Food and Shanghai

I find the food particularly fascinating in China. I had a guide yesterday so I felt a little more adventurous. I have never minded trying really weird stuff but I want to know what I am trying and I prefer to watch someone else eat it before me. This approach as managed to land some things in my mouth that I found particularly disgusting. A fish eye in Belize and a cow brain in Mexico were the worst thus far. I have however enjoyed many of the strange things I have had such as cow tongue tacos. For me traveling is as much about the food as seeing the city. I have luckily never gotten sick eating random dishes or street food in other countries.

China host a whole other level for the courageously adventurous and I have to say, I am certain there are things served here I that will put my spirit of adventure to the test. Yesterday I tried a few new things. To start-- duck chin.... (See below)



The Duck Chin was really good. It was less greasy then duck with a nice crispy exterior and very flavorful. My guide told me the best part was the tongue but I disagree. The tongue just tasted like crispy skin with fat. The other dishes that you see up there are mushrooms (center), crispy shrimp imperial rolls (left), bbq pork covered in a flaky pastry far left, and egg clustered (far center). I also had jelly fish, which I thought was crunchy in a gelatinous way as opposed to a fried way, but very bland. It didn't taste like anything. (see below)



One thing I am loving here are all the mushrooms. They seem to have a lot of different varieties pan fried and topped with a delicious sauce. I have found it surprising that much of the food is some what bland. It varies from region to region and I think Shanghai, in particular, has a sweeter, blander food. Praveen and I find ourselves asking for hot sauce all the time. I was reading this morning that the spicier dishes are usually the ones that aren't fresh. I read that Chinese people feel that a lot of spices covers up the taste of the food and therefore only want to season it heavily when the food is bad! I guess I'll just keep ordering my hot sauce on the side. There are other regions though where more spices are used like Hunan or Schezwan. I haven't seen those styles on too many menus here though.

I love the Dim Sum!!! Today I am going for some Shanghai style Dim Sum.

Vincent, my guide, was making fun of me yesterday because I was eating the garnishes. He told me when a vegetable accompanies a meat dish it is usually just to balance the ying and the yang (I think what we call presentation). It's not like parsley though, yesterday it was bok chow, which I like and I will keep eating, garnish or not.

One thing I haven't eaten that I do find interesting is the amount of pickled meat that they eat here. If you walk in to a convenience store you will see tons of packages of vacuum sealed chicken wings, chicken feet, pork and all kinds of stuff. I had the weirdest thing on the mountain. It looked like a hot dog but I think it was a SPAM dog!!! People were eating them like popcorn. On our hike instead of cliff bars they would be toting around tons of packages of various meets and then at little rest stops everyone would stop to eat the SPAM dogs. It was good in a sick and twisted kind of hot dog way.

Here are some pictures from my adventure yesterday.



This was a beautiful bride on the street posing for pictures. I learned that in china they have two bridal dresses- the white dress then the more traditional red dress.



This is a TV tower. I think its cool. This whole area was built in the 90s. The development over here is insane! The newer area of Shanghai has this very futuristic look and the older area has a more traditional Chinese look mixed in with a lot of other architectural styles like French and English who came here and built a ton of stuff before they fled in 1949. I like the contrast. The futuristic stuff reminds me of the Jetsons. You can also see the smog is really intense. I got a headache mid way through the day that never went away. It's really, really bad.

They also have this tunnel through the water that you see above. It takes five minutes and costs $7. I guess only tourists can afford to use it. It's really crazy. It feels like a cross between a Disneyland ride, a Pink Floyd show and a mushroom trip. The subway like car you sit in is all glass and there are lights flashing everywhere and these plasma like screens that raise and lower in front of the tracks with swimming fish and meteor showers. The strangely dark thing was the blow up human shaped dolls that look as if they jump in front of you only to be smashed (see below)