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.