After Roger dropped me off, I had a chance to meet up with Tenny, whom I haven’t seen for almost a year now. Tenny is my 死党, which unfortunately doesn’t translate into English very well, whereas the closest meaning would be the phrase “brother in arms”. Oh vell.

Tenny had this unagi don place in mind, called Missi Missi for dinner. I almost never reject unagi don, or any kind of don, so I tagged along. We took a Didi (Chinese Uber equivalent) to San Li Tun (三里屯), which is a huge shopping district full of designer shops. The restaurant is on the edge of this district, and we thought we’d walk across it to check this place out a bit.

San Li Tun is certainly interesting, because the closest thing I can think of is the section of Bloor Street in Toronto. Here, you got fashion photographers sitting near the entrance with various gear, like vultures, watching the crowd and waiting to jump at anything that stands out. I was trying to do the same as a street photographer, but I was having such a difficult time because almost everyone dresses in the same streetwear style, making it difficult to find someone who stands out. In fact, I’m pretty sure Tenny and I are the two most outlandish people there, with her sporting a red shirt, tapered slacks and Adidas All Stars, while I was a tall, fat, blond Asian guy; though I don’t think anyone would be shooting me, ha.

We had a mini photo shoot when we found some stairs that made for a perfect framing. She was a veteran at this, and as soon as I told her the feel I was going for, she knew how to pose.

It took a bit of time walking, but we finally got to the restaurant. Unfortunately, the unagi don is actually quite expensive. At 150 CNY per bowl (~30 bucks CDN), I didn’t really want to spend that much money on a bowl of rice and some unagi, lol. Tenny was sharing the same sentiment, and we both ordered other things instead.

The tonkotsu ramen here was surprisingly great, and you can tell that the stock was made with actually bones instead of MSG. The wasabi octopus also surprised me, especially since they used real wasabi instead of horseradish.

You see a lot of these guys around, a delivery company that specializes in food deliveries.

Interesting city so far.

-Tao