Soup in a Bag

A couple of times a week I meander to the local marketplace along our street in order to grab lunch. The "restaurant" I frequently patron (my Beijing version of Asian Max) is a hole-in-the-wall joint run by three sisters. The place is tiny, and has just enough room to seat two people outdoors. As such, I often take my meals to go.

A few weeks ago, as I was waiting in line, one of the sisters yelled: Lee xiao jie, jin tian wo men you niu rou mian. Translation: Little Miss Lee, today we have a beef noodle soup. It sounded delicious, so I ordered it as my lunch--to go.

Being the naive American that I am, I figured the beef noodle soup would come in some sort of container (preferably plastic). But chalk it up to Chinese charm, they threw the entire liquid based meal into a plastic bag. A poor quality plastic bag. With holes. So I asked for a second plastic bag for extra support--but of course the second bag also had holes.

I walked home (quick like a bunny), bag leaking the whole way there. And below is the end product: a plastic bag of noodles and beef with not much soup (or even beef). So basically, a plastic bag of wet noodles.