Shanghai!
Headed out to Shanghai via United Airlines. On this particular trip, I was looking forward to pleasant temperatures similar to home. This time of year, Shanghai's hot and humid summer temps have passed. The fall is actually quite pleasant being in the 60s and 50s with no humidity. I was cracking up that all the Chinese people on the plane were already suiting up in parkas. For some reason, I assumed that the Shanghainese can weather colder weather given that the winter months rival NYC weather. You don't hear New Yorkers exclaiming how cold things are yet....except this year with superstorm Sandy.
I used the last of my global certificates for this trip and was able to confirm upgraded seats a few weeks before. I was actually surprised that the flight was not 100% occupied. I didn't anticipate that there would be empty seats in each class. Mental note: choose the rear facing seats as that is less likely to get chosen in business. It would have been nice not to have a neighbor but I was still happy to not sit in the back of the bus. :) I did chuckle when the stewardess was shooing people out of business. As I've found often on these flights, the families travelling together try to play musical chairs if part of the group is in a different class of service on the plane.
I think I'm beginning to get pretty familiar with the menu on UA 877 flights. I remembered that I liked the pork chop best and had it again. I did have to hunt down the stewardess for the mid-flght meal of beef noodle soup. I think I inspired the kids that were sitting next to me to order their own after they saw me eating my soup. Landing at dinner time, I was not super hungry since the plane's last meal service was an hour before landing.
I had a light dinner of fried chicken from a local eatery next door, Haodada. On this particular meal, I felt that the MSG usage was higher than normal and saved half my meal for breakfast the next day to eat with rice.
The next day, I spent most of the day settling in and planning what to do in Shanghai. It's getting more difficult to think of things to do when visiting so often and yet not knowing how to speak Chinese! I wandered over to the Starbucks nearby to get some air and have a coffee. I was suckered by the music box display on the counter and inquired about it. Apparently, it is a promotion of 20 cups of coffee purchased you will get the music box. Keep in mind that a small toffee nut latte costs $5 which is way more than what you would spend in America. On my way back, I stopped at Ichido for some pastries. I bought some sponge cakes, chocolate sweet bread, and a chocolate raspberry mouse bar.
The desserts were good and I'm likely to return. The staff was pleasant but I can't say the patrons were of the same mindset. While paying for my items, I was flanked by two older Chinese women both shoving their trays at the cashier. Normally, something I don't mind but I was still paying for my items! As soon as I paid, I took a half step back to grab my bag and the two women swooped in jabbering away at each other and continuing to push the tray at the cashier's face. The poor cashier tried to tell them to go back so she could hand me my receipt but they ignored her. Given that the only customers were myself and these two ladies in the shop, I could understand the rush in getting things paid. :\ Ahhhh, so nice to be reminded about the little things in China....
In reading up the Lonely Planet guide on China, I later ordered from Simply Thai via delivery service for dinner. The order consisted of green curry, duck curry, fried noodles, and basil beef. The food was actually good but the prices were definitely American. Of course, leftovers were saved for breakfast the next day.
China doesn't observe daylight savings time so it gets dark pretty quickly in the evening. I turned in early just because it felt so late. On the bright side, I was able to get up pretty early the next day to prepare for some baking!
I had brought over a pumpkin pie from Marie Callendar's restaurant for the Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's place. I thought I'd try my hand in making some pumpkin tartlets in case the pie didn't travel well as a backup plan. I had brought most of the ingredients over but I needed eggs. I had forgotten how small eggs are in China and had to eyeball what four large American eggs equaled to small Chinese eggs. I'm not particularly good at making pie dough crust and knew my options would be limited with no access to Pillsbury frozen pie crusts! So I opted to bring a box of Nilla wafers and create a shortbread crust.
After the pies were done, I headed out to get some air and get some Chinese sausage. Unfortunately, I thought I could find the butcher from memory and it wasn't the case. :\ So after checking out the French Concession area, headed back and had dinner at Crystal Jade restaurant in Xintiandi. No visit to Shanghai is complete without eating here! That and it is unlikely I will be heading out to Singapore anytime soon. I generally don't find the dessert options here great and went home to eat my dessert from Ichido.
Rain broke out the next day and my plans of walking on the Bund were dashed. So I opted to have lunch at M on the Bund. It is a fairly popular place for the high powered in Shanghai. The lunches come as a set menu of sorts and I had the squid ink taglienne pasta and a lavendar rhubarb crumble with ginger ice cream. I was impressed with the pasta since I'm not a fan of mint and lemon sauces. The dessert was unusual as well but it worked quite well. I can see why the restaurant is highly rated as the staff's english was very good and the views are nice (despite the rain).
Afterwards, spent the afternoon at the Shanghai Museum. I was pleasantly surprised that the museum didn't have an entrance fee. I found the exhibitions interesting and there was a touring exhibition of Russian jewelry from the House of Faberge. The Russians definitely knew how to make nice jewelry. Raffles City mall was across the way and I thought it would be a great opportunity to buy some boots or galoshes since it was supposed to keep raining for the remainder of my trip. I was quickly reacquianted with how big of a person I am by asian standards. My size 8 feet was considered enormous and few shoe shops had shoes in my size let alone rain boots.
For dinner, met up with friends and ate at a chinese muslim restaurant, Yakexi on 379 Xikang Lu. There was a lamb stew that was good but the meat skewers were much tastier. There was also a "pizza" which reminded me of a cross between samosas and empanadas. It was my favorite entree of the meal.
The next day, celebrated Thanksgiving in Shanghai! In China, today is a normal day so it doesn't really feel like a holiday except for the Americans. The rain is continuing on and spent most of the day indoors. Make a brief excursion to the Starbucks and Ichido bakery down the street when the maids came by. I tried some new pastries this morning and it was a thumbs down. Ah well, I will have to look for something else to try tomorrow.
Group of friends ordered a Thanksgiving feast from Dakota Bistro. A word to the wise, pumpkin and turkeys ARE NOT common food staples in China. Last year, someone bought a pumpkin pie from a restaurant and it was about $30 of wasted effort. Turkeys are also very expensive here due to low demand. Asian people don't like white meat and that is what turkeys are all about. So the 'turkey feast' costed about $200 for an average size turkey and eight sides that is supposed to feed a group of 8 to 10 people. Given the amount of sides, I've had more from a KFC family meal for four. LOL. The pumpkin pie was a hit for the expats - the store bought and the semi-homemade versions.
The next day, the rain continues to play havoc in Shanghai traffic. At least it isn't a West Coast phenomenon about rain and poor driving habits but a global one. :) I made my morning trek to Starbucks and Ichido again. I've been having a hard time adjusting to the time zone. For some reason, when I'm in Shanghai I can't stay up past 10 pm and wake up at 5 am. I endeavored to stay up later today because I was going to meet up with people for happy hour and on. So I ordered Domino's Pizza for lunch and hoped I could catch an afternoon nap. I know, why in the world am I ordering pizza from Domino's in Shanghai? I was told by the expats that the pizza was actually really good and I was intrigued by the pies on the Domino's menu. It actually was very good and easy to order. There is a centralized ordering system that is English friendly and the delivery guy was at the apartment within 15 minutes. I stayed very traditional in my pizza selection buy you can get pizza topped with shrimp or tuna. The cheesy bread had a slight Cheetos flavor to it; it was good in an interesting way.
Eventually headed out to Pudong and went to Morton's Steakhouse. The happy hour special plus free steak sandwiches appear to be a popular offering with the expat crowd. I have to say that the sandwiches are pretty good for all you can eat complimentary sandwiches. The drink specials are only martinis for $5. I don't think Morton's would be doing this in the States. :) Since I was munching enough that I wouldn't need dinner, I also ordered the chocolate souffle for two. The souffle could easily feed four people for $30. When happy hour ended, the group trekked out to Oscar's Bar in the French Concession. It was an English bar and there were plenty of English people inside. :) There is live music. I have yet entered an Asian bar that didn't have Filipinos as the music players. It is so universal!
The rain ended overnight and I was able to plan a walking tour of the Bund the next day. The Lonely Planet guide's section on Shanghai has a walking tour outlined. I also found one from About.com and used it as a guide. It being a weekend, most of the buildings were not open to the public. I was able to walk in the hotel conversions such as the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, Fairmont Peace Hotel, and Peninsula Shanghai hotel. After looking at the historical buildings, wandered down the pedestrian mall on Nanjing Road. I had planned on having afternoon tea at either the Fairmont or Peninsula. Eventually, the Fairmont won out. I liked the history of the hotel and the afternoon tea is an all you can eat buffet. The price difference between the two hotels was neglible as both will set you back about $50 per person. Now it sounds wierd that afternoon tea would be a buffet but it worked. The food and service was excellent. One particular service feature is the "water" man. This person walks around with a hot water kettle with a spout that is about 3 feet long and he makes a show of refilling your tea pot with hot water. Pretty cool! I was so full from afternoon tea that dinner was of no interest to me. :)
Spent my last day watching college football in the morning. I have the Slingbox and was happy that the games I wanted to watch were night games. It meant that I didn't have to wake at O dark thirty to watch. It also meant that the internet connection is at its best since most Chinese are not awake to hog the bandwidth.
Went to Westin Bund Center for a champagne breakfast. Some of the expats around here are heading home for good and it was their last hurray in Shanghai. The buffet is comprised of the all the restaurants in the hotel forming a two level food extravaganza. For $100, it was an all you can drink (beer, wine, and spirits), all you can eat, and entertainment event. On the table, there is a map of all the foods available in the different food stations. The entertainment comprised of opera, hip hop violin, dancing, and chinese acrobats.
Rolled myself to the airport after brunch to settle in for my flight home.
I used the last of my global certificates for this trip and was able to confirm upgraded seats a few weeks before. I was actually surprised that the flight was not 100% occupied. I didn't anticipate that there would be empty seats in each class. Mental note: choose the rear facing seats as that is less likely to get chosen in business. It would have been nice not to have a neighbor but I was still happy to not sit in the back of the bus. :) I did chuckle when the stewardess was shooing people out of business. As I've found often on these flights, the families travelling together try to play musical chairs if part of the group is in a different class of service on the plane.
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| Double cut pork chop |
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| Noodles! |
I think I'm beginning to get pretty familiar with the menu on UA 877 flights. I remembered that I liked the pork chop best and had it again. I did have to hunt down the stewardess for the mid-flght meal of beef noodle soup. I think I inspired the kids that were sitting next to me to order their own after they saw me eating my soup. Landing at dinner time, I was not super hungry since the plane's last meal service was an hour before landing.
I had a light dinner of fried chicken from a local eatery next door, Haodada. On this particular meal, I felt that the MSG usage was higher than normal and saved half my meal for breakfast the next day to eat with rice.
The next day, I spent most of the day settling in and planning what to do in Shanghai. It's getting more difficult to think of things to do when visiting so often and yet not knowing how to speak Chinese! I wandered over to the Starbucks nearby to get some air and have a coffee. I was suckered by the music box display on the counter and inquired about it. Apparently, it is a promotion of 20 cups of coffee purchased you will get the music box. Keep in mind that a small toffee nut latte costs $5 which is way more than what you would spend in America. On my way back, I stopped at Ichido for some pastries. I bought some sponge cakes, chocolate sweet bread, and a chocolate raspberry mouse bar.
The desserts were good and I'm likely to return. The staff was pleasant but I can't say the patrons were of the same mindset. While paying for my items, I was flanked by two older Chinese women both shoving their trays at the cashier. Normally, something I don't mind but I was still paying for my items! As soon as I paid, I took a half step back to grab my bag and the two women swooped in jabbering away at each other and continuing to push the tray at the cashier's face. The poor cashier tried to tell them to go back so she could hand me my receipt but they ignored her. Given that the only customers were myself and these two ladies in the shop, I could understand the rush in getting things paid. :\ Ahhhh, so nice to be reminded about the little things in China....
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| Raspberry chocolate bar from Ichido |
China doesn't observe daylight savings time so it gets dark pretty quickly in the evening. I turned in early just because it felt so late. On the bright side, I was able to get up pretty early the next day to prepare for some baking!
 |
| Bottle cap vs eggs in China |
I had brought over a pumpkin pie from Marie Callendar's restaurant for the Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's place. I thought I'd try my hand in making some pumpkin tartlets in case the pie didn't travel well as a backup plan. I had brought most of the ingredients over but I needed eggs. I had forgotten how small eggs are in China and had to eyeball what four large American eggs equaled to small Chinese eggs. I'm not particularly good at making pie dough crust and knew my options would be limited with no access to Pillsbury frozen pie crusts! So I opted to bring a box of Nilla wafers and create a shortbread crust.
 |
| Spicy beef noodle soup from Crystal Jade |
After the pies were done, I headed out to get some air and get some Chinese sausage. Unfortunately, I thought I could find the butcher from memory and it wasn't the case. :\ So after checking out the French Concession area, headed back and had dinner at Crystal Jade restaurant in Xintiandi. No visit to Shanghai is complete without eating here! That and it is unlikely I will be heading out to Singapore anytime soon. I generally don't find the dessert options here great and went home to eat my dessert from Ichido.
 |
| Squid Ink Targielle |
Afterwards, spent the afternoon at the Shanghai Museum. I was pleasantly surprised that the museum didn't have an entrance fee. I found the exhibitions interesting and there was a touring exhibition of Russian jewelry from the House of Faberge. The Russians definitely knew how to make nice jewelry. Raffles City mall was across the way and I thought it would be a great opportunity to buy some boots or galoshes since it was supposed to keep raining for the remainder of my trip. I was quickly reacquianted with how big of a person I am by asian standards. My size 8 feet was considered enormous and few shoe shops had shoes in my size let alone rain boots.
 |
| "Pizza" |
For dinner, met up with friends and ate at a chinese muslim restaurant, Yakexi on 379 Xikang Lu. There was a lamb stew that was good but the meat skewers were much tastier. There was also a "pizza" which reminded me of a cross between samosas and empanadas. It was my favorite entree of the meal.
The next day, celebrated Thanksgiving in Shanghai! In China, today is a normal day so it doesn't really feel like a holiday except for the Americans. The rain is continuing on and spent most of the day indoors. Make a brief excursion to the Starbucks and Ichido bakery down the street when the maids came by. I tried some new pastries this morning and it was a thumbs down. Ah well, I will have to look for something else to try tomorrow.
Group of friends ordered a Thanksgiving feast from Dakota Bistro. A word to the wise, pumpkin and turkeys ARE NOT common food staples in China. Last year, someone bought a pumpkin pie from a restaurant and it was about $30 of wasted effort. Turkeys are also very expensive here due to low demand. Asian people don't like white meat and that is what turkeys are all about. So the 'turkey feast' costed about $200 for an average size turkey and eight sides that is supposed to feed a group of 8 to 10 people. Given the amount of sides, I've had more from a KFC family meal for four. LOL. The pumpkin pie was a hit for the expats - the store bought and the semi-homemade versions.
 |
| Spicy Mexican from Domino's |
The next day, the rain continues to play havoc in Shanghai traffic. At least it isn't a West Coast phenomenon about rain and poor driving habits but a global one. :) I made my morning trek to Starbucks and Ichido again. I've been having a hard time adjusting to the time zone. For some reason, when I'm in Shanghai I can't stay up past 10 pm and wake up at 5 am. I endeavored to stay up later today because I was going to meet up with people for happy hour and on. So I ordered Domino's Pizza for lunch and hoped I could catch an afternoon nap. I know, why in the world am I ordering pizza from Domino's in Shanghai? I was told by the expats that the pizza was actually really good and I was intrigued by the pies on the Domino's menu. It actually was very good and easy to order. There is a centralized ordering system that is English friendly and the delivery guy was at the apartment within 15 minutes. I stayed very traditional in my pizza selection buy you can get pizza topped with shrimp or tuna. The cheesy bread had a slight Cheetos flavor to it; it was good in an interesting way.
Eventually headed out to Pudong and went to Morton's Steakhouse. The happy hour special plus free steak sandwiches appear to be a popular offering with the expat crowd. I have to say that the sandwiches are pretty good for all you can eat complimentary sandwiches. The drink specials are only martinis for $5. I don't think Morton's would be doing this in the States. :) Since I was munching enough that I wouldn't need dinner, I also ordered the chocolate souffle for two. The souffle could easily feed four people for $30. When happy hour ended, the group trekked out to Oscar's Bar in the French Concession. It was an English bar and there were plenty of English people inside. :) There is live music. I have yet entered an Asian bar that didn't have Filipinos as the music players. It is so universal!
 |
| Dessert selection at Fairmont Afternoon Tea |
The rain ended overnight and I was able to plan a walking tour of the Bund the next day. The Lonely Planet guide's section on Shanghai has a walking tour outlined. I also found one from About.com and used it as a guide. It being a weekend, most of the buildings were not open to the public. I was able to walk in the hotel conversions such as the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai, Fairmont Peace Hotel, and Peninsula Shanghai hotel. After looking at the historical buildings, wandered down the pedestrian mall on Nanjing Road. I had planned on having afternoon tea at either the Fairmont or Peninsula. Eventually, the Fairmont won out. I liked the history of the hotel and the afternoon tea is an all you can eat buffet. The price difference between the two hotels was neglible as both will set you back about $50 per person. Now it sounds wierd that afternoon tea would be a buffet but it worked. The food and service was excellent. One particular service feature is the "water" man. This person walks around with a hot water kettle with a spout that is about 3 feet long and he makes a show of refilling your tea pot with hot water. Pretty cool! I was so full from afternoon tea that dinner was of no interest to me. :)
Spent my last day watching college football in the morning. I have the Slingbox and was happy that the games I wanted to watch were night games. It meant that I didn't have to wake at O dark thirty to watch. It also meant that the internet connection is at its best since most Chinese are not awake to hog the bandwidth.
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| Table map of Westin Brunch Buffet |
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| One section of the buffet area |
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| Dessert Alley |
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| My plate! |
Rolled myself to the airport after brunch to settle in for my flight home.
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