Taste of North Korea
No, I haven’t been to North Korea… yet! But let me tell you about this restaurant I found in Laos… There are not many countries which maintain active diplomatic ties with North Korea. Well, among them is Laos, and while in Vientiane, I took the …
Hu Guo 糊锅, an unusual treat
The more some dish is unique to the location – the more satisfaction it brings to trace it and nail it. I have my foodie travel routine. First, read about the destination extensively. Second, make a list of food (local dishes, snacks, products) and places …
Sea of tea
Imagine 40,000 acres of tea. Imagine, or just go to Guizhou and see it yourself! At 25 km of lenght and 4 km of width, the “Tea Sea” in Meitan county is hailed as the largest contiguous area of tea plantation in the world. Directions: …
Of melons and deserts
Kasper embarks on the melon trail: Hami and Shanshan in Xinjiang. Hami melon waste container, hami melon bench, hami melon paintings, hami melon monuments. In Hami, melons are bigger than life. Everyone in China knows these melons, but not everyone knows the namesake town. Hami …
Fengjing 枫泾
Fengjing 枫泾 is a small canal town on the outskirts of the Shanghai metropolis. It lies just on the border with Zhejiang province. It is actually easier to get here from some places in Zhejiang than from central Shanghai. I reached it from a dusty …
Cradle of writing (or the fate of king’s toothache)
Yīnxū 殷墟 in Anyang city is one of the world’s most important archeological sites. We are talking about very, very old times here: Tutankhamun-old and Trojan War-old; the times of Ancient Babylon, the times of Rigveda, the times of replacing bronze tools with iron ones. …
Guitar clangs, Beggar’s Chicken
Beggar’s Chicken 叫化鸡 is a simple yet brilliant concept: a whole chicken is covered in clay and baked, resulting in utterly succulent and fragrant meat. Today, clay is often replaced with dough or oven bags. We prepared it with friends beside a small stream that …
Beihai, Guangxi 北海
Old buildings and seafood. I was in Yunnan and my visa was going to expire soon. I still had about six days left, but there is many tempting destinations on the stretch of 400 kilometers between Yunnan and the border with Hong Kong – and …
Donglianhua 东莲花
An old Muslim settlement in central Yunnan. Here are some photographs from Donglianhua 东莲花, an ancient village near Weishan. It is inhabited by people of the Islam-adhering Hui minority (回族). The name of the village literally translates as “East Lotus Flower”. Historians generally assume that …
Weishan 巍山: two noodle marvels
There are several unique culinary traditions in Weishan. It’s worth to mention two different local kinds of noodles: one made from wheat and one from rice. #1. The marvel of wheat Yī gēn miàn 一根面, or “one noodle”, is exactly what the name suggests: one …
