A Shanghai Market

China is truly a land of contrasts. The buildings are tall, the cars are sleek, the number of billionaires rank second in the world and yet people hang out their underwear to dry on a street when it's sunny. It is odd and embarrassing yet kind of sweet and nostalgic.


Big zhongzi, glutinous rice dumplings, were only RMB2 to 2.50 each (RM1/USD0.30).


I stopped by a grocers and bought my Hub's favorite daediao bing, seaweed biscuits and chung you bing, spring onions biscuits.


Frozen fish. I wonder how they taste.

The market was 15 minutes' walk away and therefore very convenient for me. I bought a bit of everything, from veggies I've never seen before to goutie wrappers to glutinous rice sticks, for my in-laws.


























Cutting glutinous rice cakes. The fresh wheat noodles smelt heavenly.


These are wheat flour wrappers for making Shanghainese wontons. They are eggless and much thicker than Cantonese wontons.


A tea stall.


Dried chrysanthemum buds.


I packed everything into a cardbox board because it's light.





We were ushered out of the door by Douma (oldest aunty, who's 89) who was worried that we'd miss our flight. At the exit of the shikumen, I saw a lady cook lunch, her stove and condiments placed on benches. She was frying bell peppers with chicken and it smelt awesome. As I stopped to take photos, she said to me, "You take my photos, you must try my food!" I was delighted to and about to take up her offer when Hub yelled at me from the cab and gave me a I-can't-believe-you'd-do-that look.  Xiao shushu (youngest uncle, who's 82) and Douma were equally impatient (or disgusted) with me and led me away while the gawkers on the street laughed at me.

Shanghai: Hai Di Lao Hot Pot

One morning, we walked to Yi's office to check out the little restaurant at the corner. It is the only restaurant in the area and Yi often eats there on the way to work.


The economy rice buffet looked rather poor.




Goutie and shuijiao in China are thicker-skinned than the ones we get in Malaysia. I like both types. 


Didn't notice until I posted this photo that the goutie were placed on newspapers. I just like the way my Olympus four thirds camera shoots. Pretty good eh?


Goutie. Yum.


Xiaolong bao. Yum too.

Yi arranged to meet us at Hai Di Lao  ('deep sea trawl') at 468 Changshou Lu, a popular steamboat chain restaurant. When we got there, people were playing board games, girls were having their hands massaged, others were having their nails done and yet others were just sitting around sipping tea while waiting for their tables. All FOC. We were served Chinese tea and slices of oranges while we waited. I should've checked out the bathrooms because Yi said the service is so amazing that the attendants will open the doors for you, make sure it's closed properly, switch the tap on for you, tear the paper for drying your hands for you...the only thing you do is ease yourself.







 Hai Di Lao has many chain restaurants all over China and is popular with young people because the choices of steamboat ingredients are endless and the service is what I'd describe as intense. A waitress stood at our table most of the time, ever ready to serve drinks or help us cook. She wasn't overbearing though, just very friendly and well-trained and ever so polite and ready to get us anything. For such a huge restaurant, the number of staff must be astounding because there was a waitress to every table.



The highlight of the meal, other than the service fit for an empress, was the dancing noodles. A guy in a white track suit (I'd like to know why) came to the table and starts pulling a piece of dough, stretching until it is like a long flat ribbon. He turned and twirled, never stopping and the ribbon of dough became so long I thought it would touch the floor but it didn't. Within 30 seconds, the dough was done and he tore the long ribbon into short lengths and dropped them into our pot of soup. The noodles were slippery-smooth with an el dente bite and very delicious and cost incredibly cheap, only RMB7/RM3.50/USD1.10.







Two types of soup base, a Sichuan hot oil peppercorn soup and an herbal mushroom soup. Both were good but I prefer the herbal soup because the Sichuan hot oil soup made everything taste the same.

Hai Di Lao wasn't as cheap as it looked on the menu because with so many items, and the portions were small, we ordered quite a bit and that added up to a hefty bill. But Yi paid for dinner and it felt good to have a kid who's working, finally.

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.