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Chow Mein and Chopsticks:
A Report from our Roving Restaurant Night Chairman
by Jim Plunkett

One of the unfortunate statistics in Peru is the very high percentage of cleft palate and similar problems that exist because of genetic factors and poor nutrition. Most of the victims of these conditions are, of course, those with very reduced economic resources.

Your Restaurant Night chairman left Lima on a typical evening flight to L.A. after having to detour Hurricane Frances in Miami. The next time I woke up, I was in Beijing heading towards a hotel in the early morning in the midst of lots of slow-moving traffic, no smoke, and tons of bicycles in a special lane all heading for work.

This city of 20 million people is a beehive of activity from dawn to dusk and beyond. Despite all the modern concrete edifices, the streets are lined with trees and bushes, all clean and fresh. What most impresses me is the growth. New buildings going up all over the city, and work is carried out behind scaffolds enclosed in green plastic mesh from top to bottom to avoid contamination. Ninety percent of the world's inventory of construction cranes is now in China; in Beijing, this amazing fact is obvious.

…and I thought Lima had chifas! This place wins the prize! Between family and friends, I feel like we have tried most of them, and it appears I have put on almost 3 kilos in a few weeks. There is a block downtown dedicated to typical fast food, kiosk style, which opens after dark and probably doesn't close until midnight. Luckily I spent more time filming than I did eating, and I stopped after a few morsels of silk cocoons on a bamboo skewer. Then there were anticuchos of grasshopper, scorpions, and things you and I normally never eat. They assured me that there are few calories and lots of protein. Oh yeah!

Once you get beyond the eating, there are great theaters with traditional, modern, and mixed performances. Prices range from $15 to $100 according to the performance, and they are all first class.

If you like history and hiking, wear your hiking shoes and be comfortable, as the treks are long. Tianamen Square, The Forbidden City, old pagodas, the Summer Palace, the 13 tombs of the emperors up through the Ching Dynasty, and of course, the Great Wall. We took a cable car up a mountain and then walked about 200 meters up the Wall. Part steps and part flat stones, this is a climb at about 45 degrees and should not be done after a Chinese lunch, nor breakfast for that matter. The view from the top is spectacular, and is a great tribute to the thousands that died due to forced labor. And it is the only visible man-made monument that can be seen from the moon... all 5,000 kilometers of it!

Next stop was Xian, home of the famous terra cotta army discovered in a farm area in 1974 by 6 farmers digging for water. This in itself was worth the trip to China. Since it's time to eat again, I will keep you in suspense until our editor finds more space for my report. Oh yes, I have some great suggestions for our upcoming Restaurant Nights, and I promise we will avoid the scorpions and grasshoppers.

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