Category

China

• Airports, China, Fast Food, Korea

  Airport Food Round-Up – Hong Kong, Beijing, Incheon

  01.14.10 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  For those wondering if the end was nigh, well, it’s here. Until my next trip to Asia, this will be my last East Asian post, and it’s about airport food. Hell what?! Hell yeah, airport food! In East Asia, specifically in Beijing, Incheon, and Hong Kong, unlike here in the States, airport food is actually good. I ate roast goose, hwedupbab (회덥밥, similar to bibimbab, but with raw fish), and hot noodle soup; all within fifteen minutes of my departure gate. Not a single overpriced shrink-wrapped sandwich, stale bagel, or a generic hamburger was eaten. MORE »

• China, Restaurants

  I Did it All for the Duck – Beijing

  01.08.10 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  From the beginning, the stars weren’t aligning for me and China. My first application for a visa to China was denied. The reason, I work for a news/media company, and although I wrote on my application that I was going for pleasure, not business, I was rejected. Beijing may have hosted the Olympics, but that still doesn’t change the fact that China is a communist country. Foreign press is not welcome unless it is authorized. I argued and argued, but no one wanted to listen, and they just sent me to another line when they got tired of talking to me. Finally, after being shuffled back and forth between several windows, someone told me to come back with a letter from my work stating specifically that I was not going to Beijing on company business. An hour later, to the dismay of the people at the embassy, I was back with my letter, signed by my manager and on company letterhead. Another hour later, I had my visa. It took an entire day of waiting on line, running across town twice in the pouring rain, plus two application fees and one hefty expediting fee, but I got my visa. Unfortunately, I also got food poisoning from a bad gyro at the diner next door. I should I have seen it has a sign, but of course I didn’t. That would have been too easy. MORE »

• Announcements, China, Hong Kong, Korea

  Back to the Motherland & Visiting Neighbors – East Asia

  09.14.09 | Permalink | 5 Comments

  

  My Mom’s World Famous Galbi

  After twelve years since my last visit, I’m going back to the motherland: Seoul, South Korea. Or as I like to say, ‘Where the magic happened!’ I’ll also be traveling to Hong Kong and Beijing. After much drama at the Chinese embassy on Friday, immediately followed by a bizarre case of food poisoning from a harmless looking gyro, I didn’t think it would happen, but thankfully, I just touched down in Hong Kong. MORE »