Sunday Brunch at the Geisha

  It was a beautiful Sunday morning and Tony and spent the early morning reading and sunning ourselves by the pool.  It gets hot here in Shanghai during the summer so we try to get out by the pool by 9am and come back inside by 11:30am.   Well we don't sit right by the pool but on the pretty grass strip on the 8th floor terrace, pictured here.

 The pool is just around the corner, but as it is usually filled with cute, happy, frisky (loud) 4 year old kiddies, we opt for the grass strip instead of by the pool.  We often go over to the pool for a quick dip to cool off and then back to our chairs for some more relaxing reading and quiet time.  Since we live in a BIG city of 22 million people you can imagine there are not a lot of green spaces to rest and be quiet.  The parks are always teeming with people, in addition, you cannot sit or walk on the grass.  The park police, yes they are there, walk around and wave you off should you step on the precious green turf.   There are some park benches in a few of the parks but they are always already full of elderly people enjoying the shade of the trees and gossiping away.  Probably their own apartment (one room to 3 people??) is small and hot so sitting in the open park is a nice treat.  We are lucky to have this grass space on the 8th floor of our building and we take advantage of it quite often.

 Naturally being Sunday thoughts turn to brunch at the noon hour.  I had read about the all you can eat brunch at the Geisha, a sushi restaurant.  188 RMB, about $30.00 USD, gets you all  you can eat sushi and sashimi and all you can drink beer.   A quick shower and change into some comfortable walking shoes and off we went.  The restaurant is about 2 km from our apartment, about a 25 minute walk. 

The restaurant is in the former French concession area of Shanghai. There has been quite a ruckus about the correct name of this area.  Simply spoken or written as  -the French concession - is very romantic and evokes lovely thoughts.  The Chinese government has indicated the proper/ official name of the area is - the former French concession and if you want to use the name in any type of promotion or advertising you must use the word 'former' or pay a fine. The Chinese hate to be reminded that they were not the most powerful or in control so this is 'tres' important to them.  Their country, their rules.

We arrived at the restaurant at 1pm ready to eat! We were hungry.

The restaurant is comprised of three parts.  First floor - restaurant, second floor club, third floor lounge/bar/restaurant with outdoor seating. We made our way directly to the third floor as the outdoor seating was calling our name.

The third floor was amusingly decorated with a portrait of Geisha lips, lovely dark wood and comfortable chairs.

We sat by the window on the inside to enjoy both the light air conditioning to combat the humidity and the outdoor air.

The menu had lots of delicious items to choose from and choose we did.  Although neither of us wanted beer so we choose to drink sparkling water.

First plate, sashimi, and look there is another stinking shrimp head. I HAVE learned my lesson and I know that I do not care for the taste of shrimp head, raw or fried, you can read about my fish head revelations here:   http://www.surpriseshanghai.blogspot.com/2012_05_01_archive.html.   
And just so I wouldn't make the mistake of eating it (you know in my enthusiasm of sharing a wonderful meal with my husband)  I just avoided that morsel altogether. 

A few tasty rolls were also consumed and after a satisfying lunch and scintillating conversation with each other we departed the restaurant at 3pm.

We took a leisurely walk back to our apartment enjoying the sights and smells that I believe are unique to Shanghai. 

And here is Tony in the elevator of our building, satiated both bodily and visually after our outing. Another wonderful Sunday!

A short cut through a warren of lane homes.

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What a beautiful day, sunny with a breeze, perfect for finding the new and elusive Mr.V's a sandwich stall.  Mr. V's opened about 4 months ago and the review tempted me with memories of the most perfect of flavors I have only enjoyed in Vietnam.  Bright fresh vegetables with a squeeze of lime, a dash of Vietnamese hot sauce and some pork stuffed into a crispy baguette. Yes, here would the place to buy a bánh mì sandwich in Shanghai!  One of my favorite places in Asia is Vietnam, the people, the sights, the perfect coffee and the food, oh the food. I have been twice and would happily go again and again.

With address in hand and a quick look at google maps I decided to take what looked like a shortcut, a new adventure, through some traditional Chinese neighborhoods.

 I love walking through these old neighborhoods of crowded lane homes.  Lane homes were built in 1920 or 1930 as cheap tract homes and are now considered prized architecture.  A lane home is a two story unit, connected to a number of other two story units which extends from a main lane (branch) which is connect to a major street sometimes and offers a great shortcut if you know what you are doing and where you are going.

 There is a whole community of services offered inside these neighborhoods, here you can see the barber pole mounted on the right side of the picture, must be a barber shop down this lane and center is a  fellow with a sign mounted to his bike offering some sort of service I imagine.  Probably knife sharpening as that is MY most pressing need and every time I pass a guy on the street who is sharpening knives I don't have mine on me.  I feel uncomfortable just carrying a backpack full of dull knives but I should do it till I find the knife sharpening man.  The knife sharpening man is a mobile shop and he doesn't seem to go to the same spot on the same day and time of the week.  Sneaky guy, which is why I should carry my knives, but that seems so wrong.

So back to the lane homes. This is the main branch (Lane) of the neighborhood and runs straight from YanAn Highway to Julu Lu, both major roads.  From the main branch are the smaller lanes which are quaint, quiet and beautiful. I noticed a seamstress, a vegetable stall, and a shop to buy drinks.You may wonder, as I do, who are these people are and what are they doing. 

I have only seen old seemingly retired people in the neighborhoods.  The young people (spoken as a generalization) do not like the old homes, typical Chinese mentality, if it's new it's good. Old is not good. I also found out that Chinese women must retire between the age of  50 - 55 and men at the age of 60. In addition you must surrender your drivers license (if you are so wealthy to have one) at the age of 60.  I kind of like this law, no drivers over the age of 60 and you must be 21 before you can take the test to get a drivers license.   Seems it would make the highways and byways safer, yet having been here now for 4 years I know this is not true, drivers here are nuts!

There is wonderful greenery lining the lanes and even a lovely outdoor table to enjoy the cool shade.

Then I saw this.....a large... what I am assuming is a pet rabbit.  Although it could be dinner...??

So how does one find these great short cuts? Which gate do you go through?

Well on YanAn Road  you go through this gate, pay no mind to the guard he lets everyone through. The gate is next to a very tasty Uyghur restaurant known for it's grilled lamb kebabs and the shiny bass structure in the right had corner of the picture is the BBQ that they cook them on. I do wonder how often they have to polish it as it always looks so bright and clean.  I took Dad here last time he came for a visit and he liked it a lot!

 The other gate is on Julu Lu (Lu means road) and it's my favorite street name to say; go ahead say it nice and fast...Julu Lu Julu Lu, see fun!

 Here is the gate on Julu Lu, you would never know that it connects with the other main road.

 Out the gate, on to Julu Lu and I ran smack into the cantaloupe man.  Could the knife sharpening man be close by? But we are looking for Mr. V's and a tasty sandwich for lunch, perhaps I'll buy a cantaloupe on the way home. 

According to the google map  I am to walk down this road to number 93. You can see on the street sign that this section of Xiangyang Lu runs from 1 - 55. I am getting close to my lunch!

I think it's kind of funny how the hair sticks up on the sign for Mr. V's under the Tao Hair Salon sign.

We have arrived at the sandwich stall and it is a tiny little alcove offering Vietnamese coffee, fresh squeezed lime soda drink and the coveted Vietnamese bánh mì sandwich!   I ordered the lime soda and a sandwich.

Bright flavors, a little spicy and a wonderful crunch from the veggies and crisp bread.  All in all a good lunch.
As I turned around to retraced my steps I immediately saw the top of our apartment complex! 

I knew I was close and now that I know the short cut I really am close!

 

As you can see here there is a locked gate guarding these apartments, I would not be able to get inside this neighborhood. 

 Back down the main lane toward YanAn Lu my home in sight!

 A few snaps of more lanes in the neighborhood, nice cars everywhere. Maybe they belong to their kids? Maybe the young people do live here too(with their folks) and they are at work.

 Looks like laundry day.

 

I arrived home safely, quickly and with a full tummy and began researching my next adventure! Stay tuned!

Red Bike

Today I borrowed one of the bikes from our apartment complex, they have them for the residents to borrow, and did all my errands whilst pedaling through the streets of Shanghai. It was amazing.  I accomplished twice as much as I would have on foot.  Only two very very minor scares with some oncoming traffic but other then that it was exhilarating! So why so long to venture on a bike in big ole scary Shanghai?

About three years ago I mentioned to Tony that I might get a bike. I thought this would be a great way to get around and see the city. Tony was pretty convincing when he told me I would undoubtedly get myself killed in this crazy Shanghai traffic.  And convinced me he did.  But today, August 15th 2012, after 4 years in this mad rushing city I took the bull by the horns and got on a bike.   No, I didn't mention it to Tony until midday.

And what did I do?  First, a ride over to Fiona's apartment (2km) with treats for her lovely girls for their camping trip across China.  You can read about her incredibly fascinating trip and her great look at food and life in China here: http://www.lifeonnanchanglu.com/

After a quick visit and some sage advice from Fiona.  Such as,  be careful and that there are roads you cannot ride your bike on as there are too many buses and cars. She also told me that there are easy to read signs posted on the streets that indicate no bikes.  Now I only have to pay attention to car traffic, bike and motorbike traffic, pedestrian traffic and also keep my eyes open and read the signs.  It's not going to be easy.

Next stop, I pedaled over to Anfu Lu (2 km) to meet up with my former boss for a light lunch at The Food Central, a deli, food hall and wine bar.  It has been open for about a year and it was great! After lunch another quick pedal (250 meters) over to the Avocado Lady's vegetable stall to buy some imported products at not so inflated prices.  The owners' name is Jiang but she goes by the moniker Avocado Lady as she was the first to sell avocados in her vegetable store/stall which caters to a large expat community. The avocados are imported from the USA or Mexico, they don't grow them in China, and cost the same as in the US.  Between $1 and $1.99 depending on the time of year. She also had dry goods which are at least half the price of the import grocery store, City Shop.  For example one package of lasagna noodles at City Shop is 68 RMB ($10.79) at her shop 25 RMB ($3.97), a liter bottle of Olive oil at city shop, same brand, 130 RMB ($20.63) her shop 58 RMB ($9.21).  She does not have a large variety of dry goods but it's sufficient and I try to go there at least once a week to buy my vegetables and other grocery items. I tucked a box of noodles, a kilo of spinach and two containers of ricotta into my backpack, paid the lovely Jiang and headed to my next destination. 

Next stop a few hours of Mahjong with friends.  Every wednesday afternoon some ladies get together to play a couple hours of Mahjong and share stories.  We usually begin at 1:30 and go to about 3:30/4:00.  And wasn't today  my lucky day, I began the game by being East wind (Each side of the 4 sides table has a wind name and you roll dice to determine who is East first, after that the winner of each hand becomes East.  This has to do with scoring and gain additional points.)  And I was always East and always the winner, all 4 hands - what luck!  Too back we don't play for money or points.  I noticed at about 3:15 that there were dark clouds looming and a big thunderstorm (which only lasts about 20 minutes) was on its way.  I scurried to get my items out of the fridge, I had placed them there when I arrived to keep the ricotta from spoiling, and jumped on my bike to head back to my apartment(2km).  I made it with minutes to spare!

What an exiting day!  I plan on taking the bike out once a week to enjoy the city.  I did call Tony at lunch time to tell him what I was up to, he thought I was nuts! But I thought it was an adventure and I plan on doing it again!

Aunt Liz Camp with Sophie and Mom.

How to beat jail time in China.

Hiring body doubles to do time for you in China

A Chinese police officer speaks to Geoffrey Sant of Slate.com on the practise of hiring "replacement convicts" to do prison time. Naturally, it's only the rich and powerful that are able to afford this. Writes Sant:

“America has the rule of law, but China has the rule of people,” the police officer told me. “If somebody is powerful, there’s a good chance they can make this happen. Spend some money and remain free.” According to the police officer, hired stand-ins are “not common but not rare either.” As examples, the officer listed several high-ranking mafia figures whose underlings serve time in their stead. The mafia cares for the substitute’s family and pays a bonus for the time served. Sometimes, family members cover for each other. This is especially true in cases of traffic accidents, where the police may be able to identify the vehicle involved in the crime but not the driver. In one case, as seen in this highly graphic television segment showing a drunk driver plowing through an old man, the driver’s son admits he falsely “confessed” to the crime to prevent police from testing his father’s blood-alcohol level. The police officer told me that in cases of drunk, unlicensed, or uninsured drivers, it “often happened” that a slightly more sympathetic substitute—someone who has insurance, a license, or is at least sober—would confess in the driver’s place. An adopted daughter stood in for her father after a deadly accident; in another case, because witnesses took down the license plate of the car involved in a drunk-driving hit-and-run, the deputy director of the Xuchang County Forestry Bureau sent his wife to appear as his substitute.
Where photographs or video of the criminal at the scene of the crime have been widely circulated, however, it is necessary to use a body double. “The most successful instances are the ones nobody ever knows about,” the police officer said. “You need a powerful trick to pull it off.” Even the wealthy and influential may be unable to cover up an outrageous public crime—such as a horrific traffic accident—where there is widespread public outrage and online cries for criminal charges.

Courtesy (again) from Shanghaiist website.
  http://shanghaiist.com/2012/08/03/hiring_body_doubles_to_do_time_for.php

Fantastic speech on censorship and the internet in China!

Michael Anti's TED speech on China's Great Firewall

  
Chinese journalist and blogger Zhao Jing, better known here as Michael Anti, gave an excellent talk at TED last month on China's Great Firewall and the cat-and-mouse game that is being played behind the wall everyday.


 Click this link here to listen to an 18 minute fascinating speech about censorship and the internet in China.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1523

Just as I am on my way back to China I learn this!

Man tries to stop dog-meat dealer, ends up getting killed by poisoned needle

Police in Jiading district have detained a dog-meat dealer for allegedly sticking a poisoned needle into a man who tried to stop him from killing stray dogs early yesterday morning.
Via Shanghai Daily:

The incident occurred at the crossroad of Jiajian Road and Liye Road in Jiading District about 6:57am on Sunday when the victim saw the dog-meat dealer catching dogs by poisoning them, police said. The victim, a 37-year-old man surnamed Zhao, tried to stop the dealer, a man surnamed Li.
The two fought and Li stuck a needle into Zhao's head, police said.
Zhao fell into coma and died in a nearby hospital at 9am. Li surrendered.
Li killed strays and pets and sold them to restaurants. He could earn 200 yuan (US$31.31) a day, local media reported.
Pictures uploaded by witnesses show dozens of dead dogs in Li's car. A syringe with a bottle of poison was nearby.

All we'll say is -- If you're adventurous enough to try out dog meat here in China, you gotta be out of your mind for the simple reason that you never really know where that meat came from.

This article is courtesy of Shanghaiist website:
http://shanghaiist.com/2012/07/30/man_tries_to_stop_dog-meat_dealer_e.php

DC weekend trip with the girls.

And what a trip it was, beginning with a three hour drive from Richmond, VA to downtown Washington, DC a mere 90 miles, all highway, you would think you could do it in far less time.  Never the less we packed ourselves into Vicki's car and spent the three hours discussing the merits of various museums and restaurants as to ascertain how we would spend our time in DC.  Imagine 4 women, OK one is a pint size 11 year old, who all have an opinion as to what we should do in DC!

First up the US Marine Band free concert outside the Marine Barracks.  Well who knew you needed tickets for a free concert;  But having found that out we altered our original plan and decided that a dinner at Ulah Bistro about 1 mile from our hotel and then a nice walk to see the night lights of the monuments would be a good alternative.

 Although the restaurant was only a mile from the hotel, it was rainy and we were already 20 minutes late for our reservation due to the extra hour of traffic we grabbed a cab after quickly dumping our bags in the hotel room.

Dinner was terrific, a bottle of sparkling French Rose, a trio of seafood tartar (tuna with olives, scallops with avocado and salmon with dill....perfect!), a bowl of homemade French onion soup, Chesapeake crab and artichoke dip, and  duck fat fries all to share!!!  Imagine, can you, french fries fried lovingly in duck fat, it's better then great!  We were all so full of the appetizers that we almost didn't order dinner.  But we did and ordered for the table again, a grilled Caesar salad, a pizza and one soup for mom, oh and another order of the duck fat fries.  The grilled Caesar was really interesting and had a unique taste. A head of romaine lettuce was cut in half lengthwise and then grilled.  It was not too wilted but it had a unique charred taste that blended well with the dressing.   Unfortunately it was still raining so we did not take a walk to see the lights.

Saturday we headed out to the Martin Luther King Memorial (MLK) located across the tidal basin from the Jefferson Memorial.  On our walk over we encountered this massive Canadian water dog by the name of Moose!

 And enjoyed the other monuments along the way.

The MLK memorial to a man who was a proponent for opportunity for all - in America - and who openly disliked communism would perhaps be sadden to know that  the sculptor is a Chinese National, it was sculpted in China and even the granite was procured in China.  It's all a bit of a joke really. A true American icon ....produced in China.  Welcome to the future. Weren't there any American sculptures who could create a monument to this great historic leader?  Perhaps an American African ?? OK an American Chinese, how about any American? I had some pictures of the statue from last year when I first visited the site so I did not take any additional pictures.  Unfortunately I cannot find those pics so I have searched Google for some shots for you.  (pictures from internet.)

 I like this image with the cherry trees mature and in bloom.

 There is a wall surrounding the site with many MLK quotes inscribed on the wall.  This one was my favorite.

The monument is quite impressive and if you didn't know the details you would walk away thinking  - wow, great space, nice memorial.  If you know the details you are still very impressed but sad that it was not "made in America".   With that said perhaps the bottom line was, well the bottom line.  It all costs money and perhaps it's just too expensive to create this sort of monument in the good ole USA.  I don't know but I like to believe that we could have created this $120 million monument in the USA.

From the monument we headed to what I thought would be my favorite stop, the National Geographic Museum.  I didn't know that Nat Geo had a museum in it's headquarters building but it does.  Unfortunately it's not big but it also has a store!!! There is only one exhibit at a time and currently it is  - 100 Years of the Titanic.  I have seen enough Titanic programs on TV and of course saw the movie(!) so I wasn't so inclined to see the exhibit.  Fortunately there is also a free picture gallery on M street with wonderful photos from the Nat Geo team.  We spent some time in the store and then some time viewing the pictures.

At 12:40p we hustled up the street to the Tabard Inn for our lunch reservation at 1:00p.

A little background for you - " The Tabard Inn opened in 1922 and in its early years, the Tabard Inn was a popular meeting place for women’s social groups and clubs.  In fact, Rogers (the owner) had never intended to become a hotel operator, but simply desired a place “to just give parties.” She reflected that in its first decades the Tabard Inn “was full of debutantes…” During World War II, the Tabard Inn served as a boardinghouse for Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES). The rooms and lounges afforded luxurious accommodations, even for the seventy WAVES officers that were assigned to the Tabard Inn. One of the volunteers reported, “After the horrors we’d heard about the wartime housing shortage in the nation’s capital, we were delighted to be there." "  (from the Tabard Inn website, you can read more about it and see the menu here http://www.tabardinn.com/about_inn )

 Waiting for our table in the cozy reception area.

 Here we are in the back room waiting for our lunch, we were so hungry that I forgot to take pictures of our meal.  I had the poached eggs on savory cheese grits with fried oysters, it was incredible!

 We had planned to go to the Abraham Lincoln summer cottage museum but it was raining again and no one wanted to slosh around on the wet grounds.  After a quick vote we headed to Georgetown for some shopping. 

Soon it was time to head back to the hotel room to get ready for another meal!  And this one was going to be super special.

 

The four of us were hungry (again) and eager to have a "joyful eating experience". We were all looking forward to our dinner at Michel Ricard's  Central. http://www.centralmichelrichard.com/visit/.  

 We were quite star struck when we found out that Michel Richard was sitting behind us!

 And what a friendly fellow!

 We ordered for the table (of course) to start : frog legs, steak tartar with french fried and a frisse salad with poached egg and lardons.

 The duck legs were a bit on the gamey side and over seasoned but definitely worth trying, the steak tartar was perfect and the french fries were even better than the duck fat fries we had the night before, who would have thought that would be possible. The salad was a cascade of fresh greens slathered with a broken soft egg and fried bacon or as the French say lardons.  Central has a casual dining atmosphere with a menu to match.

We all decided that we did not want to share our mains so Sophie ordered the fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

 Mom had the soft shell crab.

 Vicki went for the Lamb shank.

 And I had the seared scallops with asparagus risotto.  Each plate was perfection. And although no one had room for dessert we did order one for the table. A massive Napoleon.

And we certainly did eat the whole thing!  It was a bit of a frenzy really as it was the best we had ever had.  Crisp flaky pastry, perfect cream in the center, all sitting on a pool of vanilla sauce. Yum! We staggered back to the hotel and collapsed on our beds.

Sunday morning we decided to go to the Eastern Market.  Eastern Market indicating the location of the market in DC, not an Asian influenced market.  Lots of neat local crafts as well as a food hall, reminiscent of a Chinese wet market in my neighborhood in Shanghai. although this one was much cleaner!

 And in case I was missing the interesting foods in China a smoked pigs tail to chew on!

We had a great weekend together, laughing too much, eating too much and having too much fun!