Drinks at the Peace Hotel

On Sunday evening we went into the newly renovated Peace Hotel to check it out and ended up having a cocktail at the famous Jazz Bar! We were with Carey who was in town for business.
I copied a bit of information from Wikipedia as this is quite an old (for China) and famous hotel.




The Peace Hotel is a hotel on The Bund in Shanghai, China which overlooks the Huangpu River.It was built by Sir Victor Sassoon, of the famous Sassoon family who dominated Shanghai business and real estate in the early 20th century. He was a British Sephardic Jew of Iraqi origin, and his family had extensive business in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Calcutta.Construction began in 1926 and completed in 1929. The building is ten storeys in height, partially thirteen storeys, and with a basement.Before 1949, the ground floor space facing the Bund was leased to two banks. This space later became the Shanghai branch of Citibank in the 1980s

Before 1949, the Cathay Hotel (Now known as the Peace Hotel) was regarded as the most prestigious hotel in Shanghai. Most international envoys visiting Shanghai would stay in the hotel. After the Communist takeover in 1949, some of the offices were used by the Municipal Finance Committee. In 1952 the building was taken over by the Municipal Government. In 1956 it resumed trading as a hotel under the name "Peace Hotel". In 1992 the Peace Hotel was listed as one of the famous hotels of the world by the World Hotel Association. Today, it is particularly renowned for its Jazz Band and its roof terrace restaurant, overlooking the now booming district of Pudong across the Huangpu.

The Cathay Hotel, officially opened on September 5, 1929.

The hotel was widely known as the luxurious "Number One mansion in the Far East", due to its prime location along the Bund, and for its grandeur, including the distinctive copper-sheathed roof that rises 77 meters above ground, white Italian marble floors, and priceless Lalique glass artwork.

The Cathay Hotel welcomed distinguished guests from all over the world, including politicians, financiers, entrepreneurs, important Chinese officials and celebrities, such as General Marshall, Charlie Chaplin and Bernard Shaw. It was here that Noel Coward completed his famous play "Private Lives". The hotel was also renowned for its Old Jazz Bar, a favourite of the city’s expatriate community. Its band of six veteran musicians entertained dignitaries from around the world, and also toured to great acclaim in the United States and Asia.

Dinner at New Heights

It's been a busy weekend. Saturday night Tony and I had dinner with friends from Italy at our favorite and not so fancy Italian restaurant - Bella Italia. Simple easy and fun! Then on Sunday we had dinner with the Hong Kong and US contingent at New Heights restaurant on the Bund. The view are just great, although the weather kept the view limited. We got 2 nice pictures - one of the old buildings on the Bund and the other of the Pearl Tower (partial) on the Pudong side of the river. Here I am with Carey who has never been to Shanghai and thought it so interesting!

Censorship

Phuket, Thailand Oct. 2010

The first week of October Tony and I spent 10 days in Thailand. We spent the first half in Bangkok and the second half on Phuket Island. Here are some pictures of while we were in Phuket .

One day was spent boating around the smaller uninhabited islands where we got to swim and snorkel. The day was gorgeous and fun!

We stopped by one island called - you guessed it - Monkey Island. We did not get off for fear of getting bit, but it was delightful to watch from the boat. The monkeys love to eat fish and well as the fruit on the island. The monkeys wait for low tide and then walk out and search around for sea creatures as well as catch fish!
I stopped swimming when we encountered these large jellyfish, fortunately it was already 3pm so I had had my fill of the warm ocean.

We painted the living room Green!

We painted the living room this lovely green color while we were away last week in Thailand.....not to be confused with our trip last month to Sanya, China when we painted the study and the bedroom - red and blue. See previous posts for pictures. We are very pleased with it!

And I bought a new picture. I have been looking at this one for about 2 months and this style of painting for about 6 months. It's a picture of a shikumen - the word for an old Chinese style house that was built in the late 1800's in Shanghai. I have it hanging against the green wall now but I have not determined it's final resting place. I may put it in the bedroom.

Birthday weekend - Sanya, Hainan Island, PRC

Our first night at the Mandarin Oriental on our deck. The weather was hot and humid but who cares if you are at the beach or near a pool, right?!
The hotel property has 3 pools and lots of little corners with neat seating areas.









Dinner on the beach, we ate here every night!
This was a spicy chili mango martini with fried chili pepper chips and spicy nuts.
Dim Sum lunch, not everything on the plate tasted good. The second from the left was a bit like Wonder bread pressed into a round form stuffed with sweet chinese bbq pork - yuck.

What a wonderful birthday present to get to go to a tropical place in China. We also spent one morning cycling around the island, too bad once you are off the spectacular property it looks like a poor third world country. The whole island seems to be under construction for the Volvo Sailing Cup in 2012, Sanya is the third stop on the round the world sail.

Painting

After being bored with the beige color throughout the apartment we decided it was time to make a change. So we had the bedroom and office painted while we were away for my birthday weekend. Birthday weekend post to follow.

Here are the before and after pictures.



Doesn't it look nice? Next month we may paint the living room and dining room - not sure if we are going with yellow or orange as the color selection.!!

Air-conditioning Shanghai Style

So now you have seen it all! Yes, this grandmother is fanning her grandson in the 100 degree heat as they walk to the bus stop. It seems as they are waiting for the bus the three onlookers on the left side of the last picture are watching to make sure she is doing it correctly. I wonder if they will give her pointers on how to do it better?! Perhaps there is a penalty if done incorrectly, are these the fanning police?

In case you haven't had enough of the strange foods....

Here are some live baby eels. I accidentally ate some of these once. When they are cut into small pieces and cooked it looks a bit like thinly sliced pork. Our driver Jason took me to lunch about a year ago and of course I had to try everything he ordered. He took me to a local restaurant and the menu did not have English translation or pictures. Jason knows I like sea food......... I took a small bite, not knowing what it was, and thought it was OK, not great but OK, the sauce was the first thing I noticed in terms of flavor not the 'meat' part. It was soy sauce and maybe some sugar and chilies. The second bite I started to notice the texture of the 'meat', sort of strange and I began to taste the 'meat', can't explain it, it was just weird and definitely not meat. I only took a third bite to seem enthusiastic and to show I really liked all the food. Fortunately Jason also ordered eggs and tomatoes - just some scrambled eggs with big chunks of tomato cooked together. Easy to eat.

Oh, they sell the eels to you live and squirming in a bag.

If the eels are not for you there is a fish tank where you can point to the fish you want and they will take it out, kill it and clean it for you.
Of course there is always beef, it's what's for dinner. Not sure why they leave the bones of a small dinosaur on top of the fridge case. I suppose for your viewing pleasure......oh right it's the cows bones. You can buy a piece to make soup. Just tell them how many bones you want and they will hack off a piece for you, weigh it and wrap it up for you to take home.

If beef is not for you how about some salt pork foot?
Or do you prefer fresh pork foot?
Not interesting in cooking? Head over to the deli counter and see what looks good in the prepared section. Another nice boiled chicken? This one looks like a male.
His feet are also intact, in case you have a hankering for foot of chicken, instead of pork. Ah, did you notice that you can also have some pig snout? It's in the back of the case. Now where is the squeal? Oh right that's the only part of the pig you can't eat.
Should you decide that boiled chicken foot is not tempting your palate, you can buy up a pound or two of chicken feet and cook them to your liking.

The making of a Bing Jiang or Chinese Breakfast Burrito

Here I am eating a "Bing" or Chinese breakfast burrito. It's quite a treat, very very authentic and what the Chinese eat for breakfast. It's street food, you can't find it in a restaurant or on any menu. The steps to making it are simple and the food is cheap as I mentioned in a previous post.

First a spoonful of dough is dropped onto the top of a hot plate that looks like the top of a garbage can with a burner underneath.

It's spread out to make a thin crepe and one egg is broken on top and and scrambled/spread out over the crepe. Fresh chopped scallions and cilantro are thrown on top and then the crepe is folded over.
A smear of Chinese BBQ sauce, it's a mild flavor, is spread on ....

A large fried wonton is added for crunch and then folded over again.
35 cents later and Yum a hot breakfast fast!