ChubberBlub: #700

Yeah, I ate that. Muahahaha

Lucky lucky me was in Beijing the same time L was there. L is awesome because he hearts food like I heart food. As soon as I told him that I'll be in Beijing, he knew exactly where to go. We, along with 7 of his friends/co-worker were to eat at this restaurant hidden in the outskirts of Beijing. By hidden, I mean off the grid, behind iron gates (no joke), no streetlights, no signs. The restaurant is a standalone house surrounded by a budding pomegranate grove in the middle of no where. And yep, it was tasty. Oh so tasty.

The 9 of us ate so much food. Here's a random parade of just some of the dishes (yes, we ate a lot more but the rest of my pics are worse than the ones below. sorry kids!). Then we talk lamb.

'shrooms

The salt and pepper mushrooms were delicious. You dip these in salt and pepper then enjoy the light and crispy umami-ness of mushrooms.

#700 loves them fermented tofu. They use the super stinky kind and regular salty kind in all matters of sauces. Like this one:

eggplant!

White eggplant in fermented tofu sauce was super tender and savory but retained a nice bite.

brown food!

Shredded chicken in sesame sauce. Tasty and brown.

other shades brown

We like brown food. Yes we do. I loooved the cabbage salad on top. It was tangy, crispy and delicious. The bottom dish was stir fried black tofu. This was the first time I've ever had black tofu. It had a deeper flavor than regular tofu and and a chewier texture. Tasty.

And then there was lamb

we eat meat

Meat! In the tummy! So many flavors and textures beckoned. So answered, I did. The lamb was butterflied and spit roasted. The meat is intensely tender with a layer of awesome crispiness of the skin. The whole shebang was heavily seasoned with cumin and other spices. It's like eating a ginormous Xinjiang lamb skewer but with extra crispiness.

my first piece

Because the entire thing was butterflied, there was no un-crispy skin. Which meant maximum happiness. The fattiness of the lamb kept the meat incredibly moist.

This is going to be hard to believe due to the amount of lamb I eat, but I was not such a lamb freak until about 9 years ago until I visited Tianjing. The Xinjiang lamb skewers I had there were my gateway into this lovely lovely meat. So this was kind of like coming full circle. Except I'm going to keep eating as much lamb as possible. Hurm... Analogy fail.