Szechwan Food in Shangahai

I had the honour of being invited to a supper at the five star Shangra-La Hotel in the Pudong area of Shanghai last night. The Shangra-La hotels are a chain of about 70 hotels throughout Asia and the Middle East. One night’s stay in a standard room is about 1845 rmb/night. (Where I am staying the cost for my room is 258 rmb/night) [One rmb equals 0.138 Canadian, so my hotel room is about $35 cdn]

The Pudong area of Shanghai was quite a ways away from where I am staying in the Hungkou district and it took us at least an hour to get there. This is a similar route to the one I took from the airport, but the first time I’d seen it in the daylight. When I arrived it was already getting dark. The skyscrapers are quite amazing here and there are hardly any buildings that are simply square. One that we passed by was so tall I was only able to get the top and the bottom of it, not the whole thing.

Someone I was with happened to have photographs of Dubai and I saw a seven star hotel there….the isnide walls are painted with gold and everything glitters. (A standard room costs about 220,000 rmb/night there...not sure if I got this price right, but will ask again today.)


We started off with drinks/refreshments, and I chose hot chocolate, which was served with a wonderful flair. They give you a tall glass with hot milk, then a selection of medium and dark chocolate wafers that you add until you get the flavour you prefer.


Someone else had a rose flower tea that was very pretty. I think it had something else in it too.

Szechwan food is quite different from other kinds of food and is often quite spicy/hot, which was certainly the case for some foods last night. [Szechwan or sheng province is located in the Upper Yangtze Valley in the southwestern part of China. [Whenever I hear the word "Szechwan", I immediately think of the play I studied in university. The Good Person of Szechwan, also known as The Good Woman of Setzuan, was written by the German playwright, poet, theatre critic, and theorist Bertolt Brecht. The play was produced throughout Europe in the 1940s.]


Traditionally in China one starts a meal with the cold foods, so we had (left to right) cold pork (small slivers of ham), a cold vegetable dish (strips of Chinese root vegetables), cold sliced goose, rolled cucumber skins (quite delicious) and (shown in the second photo at the top) a black fungus and vegetable dish (not quite the same as mushrooms).

















Then we were served snails with what we think was macadamia type nuts, chicken with red peppers (very hot, especially the seeds), cooked pea shoots, vegetarian biscuits, river fish, and a tofu dish. There were also Shanghai dumplings (not shown). The presentations of the dishes were quite impressive.








The finale for a Chinese meal is a platter of fruit: watermelon, another kind of melon kind of like a cross between a cantaloupe and honeydew, and dragon fruit. It has seeds in it that look like a kiwi, but there the similarity ends. The flesh is white and the texture kind of like watermelon.

Otherwise known as pitaya (huǒ lóng guǒ (火龍果/火龙), the dragonfruit sets on the cactus-like tree 30-50 days after flowering.

The Dragon Fruit or Pitaya is a stunningly beautiful fruit with an intense colour and shape, magnificent flowers and a delicious taste.







The skin of the dragon fruit is a thin rind. The skin is usually covered in scales, and the center of the fruit is made up of a red or white, sweet tasting pulp. The flowers of the dragon fruit plant only bloom at night and usually only live for one night. Pollination happens at this time to allow the fruit to emerge. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-dragon-fruit.htm and www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya



I am learning more all the time about the different foods here. I've discovered that the crackled eggs in the brown liquid are called Tea Eggs, and that the green plant with little red root tips is clover. Preserved or 1,000 eggs are done in formaldehyde and other weird things, so that I won't ever eat another one again! And it's true they do serve dog meat, especially in Guangzhou (also cats).



I've been advised as to where to buy food and where not to buy it, so I will be avoiding open market places unless I'm buying fruit that can be peeled (bananas and oranges), though I'm still going to be leery of them as well. I'll be sticking to one of three major outlets, like Carrefour (A French international company that sells almost anything you could ever want) and a couple of others, and buying only packaged food (such as lettuce in plastic bags).



The worst part about most places is that they use MSG on their food. I've had a few reactions to it (flushing and headaches) and there definitely was some on the food last night. I still have a headache! Apparently drinking coke somewhat counteracts the effects. Obviously I didn't drink enough of it last night, or not quick enough.



It will be good when I can cook for myself. I've learned that "mei yu weijing" (may you way jing) means no MSG, so I will also be saying that a lot.


On to another day of adventures....

First Eating Experiences in Shanghai

By the time I got to the my hotel, it was 6:30 pm and I was feeling a little peckish. That’s when I discovered that the food here isn’t even remotely like what we are used to as Chinese food in Canada. I didn’t have my camera last night…too tired to care, but wish now I’d had it…the restaurant venture was quite the experience.

I went to the Cantonese Family Restaurant and was given one large menu…a double-sided laminated card with lots of photos and no English, then another one with many pages that did list the food in English, but was mostly in Chinese, and it too had lots of pictures on it. I looked at interesting drink choices like:
> Chrysanthemum Tea
> Kiwi fruit juice
> Watermelon fruit juice

In the end I declined those, wanting only water to drink. (didn’t know how to ask for it though and I wasn’t sure how the drinking water would be here, so I did without.)

I turned to the food menu and stared at the choices. The photos were of the RAW food… I quickly lost my appetite as I scanned over items like:
> Stewed pig trotter with soy beans and bitter melon
> Pigeon with Chinese herbs (the head was skinned and lying on the plate with the beak up and eyes still in)
> Stewed pig stomach with plantain and coix laryna-jolie
> Stewed pig’s heart with red dates and healthy herbs
> Stewed crocodile meat with Bulblus Fritlaraie
> Soya marinated goose wings
> Soy marinated goose’s web (feet)
> Pig trotter jelly
> Stewed rabbit in a pan
> Fried ostrich meal with lettuce
> Braised crocodile meat with pork belly, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots
> Braised deer tendons with garlic
> Steamed fish hear with black bean heads (oh yes, the whole complete heads)
> Sizzled pork intestines in a clay pot
> Frog scallion on hot plate
> Something that looked like a plate full of blanched fingers still attached above the first knuckles (on the menu without any English, so I have no idea what it was)

I settled for the steamed bun stuffed with pork and broth as I’d tasted something like this in Canada through some Chinese friends. And then I thought I’d try the stir fried water spinach with garlic. I tried to match the Chinese hieroglyphics from the menu with the large printed order form and marked my choices.

At first they brought me a small, white, china glass with some hot liquid in it. I took a little sip and it tasted like hot water. I thought it might be tea as everyone seemed to have the same thing on their tables, but I never saw anyone sipping. Then I wondered if it was meant for dipping fingers in. I watched others intently for quite a while, but no one touched theirs. I continued to sip, partially obscuring what I was doing for fear someone would come over and tell me I was not supposed to drink it. I was thirsty though so I took a few more sips before abandoning it entirely.

My cooked greens came and I managed to eat some of it. It was quite tasty, kind of like cooked spinach though with very long stringy stalks. Chopsticks were the only eating utensils, of course. Then my steamed buns arrived in a bamboo steamer. Each of the six sat in individual aluminum tart tins, nestled in some kind of juice. They were very hot with little lumps of pork inside. I tried hard not to think of the several people who had told me that they serve horse meat and dog meat in China (for real I assumed as this came from reliable people - but maybe it's only an urban legend?). I only made it through about four of the steamed buns, before I couldn’t eat anymore.

I fleetingly thought about what I as going to eat for the next three months, and when I left the restaurant I headed down the street to see if there was a grocery store of any kind. There was but that was about as hopeless. I finally settled on a pre-packaged ice cream bar that looked somewhat familiar as I was still hungry…I bought a bag of chips too, which may be what I live on for a while…though their flavours are very strange. Luckily, I managed to find the American Classic flavour (plain), having discarded the Ketchup and the BBQ pork stew, Red Wine Chicken, Sauteed Prawn, Italian Red Meat, Texas Grilled BBQ, Ziran Steak, French Chicken, Crsipy Srumstick, Baised Pork Ribs, and Frangrant Red Chili. They also have Mango and Lychee flavours.

This morning, Feb 23, Saturday, I couldn't find a place open for breakfast, so I went to the 24 hour store next door...they had quite a selection of pre-packaged food, but nothing I recognized, except for some filled buns and some juices... I bought a couple of packages of filled buns (they're small) and some pineapple, guava and melon juice mixture.














I'll have to get out and look around more to get my bearings and see what else I can find....the hotel doesn't have an English map, so I'll get them to point out where the hotel is on the Chinese map and head out, counting the number of streets I pass (and looking backwards so I recognize my way back).

By noon I was ready to eat again, having risen at 7:00 am. I discovered that the map I'd been given had nothing to do with the area I was in, so I gave up on it and just wandered up the street. Along the way I passed a multitude of little cafes, restaurants, and sidewalk vendors.

I bypassed those with strange looking 'finger' foods (at least the photo to the left is of cooked food), and settled on a popular place a few blocks away.

And guess what? I found a KFC along the way too, but couldn't get anywhere near the counter to order as the place was filled with young people chowing down already. It was located in a busy train station foyer. I decided to save the knowledge for another time when I was desperate to eat some North American food.

The little place I picked had a smaller line-up, but was equally busy. They had a more efficient system whereby one placed the order and then chose a table and the food was brought out to you. It took me a while to realize why my food wasn't arriving. Apparently I had to hand my receipt to one of the waitresses on my way by. My food came, but it wasn't like the photo I'd pointed to...oh well, it was a tasty chicken dish with carrots and onions in a nice sauce, served with rice and a side salad of cold (cooked) water spinach, pickled cucumber and raw peanuts. There were strips of a white stalky vegetable too, but I'm not sure what it was, though it was good.

The good thing about this place was that the food looked more like what I was expecting Chinese food to be. Had I stumbled on a speciality place the night before? I don't think so though as it was a family restaurant. Maybe there's a difference in ethnic foods between Cantonese and others?

In this restaurant, you just sat at tables with other people at them. I found an empty one by chance. At first people were timid to join me, but I waved several others over and soon had a table full.

I also figured out I had to be a little more pushy or I wouldn't get to eat. I stood at the ordering counter for quite a while and the cashier ignored me for quite some time, taking orders from people behind and beside me, until I spoke up. I pointed out my choice from the photos behind him.

I also realized that one has to be more aggressive in general here. I had been pushed aside at the hotel counter too. So far I've seen that women are more agressive here and the men more passive. I'd better step up to the plate and be seen and heard if I want to be served.

I’m going to have to learn to be more adventurous in trying menu items too, though my excuse for right now is that I don’t want to introduce too many changes to my diet too quickly. I know I’ll have to come up with a better excuse soon…wasn’t I the one that said I would try anything except if it had eyeballs in it? I’ve changed my mind and added a few more delicacies to my list of what I’m not willing to try.

This might be partly because I'm not willing to order a whole meal of something and not be able to eat it. I think if I were with someone, we could choose a couple of dishes and experiment. I'm sure I'll get more adventurous as time goes on.