Atelier: Adventures in Molecular Gastronomy. (With plenty of food porn inside)

I only read food porn for the articles . . .

Last night I had the pleasure of a dining experience at Atelier, a restaurant, recently named by En Route magazine as one of Canada’s 10 Best New Restaurants 2009, that offers a 12-course blind tasting menu exclusively every night to a small, 22-guest dining room.

It was definitely one of the best dining experiences I've had in my life and I'd highly recommend it.

Atelier is so much more than a restaurant meal; it is food that surprises, food that tantalizes your senses in new ways, food that makes you giddy with delight, food that makes you think and food that spans the entire spectrum of delicious.

Chef Marc Lepine's avant-garde approach is a grand vision of what dining could and should be. It is an exciting peek at the future of cuisine.


Molecular Gastronomy - Expanding your culinary horizons:

The concept of "molecular gastronomy" is based on the examination of the science behind food and cooking and understanding it at a molecular level in terms of physics and chemistry.

In the culinary vernacular "molecular gastronomy" is applied to an avant-garde style of cuisine (also termed post-modern, experimental, deconstructionist, etc.) that involves using new technology and techniques to create new and unexpected textures and flavour combinations to confuse, tantalize and excite the taste buds and create an entirely new dining experience.

Practitioners of this style of cuisine often employ high concept, whimsy and irony to their dishes which are equal parts science experiment and work of art.

Techniques range from "sous-vide" (cooking food in vacuum-sealed bags at constantly-held low temperatures in immersion circulators) to using liquid nitrogen to flash freeze foods, using gas cartridges to create flavoured "foams" and making elaborate frozen creations on something called an anti-griddle (exactly what it sounds like, a griddle but for cold instead of heat).


Atelier: Equal parts kitchen, science lab and art studio

Atelier's Chef/Owner Marc Lepine and Chef de cuisine Sarah Allen have worked in the kitchens of some of the foremost exemplars of Molecular Gastronomy in North America (Grant Achatz of Chicago's Alinea and Wylie Dufresne of New York's WD-50 respectively).

Their decision to open a restaurant like Atelier in a town like Ottawa was definitely a ballsy one. Let's face it, though Ottawa may be geographically close to great foodie cities like Chicago, New York, Montreal and Toronto, attitudinally Ottawa is still very much a culinary backwater. This is a town where the likes of Kelsey's, Montana's and East-Side Mario's dominate the restaurant landscape and where most people's idea of fine dining is The Keg.

There are signs that attitudes are slowly changing; a handful of great new bistros and small-plate/wine pairing places have opened up in recent years and Atelier is at the very leading-edge of that group.

Approaching Atelier from the outside one gets no hint of the wonders within. The restaurant's bleak, post-industrial, charcoal grey exterior, steel grate window covers, its location in a quiet non-descript, dark, Little Italy backstreet and it's complete lack of signage definitely give it a strange sort of cachet, kind of like going to an exclusive night club that only "in" people know about.

The restaurant's white interior is comfortable, sleek and modern but not so modern as to be cold. In fact there are several homey touches like a child's finger painting displayed as framed artwork.

The service was warm and professional yet informal and without a hint of pretense. The team is young and the service quite personal; Executive Chef Marc Lepine phoned me personally the day before the visit to confirm the reservation.

The food is excellent. In order for avant-garde cuisine to work it must be impeccably executed. It would be so easy for these dishes to come off as precious, pretentious and off-putting messes of incongruent ideas but instead the food at Atelier was expertly prepared, delicious and presented with a sense of fun and whimsy.

Giggles and a chorus of "mmmmmm"s was the soundtrack of the meal as dish after dish was presented, explained (often to slight bemusement) and then devoured as bewilderment turned to surprise and delight that such a seemingly incongruous collection of flavours, textures and temperatures could work so well together and taste so delicious.


Onto the food porn

The 12-course tasting menu at Atelier (which we were given signed copies of at the end of the meal) reads like the list of musical numbers in the Playbill of a Broadway musical or the nameplates of artwork displayed in a gallery. Each course was a stop on an itinerary through a culinary Wonderland. The chefs change and add new items every week so in effect the menu completely changes every couple months.

The photos really don't do the food justice (I tried to be relatively discreet and didn't want to use a flash-camera so I just snapped these pics with my iPhone), the meal was really an experience to be taken in with all your senses and at best these photos are but postcards from my culinary journey:


0. Here's the dill pickle bread and powdered butter that we were presented upon being seated. The powdered butter looks neat but it spreads like regular butter and wasn't the "Molly McButter" consistency I expected.

1. "Smoke and a Pancake"

About 70% of what we perceive as taste is actually perceived through our sense of smell. This special "clip spoon" is a spoon/clothes pin hybrid that supports some sort of aromatic element (in this case a sprig of smoking rosemary) to tickle the olfactory sense while you eat.

The first course/amuse-bouche is a little blini on top of which sits a globe of liquefied corn in a thin alginate shell so when you pop it in your mouth the alginate shell ruptures and the liquified corn spills out and floods your palate (much like a poached egg). The crunchiness of the pancake combined with that concentrated flavour of fresh, ripe corn made for the perfect bite.

2. "Club Sandwich"

The next course was a play on the club sandwich with three layers of seared tuna in place of the bread and a delicious avocado/caper salsa in between the layers.

3. "Nitro Noodle Soup"

This curried carrot soup was absolutely delicous, the "noodles" are actually ribbons of crême fraiche flash frozen with liquid nitrogen. It arrived at the table smoking and as the "noodles" slowly melted they contrasted the spice in the soup with a cool creaminess that was just heavenly.

4. "Charred Olive"

The top component is a piece of arctic char (a northern cousin of the salmon) cooked sous-vide, the brown sheet is made of kalamata olive and there are globules of red pepper gel and fish roe. I cooked a filet of arctic char at home last week by pan frying it but the slower/low-temperature sous-vide method of cooking it here gave it a completely different taste and delicate texture. It was like a completely different fish.

5. "Scallop"

A perfectly seared scallop topped with green-apple and a pomegranate foam. The scallop was cooked perfectly with a nice caramelized layer from the searing, the green apple provided the hint of acid and the pomegranate gave it a nice sweet accent.

6. "Fruit Cocktail"

Firstly, this is Atelier's "test tube" spoon, for our meal it came filled with watermelon juice:

It was meant to be poured into the glass containing our "fruit salad" course served as an inter-mezzo or palate cleanser. The fruit salad contained a variety of dried/powdered/foamed fruits, topped with a slice of liquid nitro frozen watermelon and blueberry gel, once all the elements were mixed together with the watermelon juice from the test tube it tasted exactly like a refreshing summer fruit salad. It was an interactive and fun presentation of a course.

7. "Pigs and a Blanket"

This dish looked like it belonged in an art gallery, I can't even begin to recall what all the different components were aside from the little alginated globule of crab apple puree that split open like a poached egg. The gelatinous "blanket" covered two pieces of suckling pig cooked sous-vide.

Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of pork. It is so easy to overcook pork to the point where it's dry and flavourless. One piece of this pig included the rind and the layer of fat (similar to the roast pork my parents buy in Chinatown) but Atelier's version cooked sous-vide resulted in the most moist, tender and flavourful piece of pork I'd ever tasted.

8. "Shades of Beige"

Conceptually, this dish was a bit all-over the board but the individual compenents were all impeccable. It featured a variety of mushrooms (including black trumpet mushrooms), duck confit, and potato fried in duck fat (arguably the most delicious fat known to man). It's always a party when duck confit is invited!

9. "Beef"

This piece of filet mignon was cooked sous vide and then quickly seared, the cooking was so perfect I was nearly moved to tears. The sides were a celeriac puree and a parsnip custard.

10. "Hawaii 5-0"

The Hawaii 5-0 was our first dessert course (As an aside I'm a HUGE fan of multiple courses for dessert). It was basically a play on Hawaiian pizza with many forms of pineapple (cake, gel, mousse), powdered coconut as well as bacon bits. The donut was a delicious frozen cream shell. The savouriness of the bacon pairs surprisingly well with the pineapple.

11. "Cheeky Monkey"

Another art-gallery worthy presentation, this dessert features pieces of banana cake, peanut fudge, dehydrated chocolate powders, mousses and a small scoop of curry ice cream. Yup, that's right, curry. I've had chocolate truffles and ganache with chili powder before which cuts the sweetness of the chocolate with a nice spicy kick. The curry ice cream did that here but the addition of the cold, creamy texture made for such an unexpected experience on the palate.

12. "The Captains Crunch"

As a kind of mignardises course we were given these yummy house-made white chocolate truffles coated with Cap'n Crunch cereal (they were devoured before I could snap a pic).


The restaurant also offers an option of a flight of wine pairings from the sommelier to accentuate each course. This was the selection last night:

At the end of the meal, we were invited back to the kitchen to meet the chefs. After being so impressed with the meal I felt like I was off to see the Wizard of Oz. The chefs graciously greeted us into their surprisingly tiny kitchen. There was a distinct lack of several things a regular restaurant kitchen would have; gas ranges (they use induction cooking elements), a deep fat fryer, a griddle which just added to the overall mystique of the meal.

The trip to the kitchen was the perfect way to end off the evening. I'd implore anybody with a sense of adventure to give this restaurant a try. Yes, it's not exactly cheap but it is definitely a good value especially if you consider it as much entertainment as it is food (our dinner lasted almost 4-hours that seemed to just whiz by). It makes for a wonderful and worthwhile splurge.

I can't wait to go back to see what other wonders await.

(Not so) Subtle racism in local CBC article . . . A case-study for sensationalism and bias in journalism.

While perusing the local news during my morning coffee break today I came across a couple articles about the newly opened T&T supermarket in the south of Ottawa being fined for opening the morning of November 11th, Remembrance Day.

A bit of background:

Remembrance Day is not a holiday save for employees of banks and the federal government, however, the City of Ottawa has a bylaw that prohibits retail stores from opening until the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the National War Memorial are finished (around noon). (As an aside, I wholly support the commemoration of Remembrance Day and believe it should be designated a statutory holiday for everybody.)

A couple weeks ago T&T Supermarket (a chain of supermarkets, recently acquired by the Loblaw Companies Ltd., that specializes in Asian groceries) opened its first Ottawa location to much fanfare.

I read two articles about the incident, one by the local CBC affiliate and another by the local rag, the Ottawa Citizen.

While I usually find the Citizen to be nothing more than a right-wing Canwest corporate mouthpiece and the publicly-funded CBC to be well balanced and insightful (at least in their coverage of national news) the roles were reversed in their coverage of this story:

CBC News - Ottawa- Asian market fined for opening Nov. 11 morning

The Ottawa Citizen - Food store apologizes for Remembrance Day opening

Notice the derisive and inflammatory tone of the CBC Ottawa headline, it starts off with the word "Asian" which may as well be bolded to emphasize blame and the fact they chose "fined" as the verb definitely suggests a judgment of guilt be passed on the subject of the headline.

The article goes on to mention that the store received the lesser of two possible fines (seemingly only to fuel indignation) and includes a quote from the manager pleading ignorance of the bylaw which serves only to play to the "dumb immigrant" stereotype.

Not surprisingly the inflammatory and biased coverage of the story has lead to predictably racist responses in the peanut-gallery comment section of the article.

Conversely, the Ottawa Citizen article headline "Food store apologizes for Remembrance Day opening" is much more fair and well-balanced, notice the complete lack of blame and judgment in the headline.

The Citizen article opens by stating that T&T was one of approximately 40 Ottawa businesses fined under the bylaw for opening on Remembrance Day. It sets the store's transgression in the proper context. Instead of playing to the "dumb immigrant" stereotype of the CBC article it instead quotes T&T's corporate director for strategy and marketing who explains that it was an honest mistake (there are no such bylaws in any of the other jurisdictions where T&T operates) and in addition to publicly apologizing committed to donating all of the store's profits from the Remembrance Day morning to the Royal Canadian Legion's Poppy Fund.

Remarkably, the term "Asian" does not appear once in the Ottawa Citizen coverage.

I have to say I'm extremely disappointed in CBC Ottawa's lack of journalistic integrity when covering the story. The CBC Ottawa story was a textbook case of sensationalism and poor journalism and wouldn't have looked out of place on Fox News.

While I still rely on CBC for balanced coverage of national stories it seems the team working at their local Ottawa station lacks the tact, professionalism and balance to fairly and responsibly cover a story.

EDIT:

It seems the Citizen did publish an article in today's print edition that also interviewed the store manager and made mention of the charging of the lesser fine:

The Ottawa Citizen - Ottawa stores charged for opening early on Remembrance Day

However, they still include a much better context (the article is about all 40 of the stores in the city who received the fine of which T&T is specifically mentioned presumably because it is the most high-profile) and treats the fact that the store caters to Asians very matter-of-factly. The store manager's quote in this article gives much more detail and explanation and overall the Citizen article is free from the racist undertones of the CBC article.

Air Canada Commercials Directed by François Girard

Earlier this year Air Canada released these two TV Spots that I absolutely adored. I remember I'd stop and watch every time these ads aired and I'd always be affected by this calm afterward.

They're centered around this beautiful surrealist concept of finger-painting in the air, and using it as a play for "at your fingertips" to suggest service and convenience.

The production is gorgeous, the commercials are beautifully shot and they have this ethereal and evocative quality to them. I recently found out that the ads were actually directed by Canadian film maker François Girard, (Silk, The Red Violin, Cirque du Soleil's Zed) which explains their dream-like quality. I love his visual style. If you've seen his films you'll be familiar with his style.

I love the choice of the song; a child singing in what sounds like some South American indigenous dialect (Quechua?) backed up by a Bulgarian children's choir. Because of the second ad, this song became my Hong Kong soundtrack when I visited the city this year; I remember strolling down Tsim Sha Tsui (the waterfront across from HK with a view of the skyline, a location in the ad) and listening to the song on my iPod.

TV Spot 1: Paris


TV Spot 2: Hong Kong


EDIT: The song featured in the commercial is El Vuelo by Hughes de Courson

Macau vs. Vegas

I'm currently in the town of Kaiping in the Guangdong Province in the South of China. This is the region that my family comes from and I'm visiting relatives here. The town is also located about a hundred miles west of Macau, making it an easy day trip. I went with my parents and brother last Thursday.

Macau is definitely an interesting place. First of all, entering from the China side is a hassle. You require a special (and expensive) license to drive in Macau, for whatever reason they drive on the left side of the road in Macau (like the British although Macau was a Portuguese colony and to the best of my knowledge they drive on the right side in Portugal). My cousin drove us to the border, parked the car at a garage at the border gate and we proceeded to enter Macau on foot.

Though Macau is technically a part of China again since the 1999 re-unification it is a "Special Administrative Region" like Hong Kong and the border is very tightly controlled, free access is not allowed. You must first exit China at the customs and immigration gate, then you have to clear customs and immigration on the Macau side . . . welcome to the new China of "one country, two systems". I found it really ironic that the border is so restricted even though Macau is part of the same freakin' country! It's much more of a hassle than going between Canada and the US or between European Union countries.

Macau is incredibly hot and humid this time of year. I've been to Vegas in August and it gets damn hot there too but it's so incredibly muggy in Macau, if it were any more humid I swear I'd need scuba gear! With the humidity the temperature felt like 120 degrees Fahrenheit! It's like a sauna, you break a sweat just standing outside!

Compounding the heat is the fact that I had to wear long pants, a shirt with sleeves and proper shoes (i.e. no athletic shoes or sandals). The casinos in Macau follow the European customs where dress code is strictly enforced. I saw security turn away a guy in a sleeveless shirt and shorts at the Wynn Macau.

Luckily, as soon as you cross the border all of the major resorts have free air-conditioned shuttle busses that will take you directly from the border gate to their properties. We hopped the "Cotai" shuttle headed for the Venetian Resort.

Throughout the day I had a chance to visit the Venetian, the MGM Grand, the Wynn, the Lisboa/Grand Lisboa (original home-grown Macau casinos) and the new City of Dreams project.

On the surface, the properties look like exact replicas of their Vegas counterparts, the interior designs of the Venetian and Wynn match their Vegas versions exactly. It was actually really trippy walking through, I kept getting Vegas flashbacks.

It's only after the initial amusement wears off that you start to notice the subtle differences. The layouts of the casinos are different. In Vegas you must cross through the gaming area to get anywhere in the property. In Macau the gaming area is very tightly controlled and you must pass through security, more often than not a metal detector and a bag inspection (or in the case of the Wynn a bag check as backpacks weren't allowed). Absolutely no children are allowed in the gaming area and there is an amusing pictogram of a family with a big red slash over it on the signs. Also, absolutely no outside food or drink is permitted, my brother had to throw out the rest of his Boost Juice when he entered the MGM Grand.

They militantly enforce the no pictures inside the gaming area rule. At one point at MGM Grand I saw a diorama of the City Center Project in Las Vegas and snapped a couple pictures of it when a security guard ran over and not only told me to stop taking pictures but forced me to delete the pictures I had already taken! Geez, talk about enforcing the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of it, I was taking a picture of an ad!

One immediately noticeable difference in the gaming area is that the ratio of slot machines to tables in Macau is much lower than in Vegas. In general, Chinese don't play slots and prefer the table games (which puts the house at slightly less of an advantage because the slots are big revenue generators since they have the worst odds and least labour requirements). This also meant that the Macau gaming floors were a lot quieter than the Vegas ones and I didn't miss the constant cacophonous electronic din from the one-armed bandits.

My brother and I did a good once-through of all the properties we visited and at the end of each we left with the same general impression . . . "That's it?" Though they superficially resemble their Vegas counterparts the Macau resorts are severely limited in the variety of dining, shopping and nightlife/entertainment options. They're beginning to realize that the Chinese market they cater to don't really care about these things. If you live in Hong Kong why would you go to Macau for dining, shopping or nightlife/entertainment? I would venture to guess that hotel rooms at the resorts are rarely sold out too since Macau is an easy day-trip for most of its visitors. The resorts are obviously focusing their efforts on maximizing gaming revenue which is the opposite of the Vegas model where the emphasis has shifted to the "entertainment" aspect of the resorts.

In the end the Macau resorts felt like hollow imitations of the Vegas originals. They may look superficially alike but there definitely isn't as much variety on offer in Macau and it's a long shot from being "Vegas of the East".

I did, however, also get a chance to visit the Old Town Macau, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walking around the streets of the former Portuguese colony you'd swear you were in Europe not China! I was also fortunate enough to sample some Macanese cuisine. It's an interesting fusion of the cuisines of the various Portuguese colonies with African, Asian and South American influences. It was delicious! Those experiences were more impressive than any of the resorts.

China (so far): Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai

China has been an interesting experience with its ups and downs but it's been a great time overall.

The first week or so we were stuck on this insipid package tour which took us to as many scam "tourist malls" and other tourist traps as it did to actual sites of interest. The tour was dirt cheap so I guess you get what you pay for. With my parents in-tow I guess it was the easiest way to "see" China but of course it meant sacrificing my time and independence and not getting to see everything I wanted to.

Beijing

We started off with a few days in and around Beijing before flying down to Nanjing and environs, Wuxi, Suzhou, Hangzhou and finally Shanghai where the package tour finally finished and my brother and I had a couple days to ourselves sans the 'rents as they went ahead to Guangzhou to see the family. My brother and I re-joined them yesterday as we flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou.

Beijing was a lot of fun, I saw Tianamen Square, toured the Forbidden City, I kept on remembering scenes from the movie the Last Emperor and was comparing this palace to Versailles in France. I stood at the top of the stairs of the palace and imagined what it must have felt like for the Emperors who stood there and gazed upon their courts below.

I then visited the Temple of Heaven Park and saw Beijingers at play, for such a conservative town it was nice to see people dancing, playing music and singing en masse before visiting the actual temple.

I climbed up a portion of the Great Wall of China. Mao Zedong said, "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man" but Ghengis Khan said, "The strength of a wall depends on the courage those who defend it!" Regardless, it was a real workout climbing it.

I toured the Olympic sites in Beijing and had a chance to visit inside National Stadium aka the Bird's Nest. I remember watching the stunning pageant that was the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics almost a year ago. It was one of the most impressive theatrical events I had ever seen and it was surreal visiting the venue. Surprisingly, the stadium looks a lot smaller in person than it did on TV. The place still retains that amazing energy from a year ago and it felt amazing to walk around the track and imagine what it must have felt like for the Olympians to enter the stadium and circle that same track to the cheers of thousands.

Nanjing

In Nanjing, I had a chance to visit the Zonghua Gate, one of the gates of the original city walls. It was a sobering experience to stand on top of the gate and recall that this was one of the gates of the city that the retreating Chinese government officials had locked, trapping the citizens of Nanjing inside to be massacred by the approaching Japanese Imperial Army during the rape of Nanking.

Wuxi / Suzhou / Hangzhou

The next few days saw visits to Wuxi, Suzhou and Hangzhou to experience the "classical" China of temples, gardens and water towns. I toured the area around Tai Lake and West Lake as well as visiting Shantangjie in Suzhou which is a water town . . . although it's reputation as "Venice of the East" is exaggerated.

Shanghai

Finally, we arrived in Shanghai. Shanghai has been one of my favourite cities on the trip. Although apparently 2009 is a bit of an off-year to visit China. We're too late for the party of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and too early for the part of Expo 2010 in Shanghai. Already a city in rapid development/re-development, all of Shanghai is virtually a construction site as the city furiously prepares for Expo 2010. The city's famous Bund road is awash in construction as several countries' pavilions for the world fair are being built there. East Nanjing Road is as colourful as ever although it wasn't as up-market as high-fashion shopping streets in other places such as Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs Élysées in Paris, Oxford Street in London or Ginza in Tokyo. It did, however, have an abundance of seedy guys hawking fake watches or offering "pretty girl, massage".

The Pudong new district is a stunning city-scape straight out of a sci-fi movie, especially with the iconic Oriental Pearl TV tower. I had the chance to ascend to the 100th floor observation deck at the newly-opened Shanghai World Financial Centre . . . although by this time next year there will apparently be an even higher observation deck at the Shanghai Tower being built next door. It was pretty cloudy/hazy when I went up but as the sun set and the lights came up in Shanghai it made for a stunning view. My brother and I also stopped for a drink with a view, chilling at a bar almost half a kilometer in the air, above the clouds!

We also had a chance to ride the Maglev from Shanghai to Pudong International Airport. The Shanghai maglev was the first and only magnetic levitation train in commercial operation. With a top speed of 430 Km/h it soared past the countryside and made the cars on the adjacent freeway look like they were driving backwards. The 30 Km trip only takes 7 minutes and you only cruise at the top 430 kph speed for a minute or two but it felt exciting and cutting-edge nonetheless.

Kaiping, Guangdong

I'm currently in the town of Kaiping in the southern Guangdong province where my family originates. While we've been very lucky with the weather for the trip so far, the infamous Chinese summer heat and humidity have been kept at bay and it has been reasonably tolerable the past couple weeks, there's currently a tropical storm/typhoon rolling around in the area (the storm is named Goni). It was windy with torrential downpours today.

We went to visit my grandparents who were ecstatic to see us, they hadn't seen us for probably over ten years. I met my aunts, uncles and cousins too and they prepared lunch for us. It was really interesting to finally meet them and I think my brother and I were as much of a curiosity for them as they were for us. It was strange to think of these people who are as close to me as the aunts, uncles and cousins on my mother's side, whom I grew up, with but who are essentially complete strangers. Even more interesting was observing my father who was basically re-united with his estranged family after almost forty years.

They were very warm and welcoming, despite our limited ability to communicate directly (i.e. not through my parents) and I was only asked once when I was going to buy a house and get married :P

More interestingly was when it came time to leave the storm had flooded the road in front of my grandparents' apartment building . . . we had to wade through thigh-high raw sewage water to get back to the car, it was disgusting. I couldn't wait to get back to shower. Still, it really gave me a new-found appreciation for what I have back home and maybe I'll curse a little less next time I'm crunching through a (relatively clean) snowbank this winter.

I'll be spending a few more days in Kaiping. We're slated to go to Macau tomorrow if the weather isn't too bad, we're probably also going to day trip to Guangzhou and possibly the Shenzen "Special Economic Zone" before finishing the trip in Hong Kong. I'll be back in Canada on the 19th.

The not-so-magic bus ... Tourist traps and the Chinese tour industry.

Ugh, these past few days have been really aggravating. Basically I've come to learn that traveling with your parents requires a lot of compromises.

I'm normally a very independent traveler. I've backpacked through Europe by myself, did a solo trip to Japan and visited several places throughout the States on my own. I like the independence if traveling alone. On those trips I could see what I wanted when I wanted without compromising for anybody.

My mom is incredibly neurotic so she would never trust me to arrange travel for the entire family. To save everybody headaches and to avoid my mother's inevitable constant nagging I opted to allow her to sign us up for a package tour via a local Chinatown travel agency for the first ten days of our trip. I'm beginning to regret that decision.

In the best of times I dislike package tours because I can't stand how overly-structured they are. I dislike being herded around like cattle and being so restricted in terms of what is on the itinerary and the kind of time constraints associated with it. I feel "handled" and know I'm only seeing the touristy places leaving no room for authenticity in the experience. Package tours are usually the realm of elderly travelers who don't particularly care where they go or what they see. These people like the convenience of not having to think about anything. These tours are generally not aimed at young, independent-minded culture fiends like myself.

In addition to all the regular disadvantages associated with package tours, in China tours are also centrally coordinated. Very few independent tour operators exist and foreign travel agents are forced to deal with these approved tour operators.

The tour we have the misfortune to currently find ourselves on is little more than a scam to bilk money out of Westerners at a string of asinine tourist traps. Although many of the popular and famous sites are on the itinerary, interspersed are a ridicous number of "shopping stops" where bus tours are herded into these complexes, given these demonstrations (think Vince with Sham-Wow) and then hit up to buy a variety of ridiculously overpriced wares. Everything from Chinese medicine to pearls to cloisonné vases to jade to painted crystal spheres to teapots and more are shoved down these Western tourists' unsuspecting throats.

The less-savvy among them (like my mom) are happily and naïvely suckered into being hosed by these scams. My brother and I argued with my mom for close to an hour in vain before she parted with $300 USD in some snake oil "Chinese medicine" after being examined by this quack Chinese doctor and enduring a high pressure sales pitch. At another tour stop at a "Pearl factory" we were being hawked everything from phoney baloney pearl cosmetic cream to cheap pearl jewelery. My brother found a $70 USD bracelet identical to one he paid $10 USD for at a market in San Francisco.

The tourist trap stops wouldn't annoy me so much if it weren't for the fact that they're so frequent and long. If the actual sites of interest were a TV program and the tourist traps were commercials this stupid tour would be at least 40 minutes of commercials for 20 minutes of actual programming content.

When we get off the tour bus and go into these places we're given cards with numbers so when we buy stuff they know which tour operator to give the kickback to. The tours also get a set amount for every hapless sap they herd into these traps. It's all an elaborate scam and hence operates most of China's nacent tour industry.

Compounding my frustration is the fact that on this particular tour the guides do not speak English. This fact wouldn't be a huge deal if they could at least provide an accurate itinerary I could follow. I hate being kept in the dark and led around blindly. Yet whenever I press the guides for this information they are sheepishly stand-offish to provide it. It seems their state's penchant for controling information has trickled down to them which would also explain why they are surprised and don't seem to know how to handle "dissenters" like me who keep questioning their motives and drilling for more information.

Suffice it to say that these package tours are horribly run. They are also a mess logistically; they don't prebuy admission tickets so we're left waiting in line regardless, their communication of itineraries is horrible, they also have no contingencies in place if members of the group are late or lost. My brother who has worked extensively in the tour industry back home has been constantly pointing out shortcomings in their operations and consequently I'm not impressed.

While it's true we did buy the tour for rock bottom prices it is not the bargain it appeared to be. Instead of seeing the sites and experiencing the China I wanted to see I'm stuck sitting in the corner of a room full of overpriced teapots annoyed and tapping out this note on my iPhone waiting for the tour operators to herd us to the trough for lunch and then likely to the next textile factory or jade shop or whatever.

Sure, the tour was dirt cheap but when it just turns out to be a waste of time you really have to question its actual value.

Luckily we only have to slug it out for another couple days before we reach Shanghai and the end of the package tour portion of the trip.

Obviously I would never have signed up for this tour if not for the fact that I have my parents in tow. There are several younger families with kids here who seem to be able to enjoy it more and maybe I wouldn't have been so annoyed and critical of the experience had my parents brought me as a child or young teen. Whether this experience was worth bearing through to spend time with my parents is questionable. It has defintely been a learning experience and I've learned or re-affirmed a lot of things about myself and my relationship with my parents.

Regardless, I will definitely never sign up for one of these immense wastes-of-time again and I would caution everybody who might be considering it as a quick, easy, cheap option to see China. You'd only be seeing the best of China's ugly budding capitalist bent. Package tours of China are little more than thinly-veiled scams. Caveat Emptor.

I can't wait 'til we get to Shanghai.

Wangfujing Daijie Street Market

No Some Reservations . . .

Wangfujing dajie is a busy night life district in Beijing with a food market. There are several "interesting" items on offer, among them scorpions.

Now, maybe I watch a little too much television ... the Market was featured on last season's Amazing Race and I'm a huge fan of Anthony Bourdain's travel log/food show No Reservations and his willingness to try new and "exotic" foods.

So when I looked at the skewer of scorpions at one of the stands, I decided to have a taste.

My brother was there to document the experience: