In search of bagels
True Ambrose Confession: I convinced myself that one of the "perks" of moving to Beijing from Shenzhen would be that, given the larger and more established expat presence in Beijing, we would have an easier time buying imported food products. No, I don't expect any place in China to cater to my wants, but if Cheerios and cheese are available, I'll happily buy them.
What I never took into account, or rather really didn't know, was that we would be living in Changping, so far out of the expat communities of Beijing. When Randy interviewed for the job last year, we accompanied him to Beijng but we never got to look around Changping. Myles and I spent our time sight-seeing down in the city.
Of course, now that we live in Changping we realize that things are very different than we had it in Shenzhen. However, on of our new "perks" is that Randy has a license and a car, so sometimes we can actually drive to expatland. He still isn't keen on driving into the city, so 've been looking for some Shunyi-area places that might be of interest for us. Sunday night we went for pizza and bagels. We are getting pretty sick of Chinese Pizza Hut, so we tried to find Mrs. Shanen's.
I had purchased bagels from Mrs. Shanen's before, though at a Lido-area grocery store. We weren't sure we would even find it, but even with our GPS and some vague Shunyi maps, we took what we thought was a wrong turn and there it was. I was surprised at its location. In Shenzhen similar restaurants are in new shiny shopping plazas or something like that, but then again, everything in Shenzhen is pretty new and shiny.
Food was great and Brigid is ecstatic to have bagels again. She gnaws at them and screams if you try to take them away. The drive is probably only thirty to forty-five minutes on a trafficless weekend, so we would make this trip again for a Saturday or Sunday night.
Our bill though--it's been a while since we've had real Western food in China and our total bill for dinner, ice cream, and bagel take-out was more than our rent for a week. Of course our rent is really low for Beijing expats.
It continues to be fascinating to me, though, the prices of things here. What is expensive and what is cheap depends more on where it is bought and who is doing the buying than the actual value of a particular product here.
What I never took into account, or rather really didn't know, was that we would be living in Changping, so far out of the expat communities of Beijing. When Randy interviewed for the job last year, we accompanied him to Beijng but we never got to look around Changping. Myles and I spent our time sight-seeing down in the city.
Of course, now that we live in Changping we realize that things are very different than we had it in Shenzhen. However, on of our new "perks" is that Randy has a license and a car, so sometimes we can actually drive to expatland. He still isn't keen on driving into the city, so 've been looking for some Shunyi-area places that might be of interest for us. Sunday night we went for pizza and bagels. We are getting pretty sick of Chinese Pizza Hut, so we tried to find Mrs. Shanen's.
I had purchased bagels from Mrs. Shanen's before, though at a Lido-area grocery store. We weren't sure we would even find it, but even with our GPS and some vague Shunyi maps, we took what we thought was a wrong turn and there it was. I was surprised at its location. In Shenzhen similar restaurants are in new shiny shopping plazas or something like that, but then again, everything in Shenzhen is pretty new and shiny.
Food was great and Brigid is ecstatic to have bagels again. She gnaws at them and screams if you try to take them away. The drive is probably only thirty to forty-five minutes on a trafficless weekend, so we would make this trip again for a Saturday or Sunday night.
Our bill though--it's been a while since we've had real Western food in China and our total bill for dinner, ice cream, and bagel take-out was more than our rent for a week. Of course our rent is really low for Beijing expats.
It continues to be fascinating to me, though, the prices of things here. What is expensive and what is cheap depends more on where it is bought and who is doing the buying than the actual value of a particular product here.
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