Wander Words

Der Landgraf
A2 Pufang Lu, Fangzhuang, Fengtai, Beijing
芳庄蒲芳路甲二号

This Saturday, Stick and I went out to German restaurant in Fengtai. We planned to trek out there, have lunch and then, assuming an authentic German restaurant didn’t exist in a vacuum, wander around the area.

Der Landgraf was easily spotted because it had a winterized beer garden in front, a very auspicious beginning to our adventures. When we went inside, the hostess walked over and stared at us. I know I should be adjusted by now, but I’m not. I’m always touching my hair and making sure my fly is closed.

She then made vague motions in the direction of a table. Actually, in the direction of all the tables. We figured that meant we could pick our own.

The menus were trilingual, and awesome. No “Happy Fragrance Pig Intestines” here… in fact no Chinglish at all! Stick enjoyed it, like me, he learned the foreign-language words for food he likes, so he was all “mashed potatoes” and “sauerkraut”, only in German.

Good food, good prices (for foreign food, that is), very clean and nice pub-like decor, but unfortunately typical Chinese service. Food, drinks and silverware arrive at their own haphazard pace, via giggling waitresses.

After eating, we walked around the neighborhood. I thought that Der Landgraf would probably be in the center of a German bubble or an expat area. There are a bunch of those little foreign pockets near the different embassies, and wouldn’t it be cool of one was close to us? But sadly it was in one of those Gatsby neighborhoods characterized by one KFC per intersection, pseudo-Western shops and knockoff boutiques.

Yeah, I act like I’m too cool for it, but it’s easy to be superior with a smoothie in your hand.

Meg wrote this on November 30th, 2007 and filed it under Travel |