maan coffee

Maan Coffee is one of those trendy spots in 雙井 where you'll find the better looking people in 北京。  the equivalent of the west village cafe full of macbooks and writers.  trendy youth sipping on coffee, with legs crossed and three quarter pants.  skinny pale chinese girls in accessories that stand out amongst the masses in this busy capital city.  and so we order a 7 dollar iced americano and they give us a dirty bear as a marker so they know where to serve the beverage.  dirty bear.  why??

that's not what drove this post, but rather the moment we stepped outside the coffee shop, a garbage man had accidentally spilled garbage all over the street.  and the stench of the most sour composte filled the streets creeping into every crevasse, stinging every nostril and penetrating every piece of organic life for a solid block.  we couldn't get to the car fast enough and by then, it had infected the air conditioning system....GAH.

it needs to be said that asian people have a liking for 麻辣 flavor.  it is a spice that is used in many chinese dishes that can also be parlayed into pickled dishes and a variation of other dishes such as 酸辣粉。。。or 水煮魚。。。or  bunch of stuff.  im used to the taiwanese version of this flavor.  however, in china it's a more sour fermented taste....of which when it hits the garbage becomes an even more sour dirty laundry fermented disgusting in your face type of smell....that in this case...when spilled across the street almost killed me.  literally.  killed me.