One day, it was raining in Beijing after work and I had to eat in an expensive restaurant while waiting for the rain to stop. But it was worth it because I had this exquisitely prepared garlic broccoli. It was all green with no yellow flowers, boiled or steamed with a slurry sauce and arranged to look like an actual broccoli. The presentation was really interesting and I had never seen anything like this before. That night I made a promise to myself that I should go to fancy Chinese restaurants more often and not just stick to my neighbourhood mom-and-pop shops all the time. How else can I experience new Chinese dishes or even the same dishes prepared and presented in a different way? That wisdom lasted one night and the next day I was right back at my neighbourhood shops. I had become addicted to cheap local neighbourhood food places where I knew the chef, his wife and his kids and their grandparents.