It is my third visit this year to China, and my fourth trip to Asia. I arrived last evening after a gruelling 18 hour trip, from Boston to San Francisco (just two hours layover so no trip home) and on to Shanghai.
I will try to post a few things each day, since so many people tell me they are reading my blogs when I write them from China. I will still plan to include my culinary adventures - since that excites me. But since several folks have said, "Is that all you do - eat," I will also try to include one non-food cultural item each day.
HOME and BREAKFAST
Usually, I stay in a "service apartment" - which is a less expensive hotel, and a cross between living in an apartment, but run like a hotel. But since this is a longer trip, I requested a more modern location, one that included wireless connections, a small workout room and beds that were not as hard as a rock. For the next 16 days, my home will be the Pudong Century City Radisson hotel.
This hotel is a modern hotel, and is part of the "Blu" line of Radisson's - a modern sleek version of it's traditional line. My new home literally looks like this - except for oranges. My fruit plate has a single dragon fruit in it. Have you tasted them before?
RECOVERY DAY
Last year, I tried the idea of arriving on a Sunday night, and starting work on Monday morning. But after nearly 22 hours of no sleep - and trying to battle jet lag, I was a basket case. I now require a recovery day when I arrive to China, mostly to just try to sleep two nights in a row before having to concentrate on my work.
BREAKFAST EXTRAVAGANZA
The breakfast buffet, which comes with the room, is amazing in this hotel. It is on the level of a nice Sunday brunch that many hotels serve. One side of the restaurant features Western food, including everything from quiche to pancakes to fresh made egg, pastry and cereals. The other side of the restaurant features all sorts of Asian food from around the continent.
It is tempting to rush in an d try a little of everything. But by day 5, you are tired of everything. I have decided to focus on one item or country each day.
Since I had just arrived to Asia, it was time to get the stomach ready for what was about to come. I opted for noodle soup and century eggs - a very popular dish morning, noon and dinner across Asia.
Similar to a pasta station or an omelet station, you first pick out your type of noodle. I opted for thin rice noodles. From there, you add vegetables and tofu balls. The plate is given to the chef who boils your noodles and vegetables, and returns them to you in a rich chicken broth. I then added on soya sauce, chili sauce, some pickles and some sesame oil.
I am a huge fan of noodles. For me, this is a great way to begin the day - and a great dish for my first breakfast in Asia.
And this mildly spicy soup also is a good way to test out if your stomach is ready for the experience it is about to get over the next 16 days.
I mostly worked today on normal emails, proposals and research. The day was gray and rainy. Unfortunately, there are more smoggy and grey days here than there should be. Pollution is still not friendly to China.
After spending a little time in the gym (using my iPad to watch downloaded versions of Damages - great syndicated television show by the way), I headed out for dinner.
I am staying in a concrete shopping area known as Century City. It is anchored by a large Carefours - which is basically the equivalent to an upscale Walmart. But it is large. And where it comes also comes many restaurants. There are at least 20-30 in the area. I have tried a few in past trips, but this will be a big test to see how many - and how adventurous I can be.
Knowing that my local colleagues will be taking me on adventures of long meals at upscale Chinese restaurants, I decided to head for a new Taiwan Noodle house that has opened since my last visit. Taiwan is known for their beef noodles. The noodles are homemade and toothsome. For Taiwan Beef noodles, the noodles are covered with a savory broth/gravy.
Hmmm. Which delicious item to choose?
I decided on the beef fingers - knowing good and well that cows don't have fingers. Phewww. Close call.
What I ended up with is a bowl of noodles, with some pretty fatty braised beef shank meat. The broth was delicious. The meat was fatty. But here in China, lean is not good. Still left over form the days when beef was rare and fatty part was good for the diet, lean is still not revered.
It was a pretty delicious soup. Or should I say noodles with beef gravy? I can't say that the meat was that much fun - since it was sort of gristly. But it was tasty and good for a night meal.
I then walked back towards my hotel.
On the way back, I saw a shop that featured two things: Coffee and Bouquets. But not your ordinary bouquets. It is popular for women to want to keep their flowers here. And so - what better way to solve that problem than this:
Sadly, no one hear to give a bear bouquet to. And so, instead, I opted to purchase a cup of coffee from one of her coffee machines. (she both sold the machines - and used them to make Italian coffee). Coffee in the late evening is not good for me, but she looked so cute. And no one was stopping at her shop!
That is Day 1. More adventures to come. However, I am not sure if I will get through. The Chinese Govt blocks blogs here - especially that of Google and Blogpost. Usually, the first time you restart your computer, it then resets the IP address - and you can't use Facebook, Google Groups or Twitter again.
And so - who knows. Maybe I am back with Day 2. Or not!
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