check out the course and reviews at phatsh.com
check out the course and reviews at phatsh.com
Posted at 12:27 AM in Cooking and Recipes, Culture, Food and Drink, Shanghai, Travel | Permalink | Comments (1)
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On Wednesday I attended what I thought was a brilliant idea: Shanghai Photographer Night, held at the Dada Bar and featuring four noted photographers presenting slideshows, accompanied by music of their choosing.
Of the photographers presented, the one whose work made the deepest impression on me was Tang Ting and his film-based snapshot aesthetic. Several of his photos from the "Delicate" slideshow can be found on Flickr. The full slideshow can be viewed on Tang Ting's homepage.
Tang Ting's photos, although seemingly off the cuff, contain a unique sensibility mixing vibrancy, personal journalism, fashion, sexuality, surreal edges, fun and humor, pop culture, mortality, side detail , sheer weirdness, and occasional loneliness. I like his stuff.
Also on tap for the evening slideshows were portraits of construction workers by Patrick Wack, night architecture scenes by Charlie Xia and a chest of drawers series by Francois Trezin. This was my first time at the Dada Bar. For Shanghai, their drink prices were fairly reasonable. I enjoyed a mojito (40 RMB) and a few glasses of Scotch (25 RMB). I watched the slideshows three times and they took on a slow meditative quality. I also snapped a few photos with my point-and-shoot.
Hopefully, the photo nights at Dada Bar will become a regular occurrence.
Posted at 09:46 PM in China, Chinese, Culture, Food and Drink, Media, Nightlife, Photography, Photojournalism, Shanghai, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)
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4 ozs Havana Club rum
3 teaspoons of honey
Directions: Mix ingredients. Warm in microwave for one minute.
Posted at 10:04 AM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I've cooked many dishes in my life, but I've only done a few steaks, so when L brought home a couple round steaks left over from a work event I took it on as a worthy challenge. For the principal recipe, I took on "Herb Swiss Steak," as published on About.com. Following the advice of another website, I asked L to salt the steak about an hour before cooking. I think this is good advice, but be careful to wash the salt off thoroughly when the hour is done- the first steak came out a bit on the salty side. The recipe called for oil, salt, pepper, tomatoes, onion, celery, marjoram, thyme and garlic powder. I made a few substitutions, throwing in oregano and garlic cloves in place of the marjoram and garlic powder. We had some leftover hot green peppers, so I popped those in the mix. I also doused the steaks in wine shortly before cooking. I fried the vegetables first, then cooked the steak under them. Overall, the results came out quite tasty. I was helped by the fact that this was a fine steak, thin and capable of cooking thoroughly in a couple of minutes. The celery stalks were very thin, which made for better cooking than the heavy stalks contained in most dishes. To tenderize the meat, I used a lazy method, batting it with the spatula as I cooked, helping to soak in the spices.
For vegetables, I went with a yam, pepper and carrot stir-fry recipe I found on Home Chinese Recipes. I can't recall trying this dish in any Chinese restaurant, but it fit the flavors I was looking for (from the picture I'm wondering if the recipe writer doesn't mean yams at all, but "shanyao," sometimes called a Chinese yam but containing a flavor that is quite different). Anyway, for our dish I went with a sweet potato, carrots, green pepper, light soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and wood-ear mushrooms, basically following the recipe exactly (except for perhaps the yam issue-personally, I think the sweet potato made for a much better fit with the carrots than shanyao would have).
This vegetable side also came out quite well- though I could have dispensed with the wood-ear mushrooms, which didn't seem to offer much, either in sightliness or flavor. Then again, I'm not a mushroom guy.
The following night, I met with less success in the kitchen. A couple months ago, I made a superb macaroni and cheese dinner using one of those instant packages (no really, it was great, amazing what enough pepper and basil will do). In America, these packages cost a $1 or $2, but in China they cost 25 or 30 RMB (about twice as much). Instead of paying that, I thought, why not just mix my own cheese and noodles? This week's macaroni was made using: fusilli pasta, sharp chedder cheese, shredded monterey jack, parmesan, salt, pepper, and cooked in a mix of butter and olive oil. For a sauce, I added some basil pesto and wine. My taste buds tell me the pesto may have been the odd man out, but whatever the case is, the result was not as tasty as I would have liked (and shamefully, not even as good as the instant pack). Costwise, it didn't make much of a difference, saving only a couple RMB at the most. Time to stock up on those instant packs!
Posted at 08:15 AM in Cooking and Recipes, Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I frequently cook Chinese dishes at home and I've done a reasonably proficient job with such varied dishes as lazi ji (chili chicken), ganbian tudousi (deep fried spicy potatoes), pumpkins and beef, and shrimp dumplings. Two dishes that have eluded me, however, are gongbao jiding and Sichuan hot pot. Multiple efforts at each dish have failed to yield the desired results. So this evening I decided to make an effort at tackling the first.
Gongbao jiding may have a similar name as kungpao chicken in the west, but believe me, they are two completely different dishes. Kungpao chicken evokes chicken and green peppers washed out in soy sauce. Gongbao jiding, at any decent Chinese restaurant, suggests a succulent dish with a chicken and peanut core, sometimes outlined by vegetables (green pepper, cucumber or carrots), a spicy dish that has just a hint of sweetness.
Before I get into my methods, I should note one thing about my cooking style: I don't measure. Anything. And I also have a penchant for cooking with ingredients that I have on hand, rather than ones that would require walking outside at 8 pm to visit the grocery store. So proceed with caution.
Thinking about previous efforts, I decided that a crucial failure had been in the sauce (some might suggest failing to measure anything, but I don't think so).
Consulting many recipes on the Internet, I found that several advised adding either egg white or spicy bean sauce. I decided to add both. (Once, on a previous occasion, I had made the distastrous decision to toss an entire egg yolk into the mix- I did not repeat that mistake this time).
Here is a rough estimate of the ingredients I gathered together and the plot that unfolded:
Marinade
Sauce
Spices
Base ingredients
First, I left the chicken to marinade for about a half hour. Heating up the wok, I put in the cooking oil (I had wanted peanut oil but the store only had a mix), then the spices. Next came the carrots, then the peppers, then the chicken, and finally the peanuts. Last came the sauce. The whole endeavor took about two hours.
The result?
The dish tasted fairly good. However, it still tasted nothing like gongbao jiding. A much better description would have been lazi jiding with a lot of peanuts. The next time the weather is looking good and I attempt to face off against gongbao jiding, I'm going to make some adjustments. First off, the dish tasted a bit salty. Between the soy sauce and the powder mix, there was already enough salt going in the wok. so next time I don't think I'll bother to add any plain sauce.
The peanuts need to go in earlier. Next time, I'll throw them in before the chicken, letting the peanut flavor soak in a bit more and giving them time to fully roast. I would also like to replace the mixed oil and olive oil with peanut oil and sesame oil. I might consider holding the fire spices down a little and using less vinegar or better quality vinegar for the sauce (I didn't use a lot, but it was too much).
Finally, I think I should have waited until right before turning off the stove to add the sauce. I put it in last, but then gave it too long to cook down. A thicker sauce would have been nice to coat the rice.
Well, I'll conquer that mountain someday and figure out the key to this dish. In the meantime, I still have leftovers to work through- tomorrow's lunch.
If the recipe above doesn't suit your style, you may want to consult these other versions (by chefs with more systematic methods):
Posted at 08:20 AM in China, Cooking and Recipes, Food and Drink, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Mid-Autumn Festival... it came and went. And I was busy and did not have time to jot down a entry detailing my date with the moon. This will be a bit of a personal post. Political manifestos and sensual photos will return at a later date.
On Friday, Oct. 2, L. and I took off on a mission to the Shangri-La hotel in order to obtain a box of mooncakes she had been given from a friend. We were going to take the subway but the cars were so overcrowded that we ended up getting off after only two stops and walking a ways. She stopped to make a deposit at a "Cash Recycling Machine" (in China, it is common to use separate ATMs for deposits and withdrawals). While she was in the bank, I perused a collection of counterfeit books that a vendor was selling on a cart outside. A couple caught my eye, both by Will Durant. I ended up choosing The Story of Philosophy over The History of Philosophy.
My personal dates of philosophical inquiry can be divided approximately into three phases: high school, college and graduate school. With the graduation from my M.A. now more than eight years past, I was overdue for a refresher course on the great books, and Durant's summaries seemed like a good segue. The vendor offered the book for 30RMB (about $4.25) and I didn't attempt to bargain it down further. The printing was of good quality, but had a strong smell of fresh wood, like it had just been ripped out of a 2x4.
We walked into a large Sichuan chain restaurant and I lapped up the book's contents greedily. One passage stood out: "Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt--particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas and one's axioms. Who knows how these cherished beliefs became certainties with us, and whether some secret wish did not furtively beget them, clothing desire in the dress of thought. There is no real philosophy until the mind turns around and examines itself."
The first chapter provided a rather cursory summary of Plato, kind of like seeing the Arctic Circle from an airplane. You may have glimpsed it, but you've hardly explored it. But it was good to get a taste.
One thing I have to bring up. Some of the phraseology in Durant's summary quite frankly scared me- particularly those passages where he seems overly tolerant of Plato's disdain for democracy, rattling off words like "what could have been more ridiculous than this mob-led, passion-ridden democracy, this government by a debating society," attributing the disarray in Athens to its rotating rule at the hands of "simple farmers and tradesman." They may have made a mess of things, but I've also read about more than a few so-called philosophers who managed political affairs ineptly, and nowhere have I seen this perfect education that would (in of itself) prepare a person for leadership. Real experience, broad communication, travel, simple integrity and compassion, even occasional heartbreak seem too inextricably intertwined. The idea of these abstract thinkers with no personal interest in the state they're overseeing scares the shit out of me. For me, the model of a great leader is Abraham Lincoln. I don't think any Lincolns are likely to come out of a segregated, dogmatic education of three or four decades...
The restaurant where I was scanning these passages was Xing Xiang Hui, a large place cast in a modernist diner-type decor, rich in black and gray colors. The menu was not merely a menu, it was also part magazine, part shopping catalog, part shall we say experience. Entitled "Lifestyle Plus," it contained(for example) a page dedicated to the art of Andy Warhol- with products for sale that bore little resemblance to his pop art, which included a pair of black and red boots that looked like galoshes and a shirt with a cartoon reptile on it.
Looking over the food section, L. immediately eyed the chicken claws. She passed the menu to me and I passed over a page with a plate full of duck heads before settling on a dish of duck necks. "Why do you want duck necks?" L. asked incredulously. "Why do you want chicken claws?" I asked defensively. In the end, we left out the duck heads, but instead ordered a dish of pork and green peppers, some chicken wings, and "disanxian" ("Three Flavors of the Earth," meaning potatoes, eggplant and peppers"). Our four dishes, along with some watermelon juice, came to 97RMB. The food was reasonable but far from spectactular, missing the chilis and peppercorn zing that is customary in Sichuan cuisine.
Leaving the restaurant, it was time to continue our odyssey to exchange the coupon for the mooncakes. We hopped in a cab and took it over to the Kerry Centre. A sign stood in the lobby directing mooncake seekers to the third floor. Exchanging her coupon, L. got a long box that looked like it should hold a pool cue but instead held six small mooncakes, about the size of White Castle burgers. They came in yolk, green tea, black sesame, sugar-free pumpkin, sugar free white lotus and date-and-walnut flavors. They had a consistency close to a scone. I rather liked them, but L. insisted they were "freaky mooncakes."
We had some time to kill before heading to the Shanghai Dance Festival, so we headed down to the Starbucks on the first floor (yes, I know, I hate Starbucks and I also drink coffee there a lot... such are the complexities of life). The Moon Festival is a convenient time for businesses to ignore all laws of economics. Thus, little cakes that ordinarily sell for around 50 cents each now are sold in six-pack boxes costing $30, $50 or even more. The cakes at Starbucks, which I'm told taste good, were on sale in boxes piled high to the ceiling at a cost of 218RMB ($32) per set. Haagen-Dazs is another unlikely mooncake entrepeneur. I settled for a medium coffee and perused a copy of Shanghai Daily. A feature article inside the newspaper lamented how the Mid-Autumn Festival had been reduced to another family dinner by the television event, one associated mainly with mooncakes and thought less fun by young people than Valentine's Day or Christmas. It talked of times in the distant past, when people would gather outside in the night and watch the moon and drink wine and recite poetry.
For the following evening, L. and I went to a visit a friend from her hometown in the south of China. Along the way, we stopped at City Shop and L. picked up curry to make shrimp and I picked up a bottle of Chilean wine. Her friend lived in one of the dwindling old neighborhoods in central Shanghai, a kind of ramshackle boarding house-type dwelling that nevertheless had a homeliness that is lacking in the apartments that have now become the norm. Her friend had recently had surgery, and the woman's mother had arrived to oversee affairs, preparing (with a bit of L.'s assistance) a 10-dish dinner, featuring such local specialties as boiled frog and periwinkles. Of me, the mother had two questions: "Do you eat intestines?" And "Why don't you shave your beard?" I explained to her that I once bought an electric razor at Carrefour and it promptly jammed inside my beard, leading me to return it. Since then, I have just let the beard go its own way.
[An aside: just try returning an item to Carrefour or Wal-Mart in Nanjing, China. I had a coffeemaker from Wal-Mart that broke after two weeks. When I returned it, they insisted that they wouldn't take it back, but instead would arrange for a repairman to fix it. A week or two later, they said I could pick the machine up. I biked for an hour to Wal-Mart to go get it. When I took the machine home, it wouldn't even turn on. So much for the repair. I took it back to Wal-Mart once again and rather angrily insisted that this time they give me my money back. As for Carrefour, I got a glimpse at how their return desk worked when I returned the electric razor- not much better. First off, the people working at the return desk were not authorized to take returns. So they had to call a manager out, which took about a 15 minute wait. When the manager came, she turned the razor on and insisted that it worked because it made a hum. Yes, the machine turns on, I explained, but it doesn't cut hair. To demonstrate, I poked beard trim side of the razor into my beard, where it promptly gagged. Horrified, the manager agreed that it did not seem to be working. Next, she took it apart, holding it up against the light, apparently checking to make sure it did not have any hairs that would indicate I had secretly been using it for the last few days. Finally, I got my money back from a cash register that barely had a 100 kuai in it--apparently, paying money back on returns is not a common practice at discount conglomerates in China.]
Getting back to the meal. Liam, a friend of L.'s, was there, and he asked if I had seen the National Day parade. I said I had and he asked if it was like parades in America. I said there were some aspects in it that were similar, but that in America heavy weaponry is usually not put on display for a ceremonial parade... Our hostess' mother asked if we needed more dishes and everyone hurried to say there was enough on the table (the 10 initial dishes were later followed by desserts of fruit and mooncakes)... The TV played in the background. Brazil was announced as the winning Olympic bidder. What surprised me about that was how shocked the American press had treated the announcement that Rio was selected over Chicago, Tokyo and other destinations. C'mon. South America has never hosted an Olympics. This is a world event. And Rio will obviously hold a great party if they can keep crime under control. I thought the Olympic Committee made the right decision (though I was also a bit saddened to see Barack Obama's Chicago effort passed up). Next came news of the David Letterman affair- I had never previously known him to be a personality in China, but apparently now he was. This was followed by coverage of some pop concerts related to the National Day celebrations. I wondered what that must be like... your some 20-year-old pop star on stage shaking your hips, and you look out to the front row of the audience to see, not some teenage girls, but a row of crusty middle-aged military dudes in olive green uniforms. If the singer felt absurd there on stage, he didn't let on.
Somewhere in the meal, some of the guests found out that Liam had once been the singer of a now rising Chinese rock group. They asked him if he regretted passing up his chance to become famous. He said he was more interested in finding a girlfriend and writing poems. He added that he writes poems in a Beat style, mentioning Allen Ginsberg and The Dharma Bums. Leaving the dinner, I was off to a photo shoot. We invited Liam to go with us, but he said he was going to a poetry jam and would have to join us another time.
Posted at 07:46 AM in Books, China, Culture, Current Affairs, Food and Drink, Philosophy, Poetry, Shanghai, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)
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1) The McDonald's Effect. By being everywhere, they are nowhere. Every Starbucks has the same stale design, the same stale menu choices, the same corny logo. Hell, they even have Drive-Thru.
2) Paint It Green. Dollar sign green. Nothing original on these walls. Starbucks refuses to support local artists with space, even though they have plenty of it at their 16,000 locations. When was the last time you saw a local artist or photographer's work featured at your neighborhood Starbucks? I have visited Starbucks in countless cities and several countries and never seen anything but corporate artwork on the walls. By contrast, independent coffeeshops regularly display local artwork.
3) Zone Out… of independent press. Starbucks refuses to carry any alt-weeklies in the U.S.- and here in Shanghai, any of the numerous free entertainment magazines such as That’s Shanghai, City Weekend, Talk, the late SH, etc. [Note on an exception: One reader has reported seeing free publications at Starbucks in Suzhou, China.]
This is a great disservice to their customers, many of who would love to skim over a free publication or glance at event listings while they sit down to a cup of Joe. Curiously, Starbucks outlets in China have magazine racks- but they only stock them with a handful of obscure fashion, if that. Perhaps they have a marketing arrangement with the publisher? They’re not stocking them because they’re the most sought after items.
Meanwhile, Starbucks branches on the U.S. side only display publications they can sell for cash, e.g., metropolitan dailies or The New York Times. For me, this policy highlights Starbucks' overriding emphasis on the bottom line vs. customer service. If it doesn’t contribute to their coffers, it’s not worth doing.
4) Dead in the Evening. When was the last time you saw a poetry reading, an acoustic night, a photo club meeting, a lecture, a film showing, or any other community gathering at a Starbucks location? Take a look at these listings on the Starbucks website for last Saturday in New York City. Nada. Who knows, maybe they’re just bad at updating their website. Keep in mind that Starbucks has at least 171 locations in Manhattan alone.
Starbucks isn’t only a poor host, they also have an early bedtime. Independent coffeeshops are often open till midnight. Starbucks branches close much earlier. When I was in Seattle last summer, we walked down a downtown street, looking for the original Starbucks branch (which we were told was in the area). We found a Starbucks alright, closed. At 6:45 pm.
5) Wireless Zone. Starbucks corporate headquarters apparently hasn't heard about the internet age yet. They don't offer free wi-fi. Now I know there is some kind of complicated arrangement whereby if you buy a $15 or $25 Starbucks card purchased in the U.S. or Canada, and keep reusing it every month, and agree to receive regular spam from AT&T (yes, this is an actual part of the agreement), and curl your hair a few times, yadayadayada, you can (maybe) get wi-fi access for up to two hours, at locations where wi-fi is offered. Sorry, this doesn't cut it.
If you're in a shop that charges $5.30 for a green tea frappuccino, free wi-fi should be a given. Pretty much every other coffeeshop in the world now manages to provide this access. In my mind, Starbucks makes its access complicated for only one reason: corporate HQ doesn't want computer users taking up space in the store. They want you to get your coffee and leave.
6) The Parrot Effect. Starbucks employees are (apparently) required to greet hello and call out farewell to every customer as the enter and leave the store. This is humiliating to employees- and as a customer I find it unsettling to have some one call out "Thank you and please come again," or whatever every single time I walk out the store. Starbucks is fortunate to have very courteous and friendly employees in China. The company should let employees focus on what is needed- making coffee and serving customers- hell even chit-chatting with them, I am fine with that. But please quit demeaning them by forcing them to be mechanical announcers.
7) Pee in a Cup. Who would build a shop that serves 20 oz. caffeinated drinks to dozens or hundreds of customers a day and not provide a restroom? Starbucks. Starbucks coffeeshops in China virtually never have a bathroom. In major American cities (where they wouldn't dare leave out a bathroom entirely), Starbucks often keeps the restrooms locked, forcing customers to line up at the cash register in order to obtain a key from an already-harried barista. They need a new slogan: if you give us your money for coffee, we’ll let you pee in the cup.
9) The Incredibly Leaky Coffee Cup. Takeaway cups at Starbucks leak through the lid. Not some of the time. In my experience, it's pretty damn near all the time. No one wants coffee sloshed on his/her shirt or lap. Say you're a corporate manager in the coffee business… How difficult is it do design a to-go cup that doesn't leak? I don't encounter this problem much at other cafes.
10) Play tables. Starbucks's round chessboard tables are small and easy to pack into a room en masse- and also annoying if you're trying to juggle a cup of coffee, a croissant and a book, magazine or laptop on a table only made for balancing a cup of coffee.
10.5) Godzilla on Mount Java. Starbucks takes up places in the market that would be better served by local coffeeshops. Some would argue that this is not true, offering Starbucks’ heavy promotion of coffee culture and the expansion of coffee outlets as evidence that the chain is actually good for independent businesses. I don't buy it. There are now six Starbucks locations within a 15-minute walk from my house (along with five other chain coffeeshops). There used to be an independent place outside my house, a nice coffeeshop with books on the shelves, an on-site owner, and occasional community events. It closed down. Do you expect me to believe that this total market saturation by chains- Starbucks especially- doesn't make it unlikely that an independent coffeeshop, without those massive corporate dollars behind it, will ever open in the same area?That sums up the complaints I wish to tally. Starbucks’ coffee isn’t bad, about average. It’s expensive, but any time your buying retail at a limited display in a prime location, the price is going to be high. I do wonder why they charge $3 for a teabag and hot water (21 RMB for a large tea) and never offer specials, but those aren’t major issues in my coffee life. I’ll leave it to others to chronicle varying lists of environmental and/or labor complaints about the company (some of which are meritorious, others of which are not). I’m not on a vendetta run. The issues that irk me are the ones I face every time I walk into a Starbucks: its utter detachment from culture, community, originality, and genuine customer respect.
Now a disclaimer: My love of coffee exceeds my hatred of Starbucks, and given the ubiquity of Starbucks' presence in my neighborhood, I do find myself shopping there on occasion. Don’t read me the riot act if I’m on the run and you find a cup of Starbucks in my hand. Some of the complaints I have cited apply to other chain coffeeshops and not only Starbucks. But Starbucks is pretty unique in packaging together all of the downfalls of chains. I love coffee, Starbucks coffee included, but I hate the company philosophy (one oriented around bland conformity and faked idealism) that has given the chain a deserved McDonald’s label.I don’t plan to boycott Starbucks. It would only inconvenience my caffeine habit and do nothing to impact the company. But I do intend to continue the policy I’ve had up to this point: whenever possible, frequenting independent coffeeshops instead of Starbucks, even if it requires walking farther, or digging more into listings, or paying a slightly higher receipt (actually, some independents are cheaper). Furthermore, I’m planning to take on new efforts to champion independent and community coffeeshops.
If you're looking for an independent coffeeshop in your area, you can start by checking these websites: Indie Coffee Shops, Cafe Hunt, or CosyCoffeeShops.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be adding regular entries to this blog about interesting coffeeshops across the Shanghai area. They will all be independents, unless I happen to find a chain location with essential features, such as a unique design and neighborly attitude (unlikely, but possible).
(Btw, I didn’t get this idea from the recent coffeeshop feature in City Weekend, but from looking at another magazine last week: More Hangzhou, which carries coffeeshop listings more comprehensive than those found in the back of City Weekend).
With this rant over, I’m open to new ideas- and another cup of coffee. Walking home today, on a block sandwiched between two Starbucks, I came across the Marco Polo Café. Peeking in through the doorway, it looked nice. Next time, I’ll stop over there. Hopefully, their cup won’t leak.
The text of this article was published with an attributive, non-derivative Creative Commons license. In can be freely re-published elsewhere as long as attribution is provided to the author (Jeremy Breningstall) and this website, Breningstall.com.
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Nov. 30 update: Today I stumbled across a similar list by Thomas Hawk, albeit one with the opposite point of view. Since I'm a big believer in a diversity of voices, I'll link to his "10 Reasons Why As a Photographer I'm a Fan" (coincidentally, posted at almost the same time).
With all due respects to Mr. Peterson, I stand by my original position.
Here is a list of 400-plus other establishments that provide free wi-fi in Shanghai.
Posted at 05:01 AM in China, Coffeeshops, Culture, Food and Drink, Shanghai, Travel | Permalink | Comments (2)
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After a downpour all of yesterday and much of the week, bright skies finally returned to Shanghai. Today is one of those days when Shanghai gets as close as it can to a blue sky: that is to say, the sky is a bright pasty white with blue clouds... as opposed to the greyish/brownish pasty off-white color the sky usually assumes.
L. and I decided to hit the outdoor track and begin are long awaited workout program. On the way back, we were talking about making scrambled eggs for breakfast but instead hit upon one of our favorite street snacks: Chongqing cold pasta (重庆凉皮)。This dish is made using with flat rice pasta (fresh), cucumbers, vinegar, chili flakes, cucumbers, coriander, peanuts, tofu, and in some cases, a green noodle that tastes like seaweed. A good size bowl cost about 4RMB (60 cents). I did not have my camera with but will post a picture at a future opportunity.
Street food is one area where China excels. Other favorites of mine include Lanzhou pulled noodles (made with lamb and coriander) and barbeque cumin-and-chili-laced kebobs (using lamb, beef, chicken, hot green peppers, fish, garlic, corn, buns, green beans, squid, scorpions, anything imagineable). I don't have much of a taste for Shanghai's native food... local dishes strike me as careless and flavorless. But Shanghai is fortunate to have a wealth of imported food. Besides for all the great international food– last night we ordered latkes, beef tenderloin and chicken Sharama from Hala's Mediterranean Restaurant– there is also some good Sichuan and Hunan food that can be found.
A new dish that L. has introduced me to in recent weeks is jigongbao, a variation on hot pot. For this dish, a main entree (say, chicken) is brought out on a simmering pan. You eat the chicken and core vegetables, then a soup is poured over the untouched bones and scraps and whatever other remainders are still in the pan. From there, it's much like hot pot, with cabbage or potatoes or lamb slices flash boiled and consumed immediately. I don't like the hot pot end of it as much as traditional Sichuan hot pot, but the fried chicken offered at the beginning is delicious. For anyone trying this dish, I recommend it with carrots at the initial stage, too.
Walking home, a neighbor called to L. in Chinese, "His stomach is too big!" The Chinese were never big on subtlety. Looks like L. and I will have to be making a few more trips out to the track.
Posted at 08:37 PM in China, Culture, Food and Drink, Shanghai, Travel | Permalink | Comments (0)
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