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.

Satay House

When I want to have good Indonesian food in a clean air-conditioned environment in Jakarta, I will go to Satay House.  

The food never disappoints, and they update their menu every so often, so you can try something new everytime you visit.

Orange juice with young coconut flesh

This drink is very refreshing!  The orange juice comes from the green oranges that is so abundant in Indonesia.  I don't know what they are called though.  But they are extremely sweet and juicy and makes great orange juice!  The coconut is a nice touch to add to this already refreshing drink.

Salad....

Hmmm....I forgot what this is!  Some sort of tofu salad...I think.

Satay!

This is the highlight of Satay House!  Ok, as the name implies, they specialize in Satay!  This is I think the Satay Ambengan.  This comes with some gravy which is delicious.  I just cannot be bothered to eat Satay in Singapore.  I don't like the sickly sweet taste of the meat and the peanut gravy.  I much prefer Indonesian Satays as they are more savoury.

Nasi Ikan Asin Pepes...

Nasi ikan asin pepes - Salted fish with rice "baked" in leaves.  Yums!  This is their special of the month.  Deliciously soft fragrant rice with spices and chilli baked in leaves.  The rice has absorbed all the spicy goodness, and I just can't stop eating them!  We ordered another portion after we finish the first one....hehehe...

The rice comes with the ubiquitous fried tofu, fried chicken, and sambal belachan to add more "oomph" to the rice.

Lontong Cap Gomeh...

Lontong cap gomeh - it's rice "cakes" with curry vegetables, tofu, etc.  There is a lot going on in there!  But they taste yummy.  Beware of the chilli padi they throw in in abundance, and lurking innocently in the gravy! 

Soto Ayam...

My favourite Soto Ayam.  I have no idea what goes into this, but it's simply delicious.  One thing is Indonesian food is hardly served piping hot, which suits me just fine!  I cannot drink piping hot stuff, burns my tongue and make me miserable.  Ha!

  

Soto Timlo..

Soto Timlo - again no idea what goes into the soup, but this doesn't taste as good as the Soto Ayam.  Indonesia is so diverse, that there are so many variations of just Soto alone!  But this is what makes Indonesian food so interesting.

Posting this makes me crave for Indonesian food  :(  Hope I can make it back to Jakarta next month or something.

Orient 8 @ Hotel Mulia, Jakarta

The Grand Entrance

Another part of the Grand Entrance

I was totally blown away by the stunning decor of Orient 8 @ Hotel Mulia!  It is fast becoming one of my favourite hotels in Jakarta.  They serve good food, and the hotel is just so uniquely decorated.

Roses!!

I love those big columns of fresh white roses!  It looks like a wedding is in progress...hehe. Orient 8 is Hotel Mulia's latest restaurant, serving Thai, Vietnamese and other Oriental food buffet style.  

Dainty appetizers on ice...

The cold appetizer section consists on small bite-sized morsels, and everything looks very appetizing!  I took some of these to start off my dinner.  They were yummy.

Olive oils & Balsamic Vinegars...

They have a variety of olive oils, balsamic vinegar and other condiments for your salads.  Can you see those test tube thing in the wine glassess?  You can conveniently just pour the sauces from those tubes!  Cool!

Food...

I couldn't get good shots of the food because of the dim lighting, so I didn't really take a lot of pics of the food, but I took tons of pics of the place!

Tom yum...!

I couldn't get enough of their tom yum!  You basically can just pick and choose the ingredients that you want to add into the tom yum soup, and the chefs will whip up a steaming bowl of spiciness in no time!  They also have other soups like beef, so you can have a bowl of beef pho!

Chefs at work...

They have an open kitchen concept, so the chefs can prepare the soupy food right in front of you. I think this is really fun, and of course Indonesians are just naturally friendly people, making you feeling at ease with them.

Centerpiece...

Private Dining room...

There are several private dining rooms in the restaurants, and they are all differently decorated. This is my favourite room among them.

I'm seriously considering holding my wedding there!  Do you think it's a good idea?!