Eating out in Shanghai

After my dinner at Ye Shanghai, I really started thinking about the differences in the restaurant service in China and the United States. 

I have heard many people complain that the service in China is not as good as in the United States.  Always, it is attributed to the fact that servers in China are not tipped, so of course they have no incentive to do better.  Honestly, I don't think its true.

I spent years in the service industry, both in Chicago and New Orleans, so my take the situation is a little different.  I think that the service in China is some of the best and worst I have received in all of my years eating out.  But overall, I am very pleased with how well I am treated here.  

First, I have never been to a restaurant where people are rude to me.  Never.  Not one.  Fancy places, hole in the wall, local places.  Never.  Now that might not be too much to ask, but having worked in the service industry, I remember the groans when a less than ideal customer sat in your section.  I have never had a server complain that I don't understand them.  In fact, they have been very accommodating.  They write in my phone, bring me picture menus.  I can't imagine people doing the same for me in the United States.  Not in Chicago, New Orleans, or Mobile.

Second, when I call a server over, they come immediately.  It true that a server will never come to the table unless called.  You need to raise your hand.  This goes completely counter to two minutes two bites rule.  In the U.S. we expect our servers to come over when we feel like they should.  This really presents a problem for servers.  They have to be able to read what you want, from body language and tone.  There are some
people who complain if the servers come to the table too often, and there are some people that complain if the servers don't come often enough.  It is really frustrating.  Here in Shanghai they got around that.  You want a server watching you eat? Call them over a million times.  You want them to leave you alone, don't call them over.  I feel like this works better because some times I want to order right away so I can eat a quick meal, and sometimes I want to talk to my friends for 15 minutes before I even look at a menu.

Third, you don't have to tip.  I hate tipping and I hated being tipped.  Tips are a terrible way to make a living.  You are at the mercy of other people.  There are nice people who tip what they should, but they are about 30% of the population (less in the South).  There are 30% that make you work your butt off for 15%, running you ragged, but at least you get some money.  And then, there are the last 30% that are stingy people that have some stupid ideas about tipped employees and haven't ever worked in the restaurant industry.  These people hardly leave tips, often leave less than 15% ("I give God 10% why should you get
15%?), and normally are jerks (I don't want a drink.  Just bring me lemon wedges, sugar packets, and some ice water).  With a  fixed salary, it is easier for servers to budget and live.  Also, it is easier for customers to understand what the total cost of the meal will be.

My big gripe about service here is the pacing of the meal.  The big problem being dessert.  Every place I have been to offers dessert but none bring the menu back.  If you don't speak Mandarin there is no way to ask for a menu.  If you try to be smart and order your dessert at the same time as you order food, it will
come, at the same time as the food.  Not so bad for some dessert, but ice cream and shaved ices, are a no-go for me, since I don't want them to melt.  And, it isn't just me, I have seen this done to Chinese people as well.  Very annoying.

Overall, I am very happy with the service.  Keep in mind that I have never ordered a bottle of wine or any other task that requires more finesse.  In general, I think that people who don't need to be coddled, will do fine in Shanghai, but if you need or expect a lot of attention when dinning, be forewarned that Shanghai dinning will be tough for you.

Canteen Lunch

Many of you know that here in China, companies must provide lunch for their employees.  Several previous visitors have expressed their dislike for the free lunch served at the plant canteen.  So, you can imagine that I was very worried about eating there for an entire month.  However, I was surprised.  I think the food is pretty good (it is still cafeteria food after all), and honestly, I have never had an issue finding something I want to eat. 

Here are a few of my lunches: 

Chicken, pork, fish, veggies w/ eggs and ham, mystery veggies and cabbage, rice

plums, squid with veggies, rice, noodles with soy sauce, cabbage and mystery veggie

veggies, noodles in soup with pork dressing, veggies with soy beans

See the lunch is not bad.  You can make it work, even if your palette is not as easily appeased as mine.

Jian Tou Fa (Haircut)

I might be having a slight manic phase.

I decided that I wanted to get my haircut to see how it turns out.  Being the diligent Mandarin student I am, I looked up the translation for haircut (jian tou fa) and  I set off to a salon.  When I got there, it met all the requirements for a proper hair salon:

Skinny Chinese guys: CHECK
Skinny Chinese guys wearing tight pants: Double CHECK
Skinny Chinese guys with crazy copper hair: OH Triple CHECK
Blasting a mix of the worst American songs from 5 years ago: SUPER Quadruple CHECK

I was shuttled around from one spot to the other.  My hair was washed to the max.  I believe I may have lost some scalp in the process.  I then pointed to a photo that I liked.

Hindsight being 20/20,  I should have been more worried when I heard the word for "mushroom."  I sat there as he trimmed and trimmed away. 

Memorable moments  include when my favorite Pussy Cat Dolls song came on. Yes, I have a favorite Pussy Cat Dolls song.  No, I have no idea what it's called.  Mostly I like it because I wrote my own lyrics:

Butter up my muffins baby
but you keep frontin
saying that its no good for me
but I don't like margarine

Second memorable moment: when my stylist used a new type of hair spray on my hair.  The best was to describe it, axe body spray meets aquanet from the 90's.

As I mentioned previously, it was an impulsive moment, I picked out a hairstyle with bangs, parted on the other side, and very short.

After 2 hours, I got a very different haircut than the photo.  It is a big change.  I believe it resembles one of the styles below:

Yes, my work computer search history now has "Justin Beiber 2010," on the list.

This is what it actually looks like:

It's not the worst, its just strange, very mushroom like.  I can't stop giggling at how dumb I was for trying this.

[Man readers, you may want to check out here.  I am going to start writing about makeup.]

After the haircut, I decided that the best way to fix this, other than time and an arsenal of styling
products, was to wear lipstick.  I set off for the department store ASA-P.

Once again, everything is made for women to look like children.  EVERY lipstick had glitter.  Tacky tacky glitter. For the love of god.  I explained I wanted matte lipstick and the women looked at me like I was deranged.
 
I bounced and made a beeline for Sephora.  Thank you Sephora for being in China.  It wasn't much better there, but I did manage to find one color that I could pull off, and was sans glitter.  Yeah I had to pay $25 for a tube of lipstick, but I feel better.

And there she was, holding a snake

In Shanghai there is a former coworker from Mobile.  Recently, he invited me out to dinner, at one of his favorite XinJiang province restaurants.

XinJiang is a province in the North West of China.  It is characterized it Muslim population.  Here the people tend to be more influenced by the Middle East and South East Asian cultures.  Places like Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, etc.  There are two reason for this, one geographic proximity.  Two, these people are the descendants of the merchants and traders on the Silk Road.  They are people who's culture has been influenced by a vast number of cultures.

XinJiang food is extremely popular in Shanghai.  There are a ton of restos that serve it, and all of them are packed.  Honestly, it is easy to understand why.  Unlike most Chinese food, XinJiang
food is centered around lamb.  No pork at these Halal places, although, most if not all will serve shrimp.  Strange right?  The spices used in Xinjiang food are also very addictive.  It is a mix of dry spiciness from chili peppers, cumin, garlic, and turmeric.

 

After finding the restaurant (we got lost, seems like I can pass on my bad luck), we settled in for our meal:



Yummy yummy



There are roasted lamb chops served with a soy style sauce and the aforementioned spice blend for dipping.

The noodles are hot and sour fern root noodles.  These have a very jelly like texture.  They were served in a super spicy sauce that had pieces of bird chilies.

Also, there are two mystery vegetables.  The white with purple was awesome.  Big chunks of ginger and a great balance between sweet, spicy, and savory.

The food was awesome.  I don't even like lamb, and I ate it because it was that good.

Well, as if the food isn't enough, this restaurant provides entertainment.  There were several times that loud music interrupted our dinner.  By the third time, we were ignoring the act all together.  The it happened... A lady in a traditional costume showed up, holding a snake, and tried to put it around my friend's neck.  A real snake, hissing and all.  People either loved it or hated it. 

Unfortunately, I don't have very good photos as I was not prepared when the snake popped in for dinner, but here are a few from afar.

Only in China!

Yin at Le Garcon Chinois

There had been one restaurant that I had wanted to go to for a long time, but I never had the chance, Yin.  According to the Shanghai Rough Guide, it is an excellent place to try Shanghainese food that isn't overly oily.  Also, it was included as a possible contender for best Shanghainese in the list of top places in town.

On one of my long, meandering walks, I had walked by the address listed in Rough Guide, so I decided to try Yin the next day.  The Rough Guide description of how to find the restaurant is wrong, but I found it anyway. 

I was surprised by how fancy the place was.  Hidden behind two old worn doors, were warm hard wood floors, vases full of fresh flowers, tasteful lounging furniture, all in a dim room.  Although, it felt very old world European, it was just rough enough around the edges to let you know you were in China.  Unlike the other places I have eaten at, this was the first restaurant, I had seen another foreigner.  It was an enclave for well heeled travelers and their Chinese coworkers.

As I was a little stressed from not finding the place, I decided to start with a gimlet.  The cocktail was expensive, but so worth it.  It was a perfectly made gimlet.  There was just the right amount of sweet and sour.  it went down too easy.

Yin has a huge menu.  Easily over 100 dishes.  It made it very difficult to choose one.  I settled on eggplant with garlic and some eel.

The eggplant was prepared in a yuxiang wine sauce.  There were big soft chunks of fresh eggplant in a thick sauce.  I found the sauce to be very sweet, but not in a sugar added way, more like caramelized onions are sweet.  Of course, the sauce was flavored with garlic, ginger, scallion, and onion.  



Sweeter than any other eggplant ever


The diabetes inducing on-slaught continued with fresh water eel in a szechuan sauce.  I now understand why every time I order something in the U.S. in Szechuan sauce, it is super sweet.  This dish was boneless pieces of eel that had been lightly coated and fried.  The sauce was sweet but had some spice and a lot of ginger. 

Sweet eel goodness

For dessert, I was thinking fruit, but instead, I decided that the best way to go was a black espresso. 

Although, the food was very sweet, I still really enjoyed my meal.  I want to give Yin another chance and maybe then I can order some food that is not so sweet.

Xu Guangqi Park

I am lucky to have a beautiful park behind my hotel.  It is amazing how even though it is very small, the traffic noise is replaced by chirping birds.  It was so easy to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. 

Entrance gate

Feel the relaxation

Old peeps chilaxin' under some trees

Look over there!  A high rise!

I suddenly ran into this guy and he was so cute, but also scared of people.

Playground for adults

Bamboo lined paths

You could get lost for an hour or two

The passion

Picnic area

Complete with lilipads and cool fish sculptures

South Memory

I finally got around ot getting a Mandarin Tutor, and I had the chance to meet her on Tuesday. 

After my tutoring session, I was starving, and ready to eat.  Since I had met my tutor at the mall, I decided to head over to South memory again.  Of all the restaurants I have been to, this is my favorite.  I really like the food, ordering in limited Chinese is easy, and its a five minute walk from my hotel.  What more could I ask for?

Here is my meal:

Crispy beef tripe, not so crispy.

Mystery veggies

Roasted wild musroom pot

Another fantastic dinner!  Despite the fact that I was aiming to eat at a new place each day, I have eaten here twice, and I want to come one more time before I leave.

The hidden Shu Fu

I had read about a good Szechuan restaurant on Timeout.com, but every time I had gone to find it, I couldn't figure out where it was.  Finally, this day, I set out with more resolve than ever to find the place. 

One thing to know about Shanghai, is that each building gets a address, and every store uses that same address but without any addition information like suite or store number.  So when you get an address for a place, it might be in an outdoor mall, like Shu fu, and you may have to search high and low. 

I set out from my hotel, and walked a couple of blocks to the address.  It was at an outdoor shopping center.  I looked at the list of restaurants, and there were three with no pinyin names.  It obviously had to be one of those three.  So I started wandering around to see if I could look in the places without the pinyin translation, to find the one I wanted. 

Looking around, I found a couple other places that seemed to be great.  All of the places were jamming and full of people, even on a Monday night.  There were two bars that were packed with Westerners.  I finally figured out where they all are!

Anyway, you know how they say, you find something in the last place you look.  Well, third resto without pinyin is the charm.  I was able to explain I wanted a table for one, and I headed up in the elevator.

Okay, I am going to digress for a second.  The picture below serves two purposes.  First, that is how you can find Shu Fu, should you chose to.  Second, it introduces the concept of the Chinese wet wipe.  You may ask, why are you telling me this?  Well I am telling you, because it costs 2 RMB.  Everywhere, any restaurant, 2 RMB.  SO, when I first when out to eat, all my checks had these 2 RMB charges on them.  It turns out, you can chose to not use the wipe and save some money.

Notice how in the second character there is a chili pepper. Cute huh?

Moving on past the trivial aspects of eating out, to the food and drinks. 

Tsing Tao you my only friend.

I ordered some octopus because it looked awesome in the photo.  It turns out, it was awesome to eat too!

Octopus from the spicy depths

There was not very much numbing to the octopus dish, but there was tons of heat from both dry and fresh peppers.  I was sweating a lot.  Since I was the only westerner, the Chinese people were laughing at me.  I went through a lot of rice and many many napkins.

 

Other than the heat, there was a lot of flavor.  There is garlic, onion, cilantro, scallion.  It was awesome.  The flavor was so strong it just lingered and burn one.

Next, I got my scallop.  Luckily, I had held off  on the octopus, so I could eat this first.

Garlic punch in the mouth

As you can see, the scallop was served in its cleaned shell.  It was resting on a bed of straw mushrooms.  The scallop was a little more cooked than I have them in the U.S.  I appreciated that they cooked it a little long, because I would have been upset had I eaten some raw seafood.  Honestly, I wouldn't order this again.  The sauce was a pure garlic oil.  And although, I really liked the flavor, I found it too overpowering for scallop.

lil' dan dan

Last came the dan dan noodles.  Miles first introduced me to the awesomeness of the dan dan.  Now every time I eat at a Szechuan restaurant, I want the dan dan.  After, eating these, I can still say that Miles' dan dan noodles are still the best I have ever had.  These had really good sauce.  There was a lot of flavor, and that numbing spice I love so much.  My only issue was the noodles.  They were totally stuck together.  They were very difficult to eat, and very sticky.

One more note about my dinner.  I almost pitched a no-hitter!  I made it almost the whole way through the meal without having to use my translation app.  I even answered that I want cold beer, and I was able to ask for rice.  I know it sounds trivial, but it really made my day to be progressing and getting more comfortable.

Ye Shanghai

I was lucky enough to make some new friends, at the hotel, on Sunday.  Bruce and Selena invited me out to dinner in Xintiandi.After a quick drink in the executive lounge, we took a taxi to dinner.

Xintiandi is a beautiful little development of old style houses that have been renovated and turned into bars, restaurants, and shops.  Although it is supper yuppie-ish and almost Disneyland-like, it really is a beautiful place to go, and unlike Xujiahui, there are people out past 10 pm.  As we wondered around, we saw a lot of happening clubs and bars.   It really made me wish I had some of my Mobile peeps to party with.  Oh well.

For dinner, we chose Ye Shanghai, as it is on the list of nominees for best Shanghainese restaurant.  The  food was traditional Shanghainese food, which tends to be very sweet.  It was very difficult to order because it was unclear how large the portions were.  In the end, I was able to eat well, but Selena was not as lucky.

First, I ordered a pork terrine.  I thought this was going to be more like pate, but it was more like head cheese.  There were big chunks of meat and big chunks of gelatin.  The sauce was a vinegar base with thinly shredded ginger.  For me the taste was a little simple.

Sorry that all the photos came out red, it was the only lighting in the room.

Pork Terrine

Selena ordered two crabs, thinking it was enough.  When they came to the table, we all laughed at how small they were.

Crabs so very tiny

I decided that I was going to have a pork fest.  So my next dish to arrive was a piece of Dapu pork belly.  This is a pretty standard dish.  It is a thick glaze pork belly.  The sauce is sweet and slightly salty.  It is almost like honey, probably thicker.

Famous pork belly

Here is a photo of my first rib. 

Pork rib numero 1



This rib was very sweet.  The sauce was like a glaze but it resembled more of a sweet and sour glaze from the United States.  My complaint about the ribs in China is that for my taste, they are not cooked long enough.  I really like the meat of my ribs to fall off the bone.  Here you have to fight with the bone to tear the meat off. 

Pork rib number 2

The second rib was also in a sweet souce but this one was more balanced.  I really enjoyed this rib, even though I still had to fight with the bone. 

Overall, I thought the food at Ye Shanghai was okay, but it was really difficult to get a proper meal.  From the menu, it was difficult to determine portion sizes and how much should be ordered.  They expect you to share everything, so when going out to eat with a person with dietary restrictions, it is very difficult to have a nice dinner where you all eat at the same time.

China and "the Ladies"

Dear Esteemed Reader,

This next post will be hilarious, if you understand that "the ladies" is in fact a euphemism and you are not offended by a frank discussion regarding the previously mentioned topic, and the reaction they have received here in this far off land.  Please stop reading this post, if you do not find this subject matter as funny as I do.  By continuing to read, you agree to not pass judgement about me for this honest discussion.  Really this post is very funny. 

Gimena


Okay, so I think I may have over sold this post, but here it goes. 

For the past two weeks, as I go out, there has been a lot of staring, giggling, pointing, and wanting to take photos of me.  Now, I had read, that some people in Shanghai, still found foreigners to be extremely exotic and perplexing.  Seeing as most of the people giggling were 14 year old GIRLS, I did not think this was the case.

When I told people my tale, they just flattered me, quite pointlessly, by telling me that it was because I am beautiful.  Really?  Does anyone besides a self-absorbed idiot buy that load of steaming caca?

I ventured onto the Internet, so that I may find the answer in its infinite wisdom.  After 15 minutes, booyah ka-sha.  People were laughing and staring at "the ladies."

Most of you have noticed that my summer wardrobe really prioritizes comfort and staying cool, not such a big priority, "Chinese Moral Sensibility."  Basically, I wear a lot of halter top and strapless dresses. 



Bu hao, hot pot hooker!


It turns out that both are a huge no-no here in China.  See, Chinese people see "the ladies" as pertaining more to actual ladies, the ladies of the night, if you catch my drift.  So yes, people were laughing and staring at me because I looked like a high-class foreign lady of the night.  Hilarious.  Thankfully, I was not asked to render any "services."

One may ask, "How could you not have known this before you left, you numbskull?"  The answer is very simple, ROUGH GUIDE SHANGHAI.  It turns out, it was written by a guy who did not know that this was the case.  He assumed, that because women wear shorts smaller than swimsuit bottoms, and skirts that could double as belts, anything goes.  Well, dear readers, that dude was W-R-O-N-G!

In an attempt to solve this, "I look like a hooker," problem, I decided to hit up some clothing stores.  I could have bought clothes in a Chinese store when I was 8 years old, when I was the same size as most Chinese women.  At this point in my life, there is no way, I could ever fit into their sizes.  "Why is this the case?," you may ask.  It turns out, there are not many brands that make clothing in sizes that accommodate "the ladies." 

So here I am, running around Shanghai, looking like a lady of the night... Just one more story to add to my list of craziness.

I am not convinced this look is any better.

Update:  I did go to H&M, thank god there is one in Shanghai, to buy some less reveling, read: ugly, clothing.  It didn't fully work.  It turns out that showing less skin helps, but prominence is still a issue.  I am just a freak around here.

Shanghai Museum - Minorities Wing: Part II

Here are some more photos fromthe Minorities Wing at the Shanghai Museum.  Sory that some are not very well taken; it was very difficult with the number of people that were there.

High Tea - New Orleans Style

So occasionally, I look at this other blog, about a really rich lady and her wardrobe and travels.  One thing I noticed was that she is a lady that Tea's.  Classy, right?.  So, now that the hotel that I am staying at offers high tea, I thought I would check it out, because, you know, I'm classy.  Turns out, high tea is $20 and my daily food budget is $32.  High tea was a no-go.

To make a short story shorter:  As I write this post, I am drinking a 600 mL Tsing Tao in my hotel room, out of the bottle.  The bottle I pried open with my house key.  Gimena, keepin it classy.

Shanghai Museum Favorites

Here are some photos I took of the other wings of the Shanghai museum.  I was very surprised by how over-the-top somethings were designed compared to how simple and sleek some other items were designed.


Ming Furniture



Jade tchotchkes



Another Jade trincket



As always, I am a sucker for anything with animals

These fish wre oainted with just a couple of brush strokes

Land contract carved in stone

Fuzzy baby bird

Jade what-nots

Woof

Patron Saint of Shaghai Taxi Drivers

Tang Dynaty Ceramic Guardian

Amongst all the over designed "that's a lot of look" work, I found this vase, and fell in love

Animals again

Rhino shaped wine jug.  For the animal loving drunk

Tang Dynasty Rules!

From the sculpture room

Hello