adventures in dining

Last night we ventured out to the Great Wall Restaurant, which isn't too far from UIBE. First of all, it was down a little side-street and where this street met the big street was a little gate thingy - it was uber-Chinese-looking and cute. I wonder if they ever actually lock those gates or not. So we get to restaurant and it's gorgeous inside - I took a picture which is beside the text. The menu fortunately has English as well as Chinese, which is a big help, but you still never know what you are going to get. In many of the pictures, especially those of fish entrees, the fish head is right there, looking up at you. Every restaurant seems to have tanks in which said fish are kept. Now, if you know me, you know how I feel about aquatic life... Anyways, we point to some stuff that sounds okay and it turns out to be decent food. Usually textures are really 'weird' here so that's always a surprise to say the least. I absolutely LOVE the noodles here, as I've said before, because they are made fresh and they are just awesome. So I got some of those just in case the other stuff we ordered wasn't agreeable. I will say this about Chinese food - there is usually never a want for spices, they do a good job at that. Sometimes the sauce that your food is in is not particularly tasty, but it's all about trying stuff here because in honesty, it's hard to know what something is going to taste like here. You really can't tell by looking at it.
My lunch in the cafeteria was really good yesterday... I think that's the most I've eaten yet of a portion of Chinese food, which is saying something because eating is a chore here, at the moment, because there's always 'surprises' that need to be spit out.
I need to go get ready for a big day - we're going to see some 'real' Beijing sites today and I'm really excited. Today we're going to T. Square (I can't type the whole word or this post might get mysteriously 'deleted'), Drum Tower for a performance, and then we're going to walk around a hutong, which is an old-style neighborhood. I'll come back armed with pictures and my thoughts.