A family picnic in Crown Plaza
We have been warned
about the food in China before we came and had prepared a list of restaurants that offer Halal food but we were
disappointed all the same. It is not that Chinese food is bad or
tasteless- my kids used to eat at Panda house and Chinese corner in Cairo all
the time- but we could never make sure if it had pork or not.
In all the regular
Chinese restaurants we tried , there were no English menus and few waiters spoke
English. Since all the Chinese we knew was "nee haw" and "
"cece", communication was impossible in any way. Our list of
Islamic restaurants was no good too because the ones near our hotel turned out
to be under construction or mobilization! For the first couple of days we still
had hope to find one and when we finally got there, we were totally
disillusioned.
The smell was awful,
the place looked dirty and ,to our surprise and dismay, there was nothing
Islamic about the menu; they had many pork dishes and even more, they had some
donkey meat. The smell of boiled cabbage permeated the place and I felt
a sudden urge to vomit or cry, neither of which I could do in front of my kids!
The only beef they had in that restaurant was served raw with vegetables
and we had to do the cooking in their hot pot! No offense meant or
anything, but in our Egyptian culture, you go to a restaurants to be served and
pampered, not to do the cooking yourself. I was in no mood to try any new cooking
experience. Had I not been tired to death with every muscle and joint aching
after four days of traveling and sightseeing, I would have loved the idea of a
hot pot on a restaurant table and cooked for my family in the manner I used to
do for the last twenty years. BUT I COULD NOT DO IT THEN OR THERE. That
was way too much. Nora almost fainted from fatigue and disgust and we
decided to leave after ordering two dishes that no one could eat.
But at least we knew
better than trying to find other restaurants, Halal or no Halal, we will not set
foot into any Beijing restaurants again.
After four days of
near starvation, we decided to save what remained of our energy by eating a big
lunch in the kids' hotel room. We finally came across 711 and there we got the
only foods we could recognize: toast, cheese, boiled eggs, Pepsi, fruits and
chocolates. Since the hotel room had only one small table and one chair,
on which I sat in front of the treats, everyone else sat on beds and waited for
their turn to eat. I had never seen my children so happy to eat the cheese
and eggs sandwiches I made. They savored every bite of the food with huge
appetite and asked for more! That was one hell of a picnic. We
still love China!
