Friday, May 22, 2009

Shanghai Yummies-pt 2

Here comes my part II culinary experience in Shangahai.

WARNING: Tons of photos!!Viewer adviced to take lunch before read this.



First day breakfast cum lunch at office canteen, pathetic western food with the burger patty sweet taiwanese hotdogs, mash potatoes, seaweed soup, salad and fruits. Its nice and filling but nothing much to shout about. A bit expensive though, the whole set comes at RMB28 (RM14).

Went to the famous Shanghai Shopping street- Nanjing street on the first night. Even though its nearly 10pm, the place was still congested and flooded by sea of shoppers. To some extent, the scenery and the cool breeze reminded me of the pedestrian shopping street in UK, but with a mix of local (Chinese advert, colorful neons lights) and foreign (branded clothes, shoes and the fast food restaurant) scent, and of course the major difference is that in UK, all shops closed at 5pm, but in Shanghai, the city never sleep.


Nanjing Shopping Street

Found some old looking chinese restaurant at a corner of the street. Without much expectation i just walked in for a bowl of beef noodles to warm up my body.



To sit alone in a table of four is a bit funny though, as i'm surrounded by families of Chinese people eating and chatting happily among themselves with a full table of food.



I went for the beef noodle (RMB 10) and of course a tray of siao long bao (RMB10). The portion of the beef was pretty generous, a bit raw but tasted fine. A bit similar to Vietnamese's Pho but with Chinese yellow noodles and lacking the fragrants taste of basil and mint leaves.

Here comes the second day luxurious lunch which causes RMB200++



My first impression of the first dish is: Sze Chuan style meat! as the '花椒' (a type of chinese pepper) smell and the layer of spicy oil floating on top reminds me of the sze chuan's steamboat which i had once in Liverpool. Turned out to be i'm half correct, yes, its sze chuan style, but its not pork or chicken, its
FROG MEAT!!!
I'm at horror when the host told me that its not even frog (田鸡) but bigger frog (toad??) (牛蛙). Chinese describe it as the cow frog, which is bigger and unglier than the green color frog which we usually saw. Nevertheless, The meat was tendy but quite bony though.


Here is my favourite PORK with a big layer of juicy fat! it tasted heavenly with the chili oil



The 'lobak' 酥 with yummy shredded lobak inside and coated with sesame seeds outside, very crunchy and hot



豆鼓猪肉丝(fermented bean pork) with alot of onions slices, but a bit too salty


莲藕 (lotus roots) with sweet glutinous rice inside the hole of the root, yummy.


Toufoo soup with alot of corriander


Stir fried beans with 丝瓜, looks simple but surprisingly sweet and fresh


Of course and a good cup of tie kunyan chinese tea to wash off the fats and oil

i skipped the second night dinner as my heart was tormented and churned by guiltiness for eating so much for lunch, as an act of repentance, i ate ........ siao long bao instead. hahahaha... no difference.

The third day i was in a rush to airport so only managed to catch a fast meal. This is so called the chinese fast food restaurant, 东方既白,i have no idea why it was named in that way as it sound like rude words actually (pronouced as 'tong fang ji bai' in chinese, geddit?). The environment was similar to KFC and McD and they served food in seconds! However being a fastfood restaurant, it also came at fast food restaurant price, RMB 25 (RM12.50), a bit expensive though.







I went for a simple meal with the 卤肉饭 (pork cooked in soy sauce for long long time) and the Black Glutinous rice desert. The rice was so tender and it came with an 卤蛋egg and chicken wing as well. The desert is similar to the Malaysian Nyonya black glutinous rice deserts, except that its used cream and was cold , rather than with Coconut milk and hot.

Overall, it was alright. I am very much enjoyed and accustomed to Chinese food but for some reason, during that 3 days trip, i missed nasi lemak sambal more than ever!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Shanghai Yummies- pt 1(small bites)

Chinese food is one of the major highlight of my recent Shanghai trip, which i really have to thank my company business counterparts who had generously hosted me for good lunch. I've always aware of the fact that luxurious meals is a custom for the Shanghainese to welcome the guest. However its still a big shock to me when i see a table full of 6-7 different dishes for 3 person meal, its enough to feed a team of hungry footballers! Frankly, i'm actually abit annoyed to see so much of leftovers went to waste as the table is still quite full of food even after everyone done eating.

Nevertheless, food is a major element in Chinese culture, hence the best way to understand China is to hunt for its street food, which i think was much more enjoyable and adventorous.

中国人说,民以食为天,这话真是不错。这次的上海之旅的确让我大开眼界。虽然一直以来已风闻有关中国食品的种种负面报导,例如猪肉“瘦肉精”,谷类食品和腐竹中“吊白块”,及最近的中国毒奶粉等。但美食当前,我也管不了这么多,怀着视死如归的精神,赴汤蹈火寻街头美食去了!



早餐 My Breakfast-小龙包 small dragon bun,肉馅饼,乳酸奶 (草莓口味) yogurt drink

There are a variety of cheap packet drink available in Shanghai compare to Malaysia. Even for yogurt! i tried the strawberry flavor, tasted not too bad.



巧克力口味 chocolate flavor drink (its so weird to see different type of chocolate drink other than the usual dutch lady and milo)


Shanghainese drinks 'wong lou kat' like mineral water


油葱饼


肉包子


迷你汉堡 small hamburger, 肉馅饼


Popiah look alike wrap


浙肉夹摸


Muachi-Sweet Glutinous Rice ball




大娘水饺


肉包子


肉棕子 Chinese Dumpling


小龙包

The funny thing about 小龙包 is that the price varied so much compare to the one you get in high class chinese restaurant in Malaysia (such as 鼎泰丰), which is around RM20. In Shanghai, it cost me RMB 10 (RM5) for a tray of the 8 pieces small dragon buns in common chinese restaurant. When i went for the street side 小龙包, the same amount only cost me RMB5 (RM2.50)!

I went..... stoned, on the spot.

The realization had prompt me to eat 小龙包 for:


Breakfast


Tea Break


Dinner
..... and whenever i am hungry!

Ps: will blog about Shanghai dishes (lunch/dinner) next!

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Book Review: Great Cheap Books

There is one fabolous thing about Shanghai, Cheap Chinese Books!



The books doesnt come cheap in the expense of its quality. And i can assure you these are not pirated books like the one you can get in Pasar Seni. In fact, i bought all of these books from the BIG bookstores which are on par with Borders or Kinokuniya in KL.

The three books which i've bought only cost me RMB 65, which is around RM 32.00, can you believe that?

1。 <徐志摩散文珍藏>


This is one of the best recommended books (along with others from famous authors like 朱自清,鲁迅 etc.) by the scholars for young adults in China. Its a collection of the famous author/poet/Romantisist-徐志摩's writings. Most people recognized him for his famous poetry-“偶然”

我是天空里的一片云
偶尔投影在你的波心
你不必惊异, 更无须欢喜
在转瞬间消灭了踪影 

你我相逢在黑夜的海上
你有你的,我有我的,方向
你记得也好,最好你忘掉
在这交会时互放的光亮

The book is kinda like a self revelation and travel log of the writer. In which during his stay in foreign land (in Cambridge, Paris, Itali etc.), he converted all the ignited thoughts about life into beautiful words.

Chinese like to use tea art to represent life, the more you tasted, the more fragrant it is (看生活似茶,愈品愈浓). Thats exactly how i felt when i read his poetry words, the more i read, more thoughts/inspiration sprang out of my mind. This is definitely a must read book, as his writings does not confined to the definition of time and generation.

2。分手信

An English-Chinese translated novel by Nicholas Spark ( the one who wrote message in the bottle, the notebook, a road to remember etc.). Not sure whether the translated version is as good as the english version or not. However what really attracted my attention is the excerpt at the back cover of the book:

離開,才是真正的愛。

一紙揉皺了的分手信
一句不得不說出口的對不起
一個關於割捨的故事

什麼叫做真正地愛一個人?在你內心深處,是否也有這樣的迷惘?
甚至,是否也藏有一個分手的決定、一段分手的記憶?

3。听说爱情回来过


A love story by an unknown china writer, the story was first published online and received great comments from its readers. will see how good it is.