Xing Tian Di (新天地）

新天地 is the most over-rated place in Shanghai, but I was there every day during my short trip there. I guess it's the touristy kind of thing to do to go to 新天地 and have over-priced dinners there, buy over-priced tea leaves, and also wasted calories on over-priced pastries! Ha!

Fountain looked interesting as we were walking around searching for a nice place to have dinner and we settled ourselves in the al fresco section. And then I spotted "Singapore Laksa" on the menu! Something tells me that this is a Singaporean owned establishment - and I'm right. I'm sitting in one of Justin Quek's restaurant.

Not too excited about being in a Singapore "related" place while overseas, but I decided that I should be open and might just be pleasantly delighted.

I have a craving for beef, as I realised that it is virtually impossible to find beef on the menu of restaurants in China. So the Sirloin Steak was calling out to me from the menu. But despite paying > RMB400 for the steak, I think I can get better ones at Jack's Place for SGD30.

The beef is tough and a bit overdone, although the jus is nice and savoury, just how I like it. The fries are quite good, but I'm not a fan of fat fries - give me McDonald's skinnies anytime! :) I just don't think this beef is worth it's price!

We ordered a serve of the Clam Chowder as it was a chilly night and I wanted something hot and soupy. It was decent chowder and does not taste like canned soup. J wiped out the soup plus every bit of the bread bowl! He's a hungry man!

I decided to order a glass of Greenpoint NV Sparkling Wine. I had this in Preggo's the week before and it's quite delicious! I like the sweetness of the wine without it being too tart like most white wines are, and the bubbles helped to add a bit of glamorous for the night.

The highlight of the meal is the Mussels in White Wine Sauce. But I didn't get to take a pic of it because it was really dark by the time it arrived, and I couldn't take decent pics of it, and also one taste of the white wine sauce got me hooked and I just didn't bother with any photography! :)

The soup is so buttery and creamy and laced with white wine - it is like nothing I've tasted before. Is this how the white wine is supposed to taste like?

Yes, if I dare to say this....it is better than the mussels I had in Brussels Sprouts! Ooops....no offense to the Stroobant empire - I still support my favourite Belgian chef! :)

After this dinner, I went back to the hotel and did some research on Justin Quek's restaurants in Shanghai and learnt that he has a few more. But after the one hit and some misses in Fountain, I'm in no hurry to go and try his other restaurants within the vicinity of 新天地。

Zhou Zhuang (周庄）

Note: This event took place in May....yes, I know I'm way behind in my posts! Anyway, hope you still enjoy it!

周庄 is the highlight of my trip to Shanghai! The "Venice of the East" did not fail to deliver you with magnificent scenery and good food, although I just happened to stumble upon this water village while surfing the Internet.

It was a 1.5hours drive to the village outside Shanghai, and I slept through most of the way although I tried very hard to keep awake and take in the scenery :P

Here we are at 周庄! We hired a tricycle to go around town as it is apparently HUGE! I thought I could just walk around town!

This was where Tom Cruise filmed one of his Mission Impossible series, but I could not remember which one. It has one scene where he jumped from bridge to bridge, and these are the bridges along the river.

The tourists get around in boats, but the locals just walk!

I like the patterned cobblestone walkway....so charming! We had a delicious meal in one of the restaurant village. And the place is sooo clean, you could probably eat off it's floor! I'm so glad to be able to find a clean toilet in the village...ha!

Shrink wrapped cutlery! I like! I think this is a good idea, although may not be the most environmentally friendly?

The pig trotters is the signature dish here, and we just had to order it! And it was deliciously tender, juicy, moist, savoury, yums!

J ordered the fish, which I practically did not touch...cos it's full of tiny bones! Not going to risk getting a fish bone stuck in my throat on a holiday! And my "hero" actually polished off the whole fish himself!

The obligatory plate of greens. It was very salty as with all foods in China, but this one has added protein in the form of worms....which I didn't see until we nearly finish the plate of greens :(

And this bowl of chicken soup is probably the best soup I've ever had...if you can excuse the "goosebump" skin with some feathers still attached too it :( But seriously, the soup is delicious!

There was only another table occupied while we were lunching, and they are a group of Hong Kongers. After their meal, they also praised the chef for the delicious soup. They say you can't find this anywhere in Hong Kong, maybe because the chicken is really fresh. Yeah, it's probably slaughtered just before it's cooked? Oops...

We walked around until late in the afternoon before heading back to Shanghai town, and had the most expensive, but not necessarily the best meal of this holiday!

Shanghai sightseeing...

We woke up late on our 2nd day in Shanghai and missed the breakfast buffet at the hotel.  But it's ok, because the hotel's breakfast cannot make it lor!

We asked the driver to bring us to a local eatery to get breakfast before we start our day of sightseeing, and he brought us to this place....that I have no idea what is it called or where it was! Anyway, on to the food!

The ubiquitous 陂蛋瘦肉粥 was ordered, along with the 油条.  The 粥 was ok, nothing compared to the congee in Hong Kong!  But it was a good hearty breakfast to have.

陂蛋瘦肉粥

We also ordered a serve of the savoury 豆花, which was surprisingly quite good.  They have added different types of preserved veggies inside, and spring onions and bits of dried shrimp.  I thought I wouldn't get used to the savoury 豆花 but surprisingly I liked it and don't mind eating it again. 

豆花

We also ordered a serve of 小龙包 and was again disappointed at the tough thick skin and dry fillings.  My search for THE 小龙包 seems to be futile! :(  

小龙包

After breakfast, we headed over to 东方明珠 at the recommendation of the driver.  But it was unfortunate that it started to rain as we go up to the tower and managed to only get a "murky" view of the Shanghai skyline.

东方明珠

I think the view will be fantastic on a clear day - you get a 360 degrees view of Shanghai in the round tower, including The Bund, the new Expo 2010 site, etc.  

View of Shanghai from the top...

It was an uneventful day with us ending up at Xin Tian Di again for dinner and some shopping before heading back to the hotel.  We slept early in anticipation of the long drive to 周庄 the next day.

俏江南, Shanghai

Shanghai sounded so exciting and glamorous - expensive restaurants at The Bund, glamorous hangouts at Xin Tian Di, and endless shopping!  I landed in Shanghai full of anticipation, and of course I am so excited to go on holiday with J again! :)

I was dead tired after the 7 hours flight (including a 1 hour transit in Hong Kong), and was still subjected to a 1.5 hours immigration clearance courtesy of the swine flu.  I'm sooo grouchy after the whole thing!  And it was another 45 minutes ride to the hotel!  

Not exactly what I had in mind of me arriving glamorously into the Shanghai airport, with my hair in place, and hardly wrinkled clothes from the long journey, and stepping into the arms of my lover like in some movie! The lover was not even at the airport to meet me!  Duh!

Not a good start in Shanghai!

The only things I like about Shanghai was 周庄 and Uniqloo!  The 小龙包 was not as mind blowing as I hoped it would be.  

My first taste of the 小龙包 was at 俏江南。 It came in a really pretty little bamboo steamer, but alas it is sooo dry!

Bamboo Steamer...

小龙包

The other dishes in the restaurant were quite decent - I liked the steamed beef in ma la chili, but I didn't take a picture of that.  We were dining with J's friends, and I didn't want to embarrass him by taking too many food pics!  Hehehe...just take those that are special to appear less touristy?

I had wanted to go back to 俏江南 on another day to have dinner on our own and try their other dishes, but we didn't have the time.  They apparently has branches in Beijing too, but again no time to go!  But I'm most likely to go back to Beijing in the near future than Shanghai, just simply because I had a better time there  :)  

Stay tuned for more posts on Shanghai.

Blogs and such...

After all these months, I am still baffled by Blogger!  The settings doesn't seem to saved right, the fonts go haywire, the pictures cannot be dragged, etc.!!

Is it me??

I need a crash course on using Blogger!  Or maybe I should change to Typepad or something?  But I am glad I found LinkWithin widget...I think it is cool.  Check out my blog posts, and see if you can see anything different  :)

Today I had a small "achievement".  I drove around town, without paying a single cent for ERP!  Ha!  Quite proud of myself for thinking all the ERP-less routes...hehehe.  But my parking at the building opposite my office was quite a killer!  $12.35!  Oh well, it's like 7 hours of parking, so not too bad ya!

I'm so looking forward to my China trip.  But I had to get Mumbai out of the way first!  Praying very hard for me to recover from flu, and have a safe journey.