Weekend Eat Out - Xinjiang Uygur

We have gone to two not so good Xinjiang restaurants so far. Both time Jesse sensed it is going to be not good. We went to a Xinjiang restaurant inside of Mosque in downtown Suzhou. They also have a deli to sell fresh mutton. We thought it must be good because it is for Muslim people. We took my mom during her visit. When we got to the entrance of restaurant, there was Chinese Muslim waiter standing. Jesse asked him if this restaurant is Xinjing. He said back to Jesse unfriendly manner, “What? What are you talking about? This is not a Xinjinag restaurant. This is a Muslim restaurant.” Jesse told me right away this restaurant is not going to be good. I didn’t believe him and convinced him to try their food since we were already there. That was not good idea.


Saturday we went to a Xinjiang restaurant in Suzhou Industrial Park. We were very excited to find that restaurant, because they are an only Xinjiang restaurant in the district as we know. When we got there, Jesse’s antenna was up, and he felt this restaurant is not going to be good. He started asking a bunch of questions to a waitress before even open the menu. “Who is in the kitchen? Chinese or Uygur? Is this a Xinjing restaurant or a Xinjiang flavored Chinese restaurant?” The poor waitress didn’t know how to answer. I convinced Jesse again since we were here we should try. That wasn’t good idea.
Here is our at least condition of good restaurant.
-Authentic
-Bad (no concept of) customer service is OK. Sloppiness and laziness are not OK.
-Must have none pork dish

Two Days After

Today is Akiva’s six months old birthday. I went to down stair to buy a newspaper, because I’ve taken picture of Akiva with newspaper on his monthly birthday. I look at the day on the paper, “Wednesday July 27, 2005”. Somehow I lost two days? Akiva’s birthday is 25th. At the beginning I thought I’ve been watching LOST too much. Then I realized I have been living two days behind from the world without notice!! Is this called “stay home mom syndrome”?

Weekend Eat Out- Dim Sum

We have a children book called “Yum Yum Dim Sum” which is one of our world food series we like to read to Akiva. Every time we read the book we crave for dim sum.

For our Sunday branch, we went to a Cantonese restaurant “The Gu Ting” right by canal.We order the basic dim sum such as, steamed shrimp dumpling, siu mai, wrapped sticky rice so on. Their dim sum is fresh and very delicious. The price was reasonable too. They also had a good tea. Jesse had jasmine and I had green tea. Our total came to 69 yuan(pretty good).

Weekend Eat Out - Korean

We went to a Korean restaurant for dinner. It is about 10 minutes walk. The restaurant is in a Japanese restaurant/bar street. We like to go there because one of waitresses baby-sits Akiva while we are eating there.
We order bimbim bop and bulokogi. We can get the same quality of Korean food in the state too.The place was completely packed. The restaurant is full of good Korean BBQ and kimchee smell. Our total came to 100 yuan.
Akiva ate his food with us.

Chinese Magic Bullet Blender

We bought a Ninpo manufactured "Magic Bullet" blender on Sunday at Bai Lun Fa super market. It is a very cool blender, in fact, I made a broccoli baby food last night.

Sunday night after dinner we went to the super market to chill and just check out the options of blender. We went to a kitchen electric section. Three sales raps for different blenders approached to us, 1) high-end Korean blender rep 2) Shanghai manufactured blender rep 3)Ninpo manufactured blender rep.

A Korean blender rep dropped out soon because he knows we are cheap. Ninpo rep took us to his demonstration booth and showed us how to make cucomba milk juice. Ninpo rep looks young and nerdy but honest. Then Shanghai rep who almost looks like western, very light brown eyes and military clean cut came and smashed his blender container into the floor to show how unbreakable his blender is. Jesse was impressed because I often break things. Jesse asked the Ninpo rep if he is going to smash his container, he said "No" because the container is not something smash into the floor. Jesse looked at the Ninpo rep said "Then I have to buy a Shanghai blender". The Ninpo rep smashed his container into the floor. Now the Shanghai rep was standing on his container to show how strong his container is. Jesse glanced at the Ninpo rep. The Ninpo rep shook his head and stepped on his container.

Their sales talks were also fired up. The Ninpo rep explained the advantages of his blender. Meanwhile the Shanghai rep was loudly repeating "Shanghai brand is the best!".

Jesse asked some girl who was watching our "entertainment" if she were him, she would choose which brand. She said depends. Obviously she didn't want to get involved. Jesse told both reps he doesn't want to cause problem between their relationship, so he doesn't want to buy any tonight. However five minutes later we sneaked back and bought a Ninpo one.

Akiva is going to eat carrot tonight.