December 2009

Page 2 of 4.

Click on images below to enlarge:
Ibid, without the people blocking some of the decorations. That said, I think I like the previous photo better.	The adorned bushes on the street in front of the mall.	The trees, outlined in lights, along West Nanjing Road, which runs in front of the mall and temple.	A video of animated side of a building, including pictures of the gumby-like Expo icon.
Earlier in the month, we witnessed a traffic tangle near Jing'an Temple. Sure, there's usually traffic but it wasn't rush hour at this time of day. Nevertheless, the road truly got jammed: notice how no bus or car can move because each is being blocked by another vehicle. Incidentally, the car in the bottom-center eventually backed up, letting the two buses to its left go and thus clearing the mess.
Daily Life: Urumqi Road
Some days I walk to Urumqi Road for breakfast. There's a ton of stands selling mostly anything one could ask for for a portable Chinese breakfast: fried dumplings, steamed buns, jian bing, Chinese donuts, roasted breads, fried breads. It's definitely a detour from work, so I only do it when I have a lot of time. There are places I stop by for breakfast too, depending on time and motivation, but Urumqi is the destination with the most choices (and also the most photogenic).	The other side of Urumqi. I think the long shop that one can't see into in this picture is one of the street's many fruit vendors. Also, I can't get over the hanging clothes.	A picture of the fry-bread stand. This picture was taken much later (on March 22, 2010) when a friend J of mine and Di Yin's visited. I never buy from this stand: it's not as good as and has a smaller selection than the fry-bread stand by the green/wet market closer to our apartment.	In an alley off of Urumqi is a noodle vendor. On dry days, they hang their noodles from poles as seen here.
Daily Life: Weekend Breakfast
My local fry-bread shop is literally a hole-in-the-wall near our green/wet market (on Wukang Road). I often stopped by here for breakfast on the weekends. I took this picture much later (on April 3, 2010), when I realized I didn't have a picture of this shop.	Sorry, I did not feel comfortable taking pictures of our local green/wet market. It's like any other such market in Shanghai.	Items for sale at the fry-bread shop: thousand-layer pancake (big, center, sold by weight), pancake coated with egg (big, left, sold by weight), roll stuffed with shredded turnip (either top-left or top-right), roll stuffed with chinese cabbage and vermicelli noodles (ditto), roll stuffed with julienned potatoes (rectangular, bottom-left), and flaky, sweetened, layered roll (rectangular, bottom-right). I took this picture much later (on April 3, 2010), when I realized I didn't have a picture of this shop.
Daily Life: Construction
One day, I spotted this line of cement trucks waiting to be used in the construction project on our block. Only one truck could drive down our lane to the building being built, so all these were idling by the entrance to our lane.	Another perspective of the same line of cement trucks.
Dinner at How Way on December 7, 2009
Tea-smoked duck. The handful of times I've had tea-smoked duck in the states, it was duck that tasted vaguely like tea. This was different; it really was smoked and tasted it. The "smoke ring" (as the BBQ-ers call it) actually penetrated through all the flesh. The skin was caramelized and delicious. Served at room temperature.	Fish in chili oil. This was much like the previous time we had this dish; we just ordered a version without bean sprouts this time.	Sauteed large mushrooms. Again, like the previous time we ordered this dish, though this one has a few more black mushrooms on top.	Cabbage in a clay pot. A great, addictive, salty, hearty dish of cabbage on rice tossed with roasted garlic, ginger, exceptional black beans, and more. The black beans truly were unusual, like potent salty-spicy balls that needed a piece of cabbage or a spoonful of rice to be combined with one bean to prevent it from being overwhelming. These beans are nothing like the black beans used in Chinese dishes such as "beef in black bean sauce." They're a whole different league. Di Yin's mom tells me these are special black beans from Sichuan.
Dinner at Korean Restaurant in Grand Gateway Plaza on December 18, 2009
Di Yin posing (with our order sheet) by our grill (as of yet lacking charcoal), our lettuce, two types of kimchi, one type of seaweed, various dipping sauces.	Di Yin grilling some of our beef ribs. We liked the beef much better than pork belly, though we were disappointed both were un-marinated and un-spiced and therefore boring. The only way we ended up being happy with the meal was with peanut sauce dip, which boosted it to good.	Slices of pork belly, the other meat we grilled. These meats grilled quickly.	Our assorted vegetables: shiitake mushrooms, sliced oyster mushrooms, sliced white potatoes, and sliced sweet potatoes. My favorite part of the meal was the shiitake mushrooms (which took a while to grill) and the sweet potatoes (ah, sweetness).
A bibimbap-like dish of mixed vegetables, rice, egg, and ground meat in a hot stone pot. Fairly good I guess.
Lunch at Fast Food Joint near Home on December 20, 2009
One day I ate at the relatively-fast-food place two blocks from my apartment. I had a decent meal of rice with greens, fried breaded pork chops, Chinese-style pickled edamame and garlic, and a sour soup.
Dinner at Yanagiya on December 20, 2009
The Japanese restaurant Yanagiya on Hengshan Road (near our local subway station) had really cute sunken tables, seating mats, and shoji screens.	Our (good) broiled eel set, which included miso soup, salad, fried lotus, and daikon.	We also had salmon sashimi, yellowtail sushi, and pickled daikon rolls.