Eric's Beijing Diary

Echo took me to a Mongolian restaurant this morning. Echo is from Inner Mongolia, and I had expressed to her that I was interested in trying the Mongolian cuisine, especially breakfast. I needed to talk with Echo anyway, because I need a lab assistant for my PL/SQL class next semester, and Echo is only the second student I have met at Beihang who knows PL/SQL.

Somehow, Ghengis Khan's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grand-daughter does not remind me of her fierce and ferocious forbearer. She is bright, friendly, and cheerful. And the Mongolian breakfast is much to my liking. Inner Mongolia is the dairy of China, and not surprisingly, the breakfast cuisine reflects this. Milk tea, several varieties of cheeses, and tasty stir-fried millet. And a Mongolian breakfast is meaty--boiled mutton, which tastes really good dipped in milk tea with a touch of Mongolian butter.

I told Echo that I was hoping to visit Inner Mongolia next summer. Mongolians are one of the most prominent of China's fifty-five minorities. Echo studied Mandarin as a required course in school, but she was educated largely in Mongolian. She speaks and writes Mongolian, in addition to Mandarin, English, and Japanese, since she is in the "Japanese Software" program at Beihang.

Labels: Mongolians