Cooking Musician

Cooking Musician Exploring the worlds of music and food, creating beautiful shared moments and connecting people across borders, cultures and languages.

22/09/2026

Another of my best Beijing moments, not at all part of the greatest hits for tourists, was this late night skewers and b**r place our friend Ji Hsi took us to… he’s a local and- in this ridiculously massive city- just happened to live a couple kilometres from our hotel so we met up at one of his local favourite spots.

We ordered the beef and lamb, both a must, but also tried aorta (good but not my favourite), chicken butt (probably one of my absolute favourite pieces), tendon, cartilage, and also thinly sliced pork wrapped around enoki mushrooms- this is superb.

Ji Hsi brought some of his own b**r he wanted us to try which seemed to be no problem even though the restaurant also sells b**r. Very interesting!

Is this your kind of place?

Happy travels, friends!
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17/09/2026

The Great Wall of China at Mutianyu…

One of the highlights of our trip, without a doubt. Bring water and a hat, but make sure to go up, you won’t regret it.

Music by the great Peter Yu (guitarist and composer) and TPO Funk.

Happy Travels, friends!
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14/09/2026

Some peaceful, crowd-free moments in Yuyuantan Park in Beijing…

Such a gorgeous, unexpected corner of the city!

Happy travels, friends!
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13/09/2026

We were eating and drinking like no tomorrow so my mother in law decided to have a vegetarian day… and on the way to The Great Wall of China we stopped at a farm that serves the most beautiful multi-course vegetarian food.

The creativity was superb and the modern take on traditional cooking worked so well!
And it gave us the energy to go on to Tge Great Wall…!

Happy travels, friends!
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11/09/2026

Beiping Restaurant has several branches and was the favourite restaurant of our tour guide…

Not just the duck but every dish was so well done! The stand out for me was the mountain ash tree tips- the same plant that 🇬🇪 Georgians pickle! It seems like the Silk Road must have had a part in this exchange- we couldn’t find any other place that uses these trees to eat but a small region north of Beijing and the country of Georgia!

The end of the evening was at the Beijing Irish Pub again; if you’ve been following our travels, this was our local in Beijing and the ‘laoban’ or the owner and boss was a great guy. We loved getting to know him a little!

Happy travels, friends!
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10/09/2026

Beijing’s Lotus Market was one of my favourite places to walk around… great food, beautiful views, hutongs (traditional family homes) and a perfect place to try out a rickshaw ride!

Music by John Patitucci Trio
Bass; John Patitucci
Saxophone: Chris Potter
Drums: Brian Blade
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08/09/2026

The grandeur of the Forbidden City vs the little 80s retro kitsch coffee shop in the Hutong nearby…

Alley Cafe
W9GX+5V8, Shatan Back St, Dongcheng, Beijing, China, 100006

Which is your travel goal?
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05/09/2026

We got to Beijing and, as first time visitors, our guide wanted us to see the most popular sites.

But I think what Chinese tourists tend to love are the parts that tick the nostalgia box- but we really love finding the quirky and authentic places; I’m sure there are plenty of Chinese tourists who feel the same as we did- and plenty of foreigners who want the visual of old China even if it’s built recently… but for us, seeing this group of ladies dancing on the street (it wasn’t a performance they just get together to dance) or finding this Irish pub in the middle of nowhere owned by a lovely older Beijing gentleman who just happened to love Irish culture were our top two moments of Beijing on day 1.

How do you like to travel?

Happy travels friends!
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02/09/2026

Do you know about the 8 great cuisines of China?

The distances in China are so vast, it makes sense that the differences in taste from Cantonese in the South to Shandong in the north should be vast as well.

Shanghai lies at the border between Jiangsu cuisine to the north and Zhejiang cuisine to the south. The two are relatively similar with a reliance on freshwater rivers and lakes but my feeling was Jiangsu was a little sweeter and more oily; anyone have further ideas on the differences?

The crab dishes of Zhejiang are particularly famous- this restaurant further specialised in Wenzhou cuisine, the region at the south of Zhejiang, and there they mix pork in with the crab roe before steaming… an absolutely fantastic and memorable dish.

Which dish looked particularly interesting to you?

Happy travels, friends!
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31/08/2026

Norma and Fabio are beautiful musicians, lovely friends, and big supporters for me as I’m learning how to be a better collaborator
❤️❤️❤️❤️

For so long, it was stuck in my head that I was too old, that I wasn’t innately able to feel the chord changes, that my timing wasn’t great, my memory was poor, my ears weren’t good… all the reasons why playing jazz wasn’t for me.

But as I’ve been playing more and more jazz and Latin music, and-even more importantly- listening like crazy to everything, I’m seeing such improvements…

and maybe the fact that I’m loving music and playing more than ever is an even more important reason to believe in myself!

Thanks to all my dear ones who have been so encouraging, I needed (and still need!) kind words often, believing in myself doesn’t come as naturally as I wish it did 😅

Hugs and good music to all!
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