Home > Social Butterfly > Archives > 2008 > August > 14 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USGrits in Beijing!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Posing for grits pix was probably the strangest request Chef Sunny Song will get today, but he was a pretty good sport about it.
Ni hao from Starbucks, where wireless Internet access is fast and free, unlike in the giant press encampment where journalists work much of the time over here. Internet access there is pricey (although pretty unfettered for the moment at least; I was able to pull up the Human Rights Watch site, for example).
At Starbucks, just flip open your computer and you’re set; no password required, unlike the press center. Score one for American capitalism.
Anyway, I had a little time this morning before the events I’m covering today, so I figured I would perform a public service to any Southerners who happen to be in town, and go on a hunt for grits.
To my surprise, I found them.
Steak & Eggs is a restaurant owned by a Nova Scotia entrepreneur that serves breakfast all day and caters to Americans with menu items like country fried steak, club sandwiches and nachos. (Let me point out here that I hope you didn’t come to Beijing to eat nachos).
They’re clearly proud of their grits, though. When I spotted them on the menu and smiled, the manager lit up (I’m guessing he gets that look of delight a lot) and invited me into the kitchen.
Chef Sunny Song looked a little puzzled as I watched him scoop some into a bowl for me.
“Americans eat these,” he said.
They arrived swimming in butter but unsalted. The salt shaker, probably owing to the extreme humidity, was clogged pretty good. I unscrewed the cap to pour some in, while waitress Hu Hai Feng watched, sort of bemused, like, can’t you figure out how to use a salt shaker without demolishing it? She called another waitress over to watch, too, so I felt good about providing some entertainment.
Out in the dining room, I met James and Maureen Martin of Tampa and their daughter Marissa, 14. They’re in town for the Games and were craving the taste of home.
“I was surprised to find they had them,” said James Martin. “It’d be even better if they had shrimp and grits.
I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to see a giant sign that said Mississippi in Beijing. As you’d guess it’s another restaurant with American menu items.
“My boss goes to America for a visit and comes back with good feelings,” manager Gue Yue told me. “When Americans walk by and see this, it’s like hometown.”
The name is meant to reference the Mississippi River, by the way, not the Magnolia State.
Man on the move
Jason Disharoon is here for the Games, visiting his fourth country in a year. He’s also hit London, Paris and Munich (not to mention trips to New York, Texas and Boston) in the past 12 months.
Global tycoon? Trust-fund kid? Flight attendant?
Nope. Disharoon, 24, of Douglasville, simply has chronic wanderlust. He travels the globe by racking up Delta SkyMiles any way he can: collecting special bottle caps that can be redeemed for miles, filing out online surveys that throw respondents some miles for their time, or travel, of course.
“I want to make sure I visit every continent,” said Disharoon, a meterologist at WGCL who works with weather hottie Dagmar Midcap.
He prefers to travel solo so he can hit as many sites as possible without worrying about a companion keeping up with him.
“I know it sounds selfish,” he laughs. He arrives by himself but doesn’t stay alone for long. The engaging 2006 Georgia Tech grad makes friends quickly (the other night he was out partying with Benjamin Boukpeti, the bronze medal kayaker from Togo) and leaves each country with a passel of new buddies.
His advice is simple: enjoy your trip.
“At work, you have deadlines, you have assignments, you have places to be,” he says. “If you turn your vacation into that you take all the fun out of it.”
The trip to Beijing has pretty well depleted his travel budget, so his next excursion will likely be a low-key trip to the beach. And no, he doesn’t want to turn travel into a business.
“I could never be a tour guide” he says. “I don’t have the patience to do the same thing twice.”
Dean Wang, David Qiao and Derek Xu celebrate both China and America on the Olympic Green.
I can be so dumb sometimes. I saw three Chinese youths wrapped in the U.S. flag walking through the Olympic Green and thought, wow, what a great picture. I pulled out my camera and made a picture-snapping motion to ask if it was alright.
“Atlanta, the Dirty South!” said David Qiao, who lives in Seattle, reading my press credential.
He was with buddies Derek Xu, who lives in Seattle, and Dean Wang, who lives in Los Angeles.
“I was born in Beijing, and moved to Texas when I was 6,” David said. “I feel like this is a really good reflection of the heritage and history of what China has to offer. In the end, this Games is about sports and friends coming together, rather than using this as a platform for political causes.”
David’s parents are from Beijing and he has friends in Atlanta. He sees parallels between China’s human rights issues and America’s Civil Rights era.
“It’s a good way to connect both sides together,” he said of America, China, and the Games. “Four or five years ago, no one wanted to come to China.”
He’s on the move, too
I walked through Tiananmen Square, which is a great place for people watching. This little guy below was a walking (or running I should say) tourist attraction.
Comments
By Edward
August 14, 2008 6:46 PM | Link to this
I have been to Florida years ago,and we stopped on a road side restaurant on the way back to Georgia,to my surprise they did know what GRITS WERE,I can’t believe they have um in China.
By southfulton
August 14, 2008 10:29 PM | Link to this
Edward..Florida is the south man ;-)
By Rob
August 15, 2008 12:33 AM | Link to this
Why dont they try something local? You can have grits anytime in th us
By bob
August 15, 2008 2:18 AM | Link to this
Order some Kau Yuk. (Chinese Bacon). to go with your grits. Better yet, order some pee dan jook. Jook is like runny grits but made with rice and if ordered as above will come with a preserved egg cut up in it.
By SAG
August 15, 2008 9:49 AM | Link to this
The only part of watching the Olympics this year In Beijing I cringe to see is when they show the local eateries and what these people will eat. It’s disgusting. I can’t get over the fact that 126 local Beijing resturaunts were told to remove dog from their menu’s, so not to offend Americans. A friend sent me a video of local Beijing woman in a kitchen shaving a dog that looked to be a Golden Retriever being prepared to be eaten; the woman was shaving the dog and the dog was wagging it’s tail. The next scene showed the dogs throat cut and the blood being saved for the dish. This is the real Beijing, not the American version of what these Third World savages really are like. I am proud of our Amercian athletes and I hope they win gold with each competition but as far as China is concerned, it’s still primative, no human rights…dog eaters and Third World. And to those who are about to blast my opinion, I say…hump you and the cart you rode in on in advance. Go teams USA!!!!