Kung Fu Noodles

Jason our driver wanted to take us out to dinner and we agreed. I am uncomfortable with this because I don't want him to pay for our dinner, his monthly salary is 2,500 RMB = $367.64, so you can see why I don't want him to pay. Since it would be insulting to say no we agreed and in return we will invite him to dinner next month(?) down the road and pay. He does not like western food so we will take him to a fancy Chinese restaurant near our apartment building.

Dinner was at Seabed ScoopUp Restaurant, yes that's the name! It is the newest hot pot restaurant in Shanghai, so said Jason. Our date was made for Friday night (Feb 13), Jason would pick me up at 5:00p and then we would get Tony at work, from there off to the restaurant.

This is a very big restaurant, looks like it could seat over 200 people. Hotpot is a great concept, it's soup fondue, much healthier then the cheese variety. You sit at a table that is designed to hold a pot in the center of the table, the center has an electric hot plate to keep the soup hot, or boiling as you will see. Then you order items to put in the soup to cook and then fish out and eat, at the end you can drink the nicely flavored soup....if you're still hungry. When we sat down we were give black bean sour milk, all you can drink we were told, included in the price. Yes sour milk, the color was grey and it was pretty awful, Jason said that maybe I would like it sweet? So he offered me some sugar, nope didn't like it sweet either - it was sour milk for heavens sake, and no it was not a yogurt drink. Tony immediately ordered 2 cold beers, thank goodness he knows how to say that in Chinese.The process is as follows, first you select your broth, spicy, plain or both, then chicken, beef, seafood, or tofu. The hot soup pot is brought to the table and set on the hot plate. You then order the items you would like to eat/cook in the soup. Tony and I are big fans of the mushrooms, any variety and vegetable, any kind. We can skip the meats and seafood.



Jason did the ordering (with some consultation with Tony) and he ordered beef, shrimp, mushrooms, and green lettuce - they eat that like cabbage, it tastes very nice cooked in the soup.

And then the Kong Fu noodles, Jason was so tickled to order these. The reason, it's a real show. The noodle boy comes to your table, takes a small ball of noodle dough and proceeds to put on a show, stretching and flinging the dough in a kung fu fashion, more like a dance then actual kung fu moves.The restaurant provides you with aprons and arm covering so that you don't dirty yourself. Also provided - free - manicure and shoe shine. Apparently there is usually a wait to get a table so they want to make sure you are happy and will stay around.
And as we left the restaurant there was this guy with a Monkey!

A street food cooking lesson.

Walking around today on one of the five streets that are dedicated to Chinese Fast food a.k.a. street food, I was allowed to watch and take pictures of this gentlemen making a type of fried bun. Cost of bun 2 RMB = . 30 cents. He works rather quickly and sells them just as fast.

He starts with smooshing the dough out into long strips, and then rolling them out a bit.He then smears some sort of lard or fat onto the dough.A press of what either could be ground pork, beef or lamb and a handful of scallions are put on top.He rolls them up and then they are fried. You can see the finished product in the back of the picture.Here is his wife or girlfriend or daughter - hard to tell. She was so interested in the fact that I was so interested in the process that she came over to look over my shoulder to see what kind of pictures I was taking.So I waved my arms around a bit to indicated that I wanted to take her picture too. She was so pleased that she jumped into doing HER job so I could take of picture of her working. This is her smiling, really! And she is just pretending to serve up some soup.I did buy one, you know to pay for my photo frolic. I broke it open and then took a wee bite.
No flavor really, hard crisp dough, not flaky, and then I threw it out, I did not bite into the meat....and I was worried about the fat, it all could have been rancid or loaded with a bacteria that would have killed my tummy. Anyway I was taking pictures of the process, which I thought was interesting. I thought the actual bun was unappetizing looking to begin with.

I have just learned that in a few months or sooner this street is being torn down as well as a number of other blocks in the neighborhood, this street I was told will not reappear anywhere else, which I do not believe, I mean what is this family going to do? I think: What are all these business going to do? Where will they go? Here are a few pictures of the street food market. It's pretty gross and dirty and I would never eat here but it is really a part of the Chinese life - oh and then smell sometimes is horrendous. I can only imagine in the summer how rancid it gets.

Tallest building in Shanghai from 1934 - 1983

And built by a Hungarian architect by the name of László Hudec, is how the story is told here. He was born in 1893 in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied architecture at Budapest University from 1911 to 1914. When the first world war began he enlisted, but was captured by the Russian Army in 1916 and was sent to a prison camp in Siberia. While being transferred, he jumped from a train near the Chinese border and made his way to Shanghai, where he joined the American architectural office R.A. Curry. In 1925 he left to start his own firm, and was responsible for at least 37 buildings up to 1941.

The Chinese don't know from Hungary to Slovaki then or now, Hungary is close enough for them.

The Park Hotel, finally we get to the building, was build in 1934 and remained the tallest building in Shanghai until 1983. Something which is hard to fathom as there are so many new tall building here now.

Here's a little Wikipedia: Shanghai's first building boom occurred in the 1920s and 30s, during the city's heyday as an multinational center of business and finance.^[4] After the Communist takeover in 1949 the city's development was stifled, punished for its earlier capitalist excesses.^[6] After economic reforms in 1991, the city is undergoing its second construction boom to fulfill its desire to regain its status as an important global financial center.<sup>[7]

1991 - can you believe it? It's why this country is so behind and not just in the development and construction of it's city. Until 1979 the Chinese had never been able to travel outside their country and it was difficult for a tourist to come and visit. So weird for me to be experiencing a culture that has been so suppressed, hard to wrap my head around sometimes.</sup>

My Visit to Donghua University - Songjiang campus

Today my pal Kate Hayes and I had the driver take us to Donghua University, Songjiang campus. WOW, what a large campus. It is closed until Feb. 20, not a soul was around but it was still neat to explore. My boss, Mr. Pang misunderstood and thought we were to meet at the Shanghai Campus and then go together to Songjinag, oh well these things are bound to happen - language barrier and all. We managed quite well with the driver. Here are some pictures, it was very cold and dreary today so the pictures aren't great but at least you'll have a taste.

Front entrance.Neat semi circular building located in the middle of the campus.Student Dorms














Stadium

Sports Complex
Different academic buildings

















































Strange buildings shaped as pyramids, not located on campus, is nearby, will explore at later date.

Week in Review

The week has gone by so quickly, I thought I would just post a "week in review".

Monday - Visit to the Shanghai Museum, it's free and the collection is nice and well organized. The building has 4 floors. The collection is comprised of all Chinese artifacts and reminded me of the Getty Museum in Los Angles. I find that collection 'nice' and well organized but rather dull. If you are someone who will only be able to visit one museum in your life time the Getty offers a nice overview of art, same with the Shanghai Museum.Here is a picture of the museum.

I went with my gal pal Kate Hayes and we did a little lunch after our museum visit. We first tried to find Barbarossa, located in Peoples Park near the Museum, we thought. We couldn't find it after a 3/4 lap around the park in poor walking shoes. We landed on the JW Marriott and Kate remembered that there was a restaurant that may be ok for a quick bit inside the hotel. It was as she predicted, only OK. It was a all you can eat dim sum menu for RMB 98 = $14.34 quite dear for a lunch that at best was ok.

Tuesday - Grocery shopping and some DVD shopping. Carpenter came to hang pictures in the apartment. Tony was sick as a dog and went to the Dr's, then tucked himself into bed.

Wednesday - Tony back to work, highly medicated with a huge dose of cipro. I went to the American Women's Club of Shanghai for the monthly coffee meet and greet. Then went to Carrefour for buy a water cooler. I am just so tired of buying water everyday. Now all I have to do is call the front desk and they call Nestle and a big jug of water is delivered. The cooler cost was RMB 199 = $29.26 and the 5 gallon jug cost RMB 19 = $2.79. I figure we will go through 2 jugs a week.Thursday - a visit to the Restaurant Supply store with the American Women's Club. Walked around a bit.

Friday - Found the Everlasting Spa around the corner from out apartment. Indulged in a 70 minute hot stone foot massage for RMB 88 = $12.94. Deeeelightful! Made a nice tabouhel salad for lunch on Saturday. Dinner with Ben and Carol Ward. Ben is one of the guys that Tony reports to. Dinner was at Casa 13, located inside a 1930s villa that once was the home of the French Consul the building was nice and there was a beautiful courtyard. It was already dark so I couldn't take a picture of it. But here is one of me in the lounge, behind me is a photograph of the Bund, doesn't everyone look better in candle light? Dinner was nice and the restaurant is about a 25 minute walk from the apartment so we are planning a return visit. Here is the link to the restaurant, if you go to picture 3 on the home page you can see the dining room. http://www.casa13.cn/Home.html

Saturday - went for a walk, bought some flowers and got my nails done. What a luxurious life I lead! Dinner was with Kathi and Todd at Maya a Mexican restaurant. What a great meal we had, no Chinese influenced meal here just good ole Mexican food. The restaurant is only a 10 minute walk from the apartment, we will be back!

Don't worry that I will become too spoiled, my job starts Feb. 23, orientation is Feb. 20. I will be teaching English at Donghua University. There are 2 locations for the university, one is about 4 miles up the road from the apartment on YanAn Road and the second is in Shanghai but located on the periphery of the city in a district called Song Jiang. The center of the map with the numbers is Shanghai proper. We live in number 5 the JingAn area. Donghua University in Songjiang, I am told, is about 50 minutes from our apartment. I am having the driver take me to this campus tomorrow. Sort of a dry run. I am meeting my boss and he will take me around, hopefully give me the text and requirements for the class as well.

Sun Yat Sen Residence and our Sunday walk

Geez, I hope this crowing about the wonderful unseasonably warm weather we have been having won't be a jinx and I'll be inundated with what is known as typical Shanghai weather, cold wet and grey.

Yes indeedy, warm and sunny and perfect for a walk. We headed over to the home of Sun Yat Sen. He was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader often referred to as the Father of Modern China. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in 1911. He was the first provisional president when the Republic of China (ROC) was founded in 1912, a precursor to Communism. (a little wikipedia info for you)Not surprising to find a store named after a celebrity but would you choose this one?Here was a small shop with a strange combination of merchandise.

And Tony contemplating ........

Uighur Restaurant

Remember the fella who tried to pick my pocket, well his "people" have a very popular restaurant in Shanghai. It's known for it's grilled lamb dishes. They also have a guy outside grilling lamb kabobs and selling them individually. I had read about the restaurant in various travel books and I just stumbled upon it on one of my walks. It gets very good marks for food.