Nara

Nara City, located in Nara Prefecture bordering Kyoto, was an ancient capital city of Japan from 710-784 AD. These days, like Kyoto, it's noted for it's well preserved historic temple architecture and scenic views. But it's a small city, so while Kyoto gets all the tourist traffic, Nara enjoys a gentler, sleepier vibe. Something about Nara really inspired me. We only spent one day here, but you wouldn't know it from all those photographs I took! And post-trip, I sketched a little map to go with this post.

----- RESOURCES -----
Bento.com is an indispensable guide for locating good eats in Japan. The section for Nara is slim, but worth a look.
Wikitravel.com has a concise but very useful guide to eating, sightseeing and sleeping in Nara.
Infomapjapan.com provides a free map of Nara with the temples and hotels clearly marked.
Lonelyplanet.com has a paid download of their Japan guide's Kansai chapter on it's Pick & Mix website.
Naraexplorer.jp highlights eventsand festivals in their free seasonal newsletters and also has an online dining guide.

----- WE GOT AROUND -----
On foot
Nara is a small city, so you can easily see everything in the downtown area and in Nara Park in one day, on foot. A rented bicycle (check with your hotel) would also be a good alternative if you are spending longer than a day and want to reach parts of town that are further south or west of the Kintetsu Nara Station.

----- WE STAYED -----
Hotel Sunroute Nara
Boxy but clean, comfortable and neat, our twin room at the Sunroute Nara provided a nice view of the 5-story pagoda and was a 3 minute walk to Nara Park. Our (low-season) rate was 11,550 Yen, about US $119.

If you are looking for luxury accommodations, check out the beautifully appointed Nara Hotel overlooking Nara Park. Built in 1909, it's architecture charmingly blends Western deluxe-class and Japanese royal architectural styles but a stay here will set you back anywhere from US $300 to $3000 per night.

----- WE SAW -----

Deer
Nara Park is home to some 1200 free-roaming tame deer. According to legend, shortly after the capital city was built in Nara, the Shinto god Takemikazuchi arrived in town astride a white deer to guard it. As a result, for as long as people here can remember, deer have been regarded as divine animals. The deer are gentle and sweet creatures, and have even been trained to bow, but once you have procured one of the many deer biscuits for sale throughout the Park, watch out! It's really impossible to hand out the biscuits one by one, or even to choose which deer to give the treats to; the strongest and most insistent deer always seem to win.

Nara Park is a popular spot for local tourists to bring their children. A (perversely) fun thing to do is watch the little kids freak out at their first experience of the large biscuit-crazed mammals:
Toddler: Ohhh, hello Mr. Deer. You're pretty big. Can I pet you?
Deer: Well hey, little guy what's u--- oh! I see you have a biscuit! Lemme--!
Toddler: Wait! No, not my hand!
Deer: Gimme the biscuit, kid. Now. Release. The. Biscuit.
Toddler: Waah! Deer lips are slimy!
Deer: Mmmf. Nom nom nom.
Toddler: Mommmy!!! I've been slimed by a deer!
Mom: Ha ha ha! Hubby, are you recording this? Where's the video camera?

No, but seriously, the deer are very sweet, peaceful creatures.... Just don't deny them their biscuits.

Kofuku-ji and the 5-Story Pagoda
Kofukuji is pretty hard to miss, since it's located right at the western entrance to Nara Park, and you can spot its 5-story Pagoda from afar. At night the pagoda is lit up and, reflected in Sarusawa Pond, makes for picturesque photo-ops. Right in front of the pagoda seems to be where some of the larger deer hang out, waiting to pounce on tourists who purchase the deer biscuits here. I'd advise giving up those biscuits quickly -- these bucks don't fool around. Or save your biscuit money for the calmer deer in more remote parts of the Park.

Todai-ji and the Daibutsu
Todaiji (東大寺,, literally "Eastern Great Temple") was an important administrative center for Buddhism during the period that Nara was capital. It's main hall, the Daibutsu-den, is the largest wooden building in the world. Inside it is the Daibutsu, Japan's largest Buddha statue. Together with several other temples and sites throughout Nara City, the Todai-ji temple complex is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the wide, paved road leading up to Todaiji, before you reach the first big gate, is another popular spot for biscuit-addled deer to hang out.

Nigatsu-do
Nigatsudo (二月堂, literally "The Hall of the Second Month") is a two-story hall situated east of Todaiji. Its location on the Mt. Wakakusa hillside gives it a terrific perspective of the city, particularly amazing at sunset. Perhaps it was the way the twilight glinted on the bronze lanterns, perhaps something about its particular proportions and subtle decoration, but I couldn't help gazing at this place and thinking, "This is the most beautiful wooden building I have ever seen in my life." It really is worth the short hike just to take in the view from this stunning piece of architecture.

From the tourist brochure, I discovered that Nigatsudo has been the site of a 2-week long purification ritual every March for the past 1200 years. It's called Omizutori, and involves the temple assistants waving huge, 80 kilogram, lit torches from the 2nd floor balcony to shower spectators with*"cleansing" sparks. Wow. I would love to witness that, but, on the other hand, I do hope they have lots of extinguishers and a fire station located nearby....

Kasuga Taisha
Founded in 768, the Kasuga Taisha (春日大社, Kasuga Grand Shrine) is a Shinto shrine located a good 15-20 minute stroll southeast of the Todaiji. The walk is very pleasant, as the path is lined on both sides by thousands of moss-covered stone lanterns. The shrine has thatched roofs, thousands of bronze lanterns and vermillion-hued pillars that contrast brightly against the deep green of the surrounding forest. It's a very beautiful sight in midday, so I can only imagine how gorgeous it must look when all the lanterns are lit! According to my guidebook this happens only several nights out of the entire year during the festivals of Setsubun Mantoro (February 2-4), Obon Mantoro (August 14-15) and Kasuga Matsuri, the Monkey Festival (March 13).

Higashimuki and Mochiidono Shopping Arcades
When you're done seeing the temples and the deer in Nara Park, stroll down these two covered shopping arcades and explore their side streets to look for souvenirs or snacks. Jaded by my previous experiences of touristy shopping streets, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Nara doesn't do cheesy tchotchkes. Well, sure, there are a lot of deer-themed souvenirs, but they do make unique and cute gifts for the folks back home. And there are some really beautiful traditional arts and handmade crafts to be found as well. We only spent one day in Nara, so regrettably we couldn't try the many hole-in-the-wall eating establishments that looked so enticing here.

Naramachi
Naramachi is an old neighborhood, founded in the 8th Century, that still contains numerous machiya, or traditional Japanese merchant houses in the Edo Period style. We planned to take the noon train back to Kyoto, so we spent early Sunday morning wandering through the narrow sidestreets and alleyways. Though I wished we could have explored the area when the antiques shops, cafes and handicraft shops were open, seeing this historic town in the quiet and soft Sunday morning light was like traveling back in time. There were many beautiful shrines and temples scattered throughout the area, and strings of stuffed red-satin dolls, good luck charms called "migawari-zaru," dangled from the merchant houses' eaves. If you're interested in learning more detailed history, it might be worth it to take an English-guided tour. Me, I'm more of a loner who prefers my quiet walks unmarred by tour-guide chatter, so I might prefer this self-guided one, courtesy of Nara's tourism website.

----- WE ATE -----

1. Kaki no hasushi (柿の葉ずし), 2. Sampler, 3. Roast rib cartilage, 4. Fried chicken skin with citrus vinegar

Kakinoha sushi
This type of sushi is local to Nara and involves cured mackerel or salmon and vinegared rice wrapped in salted persimmon leaves. They are usually shaped with a wooden box mold. When we arrived at Kintetsu Nara Station it lunchtime and we were famished! So we picked up some kakinoha sushi box lunches in the station, dropped our luggage off at the hotel, and enjoyed a picnic seated on the benches at Sarusawa Pond.
Nakatani Honpo (中谷本舗), inside the Kintetsu Station concourse.

Yamato chicken
These chickens have been specially bred in Nara for taste and texture. At Yatagarasu, the specialty is Yamato Nikudori, free-range chickens raised at subcontracted farmhouses in the Yagyu countryside, personally selected by the head chef in the morning and slaughtered at 130-140 days old. Nearly all parts of the chicken -- from breasts and thighs to cartilege, gizzards and skin -- are served grilled, fried, even raw. Yes, raw! I overcame my apprehension after the first bite. The flavor is very mild and it has the tender and smooth texture of a premium slice of yellowtail sashimi, without any fattiness or fishiness. Perfect with a little bit of coarsly ground wasabi and soy sauce...
Yatagarasu (やたがらす), 13-1 Hayashi-kōji-cho, 0742-20-0808.

Many guidebooks consider Nara worthy of a day-trip from Kyoto. But shortly after arriving, as we sat on a park bench munching on our sushi box lunch while gazing at sunbathing turtles, I started to think, "Well, maybe we should scheduled our whole 3-day weekend hdre..." Nara has a way of slowing you down and putting a relaxed smile on your face. So if you have some time to spare and you're visiting Nara in the off-season, give her 2 days or even 3, so you can stroll a little slower, eat more locally grown and freshly harvested meals, enjoy some quiet moments of contemplation at the temples and, of course, make friends with the deer!

Shanghai Eats Part II

Shanghai, having been a port of foreign trade for centuries longer than Seoul (our current city of residence), offers a much wider variety of cosmopolitan dining choices, whether one's aim is a convivial or romantic evening out. It seemed a shame to miss out on these. We were spoilt for choice and short on time, but we did take numerous coffee breaks (Costas Coffee is a great alternative to Starbucks, by the way), enjoyed premium French baked goods and, one night, went all out for some haute French cuisine at the 3-Michelin star Jean Georges. And, of course, we couldn't miss out on the city's famed soup dumplings (小籠包 / xiǎolóngbāo).

Some restaurant reviews below....
Shanghai Eats Part I here.


1. Rhubarb Tart, 2. Daan Taat, 3. Scallion pancake, 4. Jelly Donut, 5. Mini Cheese Tart, 6. Chun1 bing (春餅), 7. You doufu niu rou fen si tang (油豆腐牛肉粉絲湯), 8. More shengjian mantou (生煎饅頭), 9. More shengjian mantou (生煎饅頭), 10. Hotpot, 11. Egg toast with caviar and dill / Uni sashimi on toast, 12. Egg caviar / Sea scallops with caper-raisin emulsion


Paul 30元 - 100元
On Dongqing Lu near Hengshan Lu we stopped in at Paul's, a French bakery chain with several stores in Shanghai. After ogling their pastry case for a while, we finally settled on a rhubarb tart and a raspberry jelly donut, and both were just what the stomachs ordered. Maybe I'm especially enamored of Paul's because delicious French pastries are so hard to come by in Seoul. If I lived in Shanghai, Paul's would be a regular stop for their excellent coffee.

Lillian Cake Shop (莉莲蛋挞 / Lì Lián Dàn Tà) 10元
Normally, I would not have thought to seek out egg tarts in Shanghai since they are mainly known as Hong Kong and Macao treats. But we stumbled upon Lillian Cake Shop while walking along Huaihai Zhong Road one afternoon and noticed a long line of eager patrons. The piping hot "dàn tà" proved to be a delicious revelation. The folks at Lillian should just go ahead and give everyone spoons with their order; their egg custard is so silkenly smooth that once you bite into the flaky pastry crust the entire contents just come spilling out into your palm. Clearly I wasn't the only delighted customer; nearly everyone else walking away from the bakery stand was making a similar mess of themselves. Since Lillian Cakes' egg tarts were so good, we went back to see what other magic they could produce. The little berry-topped mini-cheesecakes were also excellent, but those egg tarts are definitely something to write home to Mom about.

Xiao Yang's Shengjian Shop (小楊生煎館 / Xiao Yang Sheng Jian Guan )
Fried buns (shēngjiān mántou / 生煎饅頭) 4.5元
Tofu & beef vermicelli noodle soup (you doufu niu rou fen si tang / 油豆腐牛肉粉絲湯) 8元
Pork wontons (jing rou xiao hun tun / 精肉小餛飩) 5元

Huanghe Lu north of People's Square is normally busy with bustling restaurant traffic, but on Sunday morning the eating establishments were all closed or cleaning up from a late Saturday crowd. At 10am, however, one canteen was open and receiving a constant stream of customers, so we promptly went up to the counter of Xiao Yang's and scored ourselves a plate of fried buns for breakfast. In contrast to the buns we'd had the day before on Shanxi Nan Lu, these buns were a little oily and just a tad soggy. We ordered two other dishes to supplement our fried buns: a bowl of tofu and beef vermicelli soup, and some wonton soup. The noodles came in a somewhat oily broth, but the wonton soup was a pretty good value; at only 5元 (about .75 U.S. cents) it had more wontons than I had ever seen put together in one bowl.

After getting home and going through my photos, I Googled "小楊生煎館" and discovered that Xiao Yang's is a little bit famous in Internet-land for their shēngjiān mántou. Here's a blog post from Rasa Malaysia singing their praises, and here's an NPR article. Perhaps we caught them at an off-hour (Sunday morning?) or maybe they've gone downhill, but I think one can do just as good if not better at many other street-side bun stands in Shanghai. So definitely don't feel restricted by what the guidebooks tell you; follow your nose!

Jia Family's Soup Dumplings (佳家湯包 / Jia Jia Tang Bao)
Crab & pork soup dumplings (xìe fěn xīan ròu tāng bāo / 蟹粉鮮肉湯包) 19.5元
Seaweed & egg flower soup (zǐ cài dàn hūa tāng / 紫菜蛋花湯) 2元
Shredded ginger (shēng jiāng si / 生姜絲) 1元

After we walked off our breakfast, we were ready for some soup dumplings! It was still well before lunch, but across the street from Xiao Yang's, a long line was already forming at Jia Jia Tang Bao. We joined the line -- a mix of tourists and locals -- and waited nearly 20 minutes to order the crab roe and pork dumplings. They were quite good; each dumpling churned out by the busy kitchen was well formed out of a thin but surprisingly firm handmade dumpling skin, and each contained a healthy portion of savory soup and meat. My tip, if you ever find yourself at Jia Jia, is that you can forgo the seaweed soup that they recommend, but the 1元 shredded ginger is a slightly more exciting dipping condiment than plain old soy sauce. A whole steamer full of 12 soup dumplings and a bowl of soup for the equivalent of about US$3.30... wow!

Later on, I Googled "Jia Jia Tang Bao" and discovered that, like "Xiao Yang's" they're, like, famous or something. Hence the long line and the long wait. The soup dumplings were indeed very good but I would say that their main area of distinction is the value. Despite the low price, the quality was stellar. In our steamer there was not a single dud dumpling, while I've found that at Din Tai Fung in Seoul or Joe's Shanghai in New York, there's always a busted bun or two. A blog post on Siuyeh, a discussion on Chowhound, and a review at the China Daily.

Xin Hua Cheng Seafood Hotpot（新花城鲍鱼海鲜火锅）
We tried this place out mainly because it was right next to our hotel and, every evening, as we returned weary-legged from hours of sight-seeing, we would find ourselves gazing into Xin Hua's giant picture windows to see these big happy groups of diners surrounding steaming pots of goodness.

Hotpot here is served shabu-shabu style; you order your meats and veggies (of which there is a vast variety), per serving, off a picture menu. The meats, seafood and vegetables are all fresh and high quality, and you can elect to boil everything in your choice of soup (as opposed to plain water) for added flavor. They didn't speak much English, but service was attentive (there always seemed to be a server hovering nearby to answer our questions). All in all, a delicious date spot that, if it were in NY or Seoul, I'd be sure to return to.

But I'll admit that, after trekking around Shanghai and having hearty, filling meals for as little as 3 or 4元, we just assumed that this hotpot joint wouldn't be too expensive either. Our mistake; we should have guessed that, based on their location in the French Concession (right next to a 4-star hotel, no less), their prices would be a bit elevated from those of establishments in other parts of the city. We ended up spending almost 300元 per person for our dinner, which really just included a basic mix of beef, fishballs and veggies. Yikes, those are New York City prices! We could have eaten over 400 steamed pork buns for that amount!

Jean Georges Shanghai
Seasonal (spring) tasting menu, about 880元
Jean Georges tasting menu, about 880元

Based on the website, the Jean Georges Shanghai and NY tasting menus, as well as their prices, seem pretty similar if not identical. Gavin and I tried each other's Jean Georges and the Spring tasting menus. Each tasting menu came with an amuse-bouche, six courses and a dessert tasting. The lighting was dim but I did manage to eek out a few blurry photos of the food. I guess this will be a comparatively longer review than the ones above, but that's just because... well, we paid a lot for our meals....

My favorites from the spring tasting menu:
The uni toast seems to have been an off-the-cuff replacement for what is normally listed in their online menu as "sashimi of madai." I really do like sea urchins. Specifically I love the raw sea urchin gonads known as uni. A perfect uni sashimi tastes like a little, sweetened, golden bit of the ocean. It might not be right to give Jean Georges ALL of the credit.... I mean, the sea urchins gave up their lives and offspring and the chef put them on a piece of toast. Who do you think made the greater sacrifice? But anyways, why quibble when there is something tasty on your tongue? Yay for Jean Georges uni toast!

Secondly, I quite liked the frog legs... they were meaty -- almost like chicken drumsticks -- and not gamey or stringy at all, which is what I'd come to expect of frog legs. But I kinda think the dish called "young garlic soup with thyme and sautéed frog legs on the side" might be more accurately called "Sautéed frog legs with young garlic soup on the side," as the garlic soup wasn't anything to speak of. Maybe that's because I like my garlic strong. What's the point of subtle garlic? As for the frog legs. Hmm... yes, I do think that frog died for a good cause. Passed both my (admittedly morbid) "is it tastier than the animal is cute?" and "did a small animal deserve to die for this dish?" tests.

My favorites from the Jean Georges tasting menu:
The "sea scallops with caper-raisin emulsion and topped with caramelized cauliflower" were great; I really felt like all the parts of this dish were coming together. Sometimes at fancy-pants dining establishments, you get the feeling that they put some different things together into one dish simply because the words sound poetic in print. But the cauliflower really was caramelized and crispy, and there really was a zing-y caper-raisin emulsion and they all made sense together on top of the mellow & tender pillows of sea scallops.

The "broiled squab onion compote with corn pancake and foie gras" was a bit of a surprise. Actually, when Gavin ordered, the server asked if he wanted it rare, medium or well-done. A bit taken off guard, he ordered it medium-rare, and when the sixth course finally arrived we realized why. I never realized a bird could taste so much like red meat! There wasn't a hint of gamey-ness. If blindfolded, I could not have told you that was a bird. Wait, is that a good thing? Should a bird taste like a mammal? Should one be eating medium-rare poultry? Well anyways, that was the dish where I stopped worrying and learned to love me some pigeon.

Finally, I have to say the dessert was my favorite part of the meal. Seeing a large plate with 4 different desserts, all so prettily arranged, land before you kinda feels like Christmas. My Chocolate tasting was like death by chocolate -- death by really good chocolate. There was a warm molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, creme brulee served in an egg shell with chocolate caviar topping, a very rich brownie and a hot chocolate drink in a cute little cup paired with biscotti. Gavin's Citrus dessert tasting was much lighter fare than my chocolate platter. Although some of the desserts on his plate looked somewhat similar to mine (the plating at Jean Georges definitely follows a distinct style), the tastes were completely different.

So, all in all, the presentation of a Jean Georges meal is, like its view Pudong skyline, amazing. There is definitely at least as much thought and care put into the "design" of each dish -- especially the appetizers and desserts -- as there is put into the recipes themselves. But sometimes I couldn't help feeling that Jean Georges was just a LITTLE too pleased with himself. Case in point: seeing a tiny little bit of pricey foie ras and caviar on top of a crispy slice of toast was cute at first. But then came some scrambled eggs and fennel sandwiched between some more crispy toast. And then came the uni sashimi on toast. At that point I was expecting all the subsequent courses to come on toast, which thankfully did not happen. Another example: the "scrambled eggs served in the shell topped with whipped crème fraiche and caviar," served in an egg cup. It's a beautiful, alliterative, altogether egg-cellent presentation. And, as a witty punch-line, just in case you did not get the egg-in-an-egg-topped-with-eggs joke, in the chocolate dessert course there's a dish that looks egg-actly the same -- the "creme brulee served in an egg shell with chocolate caviar topping" ! Okay, okay, I get it.... I love a corny pun myself, but when it comes to food, I'm not really a high concept person, so this grated on me a little bit.

Honestly, all the food was super well-prepared, technically proficient, quite tasty and, in 1 or 2 cases, surprising. Of course, for the price one should expect at least that much. But after hearing so much about this 3-Michelin-starred chef, I really wanted to be floored by this meal, to have some sort of revelatory taste experience. So when factoring in what we paid for these 2 meals -- about several months salary for the average Chinese citizen -- I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed. We both were. The fancy presentation and the view were nice, but the taste just did not blow either of us away.

It's one month since our Shanghai trip and delicious food memories linger on our tastebuds, but it's not scrambled eggs and caviar we've been reminiscing about. Gavin still talks about that .7元 steamed pork bun, though, and me... I could really use a 7元 bowl of knife-shaved noodles...

Shanghai Eats Part I

Hmm... my Shanghai food report is long overdue... My trouble has been that every time I sit down to put this post together, my stomach starts growling. Then I start craving steamed buns and sesame pancakes, get distracted, and drift off to the kitchen.... Must... focus...


Over the course of 4 days of eating in Shanghai, we subsisted on a combination of snacks from street carts, small dishes from canteens and the occasional restaurant meal. Our eating adventures in Shanghai inspired me to make the admittedly not-very-scientific graph above. The x-axis is cost in yuan and the y-axis represents deliciousness. Would the inverse curve here remain true if we were to stay in Shanghai a little longer to sample more of the city's culinary offerings? I've no idea, but it doesn't seem like it would cost us TOO much money to make a second trip to Shanghai to find out... ^_^

First, a little street eatin'...

1. Da Bing (大餅), 2. Steamed pork bun, 3. Bowl of rice and chili paste, 4. Da bing, 5. Steamed vegetable buns, 6. Fresh bamboo shoots, 7. Sheng1jian1 Man2tou (生煎饅頭), 8. Dou4fu3 Hua4 (豆腐花), 9. Chun1juan3 (春卷), 10. ...Three!, 11. Níu ròu lā miàn (牛肉拉麵), 12. Hmph

Sesame pancakes (大餅 / Dà bǐng) 3元 (US$0.43)
On our walks around Shanghai we saw numerous carts selling dà bǐng -- a sesame-encrusted, flat, round bread -- in varying sizes. Smaller versions were about 5 or 6 inches across and thin. At other carts, they were thick (like focaccia bread) and large (the size of a medium pizza). Our favorites were the ones from 皇中皇大饼 (Huáng Zhōng Huáng Dà Bǐng) a little stand along Renmin Road in the French Concession, near the hospital. On the back of the paper wrapper I noticed they listed numerous locations throughout Shanghai. The dà bǐng here, small and thin, looked humble enough on the outside but the filling of salt, pepper and oil within its flaky folds delivered a surprisingly savory punch to the tastebuds. I did some Googling around after we got home and discovered that dà bing, called "nang" in the Uighur language, is a typical Chinese Muslim breakfast, with roots in the Middle Eastern and South Asian flatbread known as "naan."

Fried buns (生煎饅頭 / Shēngjiān mántou) 4元 (US$0.58)
Shēngjiān mántou are small, pan-seared buns with pork filling. In nearly every neighborhood of Shanghai, you'll find little canteens, some with only a few plastic tables, serving this distinctly Shanghainese breakfast. To avoid searing the roof of your mouth, take a tiny little bite first -- just enough to make a small hole and drain the flavorful soup into your spoon. Then you can pop the whole thing in your mouth to enjoy the contrast of crunchy fried skin to juicy, savory interior. Follow up by drinking your spoonful of meaty soup before moving on to the next bun. They are usually served four buns to a dish -- good if you're a party of 2 or 4, but if there are 3 of you you'll have to fight for the last one. As with most fried things, it's best to have these when they're hot and fresh off the grill, when the crisply toasted skin has not yet been permeated by the bun's hot soupy filling.

Tofu pudding (豆腐花 / Dòufǔ hùa)
Literally "bean-curd flower," dòufǔ hùa is a pudding-like dish of extra-soft tofu. Although I've had dòufǔ hùa growing up -- it was one of my grandma's favorite foods -- I'd only experienced it as a dim-sum dessert, topped with syrup or honey. According to Wikipedia, the savory, soy-sauce-doused incarnation seen above is a Northern Chinese style of preparation. In Northern China, it's also known as dòufǔ nāo (豆腐腦), literally "bean curd brains." Ha ha! That always makes me laugh... tofu don't have brains! Do they? But I'll happily have tofu brains any 'ol time... After I put the first bite of savory tofu in my mouth and the silken bean curd, soy sauce, vinegar, green onions and pickled vegetables concoction slid effortlessly down my throat, I couldn't stop until the bowl was completely drained.

Spring rolls (春卷 / Chūnjuǎn)
I'm usually not crazy about spring rolls -- they're too dry for my taste, and it seems a rare occasion when they are actually made with fresh ingredients. But the innocent-looking fried rolls we had at one Shanghai canteen had -- surprise! -- soup inside. As with the fried buns that we'd had at the same establishment, the delightful contrast between crispy skin vs. soupy interior made for a delicious and intriguing textural experience. I'm starting to sense that the Shanghainese like putting soup inside things. Here's a little recipe to keep the insides of your spring rolls juicy.

Beef Ramen (牛肉拉麵 / Níuròu lā miàn) 5元 (US$0.73)
Although "lā miàn" literally means "hand-pulled noodles," when you see the words on a Chinese menu the name is all-too-often a historical reference while the actual noodles that land before you have been rendered into existence by machine. My first experiences of ramen noodles were the instant, MSG-laden, "Gung Jai (Doll) Mien (Noodles)" packages that my mom would use to bribe us into being good little kids. In subsequent, better, incarnations of lamian / ramen that I've tried, it was often the soup that stood out while the noodles always seemed to be the same flavorless, dry, machine-cut strands. Despite those past experiences, when we saw 拉麵 on the menu, somehow we knew we were in for something good. With one shlurp, I understood what those ubiquitous instant ramen noodles are SUPPOSED to taste like. Meaty aromatic broth, fresh cilantro, lightly boiled slivers of beef AND -- finally -- chewy, hand-stretched noodles cooked to perfection... heaven! Check out some noodle-pulling action on YouTube.

Knife-shaved beef noodles (牛肉刀削麵 / Níuròu dāoxīao miàn) 7元 (US$1.00)
A few months ago, I read Lin Liu's memoir / cookbook, "Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China" and salivated upon learning of "dāoxiāo miàn." These noodles have their origins in western China and are shaped by shaving a block of dough into boiling water. So, when we passed a small Halal canteen near Jingan Temple with a pot of burbling water out front, we immediately knew this was where we could finally try knife-shaved noodles. Upon our order, the requisite amount of noodle dough was immediately peeled into the giant vat. Our noodle-maker, only a teenage boy, had a quick wrist and an innate sense of noodle-timing. Minutes later, he ladled the perfectly cooked noodles out of the pot and into a bowl of aromatic beef soup. Our noodles -- topped with cilantro and thin slices of beef -- had the not-too-hard, not-too-soft, perfectly-chewy texture that only hand-made, freshly-cooked noodles could have.
Check out some expert noodle-shaving on YouTube.

Scallion pancakes (蔥油餅 / Cōng yóu bing)
If you're exploring Shanghai streets tourist-style with a camera in hand, a hot-off-the-grill scallion pancake can be the perfect one-hand snack to nourish your wanderings.... But I have a word of advice about scallion pancakes. I'm pretty sure that they are fairly similar in quality regardless of where you go, but just make sure they are frying up fresh ones when you order. A scallion pancake that has been cooling on a rack for a while isn't very satisfying...

Steamed bun (包子 / Bāozi ) .7元 (US$0.10)
As we explored the Old Town, we happened upon a street stall fielding a constant stream of customers. The shop was tiny but it was filled front to back with steamers of buns in varying states of preparation -- awaiting steaming, being steamed, just-finished steaming. They had veggie, preserved veggie and pork fillings, and we went for one of each. Nothing hits the spot like a freshly steamed bun; I didn't even know that I had been craving a steamed bun until I took that first bite and heard my taste-buds cheer! There's something dreamy about how each ball of soft, perfectly airy, steamed dough lovingly envelopes a saucy burst of flavor. Heaven at just .70元 (10 U.S. cents) a bun!

Shanghai

Those who arrive at Thekla can see little of the city, beyond the plank fences, the sackcloth screens, the scaffoldings, the metal armatures.... If you ask, "Why is Thekla's construction taking such a long time?" the inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, lowering leaded strings, moving long brushes up and down, as they answer, "So that its destruction cannot begin...."
—excerpted from Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino


1. Tourists along the Bund, 2. Baby chicks

----- CITY GUIDES -----
The lighting speed of development in Shanghai means that if the ink has dried in your guidebook the facts are already out of date... It wasn't long after hitting the ground in Shanghai that we realized that our Lonely Planet was sadly behind the times. Printed in 2006, it only showed 2 subway lines. Here we are in 2009, and Shanghai already has 8 subway lines. And if the flurry of construction we saw everywhere is any indication, my little mini-guide below will also be imminently outmoded. Best to consult those on the ground and in the know; here are some of my favorite online city guides for Shanghai:

• Superfuture: Shanghai - This downloadable PDF is an indispensable guide for any design-hound, well worth the $20. Superfuture's neighborhood guide helped us navigate the twisty lanes of the French Concession to the doorsteps of many cool little boutiques.
• Urbanatomy: Shanghai - A good resource to check out what cultural and art events are going down during during your stay.
• SmartShanghai.com - Another good event guide and venue listing, with taxi directions in Chinese!
• Unlike: Shanghai - If you have an iPhone, check out this awesome city guide for their customizable mobile tours.
• Jongo: Shanghai - It's terrible as a search engine, but once you do find a listing, Jongo very helpfully provides you with the Chinese characters, pronunciation using standard pinyin with tones and an audio file, a map, directions for the taxi driver in Chinese, videos and photos and a description of the destination in English.

----- NAVIGATING -----
On foot
The flavors (literally & figuratively) of Shanghai are in its streets and backalleys. So grab a good map, explore on foot and stop at the snack stalls along the way! All of Shanghai's street signs are in Chinese and English so, although the most useful maps should probably have Chinese on them, we were able to make do with a stapled printout of Superfuture's PDF which is entirely in English.

By subway
The recently developed metro is easy to navigate and changing by the second -- three subway lines were added in 2007 alone! Here's a current map (current as of this writing, anyhow). Watch out for the madhouse at the Shanghai Railway Station (上海火車站 / Shànghǎi Huǒchē Zhàn) metro stop, though.

By taxi
If your feet get weary or your destination is far from a subway station, taxis are easy and relatively cheap. The taxi drivers don't speak English, so here is where a good map becomes essential. This one has Chinese, Pinyin Romanization and English! My Mandarin is horrendous, so I will surely purchase a copy for our next trip!


3. Afternoon, 4. Market

----- WE STAYED -----
Donghu Hotel (東湖賓館 / Dōng Hú Bīn Guǎn)
For our 3-night, 4-day stay in Shanghai, we chose the Donghu Hotel (東湖賓館) in the French Concession. Our deluxe room was humongous, had a large sunroom and was situated in Building 1, the former residence of a 1930's Shanghai gangster named Du Yuesheng. With lavish carved wood details in the lobby, an outsized fountain in the front yard, and the faint smell of smoke clinging to the upholstery, Donghu still retains the lingering aura of a Mafioso homestead. Maybe that's part of it's quirky charm? In any case, there's no denying that 4-star accommodations starting at $80/night is a great value. Call them or book via Expedia to get better rates than what they have listed on their website, and make sure you stay in Building 1.

There's no shortage of lodging establishments in Shanghai, but I have my eye on these boutique hotels for my next visits:
• Quintet - Only five rooms, but each so beautifully designed!
• Old House - I know Shanghai is constantly growing and modernizing, but I can't separate my mental image of this storied city with noir and romance...
• Urban Hotel - The location isn't quite as romantic as the tree-lined lanes near the Donghu Hotel, but Urban has a clean aesthetic and a clean philosophy.


5. French Concession, 6. The Pottery Workshop

----- WE EXPLORED -----
Shanghai is a city of neighborhoods, each with it's own enduring character... The Concessions arose at the end of the Opium Wars as foreign interests carved out portions of Shanghai to live and lease within. These days the Concession are more likely divided up along class lines than national ones.

The French Concession (上海法租界 / Shànghǎi Fǎ Zūjiè)
Dodging bicycles and munching street snacks, we wandered the French Concession and slowly absorbed the fact that we were in the city so often called the "Paris of the East." Of all of Shanghai's varied neighborhoods, the French Concession, with it's shady tree-lined streets and beautiful 1930s era lane houses, preserves and captures this sentiment the best.
• TheFrenchConcession.com - This blog covers the ins and outs of the French Concession post by post.
• ToranaHouse.com - This gallery's webpage breaks the neighborhood down nicely and even provides a handy map.
• Xintiandi (新天地 / Xīntiāndì) - A somewhat yuppie-fied area of restored shikumen ("stone gate") houses with fancy-pants watering holes and restaurants.
• Taikang Lu (泰康路) - An area of art studios and design boutiques packed into old shikumen lanes. It seems to have happened rather quickly, but sadly Taikang Lu has already become somewhat of an Orient-themed mall, albeit with a slight hipster, artsy vibe. There are still some bewildered elderly residents trying to dry their laundry among the postcard racks, though....
• Changle Lu, Xinle Lu, Anfu Lu - Huaihai Zhong Lu (淮海中路 / Huáihǎizhōnglù) is the main commercial drag where you can find the flagship stores of international brands, but running parallel to it to the north are Changle Lu (長樂路 / Chánglelù), Xinle ( 新樂路 / Xīnlelù), and Anfu Lu (安福路 / Ānfúlù), featuring local designers and boutiques. The downloadable Superfuture PDF guide will point you to the best choices among these. My favorite shops in the French Concession included The Thing for funky t-shirts, Source for sneakers, The Pottery Workshop for contemporary ceramics and Hi Panda for... um... your angry panda needs.

The Bund (外滩 / Wài tān)
On the western bank of the Huangpu River, Western banking houses and trading companies built during the late 1800s and early 1900s represent a colonial past. Opposite the Bund in Pudong, the Oriental Pearl Tower and the World Financial Center make for a futuristic vision and a remarkable skyline. Much of the Bund is currently under construction as Shanghai prepares for Expo 2010, so if you're thinking of staying in a hotel on the Bund this year, you might want to reconsider. Despite the construction, there's still a viewing platform along the river from which to admire the smoggy Pudong skyline. Along the Bund itself, you can still glimpse a bit of Shanghai's mercantile history through the scaffolding.

• Identifying the buildings - Print out this guide and use it to identify the Bund's impressive collection of turn of the century European architecture.


7. Walking, 8. Shanghai

Old Town (南市 / Nán shì)
After our walk along the Bund, we headed south for something different. The area contained by the curved Renmin Lu was once delimited by Shanghai's old city wall. That city wall, built in 1555 to protect the city from Japanese pirates, was torn down in 1911.

I had an old unused roll of black and white film that I bought 9 years ago. It had been through airport checked bag screening several times and I wasn't too sure whether any of the photos would come out. But a walk through Shanghai's Old Town seemed like the perfect time to romanticize the past with it. It was a sunny day in Shanghai, and everyone seemed to take the opportunity to wash and hang dry their winter jackets and blankets.

9. Street, 10. Sunny Day

In the 1800s, even as foreign influences dominated the Bund and the Concessions, the Old Town was where locals went about their daily lives in tiny, lesser-quality shikumen ("stone gate") apartments without indoor plumbing. Here, kitchens are outdoors and residents share the public bathrooms scattered throughout the winding alleyways. Day-to-day life seems to be continuing in this form, out on the streets and in the alleyways, even amidst the rampant tourist traffic. For much of our walking I put my camera away; it felt like we were traipsing through strangers' kitchens and backyards. I didn't want to intrude, but strolling through these lanes and tempting my voyeuristic impulses made me momentarily wish I lived here with my family, so we could sit down for dinner at a little plastic table set out on the street and slurp a bowl of noodles among our neighbors. Of course, the lack of indoor plumbing is kind of a deal-breaker for me.

11. Bicycle, 12. Cultural Revolution

With those modern hotels and office buildings towering in the background, I wonder how long it would be before the wrecking balls arrive to make way for more futuristic skyscrapers... But for now, the area seems protected by its historical status.
• Movius' Old Town Walking Tour - I recommend wandering aimlessly, but this page has a nice suggested walking itinerary of the Old Town.
• Slums of Shaolin - Take a voyeuristic lil' peek into Old Town's back alleys on this blog.
• Dongtai Lu Antiques Market (東台路古玩市場 / Dōngtái Lù Gǔwán Shìchǎng) - The vendors will be sure to tell you that everything is "Old. Really Old." I'm pretty sure there's brand new factory somewhere in southern China churning out these "vintage" Cultural Revolution Mao paraphernalia. Nevertheless, cool retro-looking stuffs abound, so bargain hard...
• Yu Gardens (豫園 / Yù Yuán) - If you were looking for something more... stereotypically Chinese... check out Shanghai's Chinatown. It's even got a Dairy Queen and a Burger King! There's actually a very pretty (I guess, from the pictures) Chinese garden and teahouse buried somewhere in there, but we didn't go because the whole place was really crowded. Definitely a place to avoid on weekends.

----- WE ATE -----
During our 4 days in Shanghai, we subsisted mostly on delicious and cheap street food, but we did set aside one evening (and... uh... a couple hundred dollars) for a French dinner at the Shanghai outpost of the famed, 3-Michelin-star Jean George. Our eating experiences in Shanghai deserve a separate post, so stay tuned....


13. One..., 14. Street eats

Craftivism

It's been awhile since I last wrote about my crafting projects. There's a good reason for that. It's because I haven't been crafting very much. So while I've been very good with my New Year's Resolution to not buy any new crafting supplies (I haven't caved in once, not even in Shanghai!), regrettably I haven't made much of a dent in the existing stores of fabric.

However, I do want to proudly, though belatedly, report that from January through February, I raised $513 from my craft sales for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation! A bunch of Sir Hamilton iPhone Cozies, hungry Alejandro el Legarto Pencil Cases, Cloudy Coin Purses, and those mischievous Change Purses, Bob and Dexter -- they all went to loving homes in return for some generous donations. Type I diabetes unfortunately makes a lot more money for certain healthcare corporations as a chronic disease than it would if it were cured. But it's good to know there are dedicated researchers out there working hard on a solution. I hope that the JDRF-funded work, coupled with Obama's recent executive order lifting the ban on federal funding for stem cell research, will lead to a cure this decade.

I've been a workaholic for the past few months, but now with some major design projects completed, and others in production, I finally have some free time again to play! This month I'll be restocking my Etsy shop and sewing up some new things. This is a great time to announce the cause that I'll be donating my Etsy proceeds to AND post about a trip to Ethiopia. From May through September, my Etsy proceeds (100% not including the cost of shipping) will benefit elderly in Ethiopia who are at a disadvantage because of having HIV/AIDS or being part of a family affected by HIV/AIDS.

And regarding the Ethiopia trip, no it wasn't I who went to Ethiopia -- it was my sister! All of my siblings are a constant inspiration to me, but Maria still surprised me when she suddenly announced last summer that she would be jetting off to Addis Ababa to temporarily serve with the Missions To The World AIDS Care and Treatment project. She's a doctor by day and a full-time mom, so the fact that she was taking her vacation time to work with HIV/AIDS patients in Ethiopia really made me feel proud and humbled.


Photos courtesy of Maria Lee

Maria found out about Missions to the World medical missions through her church. The logistics of her trip -- involving doctors and support staff from across America and suitcases full of medical supplies -- were handled by Bev and Andy, two missionaries in Addis Ababa. For several months preceding the trip, Maria and her fellow medical teammates raised funds for travel and gathered supplies. Then in February, for two weeks with the help of interpreters, the team set up a medical clinic at the ministry to treat and counsel HIV/AIDS patients.

You can read more about the amazing trip that my sister took on her church's blog HERE.

Photos courtesy of Maria Lee

Although the needs of HIV/AIDS affected children in Africa can't be diminished, there are comparatively very few funds allocated to the support of similarly affected elders. Lack of access to basic healthcare means that life expectancy in Ethiopia is only 41 years. Since my sister (both my sisters, actually) devotes her professional life to treating elderly patients, she noticed the compounded lack of care options for those elders in Ethiopia who lost their social and family networks because of HIV/AIDS.

In my sisters' words: "After my two weeks there, I spoke to the staff there and told them that my heart went out to the elders there who lost families. Elders there rely on families to take care of them but many have lost children and grandchildren to HIV/AIDS. I call them orphaned elders. I don't know what others call them. The current program is for HIV/AIDS patients and the immediate family members of that patient. Current monies coming in are not budgeted for needy elders but I think it is a big need."

"On the last Friday I was there, one of my elder patients shared her story about how her family outcast her because they couldn't accept her converting from the Ethiopian orthodox religion to Muslim religion. So she is without family also. She cried before me about how she had to sell all her household belongings just to buy food. She fears she will soon need to resort to begging. She reported significant weight loss. I "adopted" her and gave my "downpayment" to the staff to help her buy some food for the month of March. I plan to send some more. But there are many more who need this assistance as well. Would you be interested in being a part of my new pet project?" Of course, Maria!

So, there you have it. Proceeds from my Etsy shop sales from May through September will be going to the Missions to the World Medical Missions, earmarked to help HIV/AIDS affected elderly in Addis Ababa. Go buy stuff here!

Cupcakes

1. Sugar Sweet Sunshine!, 2. Salt caramel frosting, 3. Red Velvet, 4. Buttercream frosting, cherry and chocolate frosting, 5. Martha's Country Bakery, 6. Red velvet cupcake

I've been such a terrible blogger... Would some cupcakes make up for it?
I'll be back to travel posts soon! We're going to Shanghai this weekend!

Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

1. View, 2. Cloud / sun, 3. Striped, 4. Orange, 5. Riding the waves, 6. Surf dog, 7. Yellow building, 8. Hawaii State Capitol, 9. Matsumoto's Shave Ice, 10. Garlic butter shrimp, 11. Bicycle rack, 12. Bike rack

Oops, I've neglected this blog for... over a month! I didn't mean for that to happen... I will write something more substantial later when work dies down a little. In the meanwhile, here are some links to pics. Our original plan was to go to Maui, but some things changed last minute and instead I got to spend a whole week with my sister and her family, including my 3 adorable neices! Family time, Chinese food, some laid-back strolling around town, shave ice and surfer watching were just what the doctor ordered...