My father-in-law wanted to take us to a Green Tea Restaurant for lunch today. He knew I wanted to go to the park so he said we could go early, like 11. Well after spending the morning doing laundry and reading. We had to wait for my mother-in-law to wake from her nap to go. So we didn’t leave the house till noon.
We rode the bus to the mall we used to buy cake from 5 years ago. It is a fancy mall but reminds me Japanese Malls with all the little shops in the open areas. I’d rather walk around this fancy mall than the new mall we went to last week.
The Green Tea Restaurant had a lot of unusual foods. Green tea fish(yum), green tea chicken, green tea BBQ(mostly pork fat but good), cauldron potatoes(spicy and yummy), green tea cakes(filled with perhaps some type of bean paste and rolled in seasame seeds). Their specialty was this sweet bread. It was basically a square loaf of bread with the inside cut out and sliced, buttered and cut into cubes then put back into the loaf box and toasted so the inside warm and melty and the outside toasted then they put a scoop of ice cream on it. It was very good and the kids have asked to go back.
We left them to hop on the subway, at this time it’s past 2:30 P.M. I’ve decided we’ll go to the Panjiyuan Market aka Panjiyuan Flea Market aka Panjiyuan Antique Market. It looks like some places are already closing. They open at 4:30 Saturday and Sunday. There are shops open M-Th but on the weekend are the free vendors the more local “flea market” guys who set up under umbrellas on blankets. We walked around, up and down aisles. So many things to see, lots of walnuts, paintings, books, a building for stamps and coins and memorabilia, clay tea pots, beads, and stone stamps(hanko). We didn’t get too much and the haggling wasn’t always optional. But the prices were more reasonable so you didn’t have to. I got some agate that I didn’t recognize. We got 2 shadow puppets. 3 tea pets, Wensen is the only one who didn’t find one that called to him.
We walked 2 long blocks down to Longtan Park. Stopping along the way for drinks and ice cream. In the river outside of Longtan Park they had a few places where steps lead down to the river and we saw people going in to swim. When we got to Longtan Park it was about 6. Gone are the tourists. Here are the locals who come to walk or exercise. It was cloudy or hazy so we couldn’t even see any pretty sunset. It was a bit of a disappointment this trip as lots of construction, lots of parts closed off. They had several rides and even though adults had to go on with small kids. It was for the toddler sized kids only.
We ended up jumping busses halfway home so we wouldn’t have to walk at the end. Wensen has been asking for a burger all week. Instead my in-laws get chicken sandwiches, then ground pork because the market doesn’t sell ground beef. So I take them to McDonalds for dinner. You can still order at the 2 token registers they have left, but are encouraged by signs everywhere to order at the 6 kiosks and then choose if you want to pick it up yourself or have it delivered to your table. There is an English button to make it easier. The only drinks that can come with a value meal is sprite or coke, else upgrade to milk tea, some fruit teas or jumbo drinks. They all order normal stuff we can get at home, outside of letting them get coke. I went for something we don’t have a French shrimp and beef patty sandwich, upcharged to soccer ball hash browns and jumbo coke because they put lemon slices in it.
So funny they put slurped tops on liquid drinks to make it look bigger then give you the give bubble straws. As soon as I smelled my sandwich I knew it was bad, the shrimp didn’t smell good and the sandwich didn’t look fresh. The beef was tough. I took a bite and spit it out. I took it up and used charades to mime the smell(they didn’t think it smelled bad). My interpreters didn’t know how to say it was bad/old, just that I didn’t like it. They respond but you ordered it. I hand it over and walk away to order myself a new sandwich at the kiosk. The manager comes over to stop me and brings the menu for me to point to a sandwich I want. Thank you.
After waiting for 20 minutes the kids are done, my sandwich still not arrived, we order desert. They have a matcha sauce Oreo cone and at night it’s buy one get one half off. So I order, but we pick up at counter this time. The manager sees me and I shake my head no, she knows I didn’t get my sandwich and asks the other worker who couldn’t be bothered. She apologized. I thanked and ate it. The matcha sauce wasn’t that good, I wouldn’t get it again. We decided we wouldn’t not eat there again. Except maybe for one of their teas.
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