Dog Don't Care

Day two in Tianjin China...

After spending most of the day with my wife's college-mates wandering the shopping district ducking in and out of different shopping establishments to avoid the biting cold of the winter breeze, we meet up with the in-laws for dinner at 狗不理(Gou Bu Li; Literally translated Dog Don't Care) . This is what we ordered:

• 传统猪肉包子 (Traditional Pork steam buns)
• 三鲜包子 (Pork, sea cucumber, and shrimp steamed buns)
• 蟹黄包子 (Crab meat steam buns)
• 野菜包子 (Wild herbs steam buns)
• 百年酱肉包子 (Hundred years marinated pork steam buns)
• 红烧驮掌 (Braised Camel Paw)
• 蝴蝶鳝鱼 (Butterfly Eel)
• 龙井牛蛙 (Dragon Well Bull Frog)
  

Gou Buli steam bun is one of the local speciality of Tianjin. It stands out from other steam buns because the stuffing is particularly smooth and oily and the dough is not fully leavened. This place is a bit of a tourist trap, but I'm a tourist and I'm told by everyone that if you go to Tianjin you have to try its Gou Buli steamed buns. That I did, it is very good, but quite pricey. The traditional pork steam bun was my favorite flavor.

The other dishes were quite interesting. Take the Braised Camel Paw - I didn't even know camel was edible. It's actually very soft, smooth, and silky. If you enjoy pig knuckles or pig feet, you will definitely enjoy camel paw. Yeah, I know how strange that sounds. Just trust me. It's good.

The eel and bull frog I've had before. It's my understanding that you can't get fresh eel in the States so I knew I was going to order something with eel while in China. The Butterfly eel dish is very similar to the Unagi you find at a Japanese restaurant. The difference is it's not sweet like its Japanese counterpart. The Dragon Well Bull frog is a twist on a traditional Zhe Jiang dish called Dragon Well Shrimp. It's good, but I still prefer the Dragon Well Shrimp.

Overall the experience at Gou Buli was enjoyable. It's one of those you must do it once restaurant because it's so famous.

Our second dinner in Tianjin has made one thing very apparent to me - Chinese people eat every animal under the sun. In the two days I've been here I've eaten donkey and camel - things that I didn't think was edible. I've still got 2.5 more weeks here, who knows what else I'm going to try...

For an explanation of why this restaurant is called 狗不理 (Dog Don't Care) go to http://www.tjgoubuli.com/ and read it for yourself.

More Dumplings Than You Can Shake A Pair Of Chopsticks At

Sorry for the long layoff. I had a bit of the blogger's block (I'm too busy to blog on the consistent basis). Anyways I'm reinvigorated and reinspired because I'm in Tianjin China; a 2-hour bus ride southeast of Beijing.

Day one - We went to a place called 百饺园(Ba Jiao Yuan; Literally translated as hundred dumpling garden). There couldn't be a better place for our first dinner in this part of China. This restaurant has a seemingly endless variety of dumplings to choose from. This was what we ordered:

• 五香驴肉饺子 (Donkey Meat Dumpling)
  
  
  
• 红籽银鱼饺子 (Red Fish Roe and SilverFish Dumpling)
  
  
  
• 蟹上皇饺子 (Crab Roe and Crab Meat Dumpling)
  
  
  
• 羊肉黄瓜饺子 (Lamb and Cucumber Dumpling)
  
  
  
• 鸭肉香菇饺子 (Duck and Mushroom Dumpling)
  
  
  
• 津味素饺子 (TianjinVegetarian Dumpling)

That's no typo - we ate donkey meat. "Getting some ass" has a totally different meaning in this place.

Each of the dumpling dishes are simply served on a plate. No frills just dumplings. Each order has about 5-7 pieces. There is a window from the seating area into the kitchen that shows 10-12 chefs preparing dumplings. Everything is freshly made.

Bai Jiao Yuan, hands-down, has the best dumpling I've ever had. If you're ever in Beijing or Tianjin you must make a stop at this place. Oh god, I died and went to dumpling heaven. There's other stuff on the menu, but why bother. It's a like going to a burger joint and ordering a salad. That's just all sorts of wrong bro. Do the right thing and DO THE DUMPLING!

After we finished dinner, my mother-in-law asked me which flavor of dumpling was my favorite. This was unexpectedly difficult to answer because I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, but if I had to choose - it would be the donkey dumpling. I've never had donkey meat before and I never thought it would taste so good. It is in fact very very tasty. It actually taste a bit like mutton. If you think about it that's not too surprising. I'd never thought I'd say it, but it's true Ma, I like eating ass.

Contact Information

Name: 百饺园
Address: 天津市南开区长江道23号
Tel: 022-23719000