Author: Mike Pole

From New Zealand. Traveling the weyward path trying to figure out how the world works. I study fossil plants, past climates, travel, walk, hike, read, take photos, struggle with computer graphics and plant trees.

Cheap Eats Nanjing 20 – Yonheking Chicken and Rice

Everyone warned me about Chinese New Year in Nanjing. I listened, sure, but I guess I couldn’t believe that it would be That hard to find food. The reality is, that cometh the New Year break, for two weeks a city of several million turns into the proverbial post-nuclear ghost-town. Think ‘On the Beach’. Supermarkets… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 20 – Yonheking Chicken and Rice

Cheap Eats Nanjing 18 – noodles below the supermarket

I have an innate hatred of supermarkets. The faster I can get in and out of them, the better. But the big supermarket near me in Nanjing takes the cake with the  time and motion issues. Walking down the street you pass what were the main doors that opened right beside the escalator going up to… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 18 – noodles below the supermarket

Cheap Eats Nanjing 19 – vegetarian at the Jiming Temple

The Jiming temple is our neighbour at NIGPAS ( the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology). I can see them out my office window.  According to Wikipedia, the temple was first built in 557, then what we have today was “initially” constructed in 1387, then destroyed, then rebuilt. So I suspect it’s a bit like… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 19 – vegetarian at the Jiming Temple

New Zealand’s Rata and Pohutakawa – riders of the Miocene storms?

Fossil Metrosideros fruits. Miocene, Manuherikia Group, New Zealand

There is a Maori legend than when one of their ancestral canoes (the Te Arawa) approached New Zealand after traveling from its Pacific homeland, its crew saw the trees along the coast covered in red. Thinking these were abundant red-feathered birds, a chief thew away his priceless red-bird feather headdress. When the canoe finally reached shore, the… Continue reading New Zealand’s Rata and Pohutakawa – riders of the Miocene storms?

Cheap Eats Nanjing 17 – Green tea and red bean ice-cream at Bellagio’s

The green tea and red bean ice-cream (see featured image) served by Bellagio’s became an absolute favourite of mine whenever I was passing through Beijing, going to and from Mongolia. Bellagio’s is a restaurant chain and there were two outlets I would go to there. When I came to Nanjing I was thrilled to see that there… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 17 – Green tea and red bean ice-cream at Bellagio’s

Cheap Eats Nanjing 16 – Korean Leek Cake

Korean Leek Cake – yum! Never heard of it before, but it tastes as good as it looks (see featured image). This is a Korean restaurant that’s on the edge of locally cheap,  but well worth a visit.  The Korean leek cake is sort of a cross between a quiche and a cheese-less pizza. It’s 38… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 16 – Korean Leek Cake

Cheap Eats Nanjing 15 – even better chicken curry and rice

I thought I was on to a pretty good Nanjing food deal at the place where I had a chicken curry and rice, and the chick who cooked would sneak iPhone shots of me. But if I can ignore the ego-boost and focus on the price, this place gives an even better deal.  It’s a sort of… Continue reading Cheap Eats Nanjing 15 – even better chicken curry and rice

Horsetail Marshes of the New Zealand Jurassic

Equisetum fossil New Zealand Jurassic

In the Jurassic, New Zealand had ‘horsetails’ (Latin: Equisetum) – an odd-looking plant , a bit like a long brush with whorls of narrow leaves and are related to ferns. Apart from their shape some of the extinct forms had a strange ‘diaphram’ attached to their stems that contained the spores (see the featured image. The… Continue reading Horsetail Marshes of the New Zealand Jurassic