A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 13 August 2024 - T for crayfish, beautiful stamps and a walk in Granada

 Hello lovely peeps,

Happy Tuesday! I'm going to show you a postcard from Bejing, China today:

The heading reads (according to Google translate): Bejing Guijie Crayfish. 

Guijie is a famous street in Bejing with lots of food stalls and restaurants:

"Gui Jie is famous for its Sichuan-inspired spicy dishes. Must-try specialties include hot and spicy crayfish, crabs, and bullfrogs. These dishes are cooked in the fiery Sichuan style that thrills spice enthusiasts."

The headings beside the dishes on the card are (from top to bottom):

Mixed garlic crayfish, Stir-fried crayfish, Chilled crayfish, and salted egg yolk crayfish.

The website The Bejinger writes about crayfish eating:

Look, eating xiaolongxia (crayfish) is not a delicate activity. Most restaurants that serve them will offer you a bib, plastic gloves, and a mountain of moist towelettes, which should be your first clue as to how messy you’re going to get. But we say ditch the gloves and get in there with your (hopefully freshly washed) bare hands; the shells are so sharp that they often go straight through the gloves anyway. This may not (or may, we’re not here to judge) make xiaolongxia a good choice for say, a first date.

I personally love Sichuan food. It's very spicy but I love the warm type of spicyness of Sichuan food. But I have never had crayfish.

The stamps on the card are gorgeous:

This one is entitled Huanjiang Karst.

Travel China writes: Karst is a unique landform that occurs in areas where lime stones and other soft rocks intermingles with harder stone. Over time, the soft rock dissolves leaving the remaining harder stone in unusual formations. Famed for its rich and diversified landforms, South China Karst signifies the finest examples of that topography in China and the world. It represents the unrivalled features of the tropical and subtropical terrain. Covering a total area of 176,228 hectares, South china karst is composed of seven heritage sites scattered throughout four provinces and municipalities, including Shilin (Stone Forest), Libo, Wulong, Guilin, Jinfoshan, Shibing and Huanjiang sites. The first three were inscribed in the World Natural Heritage List by UNESCO in June 2007 and the rest in June 2014.

The second stamp is this one:

I don't know if you can read it but it says: Microraptor, which is a type of dinosaur.

The American Museum for Natural History writes:

The bizarre, bird-like dinosaur Microraptor gui appears to have four wings: both its front and back limbs were feathered. And those rear leg feathers weren’t just decorative; they show adaptations for flight. But could this creature really fly? Probably not far under its own power. But it might have glided down from trees, perhaps even flapping its front limbs.

Here you can see the image better. Image courtesy of Peking Natural Science Organization.

The third stamp :

I translated it and it reads: Headwater Diversion Hub. It's from a series of stamps about the the Datong river diversion project.

On a stamp website called Xabusiness I read:

The Datong River Diversion Project is about 880 kilometres long, the largest artesian irrigation project in China's northwest. It diverts water from the Datong River flowing through Qinghai Province to the Qinwangchuan area 60 kilometres north of Lanzhou City of Gansu Province. Construction began in 1987 and finished in 1995. The project is a large-scale man-made "underground river", representing many firsts in world as well as in Chinese irrigation history. It is the biggest water diversion project for artesian irrigation across two drainage areas ever built since the founding of new China.

I went to Granada on Tuesday to accompany a friend to a hospital appointment. After that was done we wandered through Granada, which is always a pleasure. 

I love the tiles in the entrance to apartment buildings.

And all those impressive doors. 

When I photographed this door the (military) security guy came out and told me I couldn't go in but he asked me if I wanted to photograph the Patio:

Very nice of him indeed. (I was not allowed up the stairs). Looking at the security measures, I'd say this was a government building.

We were looking for a place to have a drink, preferably inside as outside it was so hot. We walked passed this bar: 

It is a very old bar where people drink vermouth. It is called Bodegas Castañeda. 

Dining With Frankie writes: "Bodegas Castañeda is an old school tapa bar that serves mostly Manzanilla sherry or Spanish vermouth.  

Upon arrival you immediately notice the large barrels stacked behind the bar that have taps to partake of their fortified wines.

  We sampled from one of casks and it came served on ice.  The  long place is dominated by a matching wood bar set with stools.  

There are a couple small tables next to the windows and lots of standing room at the bar and around the room.  

The other end of the bar features a number of hanging hams."

(Photos and text from that website, apart from the first photo). 

My friends and I actually didn't go inside as it was so full. I would have liked to although I'm not keen on Vermouth.

As today is T for Tuesday I should be sharing a beverage. The gentleman at the bar above is drinking something. The barrels in the bar and the bottles in the window are another drink reference. 

As if this wasn't enough, I'll leave you with this:

Happy T-Day everyone!

Lisca