Great Wall Fresh afternoon
After our plans to stay around Yonging Sunday after church had to be changed, we started to pack up the car with our vegetable purchases (and no crickets!). We weren't sure where we would go next, only that we wanted to get out of Yongning. Brigid piped up with her one expectation of the day, "I hike a Great Wall."
She repeated this several times as we strapped her in her carseat. It took a promise of Great Wall to get her to sit still enough to secure her seat. Randy fiddled with the GPS and announced we were going to Great Wall Fresh.
Great Wall Fresh is a farmer-owned restaurant in view of the Great Wall west of the more famous and tourist-trapped Badaling. Unbelievably quiet, it would be just what we needed at the beginning of this October holiday. We first heard of Great Wall Fresh from the tireless promotion of Jeremy Goldkorn, a Beijing-based expert in all kinds of things China-related. He's even been on CNN touting this place. We've been talking about going for more than a year now, but we keep delaying. It is so close to us that we figure we can always go there. We have driven past it once before, and saved the coordinates for another day.
We arrived there without any difficulty. Since we did not call ahead, I was not sure if they would even be open or able to feed us. If they could not, we were planning to reserve for later this week. Even though they were already serving two large groups, they welcomed the four of us. I advised them that we did not eat meat, which they were easily able to accomodate. We sat at a table inside their courtyard in full view of a gorgeous section of Great Wall on the ridge above.
More after the jump
Myles loved the garden in the courtyard. He even watched them pick some of the vegetables for our lunch.
When we were about half-way done eating, I remembered to take a picture.
We started with a pink, sweeter-than-sour radish slaw and two raw lettuce dishes, one a bit spicy and the other dressed in sesame paste. I normally don't like radishes, but this was so good. The lettuces were difficult to stop eating, which is perfect. I had never had the spicy one before. The one with sesame paste we've had many times previously, and at Great Wall Fresh it was fantastic. We also had some stewed pumpkin that was eaten very quickly. I think all that is left in the picture is the orange water. There was a doufu and cabbage dish which I am sure was delicious, but I don't normally care for the Beijing-style of doufu. It tastes different than in the South. Myles liked it well enough. We also had an omelet seasoned with cilantro, and a fried egg and cucumber dish. These were also very good.
This entire meal cost us only 100 RMB. The prix fixe lunch is 50 kuai per adult, and kids were no charge. Because of the casual courtyard atmosphere, it was okay for the kids to get up and play around. That was priceless, too. Of course, there was no shortage of grown men who wanted to play with the waiguo xiao pengyou (little foreign friends).
Mr. Chen, the owner, asked us where we were planning to stay for the night. I knew they had guestrooms available there, but being from Changping we would be returning home that afternoon. It could be an option for us, I'm sure, should we be up for a heated kang adventure when we still don't have heat in those chilly first weeks of November.
Most everything was perfect, though there were a few glitches. Because it was busy, and we were unexpected, we had difficulty getting drinks with our meal. Other tables were helping themselves to cases of beer and water in one of the rooms in the house, but it wasn't clear to us if those were theirs or for any of the guests and then added to our bill. We had plenty with us to drink on our own, but if we hadn't this would have been a problem.
Of course, just eating in view of the Great Wall was not satisfactory to Brigid. We drove to a spot we knew we could access quickly and make Brigid happy to be hiking. The folks at Great Wall Fresh also operate tours. Since we were late and unannounced in our arrival, we did not ask to go on any of their regular hikes. Next time.
She repeated this several times as we strapped her in her carseat. It took a promise of Great Wall to get her to sit still enough to secure her seat. Randy fiddled with the GPS and announced we were going to Great Wall Fresh.
Great Wall Fresh is a farmer-owned restaurant in view of the Great Wall west of the more famous and tourist-trapped Badaling. Unbelievably quiet, it would be just what we needed at the beginning of this October holiday. We first heard of Great Wall Fresh from the tireless promotion of Jeremy Goldkorn, a Beijing-based expert in all kinds of things China-related. He's even been on CNN touting this place. We've been talking about going for more than a year now, but we keep delaying. It is so close to us that we figure we can always go there. We have driven past it once before, and saved the coordinates for another day.
We arrived there without any difficulty. Since we did not call ahead, I was not sure if they would even be open or able to feed us. If they could not, we were planning to reserve for later this week. Even though they were already serving two large groups, they welcomed the four of us. I advised them that we did not eat meat, which they were easily able to accomodate. We sat at a table inside their courtyard in full view of a gorgeous section of Great Wall on the ridge above.
More after the jump
Myles loved the garden in the courtyard. He even watched them pick some of the vegetables for our lunch.
When we were about half-way done eating, I remembered to take a picture.
We started with a pink, sweeter-than-sour radish slaw and two raw lettuce dishes, one a bit spicy and the other dressed in sesame paste. I normally don't like radishes, but this was so good. The lettuces were difficult to stop eating, which is perfect. I had never had the spicy one before. The one with sesame paste we've had many times previously, and at Great Wall Fresh it was fantastic. We also had some stewed pumpkin that was eaten very quickly. I think all that is left in the picture is the orange water. There was a doufu and cabbage dish which I am sure was delicious, but I don't normally care for the Beijing-style of doufu. It tastes different than in the South. Myles liked it well enough. We also had an omelet seasoned with cilantro, and a fried egg and cucumber dish. These were also very good.
This entire meal cost us only 100 RMB. The prix fixe lunch is 50 kuai per adult, and kids were no charge. Because of the casual courtyard atmosphere, it was okay for the kids to get up and play around. That was priceless, too. Of course, there was no shortage of grown men who wanted to play with the waiguo xiao pengyou (little foreign friends).
Mr. Chen, the owner, asked us where we were planning to stay for the night. I knew they had guestrooms available there, but being from Changping we would be returning home that afternoon. It could be an option for us, I'm sure, should we be up for a heated kang adventure when we still don't have heat in those chilly first weeks of November.
Most everything was perfect, though there were a few glitches. Because it was busy, and we were unexpected, we had difficulty getting drinks with our meal. Other tables were helping themselves to cases of beer and water in one of the rooms in the house, but it wasn't clear to us if those were theirs or for any of the guests and then added to our bill. We had plenty with us to drink on our own, but if we hadn't this would have been a problem.
Of course, just eating in view of the Great Wall was not satisfactory to Brigid. We drove to a spot we knew we could access quickly and make Brigid happy to be hiking. The folks at Great Wall Fresh also operate tours. Since we were late and unannounced in our arrival, we did not ask to go on any of their regular hikes. Next time.
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