Our current apartment is only temporary, and it shows. It has no drying rack on the window (a necessity in a country that lacks electrical clothes dryers) and no internet access. Every day we go to the PC cafe to get our internet fix. This situation makes it harder to keep up with Peer-See.

Since we aren’t going to live in this apartment long term, we haven’t been in a rush to furnish it. We haven’t bought a rice cooker or other necessary kitchen ware. That means we have been eating at restaurants more than usual. We have been to some good ones, and some bad ones, and we have a few reviews to offer. More will come later, I hope, as we sample more restaurants.

Kalinka’s - This is the place we went for our anniversary dinner. The food is Russian. The people are Russian. The floor show is very loud and very Russian. In my romantic fantasies, Kalinka’s is owned by a family of impovershed aristocrats. The beet salad is dripping with mayonnaise and sour cream. The bread is home made, although it might be a few days old. This place is fantastic, but be prepared for a lot of noise.

The Bavarian Brewery - An Argentine/German restaurant?! Who thought this was a good idea? I will spare you the Nazi jokes. The Brewery has an enormous buffet with lots of generic, Euro-bad food. Waiters run around with pitchforks full of meat. They carve it at the table. One of these days they are going to impale someone. Unlike Kalinka’s, there is nothing authentic about the Bavarian Brewery. On the bright side, they have interesting beer.

Thai Village - We planned to go here for our anniversary dinner, but no dice. When we arrived at only 9:00, they said the dining room was closed, and anyway, they don’t serve Thai food. This place must be a front for something. Our search for Thai food in Qingdao continues.

1 + 1 - A very popular place in our neighborhood. It reminds me of the restaurants I used to frequent in college (Medici’s, or Cafe Florian, in Hyde Park) but the food is much better. Everything is good, and the staff is very helpful to non-Chinese speakers.

Muslim Restaurant on our street - I don’t know the real name of this restaurant, but I love it. Most muslim restaurants in China serve regular Chinese food, minus the pork. This one is different. The food is evocative of the far western reaches of the empire. It has influences from Pakistan and Afganistan. The spicy lamb ribs are the best.

Neighborhood street food - The fried rice is good. The spicy noodles (liang pir) are good. Stay away from the barbeque. We learned the hard way.

Wan Jing Yuan Wang Xiao Er Chao Ji - This place is not in Qingdao, it is in Tai An, near the base of Tai Shan. We wandered into this place, thinking it was an art gallery. We walked down a little alley, framed by two stone lions. We found a courtyard framed by four different restaurants. Each had a corrogated tin roof, but open walls. Not many people were there, but it felt more like a night-time destination. It may fill up after dark.

When the proprietress realized we could barely speak Chinese, she invited us into the kitchen to choose what we wanted to eat. They made a fantastic meal for us. We had tofu strips that tasted like buttered noodles, mushrooms and scrambled eggs. If you are ever go to Tai Shan, definitely check it out.