My Hood - The Grocery Store

Here is the little corner store that sells import groceries.  It's owned by a friendly guy who loves his beer, so it's fully stocked with a lot of imported Belgian beers.  But apart from that, you can also pick up those hard-to-find items that you miss from home, from things like Pop Tarts, to refried beans, to canned soup (yes, surprisingly it's hard to find canned soup!).

Beijing Live

I just came back from a few days in Beijing.  Hooked up with my boy Jan, a.k.a. DJ Lomang (www.lomang.com), and managed to get out a couple nights.  On Saturday, he was spinning with DJ Wordy at this great live music venue called YuGong YiShan (yugongyishan.ning.com).  They killed it with a dope set, pulling out all my favourite back in the day old skool hip-hop tracks, mixing in some jazzy beats, a little funk, and even some Jimi Hendrix.  If you're in Beijing, and you love the Golden Era of hip-hop and the art of rocking the turntables as much as I do, look out for their parties - you will not be disappointed.

That night also had a live local reggae band.  Now normally, I'm not really down with live bands, but to see the crowd really getting into the music and enjoying themselves was refreshing.  The positive vibe was infectious.  Big props to Beijing for doing your thing.

My Hood

I love the area that I live in because as soon as you walk outside, it's mad local. From the lady that sells vegetables from her cart in the morning, to the place where I get dinner for $2, it's all really small mom and pop set ups. You get to know the who's, the what's, and the where's pretty easily. And as I've started to become familiar with them, I feel like I'm becoming a part of the neighbourhood. So I thought I'd start sharing with you what's up in my hood.

Here's where I usually get breakfast on my way to work.


I usually get the pan fried dumplings that you see in the black pan there. Or sometimes the buns from those steamers on the right. My breakfast usually costs around 50 cents.

Beer Testing - Round 7

Six time winner Harbin Beer goes toe to toe with Asahi "Fine Taste" Draft.

Defending Champ

Name: Harbin Beer

Origin: Harbin, China

Alcohol: 3.6%

Price: USD0.40/can USD0.11/100mL

Challenger

Name: Asahi "Fine Taste" Draft

Origin: Beijing, China

Alcohol: 3.6%

Price: USD0.42/can USD0.12/100mL

Tasting Notes:

Asahi actually means "Morning Sun".  With that in mind, I guess this could be a good breakfast beer to start your day, as it's quite a light, easy drinking brew.  Mild, but not watery like the other beers we've been trying recently. I suppose it does taste "finer" than their normal draft.  A bit fizzy, but overall, I can see this being a good summer beer. I give it a 6/10!

So finally, after a remarkable win streak (albeit not against the toughest of opponents), Harbin Beer, with a score of 5.5/10, is knocked off!

IKEA

Ikea's tagline for 2009 is "Home is the most important place in the world.", which I couldn't agree with more after my visit the other weekend to their Shanghai store - I couldn't wait to get out of there and back home. If there is a recession going on, nobody told these people. It was wall-to-wall mayhem in there, to the point where you could barely walk through. This is a picture of the check out line - it's 30+ aisles long, and each at least 50 people deep! Madness..

I Got A Gold Toof!

Cuz that's how we roll.. (and well, also because I got a root canal, and the dentist said I needed to get a crown, or my tooth might break..)