A Homecooked Meal?

It is hard to dine out in Beijing.  The most glaringly obvious reason for that being that I can't read the words so I have no idea what I'm getting.

It's always fascinating to see how other cultures interpret other cultures food.   Like Westerners misinterpreting Chinese food, the Chinese have misinterpreted Western food.  Of course there are McD's (which offers 24h delivery) here but there are way more Pizza Huts and KFC.  Just about every corner has one or both of them.  With an itch for some home-y food I ventured off to Pizza Hut for what they promote as 'Erotica Pizzas'.  My tastes have changed since being here and it was what I needed but still it wasn't quite right.  The cheese was, well, not so much cheese and the crust was bang on for a Jacob's cream cracker and there were some canned peaches involved.

Take 2 at Western food.  Round the corner from Pizza Hut is the latest fusioin style restaurants The South American Restaurant and German Microbrewery.  Not a combination that I would have instinctively put together but it sound like a combo I'd like to have a crack at!  I'm thinking Argentinian steak and a beer.  Now that's good food!  A 20 minute wait...good start.  Means that there is good food.  They take us up stairs to our seats (right beside the window so we are on display) and they and us a menu.  This lovely restaurant has less then 20 things on the menu all of which seem to involve chicken feet, pork belly, pickling or a combination of all three.  There is nothing South American or German about this place.

In a last ditch effort to find something that isn't Chinese, we found a Turkish restaurant.  It turns out to be some of the best food I have had since being here.  The tomatoes are of perfect ripeness, the falafel is perfection and, best of all, there's no pork.   Our meat of choice is a lamb kebab, juicy and tender, it is nothing short of delicious.  We meet one of the owners and we mention that we wanted a break from Chinese food and the meal was more than we hoped for.  The owner thanks us and says he felt the same way, which is why he opened the restaurant.  Beijing food starts to taste the same after awhile but this was the change that we had searched for.