In search for Pho, and Dee's mystery box!
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2010
1
29
70
Trip End
Jul 31, 2011
Beijing, China
Thursday, December 2, 2010
By chance, Liz needed to buy a rail pass for her Japan trip and Jeff needed some winter gloves. When researching, the popular locations for pho was at Sanlitun, popular ex-pat area, and the CBD where you have a flurry of businessmen running around for meetings. Both of these locations do require some effort and time if you wish to go there and I was not really motivated to go THAT far for pho but since I had some companions to tag along with I jumped on in. Liz needed to go to the CBD for her rail pass and Jeff wanted to go to Sanlitun, either way I was bound to find some pho.
We went to the CBD first and by chance found the Prosper Center on 光华路 and made a beeline for the Mekong Riverside Cuisine restaurant. There we were greeted by a generous helping of pho with delicious cuts of beef. The only downside of the restaurant was the lack of hoisin sauce and the type of noodles used in preparation for the bowl of soup.The broth was topnotch! I would return in a heartbeat to consume the delicious soup.
While waiting for Liz to obtain her rail pass, Jeff and I wandered around the area and came upon Wanda Plaza where my mom had stayed during her time in Beijing. By stroke of luck we found Pho 88, which online boasted a bowl of pho for 18 RMB. We just finished eating at the Mekong Riverside Cuisine and forked over a 48 RMB each for their delicious helping of pho, and I had strong considerations for another bowl for 18 RMB. We went back to inform Liz of our discovery and eventually settled on trying the restaurant out. Just as I thought, 18 RMB buys you an 18 RMB bowl of pho, the broth was lacking in flavor and luckily I had ordered a small and quickly consumed my second helping of pho in 2 hour period.
Later on that evening, we celebrated Dee's birthday dinner at Helen's. Karin had organized the entire shindig including a massive CHOCOLATE cake! The party consisted of friends and Dee's classmates which totaled to over 25 people. Luckily we had ordered the proper size of cake to feed everyone. Dee's surprise did not arrive until later in the evening. It was always an inside joke within the group and we had finally put the plan into motion and delivered her the goods. Forrest and I were assigned to be the guinea pigs with boxes tied around our waists and presented Dee her presents. I was the first to come through the door and did a little dance to pump up the crowd, then she realized what we were doing. A box located quite close to the gentleman's privates which can only result in a hilarious and embarrassing outcome. Luckily for me and her, my box was the trap...only loaded with a book. However, Dee's ordeal was not over as Forrest's box was packing the real deal. After searching through the box, she came upon an object that was quite obvious. Pink in color and large in size, it was the perfect present to give to her. And her facial expressions was classic! A memorable night for the birthday girl indeed!
