Shanghai: Week 4 - 上海老街 [Shanghai Old Street]

This is a spot that we went often. It's called Shanghai Old Street, and it takes about 30 minutes and 35rmb by cab just to get there, but the food is totally worth it. In fact, we'll go, eat, then take a cab back haha. That's how much we love it. They sell everything, from Shanghai specialities to shaved ice. Here's just a few things I've tried on the street:

I swear, this lady was a master chef haha. That little hole in the wall, is her kitchen and we always go to her stand. Why? Because she makes the best...

... 排骨年糕 (porkchop ricecake) in Shanghai. It's a really simple: 3 piece of fried rice cake that she puts this sweet sauce on top, then she breads and fries the marinated porkchop, then squirt some black vinegar on it. That's it, and yet, this is my favorite thing in Shanghai. Only 4.5rmb too!! Heavenly.

The stand next to the lady's. They have a bunch of stir-fry dishes and you can't really see it, but there a two-headed fish on the table hahaha.

陝西涼皮 (Shan'Xi Cold Noodles). Another one of my favorites. Rice noodles that's mixed with chili oil, cilantro, cucumber, and then a little bit of peanut sauce completes this dish. The peanut sauce balances out the hot chili oil really well. Ideal thing to eat on a hot summer day.

臭豆腐 (Stinky tofu), Shanghai-style. They fry stinky tofu then pour this... semi spicy sauce over it. To be honest, Taiwanese stinky tofu is totally on a different level. Not bad though.

Shanghai: Week 4 - Misc

So here's a few misc. things that I had during the 4th week... and yea we eat a lot of McDees in Shanghai haha.

Yay for apple pies! But wait... it's actually a Pineapple Pie. To be honest, the pineapple pie tastes actually kinda weird since the filling is really sweet, almost more like a pineapple marmalade. Unique to China though!

Afterwards, had myself a Taro Pie, which was really REALLY good. It just tastes like... taro haha! For some reason, the crust of both the pineapple and the taro pie were crunchier than the apple pie in the US. Taiwan's apple pie is the same as well.

This is a bento set from the train ride we took from Shanghai to Xi'An. Pretty balanced meal I'd have to say haha. Too bad it was a bit salty and I'm sure they added hella MSG to it.

This is our good old friend... 白酒, a kind of Chinese alcohol. It tastes horrific, almost as if you're drinking gasoline, but hey it get's you drunk REALLY fast haha. Yup, drank a bit on the train.

We actually saw this in Xi'An, and yup, it's the center of a sunflower... and you buy it for the... sunflower seeds! This is one of the coolest thing I've seen since I've never imagined I would eat sunflower seeds straight from a sunflower haha. The only thing is that it isn't roasted and who knows what dirty things are stuck in between... oh well haha.

Shanghai: Week 4 - Baan Thai

Few of us went to this Thai restaurant one night called Baan Thai. It's located in the French Concession, and the atmosphere there is just awesome. You can choose to sit inside or outside under this big hut in the front yard of the restaurant essentially.

Selwyn's Green Curry.

My Seafood Fried Rice. Adding the sauce next to it, which was fish sauce infused with red chili and garlic, gives it a whole new flavor.

Lydia and Rose's Pad Thai. Pretty presentation, but that's about it haha.

The ambiance and the location of the place makes it worth going to, but a little bit pricey for Shanghai standards. Wouldn't say I would go back again if I had a chance, although it is a good place for a couple. Plus, the portions were small, so a lot of us had to go get street food afterwards haha :P

Shanghai: Week 4 - Element Fresh

Rose, Lydia, Rochelle, and I decided to try this place Michael Lin's been raving about ever since I got to Shanghai, called Element Fresh. It's a chic restaurant that mainly serves salads, sandwiches, and different entrees, and it is frequented by many foreigners. The place has better service than most restaurants probably cause so many foreigners go.

Lydia's Grilled Shrimp Sandwich. Very light and refreshing.

I ordered the Blackened Tilapia Sandwich. I was craving white fish so I ordered it and it turned out to be one of the best fish sandwich I've had in a looong time. I just wished the onions were grilled... I still can't stand raw onions haha.

Chris's Lamb Steak Wrap with Yogurt Sauce, which is esentially a gyro haha.

Rose's Mango BBQ Chicken Sandwich. The manga bbq sauce was interesting, since it was really light. Rose and I both wished it the sauce was more intense but it was good haha. A little small :P

Rochelle's Carne Asada Salad. Seasoned steak strips with a southwestern-styled salad.

And this is Rochelle's SECOND entree, which was a simple pasta dish with tomatoes, onions, and capers.

So we all decided to order a drink, and Rochelle started off with a mojito, that I think was made with black rum instead of the usual. A lot stronger than all of us expected haha.

I ordered a mocha haha. I couldn't resist when I saw coffee... even though it was 28rmb... a bit pricey haha. I started playing with the foam and made a leaf :]

Some sort of mango alcoholic drink. Wasn't very strong.

Lydia's Strawberry Margarita. Came in a tall glass instead of the usual margarita glasses, but not bad haha. Weak also.

Element Fresh was a welcoming change when all our food intake are usually rice, noodles, or some sort of bao haha. Yay for American food :P

Shanghai: Week 3 - Sasha's

A group of us were craving some real, authentic American food by the 3rd week and what better way to satisfy the craving than to eat a real authentic brunch. We went to Sasha's, which is usually a steakhouse but on the weekends, they serve brunch till 3, 4pm. A lot of foreign folks there every weekend. I guess everybody felt the same as us haha.

Nothing really crazy about this brunch, but it is a buffet and they do have some special items that ordinary brunches may not have. My favorite is the smoked salmon wrapped with cream cheese. I usually never eat cream cheese too but it was good. A small assortment of sushi to add that Asian flair, but they also have the usual: all sorts of bread, salads, cereal, fruits, cheeses, deli meats, coffee, tea, etc.

My first plate with my first cup of coffee in China! Pesto pasta salad, the smoked salmon, and the donut balls were my favorites!

A fruit and dessert plate with cereal. First time I had milk in China too haha. Their chocolate croissants were orgasmic... in fact so good that we took napkins and stole about... 20 of them hahahaha.

Then we got a fruit platter to share. Felt so good to finally eat some fruits in China.

All of us loved Sasha's since it was located in the French Concession and the ambiance of the place was definitely unique since the building itself was fairly old. I forgot the architectural style but old European flair :] One of the most satisfying meal.

Shanghai: Week 3 - 上海新疆風味飯店 [Shanghai Xin'Jiang Style Restaurant]

So for Felix's birthday, we all went to this skewers place that he's been to before. It's an authentic Xin'Jiang restaurant. Most of the people look a little bit... like people from the Middle East since the west of China is so close to those countries. Their main diet is lamb and that's exactly what we got!

上海新疆風味飯店 and open 24 hours!

They have live performances there as well, and they pull people up to dance with them, especially foreigners. It's pretty damn awesome haha.

One of Xin'Jiang's specialty, goat milk tea. Surprisngly, you can't really taste the goat milk in it but you can definitely tell it's different.

One of the best beer I've ever had, 新疆啤酒 (Sinkiang Beer), and this is the only restaurant that serves it. It's a dark ale but it's sooo smooth. Think of Guiness but not as... creamy I guess haha.

So we ordered this... lamb hind quarters, and they just use their hands and knives to rip the meat off for us and serve it with dipping sauce. So tender and succulent.

Of course, lamb skewers, with the traditional spices: cumin and red chili powder.

Yea, we ordered like.. 120 of them hahah.

I used to hate lamb and would never touch it. Not anymore haha.

P.S. Sorry for the shitty pictures, I just couldn't make my hands still cause I was so excited hahah. MEAT!

Shanghai: Week 3 - 人間 [People's 6)

Went to 人間, also known as People's 6, in Shanghai. It is actually owned by a Taiwanese guy, with several restaurants in Taiwan and China. I've been to one in Taipei and it's a restaurant during the day and at night, it turns into an upscale lounge/bar, which is the same for this one. Usually to get into 人間 it requires you to solve a sort of puzzle so you can open the door to go in. For this specific 人間, you had to swipe your hand across a sensor that's placed inside a rock. Pretty cool concept.

Tiny side dishes that the waitress said they are known for. Mostly preserved vegetables and stuff.

So I got Salmon Fried Rice, since it's hard to go wrong with it, since it combined two of my favorite food: fried rice & salmon :P The salmon eggs adds a nice touch of saltiness to it too.

My friend Raymond didn't get his lamb chops for like... an hour so to make it up to us, the restaurant gave us these test tube shots filled with a drink called Lemon Drop. Very weak but it has a cool presentation, since they placed dried ice around it to give the smoking effect.

Overall, the place is definitely for young professionals since it is a bit costly in Shanghai's standards. Good place to go on a date too hahah. Kinda makes me want to check out the other 人間.

Shanghai: Week 2 - Misc

I forgot my camera a lot of times during the second week, so I didn't get to document all the stuff I ate... but here's some haha.

So I was craving some Taiwanese food, and there happens to be a Taiwanese restaurant near Jiao'Tong so went with Lydia and Chris. I ordered 雞排飯 (chicken steak rice combo) with a sunny-side-up egg. It was better than I thought: decent food, wide selections, and it never hurts when the people in the restaurant speak Taiwanese :]

Hmmm... don't remember why the picture's crooked but... yay for shaved ice hahaha. We went to a restaurant next door that was mainly Hong Kong style. They called this "ants on a mango ice mountain" or something weird thing like that haha.

One night a bunch of us went to a vegetarian restaurant near the school called 五觀堂素食. I gotta admit, it was the best vegetarian food I ever had. They were really strict in there and didn't let us take pictures sooo no pics :[

麥芽糖 (malt sugar). Got it in Tong'Li. I used to eat these a lot as a kid. They start out as a real dark color, but the more you pull and twist on it to aerate the sugar, the lighter in color it turns.

Shanghai: Week 2 - 南翔饅頭店

We went to 南翔饅頭店, which is a restaurant known for its 小龍包 (xiaolongbao) and the 湯包 that you eat with a straw. It's located in 城隍廟 in Shanghai, this old town area which is a tourist spot. We waited about 30 minutes cause it was so packed. Got a 50rmb set meal that came with a lot of dim sum items.

The menu!

The first item that came was 西施春捲 (springroll). Totally forgot what was inside but I do remember it was very good.

This is the 咖哩肉餃 (curry dumpling). Instead of the usual dumpling skin on the outside, they used something more similar to puff pastry on the outside. Since I love curry this was my favorite item.

The infamous 湯包 (soup bun)!! The reason you have to use a straw is because as they steam it, the meat juice fill the bun itself and you don't want to waste the soup! It also has crab roe in it to add a twist. Like the sticker on the straw warns, it was freakin hot haha. I don't know whether it was that stuff to eat something that hot with a plastic straw though...

Here's two types of buns: 靜素菜包 and 婉蓉秋葉包. 靜素菜包 is a vegetarian bun. They use a bunch of different types of vegetables, cut it up really fine, then they steamed it. As for 婉蓉秋葉包, I don't really know how to translated it haha. It's more of a sweet bun in the shape of a leaf.

糯米燒賣 (sticky rice shumai) with 金腿小粽子 (bamboo leaf wrapped sticky rice). Both were very delicate items that symbolizes the dim sum of Shanghai.

Their infamous 小龍包 (xiao'long bao), which a lot people said it was better than Ding Tai Feng's... but honestly, no hahaha. Ding Tai Feng still owns :D