Xin Tian Di & BBQ Seafood

Newly opened Xin Tian Di is one of Shanghai's most popular tourist spots. It is a beautifully restored shikumen, a kind of gated housing neighborhood where cars are not allowed. The houses are built of stone or brick and very old. Of all the restored shikumen, Xin Tian Di is the most elegant and classy, with expensive famous restaurants and designer Chinese souvenirs and apparel stores. I found the place very pleasant but rather unauthentic. It seemed like a westernized version of Old Shanghai.


At the traffic lights before entering Xin Tian Di, I stopped to take some photos and before I could even stop him, this guy had grabbed my feet and started to shine my shoe. I looked across the street and saw a woman doing the same thing to my Hub's shoe. We laughed at each other, the man complimented me and I nearly doubled his price of RMB10 but was intercepted by Hub.









Xin Tian Di is nice place and you should dine there if you can afford it. But we couldn't, so we went to 26 Shouning Lu, near Xizang Nan Lu. A total contrast from Xin Tian Di, Shouning Lu is where people go to after a late night out in the bars. We had to plan our bbq meal sneakily because our relatives wouldn't bring us there. It was too unhygienic, they said. There, you've been warned.


At the entrance of the road was this guy and his monkey. I took a photo and the guy immediately came over, asking for RMB1/RM0.50/USD0.15. The monkey was all over me which made me scream and jump.  Monkeys are terrifying. They move so fast and scurry around, baring their sharp claws and teeth and they have this wild wide-eyed deranged look. The guy calmed his monkey and urged it off my back after we paid him. Works everytime I bet.




Osmanthus cakes. Oh these taste so bad, the osmanthus smelling nearly like sweat. They remind me of traditional Korean and Japanese desserts, tasteless and distasteful.


It's not the season for baby crawfish, so stay away, our relatives had reminded us when we asked about these crustaceans. They even have hairy crabs in March but these fellas must be so light and empty.


We settled down in a dinghy room in the basement, only because we saw a group of westerners (French, it turned out) eating happily. It amazes me when westerners eat in dirty places. The seafood was SO good. We had trays after trays of black beans oysters, garlic oysters, plain baked oysters, garlic scallops, bbq lamb and grilled banana. They were quite cheap but it adds up before you realise it.


We balanced the seafood with some glutinous rice sticks, grilled beans, mushrooms and Chinese chives. Seasoned with cumin Sinkiang-style, these were yummy but contained loads of oil.




A lot of people like you tiao (oily sticks) but I'm in the minority. You tiao are Chinese crullers (deep fried yeast dough) usually eaten with congee or as filling in Shanghainese sticky rice rolls, chifan. I long for old-fashioned Sabah crullers, the kind I ate when I was a kid. Back then, Sabahans complained and wished for Hong Kong-style crullers which are thin-skinned with lots of holes, the dough yellowish inside from alum, an ingredient that preserves and gives crullers that astringent flavor which I hate. Sabah crullers had none of those additives and were thicker, shorter and white, with a texture like hum jin bang but more bready.


On our way home one night, we passed Dog Street, the street where people bring their dogs out to socialise (both dogs and owners) and I couldn't help sneaking a large slice of Awfully Chocolate's chocolate slice into my belly. I know many Singaporeans don't agree with me, but I do find AC's chocolate cakes very delicious.


Remember her? She was stolen once and had to be remade. She has to put up with a lot of abuse, including curious boys.


One night, we walked home and passed by Hub's old house when he was a little boy. When their family grew, my in-laws moved out from FIL's father's shikumen house into a beautiful bungalow in the French Concession. On our first trip to SH in 1999, we had the rare chance of going into the house as a new buyer was renovating it. It's a beautiful house with a a solid wooden staircase made of very hard wood and the garden was big enough for trees, quite unusual for a city like SH. FIL sold it in the 80s just when China was opening up to the world and that was one thing that they always regretted. MIL's younger bro still stalks the house, I hear, and relatives still talk about the house too. Now we can only stare from the outside and listen to Hub's stories about the house that got away.

p.s. Wey has a week off, I just found out on the weekend, so we are leaving for a short trip to Singapore today. I have scheduled more posts for the week and when I get back, we'll look at what we ate in Singapore. If you have suggestions, I'll be happy to check it out!

Shanghai Snacks

I made popovers 7 (SEVEN) times the last two weeks and the family got so sick of popovers I had to feed them to my chickens. The problem I had with my popovers was they puffed like balloons but they deflated as soon as I took them out of the oven. The only batch that didn't deflate so much was the one made with bread flour and plain flour. I don't know if it's the humidity. I can pass off deflated popovers as Yorkshire pudding but what I really want is popovers, not Yorkshire pudding. If you have a no fail recipe, please send it in.

So here I am, nothing to blog about now that I'm done with my American trip. And so I shall pick up from where I was before I went to the US. Talking about the US, if you go to NYC, you must take a ride on the subway into Brooklyn or the Bronx because that's when you will most likely see some amazing performers/buskers on your ride. I took a video of one performance but since I was standing, the video turned out too shaky.

Anyway, my Shanghai trip in March this year:


Our breakfast one morning, at Hub's request, was savory hot soy bean milk with Shanghainese pastries. Yum, but as a Cantonese, I find savory soy bean milk rather odd.


Shanghainese wontons in restaurants are pathetic compared to those in Guangdong and Hong Kong. Exception is my MIL's wontons. MIL makes the best meat wontons which I can't make no matter how many times I watch her.


Shanghainese shengjian bao, iconic food of Shanghai.


I like shengjian bao better than xiaolong bao because the base is toasty and flavorful and the bao is of the right thickness, not too thin like xiaolong baos and not too thick like ordinary baos.




Shanghainese men love to carry their gf's/wife's handbag. That's one reason why they are called 'ma da sao'. Six years ago, I was told by a taxi driver in Shanghai that Shanghainese men make the best husbands. I beamed. Out of the 5 qualities in this article, my Hub is 2, 3, 4 &  hmm, I have to find out if he's stashing some money without my knowledge before I brand him as 5.  So, lucky for Hub, that saves him from being a wimp. Before you rush to marry a servant/Shanghainese man, remember that behind every Shanghainese man, there's a Shanghainese mother. What about them you ask. Well. Why do you think SH men are 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5?


This queue was on Nanjing Lu, on a cold day. Whatever it is, it must be good, we figured,


White radish pastry and meat pastry. Yummy! I prefer the radish pastry.


5 degrees, windy and wet, so it was very cold...


...yet people were dancing on Nanjing Lu, a pedestrian street. A man was playing beautiful music on a saxophone from the balcony. We stopped and watched and watched and watched, despite the cold and my runny frozen nose. I wanted to dance too but Hub refused to dance with me. "Hoi wan siu ah?" he said. ("You kidding me?" See, not a wimp.)


The lady's got the moves I tell you.


Her partner's got the flair too.


I nearly had to fight to buy these glutinous rice snacks. You can't stand and wait in line if you are in SH, or China. You'll be pushed out of line if you don't push people away. 


Old buildings in front, new at the back. That's the charm about many cities in China.


Chaye dan, spiced tea eggs. When shelled, the eggs are marbled with brown streaks.


One of the most humble but best snacks in China, baos/buns. I especially love Shanghainese vegetarian buns.


The bun 'skin' is amazingly soft and light and fragrant, and the filling is ohsogood.


So tempting but Hub wouldn't let me eat street food.


We didn't try this. Street food, Hub said. Unhygienic.






Hub wouldn't let me eat street food but I love bbq meat on skewers (similar to Malaysia satay but without the peanut sauce) sold by Sinkiang people. Sinkiang is a province in China which is populated mostly by Muslims. I have no doubts that it was Eve who made Adam eat the apple. This was the best skewered  lamb I've eaten on the trip. There were a lot of fatty bits and the first time I bit into one piece of fat, I wanted to spit it out but there were no bins so I had to chew and swallow it. When I did, I couldn't believe how delicious lamb fat could be! I told Adam he must chew and swallow the fat too, and he did, and we both felt ashamed. But happy.


I took his photo. Search for him.


Here.

Lamb & Cumin Fried Rice

Two of my nieces walked just when I was about to have lunch. I had just enough for two but there were four of us. Leftover uncooked lamb shoulder from a bbq the night before to the rescue! I've never fried rice with lamb (lamb isn't a meat we eat often) but I've eaten it in a restaurant recently and liked it even though the msg was overpowering.

Cooking with whatever on hand can turn out surprising results. I didn't have any mixed frozen veggies--the corn, peas and carrots trio--because I don't like them and don't buy them. I have plenty of Chinese chives in my garden so that went into the rice. I also wanted a stronger flavor to go with the lamb and since I love cumin, I used that and some Maggi soy sauce to make up for the msg. The result was so good that I decided to take some photos, nothing fancy and no food propping, and share it with you. I also found out that freshly cooked semi-unpolished brown rice can be fried without turning into clumps. As anyone who has fried rice before knows, the best rice for frying is day-old stale rice because they will not stick or become gummy like freshly cooked rice. The only thing I didn't do right was using too much lamb for the amount of rice I had and the lamb could've been fried at a higher heat to sear and brown. You learn from my mistakes. Now go and fry some rice.



Lamb & Cumin Fried Rice
5 cups cooked day-old rice
1 cup lean lamb shoulder, cut into small cubes
1 cup Chinese chives or spring onions, in 1 cm lengths
1 T chopped garlic
1 to 2 large eggs
2 T (or more to taste) Maggi soy sauce
1/2 tsp (or to taste) cumin
a few shakes of white pepper
1/2 tsp(or more to taste) salt
 veg oil

1. Marinate the lamb with a large pinch of salt, 1/2 tsp of fine sugar and 1 tsp each of Worchestershire sauce and light soy sauce. Do this while you prepare the other ingredients so that the lamb has time to absorb the seasoning.
2. Put 2 T oil (or you may like it with more oil than I do) into a heated wok, add the garlic and then the lamb and fry at high heat until the lamb is lightly browned. 
3. Add the cumin to the lamb, stir well, then add the rice and stir well to break up any lumps. Keep frying to blend the two ingredients. Season with the salt, pepper and Maggi soy sauce. Taste and add more seasoning to taste remembering that you still have to add the egg and chives.
4. Push the rice in the center to make a well for frying the egg. Add 1 T oil and break in the egg, stirring all the time until egg is half set. Throw in the chives and keep frying until the egg is set and dry and the rice grains are separated.

SF: Salito & Chez Panisse

Scoma is a very prominent restaurant in Sausalito. Built over the water and situated at the waterfront in the town, the pastel-blue restaurant cannot be missed. 

On my walk in Sausalito, I met a lady who was gardening. She lived in a beautiful house perched over a slope with a view of the sea. I had had a big breakfast and couldn't eat when I walked by Scoma but after my walk I was tired and wanted to sit down for a light lunch so I asked her where's a good place to eat. The lady said that Scoma was for tourists and for better food, I should go to Salito. Her husband especially liked the ciopino, an Italian seafood stew.

I also met another lady who didn't have a good word about the government and said of the Republicans and Democrats: "Put a bag over their heads and they are all the same." If I knew her better, I'd tell her to travel outside of the US more. I'm sure she'll go back a lot more appreciative. But I hear her too. I know I've been gushing about the US but I am aware that it's because I visited two of their best cities and stayed in middle class neighborhoods. Still, North Korea anyone?

I walked up and down the street in Sausalito and couldn't find Salito so I ended up having a large hamburger for lunch. When CY came to pick me up about 4 pm, I mentioned Salito to her and with a car, it was easy to find the restaurant. But I wanted to eat dinner later at a famous SF restaurant so we decided to just have a small bite at Salito, just to check the place out, and then head to the other restaurant.










This was sourdough bread in a cast iron kettle, only USD0.99 and it was the size of my head. Nearly. It was good, with a flavorful crust and a springy soft inside.




The clam chowder was good.


CY and friend were happy that Saulito served beignets, deep-fried French doughnut made of choux pastry. They said the best beignets are found in a restaurant in New Orleans.


Beignets are yum even without ice cream.

We didn't order a lot but what we had was good. However, I don't think Salito is any less touristy than Scoma because the other customers seemed to be from out of town too.

It's fun when CY is crazy like me because right after this, we drove to Berkeley to eat at Chez Panisse, a restaurant started by Alice Waters in 1971. Waters is an advocate of organic food and her cooking style is simple using the best and the freshest ingredients. Using the finest ingredients sourced from the best producers and farmers also means that these ingredients come at a high price. Chez Panisse was named best restaurant in the US by Gourmet magazine in 2001, and one of the world's top 50 restaurants from 2002 to 2008. The restaurant has turned out dozens of top chefs and food people such as David Lebovitz and Jeremiah Tower and many many more. It is Chez Panisse and Alice Waters who are credited with the Californian cuisine, a style of cooking that emphasizes the use of fresh local ingredients with a strong attention to presentation. I was disappointed to learn that the restaurant doesn't grow anymore veggies in the garden behind it. I guess with the success, the garden couldn't meet the demand of the restaurant.

We arrived about 6 pm just when the restaurant was about to open but we didn't have any reservations so we went upstairs to the cafe instead. Reservations for the restaurant are very much required. The section closer to the kitchen was already full (at 6 pm!) so we were seated nearer to the area above the entrance, which was not so comfortable because the tables were too close to each other.


A bunya bunya tree grows in between Chez Panisse and Cesar, a tapas bar which was packed even that early in the evening. I just found out that Cesar is owned by Chez Panisse alumni.


The decor is rather dated.








One of Chez Panisse' signature desserts is a fruit bowl which on that day was tangerines, kumquats and Medjool dates.




CY ordered 'Cannard Farm rocket salad with cumin, beets (they came in yellow and pink), almonds and sherry vinegrette for USD9.50. When it came, she was surprised that arugula was rocket.


Grilled yellowtail jack with spinach, artichokes, snap peas and kumquat salsa, USD26 was light and done just nice. 


Bellwether Farm ricotta and nettle canneloni with wild mushrooms baked in wood oven, USD20. Excellent. 


I was undecided between the rhubarb galette with creme fraiche, USD10 and the ginger cake with kumquat and creme chantilly and I finally chose the rhubarb galette. While it was quite good--rhubarb is rhubarb--, it was so thin that it didn't make much impression.


On the way down, we passed the restaurant and it was already beginning to fill with customers.

Other than the unimpressive rhubarb galette, we enjoyed the meal. It was simple, light and delicious. The menu changes daily according to the seasonal produces. There were only 6 choices of main and the prices were very reasonable for a restaurant of such standing. The menu du jour (set meal of the day) of a salad, a main and a dessert was USD30, excluding a service charge of 17%. The restaurant downstairs is considered expensive, with set menus of USD100 per person. I should make a reservation next time. The only thing I feel that needed to improve was the decor because the cafe and the restaurant looked rather dated. But then, maybe that's how they want to keep it, the way it was when it opened 41 years ago.