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Went for Korean BBQ the other night at this restaurant near my apartment. There are quite a few of these places in Shanghai, and they’re all pretty much the same: you choose the type and quantity of meat you want, other main dishes, drinks, and snacks. Also, you’re given a bunch of little side dishes of kimchi, sauces, salads, peanuts, and pickled veggies to pick at. The meat is cooked over a stone pot BBQ (either by the server, or yourself), and you cook and eat at your own pace.

This particular restaurant wasn’t bad, but unfortunately the side dishes lacked spice or kick. The best (and incidentally, the cheapest) Korean BBQ I’ve ever had was in Qingdao last summer. The fact that there are an estimated 100,000 Koreans living in Qingdao may have something to do with it…

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In June we visited Qingdao – home of Tsingtao beer – on China’s eastern coast in Shandong province. Qingdao is very different from anywhere else I’ve been in China. It’s a seaside city that – despite having a population of 7.5 million people – is so clean, relaxing, and quiet I almost forgot I was in China. The food is cheap, the people are very friendly, and the city has a very visible beer culture that is everywhere! Beer is sold in plastic bags on the street, people seem to be drinking beer at every meal, and where in other cities you’d see people drinking tea in little shops, in Qingdao it’s beer. We drank at least a couple of pitchers with every meal from breakfast to dinner during our time there and it was great. 干杯 !