Trip, Shanghai

Again, another restaurant recommended by Sugared & Spiced, my food guide on my recent trip to Shanghai.

I was tempted by the post on Organ, a homey Japanese cafe that served Japanese dishes with a modern twist. However, the restaurant had moved to another place and is now renamed Trip. We were to meet relatives for dinner that night but with our tight schedule, we had to squeeze in Trip that same evening or miss it altogether. I insisted, telling Hub that I just wanted a light snack. Yi had no idea where Hongmei Lu was, even though she had been in SH for a year so the three of us took a taxi out to the Hongmei Lu area, which  is also where Korea Town is. It turned out to be a 40-minute drive and cost us RMB45/MYR23/USD7.70 which is costly considering that the normal taxi fare we usually incurred was RMB20/MYR10/USD3.30 or less.

Trip is hidden behind an entrance beyond which is an enclave of new international restaurants. Yi said the area is residence to many expats, which explains the existence of such a good selection of restaurants. She recognized the area when we got there because that was where "the other airport" is.








Trip didn't look as fun and comfy as Organ. It is comfy and simple but nothing like the photos I saw of Organ. We were early (4 pm), and the kitchen wasn't opened yet. The pretty Japanese girl made up for the disappointment; she was friendly, soft spoken and had big bright eyes. She spoke in Mandarin. She went into the kitchen and started on the soy milk cake. I watched her make it. It's chiffon cake made with soybean milk instead of regular milk or water. She said our order will take 8 minutes. I've never baked a chiffon cake in 8 minutes but who knows what people can do now.


The black curry with rice (RMB40/MYR20/USD6.70) was the only savory item available. It was good Japanese curry but the half-raw egg was kind of messed up.


I made a change to our order, choosing the offer of three small pieces of cake and one coffee/tea (RMB70 something). The trio are Trip's best cakes, including the soy milk cake. This change was a bad choice. The soy milk cake was not the one the pretty girl had just baked. It came cold and within 8 minutes so I realized that had I not changed my order, I would have had the freshest baked soy milk cake. This piece of cake was a disappointment because the chiffon was not a success. The texture was that of a compressed chiffon; you can tell from the photo too (extreme left). The choc brownie was good but I prefer the one I ate back home in KK, at a cafe called La Fetta in Lintas (next to Party Play). It depends I suppose how you like your brownie--cakey or fudgy, with nuts or without, very sweet or less sweet.



Ah, but then this came. Honey toast (RMB40/MYR20/USD6.70).

 Beautifully described by Sugared & Spiced as "...smoking hot and smelling like heaven, it was half a loaf of bread, with the soft center first carved out, spread with butter, baked till the both the base and the loose pieces are golden brown, drizzled with honey, pieced back together, drizzled with more honey, then topped with scoops of vanilla ice-cream, fresh strawberries and banana slices, and a flurry of powdered sugar and cinnamon powder." 


Someone please make this for me!

Can you imagine the sight and taste of a loaf of crusty bread (could be even better if more toasted) with super fluffy soft bread inside soaked with delicious melted butter, sweetened by yummy vanilla ice cream and flavored by strawberries and bananas?! The best thing is, I didn't feel as guilty eating it as I would if I ate cake or pastry. It's just bread right. Right.

We walked to the metro. It was bitterly cold and the wind made it unbearable. It cost us RMB3 each to our next destination, another restaurant, back into the city. I think the honey toast was awesome but honestly, I don't think that I'd go all the way out to Hongmei Lu just for Trip. I'm sure there are other restaurants in the city where I can get similar dishes.

Trip
1F, No. 4 Lane 3911, Hongmei Road / 虹梅路3911弄SOHO3911 4号别墅1楼
 [Mon-Fri] 11:00am~12:00am, [Sat-Sun] 11:00am~2:00am
Website: http://blog.goo.ne.jp/trip3911

e.g. Conference

After my daughter's Yao Ming portrait video went viral on Youtube, she received many offers. The two I liked best were an invitation to exhibit her art, along with other young artists, in Casa Batlo, Barcelona, and the other was to participate in e.g. Conference in Monterey, California in April this year. After checking e.g.'s site, I told Yi that the e.g. invite could be a hoax. The people invited to speak, and the people who attend, are renowned astronauts, scientists, musicians, explorists, writers, people from Ivy League schools. In e.g.'s words, " EG convenes 500 of the most extraordinary talents from an rich array of fields: artists, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, entertainers; Oscars, Nobels, Pulitzers, MacArthur laureates; rising stars, and living national treasures.  I told Yi that maybe she was asked to attend or help in workshops.

Then Mike Hawley, an MIT professor and one of those left and right brainers, called to tell her last month to inform her that she is to be one of the presenters at the conference. She can speak on any topic, 20 minutes being the max time given for any speaker. There will be 50 to 60 other presenters plus hundreds people from around the world attending the conference. Yi will speak on 14th April morning, so if any of you are interested, do sign up at e.g.'s website. The fee is not cheap but you are going to hear extraordinary ideas and network with top industry people. Here's a description of the conference:

EG is the premiere gathering of and for innovators in media, technology, entertainment and education. The conference explores our most creative enterprises, by engaging a gifted mix of people — from rising stars to
living national treasures, the people who attend EG are among the most industrious and iconoclastic talents of our time.

If you want to out-think or out-create your competition, you need more
than fresh ideas: you need individuals and teams who are driven to
develop them. EG overflows with these exemplars.

I thought it was so great I want to attend every one.

Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder

e.g. has found a sponsor who is paying all expenses for two of us. Other than the chance of visiting the pacific coast of the US, which is gorgeous, I will also have the intimidating privilege of rubbing with the the top brainy and talented people of America and the world. I'll think about who to present myself as when I get to Monterey. Home maker I think.

As I sat in my car today waiting for my son to pick up his SPM results from his school, feeling anxious and unhappy, this thought came to me. I think God in His wisdom gave me both types of kids--the easy and the hard--so that I can empathise with others. Many people tell me that they envy me because of Yi. Yi is one kid. They don't know what else I go through as a mom. When friends tell me about their struggles with their kids, I truly understand because I've been there. The highs and the lowest lows. The people I can't stand are those who ask their kids when they score 80, 90% and above in their exams, "Why can't you score 100%?!" What ungrateful parents! These people just haven't been there. Some of us just ask for passing grades.

Wey passed SPM. He didn't do well. But I am hopeful.

Yi's profile on e.g.:

6

Red (aka Hong Yi)Architect and Unconventional Artist

BIOGRAPHYPHOTOSNEXT >< PREV

Red grew up in Sabah on the beautiful tropical island of Borneo. She dreamt of becoming a cartoon animator and Lion King is still her favourite cartoon.

Red’s paintings of Yao Ming, painted with a basketball for a brush, and Jay Chou using coffee and a cup, were Youtube hits, giving her 15 seconds of fame on CNN, ABC, Gizmodo and other media around the world. Her previous work includes portraits of Ai Weiwei using 100,000 sunflower seeds and Justin Bieber using gochujang (Korean chilli paste). Red is currently experimenting with unconventional materials and exploring structural design principles for her next projects.

Red holds two degrees from the University of Melbourne (Architecture; and Planning and Design). She was awarded a Melbourne Abroad Scholarship to study at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, which broadened her perspective and exposure in the field of European architecture.

An Australian national finalist in the SONA Superstudio competition in 2009 and 2010, she was given Jury Special Mention and awarded the Elenberg Fraser Prize for Best Presentation in both years. She also received Special Mention for the AA Prize for Unbuilt Works 2010, and featured in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Architecture Australia Magazine.

She is currently working in the Shanghai offices of HASSELL, an established Australian architecture firm. She absolutely enjoys being an architect by day and an artist by twilight.

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Home Cooked Shanghai Dishes

There are 3 floors in my FIL's father's shikumen house in Shanghai. On the ground floor is a small entrance with the maid's room on the right and the kitchen on the left. There's a bathroom next to the kitchen, next to which is FIL's youngest bro and wife (Xiao Su and Xiao Shenshen)'s living and dining room and oldest aunty's (Doh Ma in Shanghainese or Da Ma in Mandarin, meaning biggest or oldest mom, who's the wife of FIL's late oldest bro) living and dining room. On the second floor is Doh Mah's bedroom and bathroom, Xiao Su and wife's bedroom and bathroom and my in-laws' old room, which is kept neat and clean, just in case any of us visit. On the attic floor are two rooms, one my daughter's bedroom and the other where her Jay Chou coffee stain painting lies, on the linoleum floor. You can smell the wonderful coffee aroma even when you are going up the stairs. The painting is even more beautiful when you see it face-to-face, in person.

On a typical day, Ahyi, Da Ma's maid, would cook for Da Ma and Xiao Shenshen would cook for Xiao Su and herself. Both Da Ma and Xiao Shenshen's children live nearby and visit daily. Da Ma is 89 years old, very alert and strong, always well-dressed, loves to go out, loves to dance and speaks English. Xiao Shenshen must've had a queue of suitors, given her looks. She is motherly, spends most of her time with her church friends and she knows the bible as well as any pastor.

The morning after we arrived, Hub and I got downstairs to find both Ahyi and Xiao Shenshen cooking up a lunch feast for us in their kitchen which is diplomatically divided into 'yours' and 'mine'. We were going to meet up with our daughter for lunch, so we had to disappoint them. But I love to try other people's cooking, so I ate a chopstick of this and that, running right to Xiao Shenshen as she told me to try her soup, then running left to Ahyi as she gave me a taste of her pork chops. I can see why Yi feels so at home here.

We ate maybe two lunches at home in the week we were in SH, and I enjoy home-cooked meals as much as I enjoy eating out. I always think that anywhere I go, it's such a privilege to live with the locals and eat their food.

Like all old folks, Doh Ma and Xiao Shenshen prefer lots of veggies and soupy dishes. All the dishes they cooked were familiar to me; they were what my MIL cooks. The veggies though are not familiar and I just love how all the veggies are tender sprouts or young shoots. These are photos taken whenever I found Ahyi and Xiao Shenshen cooking.


"Water celery" and semi-hard tofu are stir-fried into the dish below:






Yindoxin is a very yummy Shanghainese soup of tofu sheets, pork, Chinese ham and fresh bamboo. The tofu sheets are usually tied into knots but Xiao Shenshen didn't bother. Xiao Shenshen loves fatty pork and swears that the body needs some fatty pork, "hao de". Xiao Shenshen's yindoxin woke me up one day: I could smell it from my room. She added "yellow wine" (Shao Xin Hua Tiao) at the start, something my MIL snorted at when I told her. Don't tell MIL but I prefer Xiao Shenshen's version.


Another dish that my MIL regularly cooks: dried bamboo and pork stew. Very yummy.


Young bamboo shoots fried with soy sauce. Drool...


I don't quite like Shanghai-style steamed fish as much as Cantonese steamed fish because the addition of "yellow wine" overwhelms the delicate flavor of the fish. Doh Ma said the big tropical ocean fish in Malaysia are too coarse for steaming and she's quite right.











Shanghainese cuisine is known to be oilier and sugar-sweeter than other Chinese dishes. I don't like sugar or wine in every day stir-fried veggies.


The Shanghainese just love bamboo shoots.


Sticky rice 'sticks' (nian gao) in soup.


Meat-filled savory tang yuan.


I jumped when I took a close up of this fish because it jumped too, even though it was cut into half. Frozen fish is unheard of in China. I was relieved that I didn't stay for lunch because I don't eat fish that look like snakes.

New York Style Steak & Burger, Shanghai

Of all things, I had to crave for burgers in Shanghai. It was Sugared & Spiced's post on the best burger in Shanghai that lured me out of Hub's great grandfather's shikumen house (I've been using the wrong term--longtang, which realy means the small alleys in shikumen--for these ancient townhouse settlements) in 3 degrees weather to Tianzifang, a shikumen that has been renovated with quaint crafts and arts shops and restaurants, most of them western, where New York Style Steak & Burger (NYSSB) is located. If you face the entrance of Tianzifang, NYSSB is on your right, at the end of a short lane.




New York Style Steak & Burger in Shanghai--you'd think that you were in Manhattan. (photo grabbed from Sugared & Spiced)


 Manhattan clam chowder, RMB35/MYR17/USD5.80

I prefer New England clam chowder to Manhattan clam chowder but decided to try it anyway. The portion was stingy, enough for a couple of mouthfuls. It was good but for that price I could've eaten about 4 steamer baskets of xiaolong baos, juicy little Shanghai meat buns.


The Manhattan Monster, RMB65/MYR32/USD11.

The Manhattan Monster is a giant burger which is delightful to behold. However, other than the wow factor, I really don't understand tall giant burgers. Do they really taste better than regular burgers? Is tallness desirable even for burgers? And how do you eat these monsters?


The Manhattan Monster:  fried onion rings, fried egg, 'firehouse chili', lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, beef patty and loads of tomato sauce, mustard sauce and mayo .

I cut the burger into half and we tried to eat the burger the usual way but ended up taking it apart. The bottom bun was flattened by the weight and was soggy from the grease, mayo and other sauces. While the beef patty was quite flavorful, I didn't like the taste of chili (as in con carne) in my burger. Both Hub and I agreed that we'd rather eat a simple Burger King burger than one with complicated flavors. The thick fat fries that came with the burger were done very nicely though.

Hub got up to pay since we weren't getting any service and the lady behind the counter didn't lift her head up even though we scraped our chairs when we stood up. Again, wordlessly, the bill was paid and we gladly jumped out of the place. That place rates as the most unfriendly restaurant we've been to in SH, or anywhere else.

New York Style Steak & Burger
No 22,  Lane 155 Jiangou Lu, near Ruijin Er Lu 
Tel: 5465-1676

Spicy Moment, Shanghai

(Photo above and below grabbed from Sugared & Spiced)


We were seated at the high table which was half a tree trunk. So cool.

With Cousin H busy with prior appointments, we were free to eat where I we wanted. The last time we were in SH, Cousin H and other relatives arranged every single meal. It saved us a lot of money so I shouldn't complain.

For this trip, I looked to Sugared & Spiced for my SH culinary adventures. I like the blog for the photos and write up but I do take note of the fact that many of the meals are on the restaurant. The first place I went to that was recommended by Sugared & Spiced left me very disappointed but I gave the anonymous blogger another chance with Spicy Moment, a Hunanese restaurant.

We didn't make a booking and when we got to the restaurant, it was full, with lots of young working adults and expats. It was International Women's Day and there was a long table of young ladies having fun--and drinking lots of red wine--and the atmosphere was hip and lively. The waitress was super nice, apologizing over and over for not being able to give us a table but promised us one if we get back there in an hour.

We took off and walked around the area which has lovely quaint renovated shops. Nearby was a grocers that sells western foodstuff, some locally made and grown, some imported. Yi bought me a locally-made mozzarella (RMB15 for one small ball) that tasted quite okay but was too firm. We passed a street stall that sold bbqed stuff on sticks and next to it, deep fried spicy pork fingers. Hub, ever the careful traveller, has never allowed me to eat street food in China because his relatives told him that it's unhygenic but I was ready to risk my life. The pork (or chicken?) fingers were awesome and so were the bbqed stuff. Very greasy food.








Squid mouths, nice and crunchy.




By the time we got to the restaurant, we were full but the others let me order anyway, knowing that my company will be better when I get my way.


For starters, we had spicy liang fen, a jelly made of bean.RMB18/MYR9/USD3.


We also had the spicy baby wood ears, a tree fungus. Tasty and fun to eat, with a light crunch. RMB16/MYR8/USD2.70.


Salted veg. croaker (I think) and Hunan noodles. It was a 7/10, okay but not something I'd crave for. The fish was not meaty and those pickled green chilies are deceptively fiery! RMB58/MYR29/USD9.70.


The noodles look similar to soba but the texture is unusual, like no noodles I've tasted before.


Cabbage with pork, RMB28/MYR14/USD4.70. Very salty and ordinary.


A beautiful dessert of pumpkin with fermented glutinous rice and rice balls. I liked this, and think that this is a brilliant dessert. Chinese are not big on desserts after a heavy meal and something this simple and elegant is perfect. RMB28/MYR14/USD4.70.

We loved the restaurant straightaway. It was modern and chic and the food was good without being too pricey for such places. I only wish that I had ordered the spicy fish head instead of the salted veg fish noodles. Next time, there will be a next time because there are so many other dishes I want to try. The service was good, and the waitress was the most friendly and courteous (in a nice, natural way) one I encountered in a long time.

Spicy Moment
71 Wuyuan Lu, near Changshu Lu
Tel:  5403 0775