Buying my first used bicycle in China and getting my Chinese school ID were what I thought would be my rites of passage into adapting to Beijing life. Well, I finally got my university ID "card" and thought it would be good to celebrate with lots of good, cheap, street food. I actually also wanted to show you guys how creepily awesome and well, creepy Chinese IDs look like.
Note that my school ID actually looks like a passport. Not very conveniently made. They also managed to spell my last name wrong. It's like having to carry a passport anywhere you go because you might be subject to random security checks to make sure you are indeed a student. But becoming an official Chinese University student was reason to celebrate at 老馬拉麵 with some yummy food. Technically any reason is a good enough reason to eat good, cheap food. Aside from the student dining halls at Tsinghua, laomalamian has become my other frequent lunch spot. It's roughly a 5-6 minute bike ride from my department building at the outside of tsinghua.
We had some kabobs from the guy who was roasting them on that little grill for the whole restaurant. When I say restaurant, I actually mean the 10 tables outside with random cars and bikes running into you during your meal.
Noodles, peas, potatoes, & cucumbers were all good as well. Not as good as the other dishes though!
Like this amazing tofu dish.
Or this cold radish dish.
But their best dish had to be hands down their eggplant. This was caramelized goodness all in a bite.
So I have my bike, I've been to the Great Wall, & I now have my student ID. I can finally say I'm officially Chinese for the next 6 weeks.
Happy Eatings!