A Fun Friday with an Old Friend

Last Friday we met up with Charlotte's old friend Jay. Charlotte knows Jay from a Model UN type conference she attended in high school. She also attended President Obama's inauguration with him in 2009 and he visited Needham a couple of years ago! Jay is from Beijing but went to college in New York (Rochester) and now lives in NYC. He was visiting Beijing for the week so we jumped at the opportunity to meet up with him to catch up and for him to show us a taste of the "real" Beijing. We took the subway about 45 minutes to meet him on the other side of the city (we've discovered that most of the "action" happens on the east side of the city, opposite from us on the west).

After we met up with Jay we took a taxi together to a restaurant in the Sanlitun district of the city. Jay told us that the name of the restaurant literally translates to "Sit and Forget"-- after a long week at work, we did just that. We went upstairs to the top floor of the restaurant, it was beautiful--very airy with naturalistic decor. "Sit and Forget" is a traditional Yunnanese (a region in the southwest of China) restaurant. All cuisine is shipped from the region, all of the waitstaff are from Yunnan, and they even had Yunnan musicians who we had the pleasure of hearing play (see video) a "Song of Good Luck"! We ordered a variety of food everything from baked cheese to vegetables to potato balls to tofu! All very vegetarian friendly for Charlotte :). We were most impressed with the rice we were served. It was cooked and served in bamboo! It tasted sweet and had a unique texture, like nothing we've ever tasted before! We also were served special rice wine to drink... delicious!

Stuffed from the most delicious meal yet!

Rice cooked and served in bamboo! Rice wine jug in the background.

Charlotte and Jay.

After dinner Jay took us for a walk around the Sanlitun area, the "5th ave" of Beijing. We went for drinks on the rooftop of a Mexican restaurant (definitely coming back here for Charlotte's birthday!) and Jay revealed to us that about 80% of all alcohol sold and served in Beijing is "counterfeit" which took us by surprise! After drinks we headed to meet up with some of Jay's old friends at a "KTV" (karaoke television) bar called "Ibiza". It was luxurious space with dozens of private rooms for mini karaoke parties. We had a blast! We got a chance to sing a duet of a Spice Girls classic and a Bruno Mars song. We also had the pleasure of watching Jay perform, he really is a natural entertainer/comedian (see the video, definitely worth the click)!

In our KTV room.

Our last stop of the night was "Spark," "the best club in Beijing." It normally would cost about 200 yuan (about $33) to get in but luckily Jay's friend was having a birthday party there so we got on "the list" and in for free. We met some of Jay's friends and were served watermelon cocktails at his friends' table. The club was lavish, to say the least. There were plush couches and bright lights on the ceiling and floor. We danced the night away until it was finally time to leave (we had a long day)! Jay successfully got us in a cab (didn't take nearly as long as it did Thursday night) and told the driver in Chinese where to take us. What a night! Big thanks to Jay for everything!

Crazy lights and steam at "Spark."