Our last night in Beijing, and the one checkbox left on our list was a real hot pot for dinner.  What’s a hot pot?  It’s like Shabu-shabu.  What’s Shabu-shabu?  It’s like fondue.  What’s fondue?  Eh, it’s like beer.  We set our targets on a chain that got great reviews on Trip Advisor: Haidilao.

A short 20 minute walk, 10 minute train ride, and 30 minute walk later, we find ourselves on a rather local side street where everyone was staring at us (this has been happening everywhere in China — we’re either the strange looking foreigners, or we’re the easy targets for locals peddling their wares).  We eventually found our restaurant next to this place:

There was a 1 hour wait, but they guided us upstairs, sat us down and started feeding us free munchies (puffed corn, puffed rice, bugles?, and sweet popcorn).  We could have gotten a free manicure if we had chosen.  Pass.  This place is apparently known for their impeccable service — if you can get over the language barrier I suppose.  Instead Nicole made friends with a Londoner who lived in Beijing, and her parents.  We find out what this hotpot thing is all about and get her to tell the wait staff that we don’t want anything spicy.  She probably saved our meal.

We ordered thinly sliced beef (a la shabu-shabu), mushrooms, and noodles, and carefully selected dipping sauces without nuts or spice (this left Nicole with soy sauce).

Then this guy stretched and tossed a noodle for us right at our table (kinda like light sticks at a night club)

We were running short on cash, and as we’ve already mentioned, even though everyone advertises their acceptance of credit cards no one actually takes them.  We count up 195 yuan in our name and start to get worried that we didn’t have enough for dinner and the subway home (4 yuan).  The bill comes in at exactly 191 Yuan — Phew!

This is by the way our most expensive meal thus far in China — at 0.16 USD to 1 yuan, a $30 meal is not bad, but still overpriced by Chinese standards.