Ailsa at wheresmyback posted her Travel theme for this week: Food.
This one makes me wish I were at home where I have some other great photos – but since I’m not, I will make do with files I have with me! I have some fun food photos from our trip to California and China a few years back.
On our way to the Beijing Olympics, we decided to stop and visit some of our old haunts in California. As we headed north out of Santa Barbara, we stopped at Pea Soup Andersen’s – for a crock of their legendary pea soup!
On our last day in California, we went to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco for lunch, and had a wonderful fresh Crab Louis with warm sourdough bread at Fisherman’s Grotto – which we chose, because it was the first SF restaurant we ate at together in the 1970’s!
Because neither of us speaks Chinese, we opted to book with a tour company for our reservations in China. We used Cartan Tours, who had been involved with a number of Olympic tours. They had a hotel hospitality suite with assistance for various arrangements, and on our first night there, as part of our reservations, they took a group of us out for Peking Duck at a local restaurant!
Our server carved our individual servings in a lovely presentation. Our hosts had selected a wonderful number of side dishes for us as well.
A couple of days later, we took their tour to the Great Wall at Badaling and a few other sites. That day, they took us to another restaurant that served food appealing to Western travelers:
However, on days when we toured Beijing on our own, we saw more of the local color in foods available in the markets for the locals….
We weren’t so brave there!! To see what yummy selections other bloggers have posted, click here.
The Retiring Sort 
Pingback: Travel Theme: Food | Eat Travel 'n' Photograph
Good job… Were those bugs on the skewers?
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Sure were… and there were other small critters on skewers too… a little creepy for a westerner like me!
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Yikes! 😦
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Pingback: Travel Theme: Food | Autumn in Bruges
Pea soup…is there anyone who doesn’t like it…as for the bugs – yuk from me on those
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Pea soup is just plain comfort food! Gotta love it! 😉
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Aha! I post that is close to my heart…or tummy. Fisherman’s Wharf is one unforgettable place , so are the clam chowder and Dungenees crabs! Mmm…
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It’s always fun to go there – both for the restaurants and the outdoor food vendors!
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I also wasn’t brave in Beijing. 😉
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LOL 😉
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I am sure I would adore that pea soup! And I too found the bugs in China revolting 🙂 Lovely post TRS.
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Thanks, Madhu! 😉
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Yumi…. 😛 we are all so hungry ..
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😉
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That pea soup in the bread bowl looks pretty awesome, and I love that you went back to the same restaurant you first ate at in SF, so romantic 🙂 The big round table spread with food is wonderful, it looks like you had quite a party, and the bugs on sticks, well, I wouldn’t be tempted either! Gulp. 🙂
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The pea soup is more than a meal! The Peking duck dinner was fabulous – the tour company took all their “first nighters” each night to have it because, well, when in Peking…. 😉
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That is part of the pleasure of traveling – the new food!
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I’m only moderately adventurous when it comes to food… had some adverse experiences in my youth! 😉
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Oh dear, that sounds rather ominous. And the good subject for a blog post, perhaps? 😉
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maybe…. 😉
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Great post! Your posts always bring back memories as it seems we’ve been to some of the same places! Loved Peking Duck in Beijing and I was also grossed out by the bugs (and scorpions) on a stick. Of course not too too grossed out to ensure I snapped a few pics! 😉 This may sound amazing, but I am sure that that is the exact same restaurant I was in during my Great Wall tour as well! I have fond memories of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco as well from when the family drove down from Vancouver 26 years ago when I was 14. Thanks for the memories. Great pics!
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Thanks so much for your comments and visit – I’m glad you enjoyed this!
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It is fun that we’ve been the same places – I love recognizing places I’ve been in other posts – but the same restaurant – well that’s really cool!
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