Chilling out in China

I stumbled across this old photo I took of two chinese guys relaxing together on a bench in a park, in Shanghai.  Most likely students relaxing after a harrowing amount of study.  You wouldn't find two european guys relaxing in this fashion, at least not willingly..

Shanghai - Pan-fried dumplings

I've bought dumplings once from here on the way past, and wanted to buy them again before I left Shanghai.

Large round, filled with mystery meat and soupish liquid.  They're also pan-fried which gives them additional flavour.  Bying two lots of four at 5 RMB each, the price had gone up from 4 RMB, but I always wonder if maybe I just get "random foreigner price which is higher than what locals pay".  You never know.. although sometimes you do and can't be bothered bargaining.

I went to Jing'an park to look for a place to sit down and eat, and found this performance.  This lady was loudly singing Chinese songs, and had people up on stage singing with her.  Grandchildren and grandmothers, maybe some sort of school holiday activity or some such.  But more importantly, they had spare seats.

The dumplings, still too hot to eat.

The innards.  The leaked liquid can be seen surrounding this last dumpling.  Really four would have been enough for me, and eight was overdoing it.

I prefer the smaller more standard shaped dumplings, as there's less liquid and a higher ratio of burnt surface to the rest of them.  But these were fine for a change.

Starbucks chocolate mooncake

Bean flavour is big in China. To me, bean is something you eat when you're eating Mexican or it's all that's left in the cupboard. So when a friend suggested that I should try Starbucks' chocolate mooncake, I decided to give it a go. I pass several Starbucks a day, so why not.. However, they don't actually sell mooncake. Instead they sell tickets which you take to a Carrefour supermarket, where you redeem them for a box of mooncakes. And I think a box of mooncakes costs around 250 RMB. Expensive! I walked into a random Starbucks near Nanjing Xi Lu and after having this all explained to me, asked if I could have one to try.

My free mooncake.

Second layer of wrapping, the box.

The presumably pressed into shape mooncake.

The filling of the mooncake.

Until I sat down to take these photos, I didn't realise that the flowers along this part of Nanjing Xi Lu were actually chilis. I was tempted to pick a few and take them home, since I had run out but then I thought about pesticides and similar additives and thought better of it.

Anyway.. at first I could taste the chocolate, but then all I could taste was bean. It appears to be a chocolate tainted bean filling. The texture reminded me of the sensation of what I would imagine toe nail cheese to feel like, should I find myself eating a mooncake-shaped chunk of it.

Do not try again. Definitely do not go through the hoop jumping required to buy a box.

85° pork mooncake

Was talking with a friend about mooncakes (yuèbĭng / 月饼), since mid-autumn festival is next month and they are on sale. We both preferred savoury flavours and they suggested that their coworkers had bought some pork-flavoured ones from a place called 85 degrees. With a bit of searching using Google Maps, I managed to locate the closest shop on Beijing Xi Lu.

Turned off Chang De Lu, down Beijing Xi Lu. This guy is on the wrong side of the road and must have swerved over into my shot, didn't notice him when taking the photo.

The 85 degrees store was on the corner a couple of blocks down. It has a "blend into the background" industrial look.

I'm not sure if these are actually called mooncakes. The sign in the shop didn't have the correct characters, that I could see. They were 4 RMB each, quite expensive and probably could be gotten cheaper if you can find a street vendor who makes them.

The texture was nice and although it was tasty, the pork filling was a little on the sweet side.

I wouldn't go out of my way to buy it again.

Shanghai Thriving Hotel

Maybe it is just a KTV outlet that opens at night, and not or no longer a hotel with a hopeful name.

Chinese tea

I'm not a big green tea fan, the flavour is generally unremarkable so I don't go out of my way to try Chinese teas. And in addition, I've been avoiding caffeine for the past couple of months. Because of this I've been drinking western herbal teas, like peppermint, or the most excellent rosehip. My coworker noticed this and has been offering me samples of his teas.

This was chrysanthemum and goji berries. You can see below, that he buys it in bulk.

Bung some in the cup - but not really that much.

Add water.

And it wasn't too bad. I'm not sure how you are supposed to drink it without all the bits getting in your mouth. But clearly the Chinese have mastered it.. or more likely gotten used to spitting them back into the cup, as they don't bother with all that teabag shenanigans when they do this. I'd seriously consider working out some blends I like and doing this myself.

New jian bing

Hurrying past one of my favourite jian bing vendors the other day late for something and not having eaten, I noticed they had these savoury turnovers. I bought one in addition to my usual order of pancake and.. definitely worth it. Full of fried vegetables with enough crispness left to ensure me the nutrients haven't been cooked away, with a bit of spice to it.

Need to remember to keep an eye out for this snack and buy it again.

Working breakfast

Normally I just grab two hard-boiled eggs and eat them later in the day for extra protein, perhaps with lunch if it lacks in that area. But recently I've just been grabbing one of everything.

New Nanjing West / Chang De statue

During the expo, there was a large statue of a bull on the corner of Nanjing West Rd. Eventually it was hauled away and this one seems to be sitting on the corner now.

It's got a kind of Alice in Wonderland meets.. well, naked angels in some hot place or something vibe going on with it. Beats me.

Randomly drying fish

I was walking along a street in an area in or near Jing'an, munching on jian bing, when I passed these on the side of the footpath. Several large sides of fish hung out to dry.

Some chicken place

This place (ahem, the yellow one) is just outside the Changping line 7 subway exit. They sell small portions of expensive things like deep fried pumpkin (~5 RMB each). And they sell large portions of spicy breaded tenderised chicken breast (10 RMB each).

Usually they slice and dice the chicken, then stick a jabby stick into a piece so you can eat it without messing your hands. However, one time, they just bagged the huge piece of chicken and handed it over as is.

KFC beef burrito

When I go into fast food places and arrive too late to try the breakfast menu, I can't help but feel disappointing. Cheaper and more flavourful, why would anyone want the generic offerings from other times of the day. In this case, I missed breakfast and decided to try something a friend told me they ordered.

Rather disappointing.

KFC breakfast

I don't normally eat KFC, but since I was at work over the weekend I decided to sample some things.

This guy looks too busy to have time to stop in at KFC. Service is so slow, you order then wait around five minutes for them to make one item you ordered that they don't happen to have made already.

Bacon and egg muffin thing - passable, but hardly the level of taste and quality that the McDonalds equivalent is. With the coffee, this was 13 RMB I think. Three hash brown like things, which were an extra 3 RMB when bought along with the muffin and coffee. And finally, a chicken congee, which cost 6 RMB.

These look so much bigger on the poster. In the carton, which isn't that large, they are small chunks that sit at the bottom. It is almost embarassing to get sold these.

The bacon and egg mcmuffin like product.

The chicken congee. This was worth it. I'd seriously consider buying this and a coffee, in place of trying other random items of junk food on their menu.

iPod Touch photos

I've got a few minutes before I head off to play squeeze in the metro door with the rest of the sardines on my way to People's Square, so here's the rest of my iPod Touch pictures. When I got this doodad, I thought "coo, a portable camera thingy so I don't have to lug around my Canon." But really, it is a super-heavy music player, a grainy camera, and a small screen that isn't near big enough to use for any real purpose comfortably. My cheap Sansa Clip music player that I got off Woot.com weighs a tenth as much, if that. Anyway, here's the pictures.

Work provides lunch to workers in offices in every country. One of the most popular is the Thai restaurant, and the rice goes before I get there (I wait until the queue is gone). Here's a grainy picture of whatever I scraped together from what was left, there was one spoonful of rice left. But there was coriander this day, which was a bonus and is not usually there.

Walking to Burger King to meet a friend, I passed this Christmas tee-pee celebrating native Americans or something.

 

And at Burger King, they were late so I ordered something. So many things on the menu, and nothing satisfies.

Munchies food delivery #3

Feeling hungry on Saturday, I ordered Munchies again. This time the classic reuben sandwich and the chicken quesadilla.

The classic reuben sandwich opened up to show the innards. This was fine, but it seemed like some weird kind of combination of radish with bacon in a sandwich. Everyone knows that bacon only goes with butter, egg or both.

The chicken quesadilla, a little greasier than usual, but still good.

Munchies always deliver quickly, with the food almost too hot to eat.

Lazy Saturday

I woke up and went to the gym, then back at my apartment, I felt compelled to have something different for breakfast. Normally, I have a rather healthy concoction of yogurt, nuts, flaxseed and rice bran. But this morning, I felt like heading down the road and buying some street vendor food. The people working the store seem to get great amusement at seeing some white guy buying their food.

The lady serving the food grabs a plastic bag, and uses it as a glove to pick up food without touching it. Each item in the bag was 1 RMB, for a total of 5 RMB which is around $1 NZD. Not bad for a filling breakfast.

Here's the food plated.

It was pretty satisfying. However, it can't be healthy and I need to eat better. A KFC store has opened just outside the metro station beside my hotel, and I find myself in there buying a late late dinner when I arrive home late in the evening.

Having brought the food back to my apartment, I felt like some fresh air, so opened my balcony door to see the following view.

Smog seems to be more and more common as it heads towards winter. On a good day I can see Jing'an temple in the distance, within the view shown above.

These pictures are actually pretty deceptive. You can see hints of blue sky shining through the smog in them, or at least I can when I look at them. In reality, what I can actually see is white and grey sky through the haze.

Right now, I am relaxing enjoying the fresh air (?) and the sounds of the city coming through my open window and balcony door. All I can hear is cars on the road down below and a cacophany of horn sounds.

Soofish restaurant

Walking home from the Jing'an metro stop, I was pretty exhausted from the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum fake market bartering. So I decided to order something from this restaurant that I pass every other day.

The waiter pointed to the greens page, and especially this item. I don't know what it was, but I have seen the greens in the Chinese supermarket back home. It was pretty tasty, and only mildly spicy. I figured it was time to learn how to take pictures without using the flash, so this picture turned out a little dark.

Originally for a main dish, I ordered spicy eel. But the waiter came back out after five minutes, opened the menu and pointed at the eel. I was a little confused for a bit, then I realised that they can't have had any in stock so confirmed it in Mandarin. I wasn't going to eat the "Fucked Bullfrog", so I chose some kind of mutton and pepper dish. These restaurants must all have the same menu, as they have the same Engrish.

This was extremely good. The peppers were mild chillis and sichuan, the latter really added a nice edge to the dish. I can't positively identify this as mutton, it they may have switched it for pork for all I know.