I'm back in Beijing now. Last night I came back on the same bullet like train that I went to Shanghai on. I had a batch of four 1 hour lessons this morning at my language school, that's the same as every weekday scheduled for the next month. I am making progress although it is slow, even for me.
This evening I thought I would wander around a bit looking for something to eat. I found a sizzling little place in a side street just off the main road that I am staying on. Last night I found a street stall in this side street where I had a diced pork chop and chili bun. The chili in it was so hot it left my lips feeling sore till this morning. That was actually my fault, the guy said to me "要不要" or "want not want" while holding up an enormous chili. I replied with "want". Tonight I wanted to avoid the chili. There are actually lots of restaurants in the area but this one has a menu in English as well as Chinese characters. I decided to eat in and I picked the Kung Pao Chicken. What I didn't realise until I got it is that it would have enough chillies in to get my eyes immediately streaming with tears and my nose running. It did and within seconds the staff supplied me with a handful of tissues. Nobody else seemed to have tissues, perhaps the staff have had the odd westerner taste their delightful dishes before, they seemed to know the drill.
While I was eating I was joined by a guy eating on his own as well. What he ordered looked good too and I managed to get out of him, speaking only in mandarin, what was in his meal. He was as surprised as me. When I asked him if what he was eating was good he simply replied "It's alright" in Mandarin.
When I left I got a glimpse of the cook in his kitchen, he looked hot in there. I suppose that's why he had just a pair of shorts, hat and shoes on. Since his man-boobs were flailing in the steam I am not at all surprised. I left feeling it was good, cheap food but having an English menu didn't help me too much tonight.
