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| Dinner at Home on April 8, 2010
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| Di Yin's mom made Di Yin a birthday dinner: eel (top-right), chow mein
noodles with pork and cabbage (left), and braised bamboo shoots
(bottom-right). The bamboo shoots are a seasonal thing; there's only a
short period of time when they're soft enough to eat. These were nicely
crispy and, though fibrous, split easily. I liked the eel too, though I
must remember not to eat too many of the numerous slices of ginger, lest
the taste of the eel be overwhelmed. However, my favorite part of this
meal was the chow mein.
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We also had chicken soup (which I forgot to photograph). Di Yin and her
mom love their soups.
| Di Yin and her mom.
| Ditto.
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| Di Yin happily attacking her birthday cake.
| Ditto, more poised.
| So excited!
| Di Yin and her mom.
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The cake, incidentally, was chocolate and coconut, also with a bit of cream
inside. The coconut flavor was very strong. The chocolate leaves on top
were good dark chocolate, and remarkably pretty -- the bakers even
sculpted the veins on the leaves. (Sorry, I don't have a close-up picture
of the cake.).
| Amusing cartoons that came with the cake about different ways to eat a
cake, plus some unusual forks.
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The cake came with a catalog showing the other cakes the company (21 Cake) makes and
conveying the company's philosophy. Some cakes are amazingly pretty such
as one cake covered entirely with intricate model roses. The bakery's
philosophy is modern: quality ingredients, purity, no preservatives, etc.
I like their ideas and also their quirky writing style in describing
themselves and their cakes.
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| Dinner at Godly Vegetarian Restaurant on April 9, 2010
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Di Yin and I returned to our usual haunt of Godly and had our usual dish
of vegetable wontons (example picture) that we both like.
| We also had "vegetarian scallops in vegetarian seafood sauce." These
were good. I don't know how Godly does it, but they always get the
texture right of their mock meats.
| The menu description for our scallops says X. O. sauce/paste (jiang4)
snow/thing-that-looks-like-snow (xue3) shellfish (bei4).
| We also tried the day's special: can2 dou4. These were also good; we
decided to try cooking them at home. The word translates into broad bean
or fava bean, but these were bigger than any fava beans I've seen before.
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This was a good meal, and we wondered why we don't come to Godly more
often. Then we realized: most of our food outings are to equally good
destinations. We have a plethora of good choices. :)
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| Dinner at Yanagiya on April 12, 2010
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Di Yin and I returned a local Japanese restaurant, Yanagiya. Given that
we liked our
first visit, it's been surprisingly long time had elapsed since it.
At first we sat downstairs (see picture, which includes Di Yin and her set
meal), but they moved us upstairs as soon as they had space. (I think
they realized that was the most effective way to get us to stop glaring at
/ asking other customers to stop smoking.)
The room they moved us
to upstairs was a similar one to the cute recessed floor one we ate in last
time.
| My daikon sushi and cucumber sushi.
| Pumpkin tempura. Sauce not shown.
| "Wild vegetable soba" noodle soup. Pretty good. Lots of mushrooms in
there too.
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| Unagi hand roll.
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| Lunch at Bo Do One Hong Kong on April 17, 2010
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| I returned yet again to the Hong-Kong-style restaurant on Urumqi Road that
I like. I had sweet and sour shrimp with pineapple, one of the few dishes
one can order in Shanghai and get de-shelled shrimp. I liked the shrimp,
deep-fried I think, but found the sauce too sweet for me. As I trust this
restaurant, I realize this was the final test: I've now concluded (from a
number of samples) that main courses in Shanghai that are meant to have
some sweetness are always too sweet for me.
| The menu entry the previous dish: pineapple (feng4 li2) sweet-and-sour
(note: this is by convention; neither character means sweet or sour) (gu1
lu1) shrimp (xia1) balls (qiu2) cooked-rice/meal (fan4). (Yes, the
English is incorrectly translated.)
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| Lunch at Francks on April 18, 2010
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| One day we ate lunch at Francks, a cute French bistro hidden a courtyard a
mere two blocks from our apartment. This is the lane to the courtyard.
| There are a number of stores in the courtyard. This photo is of a
coffee-house with many outdoor tables. Many white people.
I don't
have anything to say about the strange sculpture.
| The other side of the courtyard, with Francks halfway down on the left.
| Francks's cute interior. I like the colorful modern art paintings and
think they match the feel of the restaurant.
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| The other side of the restaurant, with maps of France and old (movie?)
posters.
| Our "salade mixte" really does have many different types of vegetables.
Respectable.
| Our "terrine de campagne". Basically a pate made usually from pork and
chicken livers and more, and shaped into a loaf. We liked it, as well as
the onion relish and the lightly dressed salad. We ate it atop freshly
toasted French bread and sliced rye bread.
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Our waiter (white) had an authentic French accent. We wondered if he was
an intern here from France.
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