The Chinese Chicken Guy

Often in China, I roam the streets, hoping to come upon interesting things or people.  This time, while in Shanghai, I turned off the main road and into a little alleyway that was jam-packed with locals.  That's enough of an invitation to me.  It was a vibrant Chinese market where if you found space on the ground, that could be your store.  I happened upon this middle-aged Chinese man with a cage of live chickens attached to the back of his bicycle.


See the bloody scissors on top of the cage?  It's taken to the throat, then the whole chicken is dipped into boiling water to loosen up the follicles so that he can work on defeathering and gutting it.  Wow.  A whole new meaning to fresh...


I snapped a few photos until the guy looked up and started yelling at me about not taking photos.  I yelled back in my best you-can't-intimidate-me Mandarin that I wasn't and just chill out already.   


I was just about to post all my pictures commemorating the event.  But then I pause.  There might be a reason he doesn't want photos of him taken by a foreigner who will probably find his livelihood "fascinating" enough to post all over her traveling food blog.  I've seen enough instances of the control the government likes to have over its constituents, who am I to post his photo?  So this is all you'll get.  I think it tells enough of the story...

Chinese Smoked Sausage

This particular Chinese sausage is smoked by exhaust fumes...

Sights of China

I believe these are lotus flowers.  Displayed in the lobby of the Jin Jiang Hotel. Beautiful sight to see every morning. 

I dove into the alleyway off of a very busy road while in Beijing and found a whole alley community alive and buzzing within it. This guy was making an Onion Pancake.  A huge Onion Pancake.  

Fun to watch.

In the middle of an area I can only describe as the Amsterdam of Beijing, amongst pipe houses, flower-child clothing stores, was this roasted duck place.  Oddly fitting, but still entirely curious, and emitting some pretty good aromas.

 While walking randomly through Shanghai, I came upon this older man playing Chinese chess on a homemade cardboard chess board.  He was furiously sucking on his cigarette, which had only a millimeter of tobacco left to go, and all the while, his opponent was heckling him, and a bystander was yelling instructions to him.  He never wavered.  Nerves of steel.

There's an area off a main road with all of the common fashion brands one would find anywhere else in the world called Tian Zi Fang.  Once you dive into the maze of alleys off that road, you're transported into this Bohemian-type world that's definitely worth visiting.  Here are a bunch of pictures from that area. 

The guard dog of an art gallery.  
This dog was better dressed than its owner

I can't even remember what this store was selling.  I was completely and utterly distracted by 
how cool their lighting system was...

Ah yes.  At the Beijing Airport.  
Even the shape of the cups and graphics 
on them are a dead-on rip-off.

Shanghai Uncle

Who would have thought a restaurant called Shanghai Uncle, with a logo depicting a jolly ol' Chinese guy with glasses, would be considered one of the best restaurants in the city?  One of the two locations happened to be attached to my hotel, the Westin (which was really great, by the way), and late the evening I arrived, I was starving and confused about what time my internal clock was running on, so why not indulge in a little late night noshing?

Admittedly, my eyes were much hungrier than my stomach could ever be.  3 dishes?  Really?  I knew I wanted the Soup Dumplings.  They are, after all, a Shanghai specialty, and to not enjoy in them as part of my trip would be sacrilegious.  Then I thought, I should get some vegetables to go with that.  No harm with that.  But then my impulse got the better of me.  Because the menus have pictures that accompany the food items, I saw a picture of some fried rice, which is such a comfort food for me, and before I could stop myself, I found myself pointing to the picture and saying, "Hai yao yang chao tsao fan..."  Ack!  The server was writing it down, smiled, and then left me there, thinking about the implications of having ordered 3 dishes at a restaurant, in China, on my first night there, with a severe deficit in my Chinese Food tank, and knowing I had to put together some kind of strategy because I would, absolutely, unequivocally, eat it all if I didn't have a strategy.  Anyone know what I'm talking about here?  Come on, don't leave a girl on her own!

When it all came, though, I was immensely grateful that I hadn't missed out on any one of the simply spectacular dishes.

Pea Shoots are my favorite vegetable dish.  If they have it, I get it.  This was served with an "XO sauce."  I've seen that label quite a few times, and I've always thought ti was a sauce made from Cognac.  How silly, because when I asked someone what made something an "XO sauce," he said, "Oh, it just means something premium."  Really.  You mean like Premium Cognac? 

Ah, the Soup Dumplings.  So delicate, so delectable, so many!  See my other Shanghai posting on how one should eat these little purses of savory delight.  Okay, so it's my method, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was the best...

And finally, the dish that threw me over the edge and into a realm of doubt and self-loathing.  But boy, was this good!! 

 
Shanghai Uncle in the Bund Center on the west side of the river...

Top Stories from China

Okay, feeling the last vestiges of jet lag slip away from my body.  So now I can get onto posting about my travels... because not being able to get onto the large majority of my regular websites while in China had nothing to do with it...

Chinese Driving
I must admit, I had the same stereotypical bias as just about all Americans do about Asian driving, and the worst part about it all is that I AM Asian!  Each time I witnessed a bone-headed move on the road, I would think, Man, an Asian driver!  Giving us all a bad name!  After being in China a few times now, though, I have come upon an epiphany and feel compelled to defend the Chinese driver.

In China, driving is like dancing a Tango.  It's close, personal, and fluid.  Two partners dance closely together, incorporating intricate dance moves, all the while managing to avoid the other Tango-ing couples on the dance floor.  It's smooth and amazing.  

In the States, it's more like Country Line Dancing.  No one really touches anyone else, and for goodness sakes, there are set steps, here people!  If you don't know how to dance, well, come an hour before everyone else gets here for the tutorial, and then stand in the back and watch how it's done before you get your two left feet on the dance floor and mess everyone up.

Separately, the two are just fine.  It's when someone tries to dance the Tango in the Line Dance that everything gets screwed up.  It's then that everyone who's Line Dancing is like, "What the hell is going on, and what are you doing?  You're messing up the line!!"  The Tango-ists are like, "What?  This could be a much sexier dance if you would just shimmy your hip up to mine."  And all hell breaks loose.

On the flip side, no Line Dancer in their right mind would try to join in on the crowded, tango-ing dance floor.  They're the ones who are stopped on the ramp, even though it says 'Yield', trying to find a space to get onto the highway.  Hours later, they're still there, looking for a lull...

Now, don't get me wrong.  I had a few close calls at high speeds in China, and some abrupt stops that may have given me whiplash, but for how crazy the traffic is?  It's a pretty amazing scene.

And just so you know, I am an excellent, albeit aggressive, driver.

The DVD Store
I have a second cousin, Helen, who lives in Shanghai.  She was raised in Brazil, and in a much higher branch of the family tree, the family split to the States and Brazil.  So it's really cool to have a multi-continental family - you never know where you're going to be and who you'll meet.

Anyway, one night, Helen wants to show me a fake DVD store.  When the World Expo started in May, the Chinese government began cracking down on knock-off vendors of purses, DVDs, everything.  After all, folks from all over the world would be there, and they can't have these people seeing what really goes on in China, can they?  So this particular store gets the pressure and when Helen goes by the next week, she finds it has changed to a clothing store.  Only it's a really small clothing store.  Turns out that the front part of the store is just a facade, and that the back wall is fake.  A little bump here and special tap there, and voila!  You're in the recesses of the backroom where now the DVDs are stored and still available for purchase, as long as you're not the Chinese police.

Helen is amused to no end by this, and on the last day of the Expo, when I happen to be visiting, we walk over so I can see this craziness.  Only when we arrive, it's back to being a DVD store.  "What happened to the clothes?" she asks the working help.  To which the reply was, "We remodeled all day today.  You know, the Expo is over."  Ah, yes.  Of course.

Chinese Massages
One day, when walking around Shanghai, trying to shake off the jet lag, I happen upon a hair salon.  Now, I LOVE Chinese hair salons.  I usually go just to get my hair washed.  For 50 yuan, which is about $8-9 USD, they'll massage your head while washing your hair, then give you a shoulder and back massage for about 30-45 minutes, and then style your hair.

That day, I thought, you know, I should get my hair cut, too.  I lost my hairdresser in the States so she could be a stay-at-home mom, so what the heck, what's the worst that can happen here?  Well, the worst that can happen is that you get a Chinese hairdresser who can't speak a lick of English.  I always thought my Chinese was pretty decent, but when it comes to Hairdresser Chatter?  Well that requires a whole new superior level.  When I can rap with the hairdressers with gossiped impunity, I'll consider myself fluent.  Oh, the hair?  Yeah, that looks really good...

Then when in Beijing, I thought, I'm going to try out the Blind Massages.  What's that, you say?  Well, they've trained people who are blind, or even partially blind, in the art of massage.  I've always read that these massages were really incredible because without the use of one sense, they're sense of feel is that much more heightened!  So off I went for a traditional Chinese massage.

Now, the traditional Chinese massage is different from the Swedish massage in what I think are two major ways.  The first is that disrobing isn't required.  They'll get to all your knots through your clothing. The second is that it's much more vigorous, with some hand-chopping and the rapid working of muscles.    It's not as soothing as the Swedish massage, but boy, will they get all those kinks out.  And honestly?  There was enough of a rhythm to it that I found myself drifting off to sleep anyway.

I got an excellent 60-minute foot massage and a 70-minute body massage.  My masseuse kept finding these knots and would start really digging in, saying, "Boy, does that hurt?  That should hurt."  Between clenched teeth, all I could say was, "Oh, just a little..."

Granted, the ambience wasn't great, but it didn't matter, because the total cost of a 2-hour and 10-minute massage?  $13 USD.  As my coworker said when I told him, "That's criminal..."  I can't disagree.

Breakfast Noodles in China

In Shanghai, I stayed at the Hua Ting Hotel because of its proximity to my meeting place.  Their rate included a breakfast buffet that had a Western section with all of what you would expect - scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, sausage, omelet station - and they had a Chinese section, which to my gastronomic delight, included a noodle station.  That, and a cup of coffee, is what I had for 3 mornings. 

At the Noodle Station, a chef stands in front of a vat of boiling water with 4 or 5 individual sieves.  This is meant to cook whatever vegetables you choose and warm up the noodles that have been precooked.  All he's going to give you is a bowl of noodles, vegetables, and bland soup.  The rest is up to you.  So they set up all these condiments - from spicy meat to seaweed to cilantro to hot sauce - to dress up the dish.  And what I learned is that there's no such thing as too much of anything...

First morning, I was such a novice; so careful was I with all the condiments that it turned out to be bland-bland-bla-bland-bland-bland.

By the third morning, I had honed my request to perfection.  Less noodles, more vegetables, no soup, please.  Then I placed the spicy meat sauce with the cooked pickled vegetables into the dish along with some hot sauce, cilantro and scallions.

And the final piece?  I trotted over to the western side of the buffet and asked for two eggs over-easy and had them place it gently on top of it all.  And voila!  It looked so good I had at least 6 folks, both Asian and Western, inquire as to what I had in my hands and how they could go about getting it.  It's a process, I told them.  As I embarked on my instructions, I could see confusion overcome their faces.  And I wanted to say, "Hey - you gotta ask yourself - how badly do you want it?"

Token look of what it all looked like underneath

Din Tai Fung

Now, I'm not one for chains.  Besides the occasional indulgence of McDonald's fries and a Subway low-fat sandwich on the road, I eat what the locals eat.

3 days before my trip to Shanghai, my dad called up and said, "Hey you know, you have a cousin who's an expat there.  Her mom is my cousin, and if you have time, I think you should meet up."  Wow.  Really?  A cousin from Sao Paolo, Brazil who's working in Shanghai.  Who knew?!?!

Helen asked what I would like to eat.  "Do you like dumplings?" she asked.  Do I ever!  Even if I had just had the most outrageous 10-course meal, and someone told me they had a really good dumpling, I would squeeze it in.  I always have room for a good dumpling.

So we met at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant chain that made its start in Taiwan, and has expanded globally, and even has chains in the US. 

I have a special place in my heart for soup dumplings, or Xiao Long Bao, which literally translates to Little Dragon Dumplings.  And you know why I love them so much?  Because I'm completely in awe of how these tasty little pork bundles manage to capture and contain the oh-so-flavorful juices.  And then eating them is an art in and of itself.  I'm sure it comes to no surprise to you, but I am a little obsessed with not wasting a single drop of the soupy goodness.  So my method...

1. Dip the Chinese soup spoon into the soy sauce, ginger, and vinegar concoction. 
2. Gently grab a delicate little dumpling with chopsticks and place into my spoon, letting it marinate in the sauce. 
3. Gingerly take a small bite off the side, sucking in any rogue liquid that might escape. 
4. Pour what's in the spoon into the cavity of the dumpling
5. Pop the whole thing into mouth and savor the savorific perfection. 

I'm ultimately a purist.  While I think these look beautifully interesting, I'm much more interested in the bottom soup dumpling part.  Who cares what it looks like as long as it tastes good?

Admittedly, I've always been a sucker for noodles, too. Here, the Jia Jiang Mien is really good.  Meaty and balanced with a salty sweetness, the noodles were expertly done, and it provided good variety to its dumpling counterparts.

To ensure there's a well-rounded meal, I always try to include a vegetable dish.  These are pea shoots, and they're my favorite.  If the menu lists them, I get them.  Hands down, no question.  Super simple stir-fry, natural and healthful, vegetables never tasted so good.