Chuan'r You Full Yet?

Excuse the poor pun. I've been replete with them lately.
We were invited to the hutong home of Yang Jie and Sun Wei, the hard-working and oft-underappreciated drivers for our ESL school. Sun quit recently because they hadn't increased his pay in his 4-year tenure; Yang Jie picks us up every day, usually with a big smile. She knows some words in English: "See You Tomorrow!", "Cigarette", "Teacher", and "Thank You."

We brought some special liquor-y stuff that's popular here: Moutai baijiu. We also brought empty stomachs and providently so, as the two assiduous cooks (and Yangjie's brother, wife, and baby) had prepared a feast of epic proportions. I am consistently amazed at the generosity and hospitality of Chinese households. In a two-room living space with a pit toilet and essentially open-air kitchen the size of Dilbert's cubicle, kilos of meat, piles of sesame cucumber, bowls of edamame and fresh cherry tomatoes, and fresh garden greens were procured in a seemingly endless stream of deliciousness. Then there was Chuan'r. It's set up in the same fashion as American BBQ kebobs or Thai satay, tender meats impaled upon a stick and roasted over coals 'til smokey, savory, and succulent. If you find yourself awake and driving through Beijing at 2 am, you'll see rollicking impromptu chuan'r parties on otherwise empty corners and sidewalks--usually consisting of taxi drivers in it for the long haul, late-night amorous couples, and old neighbors. The Muslim minority groups living in Beijing make it best, I think.


Beef, Lamb, and Chicken: my herbivoric undoing (I came for the cucumber and instead took a liking to chicken hearts--traditional Chinese thought says they make you smarter!!)


The seasonings for chuan'r: cumin, pepper, garlic, soy paste


Driver Sun mixin' it up


Driver Sun fanning the flames


he's most definitely got the plumpest baby-jowels in Peking


Yang Jie's nephew: now featured on Lucky Baby of the Month



The skewers kept coming. And coming. "No more," we groaned, and took another round. This principle also applies to beer, and cigarettes, of which there seemed to be an endless supply. Our hosts were most compelling.