2018-08-16

【Aiden in English】

        The thing I'm looking forward to the most in China is the food. It's that simple. Great culture, extended family, a new world, all worthy of attention, but nothing captures all categories of China like its food. Therefore, I feel completely fine when saying Chinese food is equivalent to American football. You just can't escape it, so why not embrace it.

        Honestly, Chinese culture also puts the most effort into food, more than practically any other major country. An early practice from years past was food brought the fun in parties, not Netflix. Obviously, it is quite a Chinese thought process, which is why this only applied to Chinese get-togethers. Further evidence of the ingestion power is the sheer amount of restaurants you will find in any shopping mall in China. They might as well rename malls 'food centers' because multiple floors would be filled with all varieties of restaurants.

        Now, complimenting so generously always means there is a catch. In this case, it was the airplanes. By no means am I critiquing the plane service or flight experience? In fact, Air China was surprisingly good (mainly because of the food). However, up until this point in my traveling career, not once did I have a canceled flight. Ever. That's very lucky of me. And especially since the first canceled flight wasn't a major transatlantic flight. But eventually, we would have a canceled flight somewhere, and why not here? A small, two-hour flight from Beijing to Nanjing got canceled due to a massive typhoon in the East China Sea, so we stayed overnight at a 'local' hotel, located an hour away from anything interesting. 

        After sounded waiting for luggage at the canceled flight carousel, to waiting for new tickets at the domestic flight's desk, to waiting for a guy to pick us up for the hotel bus, to waiting for the bus to the hotel, we finally arrived at the hotel, which was alright. It included all meals... which sucked. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of eating, so when mom's old college friend came around to give us a Beijing food education, we already felt relatively full.

        So far, China has yet to throw us a bone. We've waited, and waited, and ate some terrible food. All things I wasn't looking forward to. But that could all change, which it did. We drove to Beijing Hualian Shopping Ctr. in the District of Shunyi, the one where it's more of a giant ingestion festival of restaurants. And there was so much food! I understand I just ate (my stomach let me know), but all the flavors wafting through the air in an enclosed mall really made my mouth water. We found Xibei Oat Noodle Village that had a small line and ordered (the adults did the talking) and boom! Suddenly a bunch of buckwheat noodles and sorghum soups were at the table, mostly Northern tradition. And like I said, we made the mistake of eating before, but we still made good progress on most of the dishes. 

        Returning to the hotel in high spirits, I felt satisfied with the food selections and their taste. The only thing missing was a long night's sleep, which occurred an hour later. Most of all, I felt relaxed, understanding that although things didn't go as planned, sometimes the gray areas of travel are also the best moments.

【紅霞譯文】

        在中國我最熱衷的事情是吃，就這麼簡單。悠久的文化、龐大的家族、全新的世界，所有一切固然眾所矚目，但沒有哪個領域能像飲食行業那樣打動人心，如若把中餐佳餚與美式橄欖球相提並論，我毫無意見，既然你離不開它，何不好生念它的好呢?

        老實說，中國文化十分重視美食，幾乎蓋過世界上所有烹飪大國，“食不厭精膾不厭細”，過去中式派對上備受歡迎的是酒席而不是網飛，顯然這與“民以食為天”傳統思維理念遙相呼應，充分體現了中國特色。因為愛吃好吃，餐館飯店一向生意紅火，結果在中國各大商場有好幾層樓儘是五花八門的地方名吃，所以真該把“購物中心”改成“飲食中心”。

        嘿，如此慷慨美言總免不了另有隱情，眼下轉乘的航班的確出了狀況，我毫無怪罪機上服務或飛行遭遇之意，實際上中國民航表現出奇得棒（主要緣自食物），然而迄今在我的旅行生涯里從未碰到過停飛事件，一次也沒有，算我走運，特別是取消的航班並非跨越大西洋的主要航線，但倒霉的時候喝水都會嗆着，既然早晚都會偶遇這種意外，在北京經歷一下又有何妨呢？從北京到南京短短兩個小時的飛行居然被東海強颱風攪黃了，我們只好在機場“附近”的酒店過夜，方圓個把鐘頭幾近荒郊野外。

        在停飛航班傳輸帶前等着領取行李，在國內航線客戶服務台等着辦理機票改期手續，在機場大廳等着當班小伙子帶我們坐車回酒店，在車站等着大巴送我們去目的地，折騰了一路，換來一日三餐伙食全包……太不值得。糟糕的是我們失算，胡亂塞了些東西墊巴肚子，待媽媽大學朋友向我們灌輸“舌尖上的北京” 時，我們差點悔青了腸子。

        到現在為止，我們在國內尚未嘗到什麼甜頭，接二連三的等待，吞咽的東西又刺激胃口，一切的一切都不是我所期待的，但人生本來就不是一帆風順的，風雨過後才能看見彩虹，好事多磨唄。我們驅車前往順義華聯購物中心，吃的喝的琳琅滿目，只有想不到沒有吃不到！我清楚自己剛打過牙祭（腸胃說話算數），但是漫遊在一個封閉環境，空氣中到處散發着撲鼻的香味，把我饞得直流哈喇子。我們找到一家排隊不長的“西貝莜麵村”點了菜（大人只顧聊天），“啪唧”！說時遲那時快，一桌子北方風味的餄餎面魚魚湯呈現在眼前，上面提到我們千不該萬不該隨便打發食慾，但照舊大快朵頤幾乎橫掃殘餘。

        興高采烈地回到酒店，我對今晚特色飯菜風味小吃甚感欣慰，假若有什麼遺憾無處安扶的話，那就是仍要折騰一個鐘頭才好睡上囫圇覺，當然最重要的莫過於身心放鬆，雖說計劃趕不上變化，可有時旅程上的灰色地帶同樣擁有最興奮的時刻。

Today in History(歷史上的今天):

2017: Amsterdam the Mokum, Netherlands(荷蘭阿姆斯特丹—避風港)

2017: Amsterdam—Venice of the North, NLD(荷蘭阿姆斯特丹—北方的威尼斯)

2017: ADAM—Jerusalem of the North, NLD(荷蘭阿姆斯特丹—北方的耶路撒冷)

2017: The Night Watch @ Rijksmuseum, NLD(荷蘭國家博物館《夜巡》)

2014: St. Stan's Summer Festival(聖斯坦夏季狂歡節)

2010: 魔鬼變奏曲(Monster Variation)

Crosslink(相關博文):

China(出遊中國)