AUGUST 12, 2007

My good friend, Dan, is in Shanghai on business. Dan and I become friends when he was a consultant and computer program designer on a project for Walther Farms while I was in Walther's employ, and we have remained friends since. Dan stays with our mutual friend, Cathy, while in town (in fact, that is how we became acquainted with Cathy), and it was decided that we should try to get together during his three week visit.

We agreed to meet last week at the Superbrand Mall near a subway station with which we were familiar in Pudong. It was pretty crowded and busy area, but we decided we'd like to try a Japanese place. Cathy recommended a Japanese noodle pot restaurant (kind of a "Noodles R US" or "Tokyo Bell").

Everyone ordered some kind of steaming pot of noodle soup, and Cathy ordered a few items to compliment our meal ... BBQ squid on a stick and deep fried pumpkin. I'd ordered a spicy beef noodle pot which reminded me a bit of some of the Thai things I'd tasted lately .... a bit tart and spicy, but just spicy enough to be interesting, not "get out the fire hose" spicy with a touch of coconut milk to keep the heat in check. Although not normally a big squid fan, I have to admit that this was probably the best squid I've eaten .... not "rubber eraser" chewy like some I've had in the past, lightly glazed with a lovely BBQ sauce. And the deep fried pumpkin was outstanding .... sort of like deep fried zucchini, but with a definite pumpkin flavor .... REALLY good!!

Dan and I met at our end of town Monday afternoon for a coke and some yakking, and while together, we decided that we should probe Cathy's brain for a really great Chinese restaurant. We both agreed that neither of us had had a really outstanding Chinese meal since being in China, and we knew they were available. A few phone calls ensued and it was agreed that we'd meet at Morning Shanghai, a Shanghaiese restaurant with which Cathy was familiar.

We jumped in the taxi to head to the restaurant, and no sooner were we under way when our driver decided it was time for his dinner. We could hear all this slurping, chewing with a full mouth, and generally disgusting sounds emitting from the driver's seat. It is very common in China to see folks walking down the street with a small watermelon (think a bit smaller than a football) with the end broken off, sticking their entire faces in and slurping away like crazy. This is apparently what our driver was doing. It was the most disgusting thing I've ever heard in relation to the act of eating. Randy said that lunch at the office sounds like that daily. Again, the culture shock hits hard! I won't say that the Chinese have bad table manners, but it seems that what is acceptable behavior during the course of eating is WAY different than that to which we are accustomed. Our driver was slurping and spitting, all the while navigating (quite well, I'd say) the incredibly busy Shanghai streets, which is a quite impressive feat in and of itself. Finally, he rolled the window down and heaved the remains onto the street .... his dinner was complete!

Morning Shanghai was in the basement of a large, bustling mall area. Once seated, I noticed that the interior appeared almost like a streetside cafe with windows in the brick walls lighted in such a manner as to project the illusion of looking in from outside. The tables were dressed with linen cloths and napkins, and beautiful silver spoons and chopsticks, and the dinnerware was lovely white china plates and bowls.

Cathy took care of ordering for us which was a relief. We started with a few appetizers .... pickled dates, a cold chicken dish marinated in a soy vinegar sauce, a dish of assorted pickled veggies ... cauliflower, red and yellow peppers, onions, etc., all washed down with hot chrysanthemum tea (the Chinese believe chrysanthemum tea helps the body cool itself naturally in spite of the fact that it is served hot). I picked up a pickled date with my chopsticks and popped it into my mouth. Tasted like the dates from home, but with more of a grape-like texture, fuzzy skin with a pit in it. I chewed it up, swallowed, and spit out the pit. Cathy said that I should also spit out the skin, but it was too late for that. I replied that all the nutrition is in the skin, to which she replied that also all the bad pesticides. I told her that's what I have a liver for. She thought that was pretty funny!!

The chicken was good, but I am still figuring out the ritual of eating chicken Chinese style. Chicken here isn't cut into legs, thighs, breasts, etc. It is simply hacked into pieces which can easily be picked up with chopsticks, bones and all. You put the piece into your mouth (with the chopsticks), and after working the living daylights out of it in your mouth, and all the meat is off the bone, you simply spit out the bones/cartilage onto your plate. In fact, a plate in China is simply a space for collecting the undesirable objects that have found their way into your mouth (bones, rinds, pits, scales, etc.). Do not pick up your chicken with your fingers! Nobody in China touches their food with their fingers (Randy believes that is because their fingers tend to find their way into other places less appetizing ... noses and other orifices I'm too dainty to mention .... yes, I said dainty .... quit laughing!).

Back to the Morning Shanghai meal ... the main dishes were very good: a nicely seasoned BBQ pork and squid mixture served over a plate of steamed baby bok choy, and a couple of lovely fish (don't ask me the species) steamed in white wine with some peppery spices. Both were quite tasty and enjoyable, served with steamed rice. Also a couple of varieties of dumplings were served with a tangy soy vinegar for dipping. Dessert was a little puff pastry stuffed with a date (sans pit), glazed, and coated with sesame seeds. Very nice. Cathy tells us that this is traditional Shanghaiese fare which seems to favor the pickled and spicy cuisine.

Tuesday evening, Randy and I decided to take the subway to Zhongshan Park station which is directly beneath the Cloud Nine Mall. We decided we'd simply walk around until we find someplace interesting to eat, and have dessert at a Cold Stone Creamery we'd recently discovered in the mall. The mall is a tad confusing ... it is 8 floors, and some of the escalators are "express" which means they go up 2 or more floors thereby directly passing other floors in which a person may have no interest. And others are regular escalators going up one floor at a time. You have to be quite careful to get where you want to go otherwise you think you're going from 3rd to 4th floor, and the next thing you know, you're on the 6th wondering what the heck happened!

The malls in China are interesting in that they tend to group like stores all on the same level. One floor may be all women's clothing and accessories, the next might be hair, nails, spas, massage, etc. Many have all the restaurants on one level which is handy when you aren't exactly sure what you'd like to eat and feel the need to peruse your options first.

We located Dim Sum Studio on the 5th floor and paused outside the entrance. Looked like a nice place. Randy glanced at a menu .... no English. We looked at each other. We'd avoided this situation entirely since our arrival in China, and were both feeling a bit sheepish about it. There are MANY great restaurants in Shanghai with no English on the menu, and we were certainly missing out by avoiding them due to the communication barrier. OK, "sink or swim" time had arrived. What was the worst thing that could occur? Dan had mentioned that it is perfectly acceptable to walk around the restaurant and point out the things which appear appetizing. Not that we WANTED to do that, but we'd utilize our best pidgin Mandarin and see what happens.

Luckily, the menu had photos on it which was a big plus. I could see big photos of delicious looking dumplings in steam baskets on the walls, so I knew I could eat those for sure. It seemed we were left with the menu (which always gets handed to the oldest man at the table in China) for quite some time. I told Randy that the entire staff was in the kitchen at this very moment arguing about who was going to wait upon the dumb Americans who could, no doubt, speak zero Chinese. We laughed about that for a moment, and eventually, a cute Chinese gal appeared with her pad and paper (she'd apparently drawn the short straw). Randy ordered a beer without too much difficulty (he has his priorities straight!!), and I ordered tea. Well, stupid me ... this IS China!! There is no such thing as just TEA. The waitress showed me a page full of Chinese characters which was apparently all the varieties of tea available at Dim Sum Studio. I sort of held up my hands like "Gosh, I just can't decide!!" She took pity upon me and pointed at one ... yes, that is EXACTLY the one I was looking for ..... xie xie (thanks!). OK, we knew weren't going to die of dehydration at any rate.

Dim sum is Mandarin for snacks or appetizers, but is also used to describe an assortment of dumplings (stir fried or steamed) that are available almost everywhere in Shanghai (in restaurants or on the street). Dim Sum Studio is apparently well known for their dumplings as we later learned, and there is an entire menu of dumplings.

When it came time to order our meal, Randy wiped the bead of sweat from his brow, and began to point at pictures on the menu. Selected were a pot of some kind of soup or stew which didn't appear too frightening, a BBQ meat dish of some kind, a shredded pile of something (we suspected meat) served on a lovely arrangement of baby bok choy (rapidly becoming our favorite vegetable in China), and a basket of the dumplings. OK, so far, so good.

Our waitress took off, brought back our beverages (good tea choice, by the way .... several kinds of seeds and blossoms in a cute little clear glass pot which was kept filled with hot water the entire meal), and then tried to tell us something about our order. Oh, oh .... send out the language police ... we were in trouble. Finally, she found a fellow that she thought might know some English (which he didn't), who pointed to our menu and said, "Wah mayo." ... Don't have. OK, they don't have something that we had ordered, and we later learned it was the BBQ meat thing. So Randy pointed at a another basket of dumplings hoping we'd simply get a different TYPE of dumpling along with the ones originally ordered. That seemed to have been comprehended.

The soup/stew was a thin chicken gravy with pieces of chicken (yes, the dumb chopped pieces with the bones in them) and potato dumplings. Very nice flavor if you can work around all those bones (Randy seems to have gotten the hang of it from the lunches that are ordered in daily at work). The dumplings were a bit on the mealy side, but still a nice potatoey flavor to them. The pile of meat we discovered was a fish and crab meat mixture in a peanut oil sauce with the bok choy .... very tasty!! And lastly came the two baskets of steamed dumplings, one was a crab meat mixture, and the other a chicken and veggie mixture inside. YUM!! So we were very happy that we'd attempted to navigate the minefield of the language barrier, as it resulted in a really lovely meal. Definitely a positive result to the adage "nothing ventured, nothing gained."