Shanghai
Alas, I am not in Shanghai, just months late in posting these.
I'd been to Shanghai once before, about six some years ago. It was on the same trip I'd visited Hong Kong on, but when I returned this year, Hong Kong was largely the same, very recognizable, whereas Shanghai had completely changed. Everything there is under construction: subway lines, department stores, sky-high apartment complexes, the next Tallest Building Ever. Everything is being torn down: labyrinths of courtyards and alleyways, old houses and neighborhoods. Things are half-done, like the maglev train going from the new airport to somewhere in the middle of Pudong, but the city is growing so quickly, that soon, it won't be the middle of anywhere anymore.
There are expats everywhere, lots of rich investors buying the newly-built apartments that many of the locals still can't afford. In many ways, it feels a lot like Taiwan did fifteen years ago, when you couldn't depend on clean bathrooms or toilet paper (and still can't always, but it's so much better now), when going to a US chain was still a status symbol (only in Shanghai, it's Japanese and Taiwanese chains as well).
My mom said that the city is trying to finish everything for the 2010 World Expo, and it's so odd to realize that visiting the city next year or two years later means visiting an entirely different city all together.
A street view of a temple in Shanghai, smack in the midst of department stores.
We went and had dinner at Lao Jie Ji, which is famous (I think?). This is their sweet and sour pork, albeit very different from US sweet and sour stuff. It's much more heavily flavored with sweet soy sauce, which is made by boiling soy sauce with sugar and other spices.
Bean curd shreds.
Um. I think this is beef tendon.
Either that, or this is the beef tendon, and I have no idea what the other one is!
Oh, this was good! Ground pork wrapped in bean curd skin, very light and delicate.
Little dates stuffed with mochi! Er. I think they are dates? It's "hong zhao" in Chinese.
OMG this is the best thing ever! It is fish head baked in green onions, and as you can tell, the fish head is ginormous and it is covered with green onions!
The entire thing is wonderfully tender and juicy and has an onion-y flavor, and I was still picking meat from the bones near the end of the meal.
Ginormous sea cucumber. I generally dislike sea cucumber, but I took a bite of this on the principle that I should try everything. I... still am not a fan sea cucumber, although I can eat it. I figured I should leave it to people who liked it. I was assured by them that it was extremely good.
My second favorite dish after the fish head! This is crab with fun pi, a type of broad, flat noodle made with mung beans. The fun pi was really soft and the crab was good, and it had this not-too-heavy sauce on it that was great.
Deep-fried shrimp and chicken bits!
Oh, this was really good too! Just rice cooked with vegetables and bits of meat, but tasty.
More sweet-and-sour pork made with the sweetened soy sauce. I thought the red things were bell pepper, but I think they were actually chewy pig skin. Anyhow, they were chewy and definitely not bell pepper.
A light tomato and winter melon soup with little bamboo shoots.
Green onion pancakes. Sadly, by the time this came out, I was too full to eat much.
Stir-fried year cake (nien gao), which was ok but not as good as some of the other stuff.
Oh! This was good! It's little tang yuan (sesame paste in mochi) in jiou niang (a fermented rice soup that's sweet and has little bits of rice in it). The tang yuan are a lot smaller than they usually are, which made the sesame paste inside even better.
I feel this is so Shanghai: old, crowded buildings next to places being torn down next to new apartment complexes.
The other side of the previous shot: even more new apartment complexes next to tiny older homes.
The view of Pudong (east Shanghai) from my mom's friend's window (we were staying with her).
Zha jiang mien! Alas, it looked better than it tasted, as the noodles weren't quite as Q/chewy as they should have been.
So, in Shanghai, I had Shanghainese at Lao Jie Ji, and then I went to have lunch at... a Taiwan shaved ice place! This is shaved ice with green tea ice cream and azuki, one of my favorite combos. Sigh. I miss the day when Taiwan McDonalds used to have green tea McFlurries with azuki on top.
A coconut roll stuffed with sticky wild rice and mango.
Traffic in Shanghai: even worse than Taiwan! I wish I could say this scene was an exception, but nope, all the driving is very much like this.
These trees are everywhere; last time I was here, someone told me the French brought them over when Shanghai was divided among European countries as a result of the Opium Wars.
The Oriental Pearl building at dusk. I think it is incredibly ugly and looks like a giant plastic toy, but there you go...
The tallest building in Shanghai behind the second tallest building in Shanghai. I think. They're the two behind the building still under construction, which I think is going to be the new tallest building? I can't remember! There are too many tall buildings!
And then, after eating Taiwanese shaved ice, we went and had... Din Tai Feng, probably the most famous Taiwan restaurant out there! I am not complaining, as I love Din Tai Feng, but it seemed odd to be eating all this Taiwan food in Shanghai. The Din Tai Feng(s) in Shanghai are really nice and taste as good as the original (with the exception of the fried rice, which is good but not exceptional), though they have more xiao cai (little dishes that are sort of like appetizers), have shaved ice on the menu (hee!), and have a much shorter wait. This is very finely chopped pork and pickled vegetable.
More xiao cai! Cold bamboo shoots, which were really good.
A sticky rice dumpling at Din Tai Feng.
As noted, the Din Tai Feng(s) in Shanghai have shaved ice! This is a monstrous one with all sorts of sweet beans and brown sugar ice.
The inside of the giant mountain of ice.
A really horrible photo of the Bund/Huangpu River at night, from the Pudong side.
A dark and murky picture of the Oriental Pearl. Um. The lights are sort of pretty even though they still make the building look plastic? Also, sorry about my really bad nighttime photo-taking skills.
A view of some streets in Tian Zai Fang, a shikumen area with the original buildings made into various cafes and shops.
Cat! It was a very frisky cat, so I never got a picture of its face, as it was having entirely too much fun hunting down stray fluttering leaves.
More of Tian Zi Fang.
Even more shikumen! I like old buildings and alleys.
Tourists wandering around, taking pictures like me.
I love that though there are a lot of expats and tourists in Tian Zi Fang, there were also a crowd of people who looked like they lived there, sitting outside playing cards.
And of course, a bird in a cage.
The sign and address for Tian Zi Fang.
ZOMG toro soooo good!
More toro! I think the left side is less fatty and the right side has been marinated. You're supposed to take the thin slices and wrap them around the slivers of green onion. Sooo good!
Mmmm, giant steamed crab legs.
Even more toro! Only this is for the hot pot... you're supposed to dip it in for a few seconds, so it doesn't get overcooked.
More hot pot fodder.
And, negitoro don!
More alleyways, only this time of Xin Tian Di. While Tian Zi Fang consists of actual preserved shikumen buildings, Xin Tian Di's are newly built in the style of shikumen. A ton of expats hang out there, and it's incredibly pricy, but still nice to wander around. Plus, at least the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is affordable.
Fountain in the middle of Xin Tian Di.
One of the larger open areas in Xin Tian Di, lined with assorted outside seating for restaurants.
The outside of a Shanghainese restaurant we went to. The first animal is the standard stone lion, and then we have the black turtle, red phoenix, blue dragon and white tiger quartet.
Usually I can figure out how people got from the Chinese to the English translation, but "delicious bingy-twig" confused both me and my mom.
Green bean mush! Actually pretty yummy, despite looking like baby food.
And the mysterious delicious bingy-twig! It's basically slivers of cucumber, carrot, jellyfish, and the little white mushrooms that come in hot pot marinated in sesame oil and a little vinegar.
The smoked fish, which was good.
Lightly cooked shrimp that you eat with vinegar.
Beef!
Scallops and... something. Eggplant?
Silk melon (I think that's what it's called?) and... something. This is what happens when you annotate pictures months after taking them.
Oh, this was really good! Vegetables in a very thick chicken stock, possibly, with dried scallops on top. It was so good that everyone at the table was spooning up the broth long after we had eaten all the veggies.
Pan-fried meat buns!
These looked so tasty that I grabbed one before realizing no one else on the table would, with the exception of my aunt. "Uh, what are they?" I asked. "Durian" was the answer. Having decided to try everything at least once, I ate half of my pastry dutifully. Alas, to me, durian still tastes like it smells, so my aunt got the rest of the plate,
Rice alcohol soup with little tang yuan (small balls made of glutinous rice)! Not quite as good as the ones at Lao Jie Ji since there was nothing inside the tang yuan, but still good.
Mango tapioca soup! I love this stuff so much.
I'd been to Shanghai once before, about six some years ago. It was on the same trip I'd visited Hong Kong on, but when I returned this year, Hong Kong was largely the same, very recognizable, whereas Shanghai had completely changed. Everything there is under construction: subway lines, department stores, sky-high apartment complexes, the next Tallest Building Ever. Everything is being torn down: labyrinths of courtyards and alleyways, old houses and neighborhoods. Things are half-done, like the maglev train going from the new airport to somewhere in the middle of Pudong, but the city is growing so quickly, that soon, it won't be the middle of anywhere anymore.
There are expats everywhere, lots of rich investors buying the newly-built apartments that many of the locals still can't afford. In many ways, it feels a lot like Taiwan did fifteen years ago, when you couldn't depend on clean bathrooms or toilet paper (and still can't always, but it's so much better now), when going to a US chain was still a status symbol (only in Shanghai, it's Japanese and Taiwanese chains as well).
My mom said that the city is trying to finish everything for the 2010 World Expo, and it's so odd to realize that visiting the city next year or two years later means visiting an entirely different city all together.
A street view of a temple in Shanghai, smack in the midst of department stores.
We went and had dinner at Lao Jie Ji, which is famous (I think?). This is their sweet and sour pork, albeit very different from US sweet and sour stuff. It's much more heavily flavored with sweet soy sauce, which is made by boiling soy sauce with sugar and other spices.
Bean curd shreds.
Um. I think this is beef tendon.
Either that, or this is the beef tendon, and I have no idea what the other one is!
Oh, this was good! Ground pork wrapped in bean curd skin, very light and delicate.
Little dates stuffed with mochi! Er. I think they are dates? It's "hong zhao" in Chinese.
OMG this is the best thing ever! It is fish head baked in green onions, and as you can tell, the fish head is ginormous and it is covered with green onions!
The entire thing is wonderfully tender and juicy and has an onion-y flavor, and I was still picking meat from the bones near the end of the meal.
Ginormous sea cucumber. I generally dislike sea cucumber, but I took a bite of this on the principle that I should try everything. I... still am not a fan sea cucumber, although I can eat it. I figured I should leave it to people who liked it. I was assured by them that it was extremely good.
My second favorite dish after the fish head! This is crab with fun pi, a type of broad, flat noodle made with mung beans. The fun pi was really soft and the crab was good, and it had this not-too-heavy sauce on it that was great.
Deep-fried shrimp and chicken bits!
Oh, this was really good too! Just rice cooked with vegetables and bits of meat, but tasty.
More sweet-and-sour pork made with the sweetened soy sauce. I thought the red things were bell pepper, but I think they were actually chewy pig skin. Anyhow, they were chewy and definitely not bell pepper.
A light tomato and winter melon soup with little bamboo shoots.
Green onion pancakes. Sadly, by the time this came out, I was too full to eat much.
Stir-fried year cake (nien gao), which was ok but not as good as some of the other stuff.
Oh! This was good! It's little tang yuan (sesame paste in mochi) in jiou niang (a fermented rice soup that's sweet and has little bits of rice in it). The tang yuan are a lot smaller than they usually are, which made the sesame paste inside even better.
I feel this is so Shanghai: old, crowded buildings next to places being torn down next to new apartment complexes.
The other side of the previous shot: even more new apartment complexes next to tiny older homes.
The view of Pudong (east Shanghai) from my mom's friend's window (we were staying with her).
Zha jiang mien! Alas, it looked better than it tasted, as the noodles weren't quite as Q/chewy as they should have been.
So, in Shanghai, I had Shanghainese at Lao Jie Ji, and then I went to have lunch at... a Taiwan shaved ice place! This is shaved ice with green tea ice cream and azuki, one of my favorite combos. Sigh. I miss the day when Taiwan McDonalds used to have green tea McFlurries with azuki on top.
A coconut roll stuffed with sticky wild rice and mango.
Traffic in Shanghai: even worse than Taiwan! I wish I could say this scene was an exception, but nope, all the driving is very much like this.
These trees are everywhere; last time I was here, someone told me the French brought them over when Shanghai was divided among European countries as a result of the Opium Wars.
The Oriental Pearl building at dusk. I think it is incredibly ugly and looks like a giant plastic toy, but there you go...
The tallest building in Shanghai behind the second tallest building in Shanghai. I think. They're the two behind the building still under construction, which I think is going to be the new tallest building? I can't remember! There are too many tall buildings!
And then, after eating Taiwanese shaved ice, we went and had... Din Tai Feng, probably the most famous Taiwan restaurant out there! I am not complaining, as I love Din Tai Feng, but it seemed odd to be eating all this Taiwan food in Shanghai. The Din Tai Feng(s) in Shanghai are really nice and taste as good as the original (with the exception of the fried rice, which is good but not exceptional), though they have more xiao cai (little dishes that are sort of like appetizers), have shaved ice on the menu (hee!), and have a much shorter wait. This is very finely chopped pork and pickled vegetable.
More xiao cai! Cold bamboo shoots, which were really good.
A sticky rice dumpling at Din Tai Feng.
As noted, the Din Tai Feng(s) in Shanghai have shaved ice! This is a monstrous one with all sorts of sweet beans and brown sugar ice.
The inside of the giant mountain of ice.
A really horrible photo of the Bund/Huangpu River at night, from the Pudong side.
A dark and murky picture of the Oriental Pearl. Um. The lights are sort of pretty even though they still make the building look plastic? Also, sorry about my really bad nighttime photo-taking skills.
A view of some streets in Tian Zai Fang, a shikumen area with the original buildings made into various cafes and shops.
Cat! It was a very frisky cat, so I never got a picture of its face, as it was having entirely too much fun hunting down stray fluttering leaves.
More of Tian Zi Fang.
Even more shikumen! I like old buildings and alleys.
Tourists wandering around, taking pictures like me.
I love that though there are a lot of expats and tourists in Tian Zi Fang, there were also a crowd of people who looked like they lived there, sitting outside playing cards.
And of course, a bird in a cage.
The sign and address for Tian Zi Fang.
ZOMG toro soooo good!
More toro! I think the left side is less fatty and the right side has been marinated. You're supposed to take the thin slices and wrap them around the slivers of green onion. Sooo good!
Mmmm, giant steamed crab legs.
Even more toro! Only this is for the hot pot... you're supposed to dip it in for a few seconds, so it doesn't get overcooked.
More hot pot fodder.
And, negitoro don!
More alleyways, only this time of Xin Tian Di. While Tian Zi Fang consists of actual preserved shikumen buildings, Xin Tian Di's are newly built in the style of shikumen. A ton of expats hang out there, and it's incredibly pricy, but still nice to wander around. Plus, at least the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf is affordable.
Fountain in the middle of Xin Tian Di.
One of the larger open areas in Xin Tian Di, lined with assorted outside seating for restaurants.
The outside of a Shanghainese restaurant we went to. The first animal is the standard stone lion, and then we have the black turtle, red phoenix, blue dragon and white tiger quartet.
Usually I can figure out how people got from the Chinese to the English translation, but "delicious bingy-twig" confused both me and my mom.
Green bean mush! Actually pretty yummy, despite looking like baby food.
And the mysterious delicious bingy-twig! It's basically slivers of cucumber, carrot, jellyfish, and the little white mushrooms that come in hot pot marinated in sesame oil and a little vinegar.
The smoked fish, which was good.
Lightly cooked shrimp that you eat with vinegar.
Beef!
Scallops and... something. Eggplant?
Silk melon (I think that's what it's called?) and... something. This is what happens when you annotate pictures months after taking them.
Oh, this was really good! Vegetables in a very thick chicken stock, possibly, with dried scallops on top. It was so good that everyone at the table was spooning up the broth long after we had eaten all the veggies.
Pan-fried meat buns!
These looked so tasty that I grabbed one before realizing no one else on the table would, with the exception of my aunt. "Uh, what are they?" I asked. "Durian" was the answer. Having decided to try everything at least once, I ate half of my pastry dutifully. Alas, to me, durian still tastes like it smells, so my aunt got the rest of the plate,
Rice alcohol soup with little tang yuan (small balls made of glutinous rice)! Not quite as good as the ones at Lao Jie Ji since there was nothing inside the tang yuan, but still good.
Mango tapioca soup! I love this stuff so much.