Yesterday I decided to walk the whole length of Nanjing Lu, which is the biggest shopping street in Shanghai. The west end is a large city street, with tons of designer stores. Beautiful clothes, but if I did want them I'm under the impression everything comes in a size S or XS.
The west end is a pedestrian mall, and decidedly more funky. I was accosted constantly, again with the "Hey, lady,watches, bags, t-shirts?" I pretended I didn't understand a word they said. I'm not sure what pegged me as American anyway, as opposed to, say, Swedish, since I wasn't wearing a T-shirt, baseball cap, or sneakers, which in my opinion all scream "American!". I did find a very cool arts and crafts store, where I found rice paper for a friend.
I ate lunch at a lovely restaurant at the top floor of a mall. Dim sum is such a fun way to eat, like Chunese tapas. I started with a nicely seasonee broccoli soup. second was fried wontons, which were more like potstickers to me, filled with bok choy and accompanied with a chili-garlic oil sauce. Really hot but tasty. Best of all were the fried shrimp balls, nothing like what I expected. they actually looked somewhat unappetizing. They were chopped shrimp, held together with just a little batter and very lightly cooked. The sauce looked dubious, milky and gelatinous. The whole dish looked just too white. But wow. the sauce was made from wasabi and something sweet, maybe coconut. Delicious! The little fruit plate that came at the end had a segment of orange carved like a goldfish.
Note to Toni: I untwisted the goldfish and drew a diagram. I'll show you how it was done when I get home. Too cute.
My time on Nanjing Lu was quite the exercise in crossing the street. People pretty much wait for the walk signal. The walk signal does not, however, mean traffic needs to yield, so you really have to keep your wits about you. My technique was "middle of the cluster". Even if it was only three people, I stayed in the middle, so that if a bus scraped the bunch of us, I would not be the one picked off. There are uniformed foot traffic officers, but they reminded me of hall monitors in elemtary school, because people pretty much ignored them.
Last night Jim andI went to a place famous for steamed dumplings. They're made with a paper-thin dough, and the most popular are filled with seasoned chopped pork and broth. They come to the table in a steamer basket and are extremely hot. You nibble at the dumpling a little to vent it, then put the whole thing in your mouth, where it explodes with flavor. Jim ordered steamed buns filled with sweet red bean paste to end the meal, just to try the most traditional dessert. The dough reminded me of unbaked bread dough and the filling was unimpressive. I can say I tried them. The buns are about four inches in diameter. BecauseI'm so inept with chopsticks, I lost my hold on mine and it fell to the table and rolled across. Nice.
Every day so far has been cold, windy and rainy, and that's mostly why photos have been scarce. The weather in Hong Kong looks nice, and we leave for there tomorrow morning, returning Sunday night. We're not taking a laptop, so I'll get caught up Monday.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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Have fun in Hong Kong. Hope the weather clears up. The weather here the rest of this week is crappy. Watch out for the steamed buns.
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Wow! I love your food descriptions. Sounds extra yummy!
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