Shanghai: The Bund

Back in year 2009, I visited Shanghai just before the World Expo the following year. As the whole Shanghai was under major "renovation" preparing for the World Expo, the waterfront at the Bund of Puxi (浦西) was closed.

I was trying my luck walking along the barriers to find a spot where I could get a view of Pudong (浦东) but I came to total disappointment when I talked to one of the construction workers. He told me that there was no chance that I could get on to the waterfront as the whole stretch of it was under reconstruction.

The only consolation was that I got a rare chance to photograph the "unfinished" Bund whereas others would have the same photos of the completed waterfront. I asked around again on how to get across the river and was told that the fastest was to take the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel of which I was told it's a waste of money before I went on this trip. As I wanted to get across to Pudong (浦东) as fast a possible as the day was getting dark, I had no other option but to spend RMB40.00 on the "light tunnel" ride.

I was still considered lucky that I managed to get on the waterfront of Pudong (浦东) to catch the twilight hour of Puxi (浦西). The weather was freezing cold in December that touching the tripod was like holding ice in my hands. When the sun had set, it got colder!

When the sky was turning darker and became uninteresting, I turned around and photographed the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (东方明珠广播电视塔). Once I was done with it, my mobile phone rang and it was my friend calling for dinner, so I called it an end for my first day of roaming around Shanghai.

Shanghai Dumplings

In China, you will be able to find very hilarious English signboards directly translated from the Chinese words. There is no exception for a metropolitan like Shanghai. I wonder why the authorities allow such crudely translated signboards but that adds to the fun of travelling in China. One can write a book by just collecting these hilarious translations.

What sense does it make by "Huang He Road Cate Lie Fallow Street"? "Cate" is obligingly acceptable but "Lie" and "Fallow" make absolutely no sense. When "Lie" and "Fallow" are put together, they mean "Leisure", so it should be "Huang He Road Culinary & Leisure Street".

Despite the hilarious signboard, there is no doubt that Huang He Road is lined with shops of culinary specialties. One thing that every tourist would wanna try out is the Shanghai dumplings.

Most tourists know only Nanxiang Dumpling Restaurant (南翔馒头店), but the locals may tell you that it is an over-rated restaurant. The best dumplings are found on the streets. My friend who had been in Shanghai for a year during my time of visit knows it best, so he brought me to this Jia Jia Dumpling (佳家汤包) along Huang He Road.

Luckily they didn't try hard on the English translation. If not, it may become "Jia Jia Soup Wrap" or "Jia Jia Soup Bag"!

We were there just before the peak lunch hour, so the queue was not too bad. We waited for slightly less than half an hour before we were seated.

During lunch hour, the queuing time should be around 45 minutes to one hour as what happened to my second visit. So, better get there earlier to beat the crowd.

Everybody is here for these freshly made dumplings - as stipulated in the name card of the shop: "order on the spot, wrap on the spot, steam on the spot, eat on the spot".

After making our order and paid at the cashier, we sat down and waited like other patrons. Minutes later, our crab roe and pork dumplings (蟹黄鲜肉汤包) were served (12 for RMB19.50 as in December 2009).

Not long after that, the custard and pork dumplings (蛋黄鲜肉汤包) were also served (12 for RMB12.00 as in December 2009).

My friend and the Shanghai locals were right. The best Shanghai dumplings are found on the street and not in the over-rated restaurants. These dumplings were the best I have ever tasted.

The waiter (probably the owner) got curious of my act of snapping photos around the shop and the food and came to ask me about the purpose of the photos. My friend told him that I am a "reporter" and he quickly posed for me. I told him that I was going to make him appear on the Internet and I have kept this promise.

Minutes later, he came back and gave us another serving of the pickled ginger free-of-charge which was supposed to be RMB2.00. A "reporter" will always receive special care when it comes to food blogging.

Christmas Dinner in Shanghai

It wasn't Christmas this year. It was a year ago that I spent my Christmas eve with my friend Terence in Shanghai. He brought along another friend Joyce, and we enjoyed the tapas dinner for three very much.

The menu

Seafood bisque

Boston lobster salad

Baked oyster trio "au gratin"

Pan seared fresh duck foie gras

Poached fresh turbot filet

Roasted baby lamb rack

Christmas log

I hope it is still not too late to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas.

First Day in Shanghai

On my trip to Shanghai during the end of year 2009, I was planning to take a ride on the maglev train to get to the city. However, it was raining cats and dogs on my arrival, so I took a taxi to my friend's place instead.

It was already past lunch time and I took only very light breakfast on board of the flight. My friend got off work earlier and he took me to the famous Nanxiang Dumpling Restaurant (南翔馒头店) to have our late lunch.

Since my friend told me that the dumplings here are just over-rated, so we ordered a few small dishes just for me to try out.

The smoked fish was quite nice. It came with very strong fragrant of the firewood.

This is what makes the restaurant chain well-known all over the world, the dumplings. They were good but not fantastic. My friend was very right, because he brought me to another place which serves fantastic dumplings at a fraction of the price here.

Our stomachs were only half full as we planned to have more variety of food somewhere else. We went to Yang's Fry-Dumpling (小杨生煎馆) just a few steps away from Nanxiang. It was already way passed lunch time, so the queue wasn't that long.

This is also a well-known restaurant chain in Shanghai for serving the pan-fried dumplings. All the dumplings are freshly pan-fried to order.

The small restaurant were full with patrons even though it was way passed lunch time.

This is a plate of the dumplings ready to be consumed. The dumplings were scrumptious! The bottom of the dumplings were pan-fried to perfect crispiness.

It was still raining cats and dogs after our late lunch, so we headed back to my friend's place to spend the rest of the afternoon catching up on things happening in Kuching, as my friend was away from Kuching for a while already.

Time passed by quite easily and without us knowing it, our stomachs started to grouch for food again. So, my friend brought me to a nearby restaurant called Lanxiang Sichuan Restaurant (榄香川菜) for dinner.

This is the cold-cut beef tendon which was very chewy, a very nice cold dish.

Another cold dish that we had was the bean curd with century eggs. This was very refreshing.

Then came all the hot dishes. We had the Sichuan spicy beef noodles.

Stir-fried spicy pork belly.

Stir-fried diced-duck meat with oats.

And finally the Chinese cabbage in chicken stock and chestnuts.

All the hot dishes were scrumptious. What made this meal even more wonderful was the 20% given to us due to my friend's charm on the waitresses! The total damage was ¥123.00, which is considered reasonable by Shanghai's cost of living.

My Whereabout for the Past Two Weeks

I went to Shanghai and the neighbouring places for a two-week holiday. My journey started with some glitches due to flight delays. I am losing even more confidence in Malaysia Airlines as my flight out to Kuala Lumpur from Kuching on 14^th December 2009 was delayed for more than two hours. My connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai on the following day was even worse! It was delayed for more that four hours! Even more so, there were 44 Chinese passengers who refused to board the plane and it took the management team another half hour to persuade them. I was almost called in to be their interpreter but they finally found a bilingual air stewardess to do the job.

I had the same problem with flight cancellation during my trip to Brisbane last year on Malaysia Airlines. What has happened to our one and only national carrier? I had better quality of service from budget airlines like AirAsia and Jetstar!

Apart from these hassles, the rest of my journey was quite smooth, luckily.

Sometimes I could even pamper myself with a cuppa at Starbucks. There are plenty of Starbucks cafes around China. I was at the West Lake outlet when this photo was taken.

I was alone most of the time, but along the way, I met with some temporary travelling companions sometimes.

I quite enjoy the trip partly due to the cold weather. The mercury-filled tube didn't hit any double-digit reading and it was even at sub-zero degree sometimes. Well, another part of the enjoyment was definitely due to the good food!