Dinner With Gao (December 26th)
Mr. Gao QingXian and his wife invited Jinghua and me to dinner on the day after Christmas. We went to a new restaurant that served in the Shanxi style. (Gao and his wife both come from this province, which is southwest of Beijing. Gao comes from Taiyuan, which is also the hometown of Li Mei and her sister Li Guoying.) So we went with pleasure. As you will see from the photos below, the restaurant is spacious and clean. The food was excellent, too.
Here you can see how well spaced the tables are, which is unusual for a Chinese restaurant. You can also see the shiny, spotless kitchen.
One of the specialties of Shanxi is oat noodles. Here is one of the chefs preparing them. He takes the dough and with one hand flattens it and wraps it around one of his fingers. The finished product can be seen next to his right hand. They are then steamed.
Here are some little cakes.
The noodle chef just starting on a new batch.
Mr. Gao beginning to order.
Mr. Gao negotiating over the order. Mrs. Gao (Cindy) is on the left.
Jinghua waiting patiently while Mr. Gao completes the order. Some things just shouldn't be rushed!
Another view of the restaurant and some of its patrons.
It's a beautiful place.
The happy diners.