one and then in the other. I kinda gathered it would have been a fate worse than a fate worse than death.

The chef was particularly happy at the end, as he had a map on the wall and would get everyone to mark where they came from. Lina was the first Colombian to visit his restaurant. Another red dot to add to the ever growing number. This place was a big highlight. “Tempura Ebihachi” was its name.