Category Archives: Beer

Day 540 In Beijing: El Luchador de Esmog!

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Baijiu is the local hard alcohol drink here. In general, it is horrible.

Baijiu is the local hard alcohol drink here. In general, it is horrible.

 

Jill and I wake up every morning and the first thing we do is check the AQI.

For those that don’t live in China, and most of you don’t, AQI stands for Air Quality Index.

This is of supreme importance in Beijing because there are days when we won’t leave the house.

We had planned to go to the German Embassy today, as they are having their annual massive faire, but we stayed in instead.

There are a lot of apps, which rate the AQI, and I just found this new one called “Airpocalypse.”  It is one of the few that doesn’t have the US Embassy’s numbers blocked, as the Chinese government has now blocked the numbers on many of the apps that are available, and their writers have the best sense of humor.

El Luchador de Esmog is ready to save your lungs!

El Luchador de Esmog is ready to save your lungs!

They constantly have hilarious comments about the pollution and what you should do to stay safe.

Today it said, “Find a Mask” and had a picture of a Luchador mask on it.

Strangely enough, I stayed with my cousin Michelle, and her husband John, in Mexico a few months before I came to China.

I decided to buy a Luchador mask there and bring it to China.

Yes, I’m a weird dude.

So, just to make a miserable air day a bit better, I put the mask on and Jill took a picture of me in it.

I then posted it on my WeChat (sort of like Facebook/Twitter/Instagram here in China.  By the way, those are all blocked by the government here just like the U.S. Embassy’s Air Quality Index).

One of my friends, who is a writer and a true vato from Los Angeles, named me “El Luchador de Esmog!”

This roughly translates to “The Wrestler of Smog!”

Esmog will not defeat me ever!

Esmog will not defeat me ever!

A number of other people stated, “Your mask looks just like the one from the app!”

I think it is a pretty good representation of their Luchador mask and actually emailed the developers my pictures.

I hope they laugh as hard at my pictures as I do at their comments about the weather.

Honestly, when the pollution is this horrible, it takes creative people, like the Airpocalypse developers, to make this city seems somewhat sane.

By the way, our friends at Jing A Brewing have a beer called The Airpocalypse.  As the AQI gets worse, they give larger discounts. The discounts start at 200 AQI and go all the way up to 400 AQI (after that it stays the same).

I wonder if they’d be willing to do a home delivery?

 

 

 

Day 481 In Beijing: Xian and The Muslim Quarter.

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Annie, Jill, me, Eleni, Alena and Phil in front of the Xian Drum Tower.

Annie, Jill, me, Eleni, Alena and Phil in front of the Xian Drum Tower.

Jill, the rest of the group, and I really enjoyed riding around on the wall.

Since it was flat, it wasn’t very strenuous and it was fun.

We had to be done by 6:50 otherwise we couldn’t return our bikes so we spend through the last corner and turned them in.

We also then met up with Emre, from Turkey and Alena, from Russia.

We headed down the stairs and into the walled city so we could meet up with a few other people that were attending the conference and check out the Muslin Quarter and have some dinner.

After taking a few pictures, we were able to find Catarina, from Portugal and Sarah, from Germany.

We also met our “host” Marco, who is from Germany but has lived in Xian for the past 9 years.

He knew every nook and cranny of this city and made sure to show us a good time.

Marco was even kind enough to lead me and Jill on a hunt for good vegetarian food because the dinner place everyone else chose only had meat.  We ended up bringing our food back and enjoying it with them.

We all went out to dinner and then went to a crazy restaurant named, “Mexico” since we wanted to hang out and it is one of Marco’s favorite places.

Jill and I ordered Micheladas and they were quite good, other than being served in beer glasses instead of mugs, but that is where the fun started.  Our friends ordered mojitos that seemed to have been made with Sprite and vodka.  Everyone else said their drinks were fine and we were more than happy with our Micheladas.

We also ordered chips and….honey mustard dressing?  Yep, the chips came with that as a sauce and also with ketsup.  Not really how I remember them being served when I went to Mexico, but, when in China…

Anyway, it was a great night and we had a lot of fun.

Best of all, we made a bunch of new friends, from all over the world, and were able to experience a brand new city.

 

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Day 477 In Beijing: The 3rd Western China Multi-national Sourcing Fair.

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Jill, the Kaiwai Winery owner/winemaker and me.

Jill, the Kaiwai Winery owner/winemaker and me.

The whole reason for this trip, paid for by EACHAM, was for Jill and me to go to a sourcing fair.

Now, we weren’t even sure what a sourcing fair was, but we were told the trips were fun and, so far, that had been proven true.

Basically, we got a trip, by train, and got to stay in a 5 star hotel, for free.  The tickets and transport to the Terracotta Army cost us about 75 USD, total, and that was a deal considering this trip would have cost us about 400 USD if we paid for it ourselves.

Therefore, we were obliged to go to the sourcing fair and meet the vendors.

Our vendors were chosen, in advance, by what we were interested in doing and learning about, so we were set up with some interesting machine companies (no idea what we were able to build and I’m pretty sure semi truck axles are not on my holiday shopping list.  It was still interesting to see how they were assembled).

They actually did a very good job of putting us in contact with a few wineries and a brewery.

Along with Jill’s main website and business, SF Tourism Tips, Jill has a second website, All About Red Wine, it was quite useful for her to talk to the winery owners, and winemakers, and discuss how the wine is made here and what they are doing with it.

Our favorite winery, Kaiwai, and winemaker, asked us to hang out with him and told us all about what he did and how special it is to him.  Everything is organic and handmade.  They even has some other their own grape varietals, one named “Weibei” that is delicious.

The owner asked us to come and visit his winery next time we are in Xian and, if we ever make it back up this way, we definitely will!

As mentioned before, we were also given two translators, Miranda and Lizzy, who were fun, smart and very cute.

We made sure they were able to taste the beer, and wine, and they seemed to enjoy spending time with us.

Miranda is wearing the glasses in the picture and Lizzy is not.

We hope they come and visit us in the USA when we return home so we can return the favor and tour them around San Francisco!

 

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Day 401 in Beijing: Beijing Swingers?

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Swing dancing in Beijing!

Swing dancing in Beijing!

A few weeks ago I posted about salsa dancing in Beijing.

Well, Beijing has more than salsa and I went to a party, to celebrate the 4th of July at a rooftop bar called Migas in downtown Beijing.

Our friends from Jing A Brewery were pouring their new watermelon wheat beer and my buddy, Shagi, from Dienastie Sunglasses, was promoting and selling them.

It was an awesome time and a swing band showed up to play out of the blue.

I’m guessing they were hired but we didn’t know about it and we were very pleasantly surprised.

I can’t remember the name of the band but I’ll find out and we will definitely go see them play again soon.

Enjoy the videos below and, if you watch them, you’ll see my buddy Shagi doing his thing and Jill walking through them with her “Jing A” t shirt on.

 

Day 396 in Beijing: Doggie Shoes.

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Doggy with shoes!

Doggy with shoes!

Yes, another post about dogs in China.

Jill and I love them and can’t get enough of these little cuties!

So this guy, or girl, was wearing very stylish red booties, as you can see in the video, and we just kept laughing at how cute he, or she, looked.

There are so many cute dogs in Beijing, and many of them with little shoes on, just hanging out and walking around.

Many of them are unleashed so they just cruise by their owners and do their own thing.

Bigger dogs are outlawed in Beijing, so most the dogs are pretty tiny.

I have seen bigger dogs, including Afghans, Huskies, and other big breeds, but they are fairly rare and people have to pay some pretty stiff fines for having them…or know the right people to be able to have them in Beijing, if you know what I mean…hint hint, wink wink.

 

Day 395 in Beijing: Grandson Walking His Grandmother.

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Grandmother and grandson enjoying their night walk.

Grandmother and grandson enjoying their night walk.

Jill and I were talking a break from helping out our buddies at Jing A Brewing Company and just enjoying the afternoon at Galaxy SOHO.

As we relaxed, and watched people walk by, we saw this cute pair.

The guy looks sort of like a tough guy with his baseball cap, headphones, and dressed all in black but, in reality, he was just a sweetheart taking his grandmother for her evening walk.

I couldn’t resist taking a video of them because they seemed so happy, content and to truly be enjoying each other’s company.

I can’t even imagine what China was like when she was young and the changes it, and she, have gone through.

It would be a history lesson just to talk to her and walk with her.

I’m guessing that is exactly what he is experiencing at this moment.

I love that he is holding her arm to keep her steady as she points things out on their walk together.

If you notice, he is wearing his headphones, so maybe he isn’t listening to her at all.

I choose to think he is listening to her and they are enjoying each other’s company.

 

Day 394 in Beijing: Corgi Cuteness!

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Too much corgi cuteness!

Too much corgi cuteness!

About a month ago, Jill and I were at the Beijing Craft Brew Festival.

We were volunteering for our friends that own Jing A Brewing Company and pouring beer for them.

I love pouring beer for them because they are such great people and it is so much fun to see everyone so happy, drinking great beer, and enjoying their day.

Well, Jill and I took a break and walked around the SOHO Galaxy building where the festival was located.

It was twilight and a perfect day.

As is usual in China, people were doing their evening walks and exercising.

This had to be one of the cutest, and sweetest, corgis we’ve seen around Beijing.

Strangely enough, most the dogs here almost never come up to us to be petted and most seem almost indifferent to anyone but their master.

This corgi was different and just wanted lots of love and hugs.

My ex-father in law, Peter Steager, has a bunch of corgis and I know he loves them just as much as they love him.

They are magical dogs.

By the way, I have about 5 days worth of videos from the next 30 minutes of the day and I thought about putting all of these videos into one post, but decided against it, since they are all special in their own way and so joyful.

I hope you enjoy the next few days of cute dogs, happy people, and happy posts!

 

 

Day 385 in Beijing: A beer so nice they had to name it twice!

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The Chinese version of Pabst Blue Ribbon?

The Chinese version of Pabst Blue Ribbon?

A beer so nice they had to name it twice!

And so, for some reason, they did and the label specifically states this is “Specially Beer SPECIALLY BEER” just in case you missed it the first time.

As you can see from the red and yellow signs behind the beer, we went to Wal-Mart in China.

Yep, I’m a hypocrite.

I rip on Wal-Mart, and its destructive habits on the workers of the world, but I actually did shop there.

Crucify me as appropriate.

I ended up buying a bucket, since our air conditioner’s hose isn’t long enough to reach out the window, and leaks, to catch the leaking water.  It is a long story and worth another blog post.  One of the cute weird little details of our apartment and we find it endearing actually.

The best part of the trip was looking at the different beers here.

In the USA, Blue Diamond is a almond company in California and, I’m guessing, Diamond Blue is not associated with them in any way.

Things seem to happen that way here and it isn’t just because of Chinglish.

This SPECIALLY BEER, by the way, can’t be that special because it only costs about 40 US cents for a tall boy.  Then again, 2.50 for 6 tall boys, if you just want to party, is not a bad deal.

By the way, they had cases of Budweiser here also.  I haven’t seen any Coors or Miller in Beijing but Budwesier seems to have a good handle on the local economy and how to sell their beer here.

I guessing the taste isn’t that special either as Jill and I had tried some of the cheaper beers here in China and they are fairly similar to the cheap and terrible beers in the USA.  Luckily, craft brews are really taking off and some of our closest friends are brew-masters.

Of course you’ve seen my Jing A posts and pictures of me drinking their beers through the year.  Trust me, it is as good as anything you can get in the USA.