Lijiang Pork rib hotpot @ San Die Shui

Dan & I checked out a new place last weekend called San Die Shui Lijiang Waxed Pork Rib Hotpot 三叠水丽江腊排骨火锅.  It's located in a little hutong along  Gu Lou Da Jie, not far from Nanluoguxiang. 

We had the hotpot of course. 78rmb gives you a fair amount of ribs, tomatoes, celery and potato. You also get a small bowl of spicy dip made of fermented tofu, chilli flakes, black sesame and coriander.   The ribs are a tad tough but definitely tasty, being preserved and all. The soup base started out real salty - i guess from the ribs - but after restaurant staff added more stock, it tasted absolutely heavenly. It was a mix of salty, sweet & sour ( thanks to the massive number of fresh tomatoes).

Also had their Luoguo fan 锣锅饭  (18 rmb); sticky rice steamed in a bronze pot with lightly fried potatoes. The rice was lightly salted which made it quite addictive to eat. To wash down the food, we ordered the homemade rice wine, which had a lovely sweet after taste. 

Though we only ordered 2 dishes, we could hardly finish the food. We should have stuck to having just the hotpot but I was hungry! 

In terms of decor, this place is as simple as it gets. It's a typical small chinese eatery that's gotten a lighting upgrade, a new coat of paint,  simple wooden chairs and a hotpot table. It's more suited for a simple meals with close family and friends. 

Address: 鼓楼东大街东公街 25号 （ 交道口西边第一个胡同） 

Tel: 6404 1190

Who are you at work?

I was talking to a colleague about dealing with different personalities at work and was reminded of several personality tests that I took at a previous job. The tests were part of a training course to help us better understand how to manage people. The one I remembered most clearly was the Myers Briggs test. Looked it up online and did a condensed version of this test again. ( Do the test) 

It seems that I've turned into doormat at work :( I'm an ISFJ ( Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) type personality, categorized as a "Protector". Below is the description according to Keirsey.com. Note the line highlighted in Red. sad sad sad.

"We are lucky that Protectors make up as much as ten percent the population, because their primary interest is in the safety and security of those they care about - their family, their circle of friends, their students, their patients, their boss, their fellow-workers, or their employees. Protectors have an extraordinary sense of loyalty and responsibility in their makeup, and seem fulfilled in the degree they can shield others from the dirt and dangers of the world. Speculating and experimenting do not intrigue Protectors, who prefer to make do with time-honored and time-tested products and procedures rather than change to new. At work Protectors are seldom happy in situations where the rules are constantly changing, or where long-established ways of doing things are not respected. For their part, Protectors value tradition, both in the culture and in their family. Protectors believe deeply in the stability of social ranking conferred by birth, titles, offices, and credentials. And they cherish family history and enjoy caring for family property, from houses to heirlooms.

Wanting to be of service to others, Protectors find great satisfaction in assisting the downtrodden, and can deal with disability and neediness in others better than any other type. They are not as outgoing and talkative as the Provider Guardians [ESFJs], and their shyness is often misjudged as stiffness, even coldness, when in truth Protectors are warm-hearted and sympathetic, giving happily of themselves to those in need.

Their reserve ought really to be seen as an expression of their sincerity and seriousness of purpose. The most diligent of all the types, Protectors are willing to work long, hard hours quietly doing all the thankless jobs that others manage to avoid. Protectors are quite happy working alone; in fact, in positions of authority they may try to do everything themselves rather than direct others to get the job done. Thoroughness and frugality are also virtues for them. When Protectors undertake a task, they will complete it if humanly possible. They also know better than any other type the value of a dollar, and they abhor the squandering or misuse of money. To save, to put something aside against an unpredictable future, to prepare for emergencies-these are actions near and dear to the Protector's heart. For all these reasons, Protectors are frequently overworked, just as they are frequently misunderstood and undervalued. Their contributions, and also their economies, are often taken for granted, and they rarely get the gratitude they deserve.

Ugh. So which type are you?

i don't fancy going back there again..

So it was a terrible trip. I ate only 1 proper meal and that was on my first night in GZ. After that everything went downhill... box lunches that tasted awful; a hard as rock bed with too soft pillows which gave me the worse backache ever; getting pushed at the lift lobby by a fat, obnoxious and obviously drunk man; making last minute changes to a presentation till 4.30am; sleeping 3hrs; crazy cab drivers who try to run me down if I'm not in the cab or swerve so hard I nearly fly out of the cab. 

Can you tell that I really don't want to go back to Guangzhou??

The heat is on!

Landed few hours ago in Guangzhou. First impression - very HOT. It was 29 deg when we landed. 

My dad's in GZ too. He's heading off tomorrow towards Nanning. Got to see my dad for couple mins at the airport before I headed to the hotel with my colleagues. So that was real nice even if it was only for a few mins. 

Had a v late dinner. Most places were already closed but we managed to find a decent little restaurant to eat. The soup was ab fab. The great meal has put me in a more positive mood for tomorrow's ordeal... where we have to rehearse our presentation with our client contact before the actual presentation to a bigger audience on Tuesday. The heat is on for me to learn what I need to say in Mandarin and hopefully remember to say the right thing on Tuesday!   Have this awful vision that I will start in Mandarin and less than 2 sentences later, revert to an all English presentation :( . It has happened before and after that I had my chinese presentations scripted. Scripted, I can memorize. On the fly, I can't translate lots of industry terms much less a full concept which is set in stone in my head... in English, not Chinese! 

Thumbs up to Coldplay's publicists!

Watching Videoscope (Starworld) feature on Coldplay. While enjoying their fantastic music, it occurred to me that there was also a Coldplay concert on cable last friday and there's a Coldplay related contest on AXN tomorrow. Something about winning tickets to watch Coldplay in singapore on 23 March if you can identify the Coldplay song played in tomorrow's episode of CSI.

All I can say is they've got darn good publicists who have been hard at work promoting them across Asia as they travel through Singapore and Hong Kong next week.  Why oh why aren't they coming to Beijing?!