Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :)

And a bit of Shanghai X-mas feeling which is mainly shopping oriented..

Christmas market..even if in China..warms the heart :) (and so does hot wine in that Xmas market ;)

no comment.. :)

Typical "Santa" outfit in most of the chain restaurants in Shanghai...makes me smile (or laugh) every time I see something like this :))

Happy hollidays! :)

Monday, December 21, 2009

Chinese cuisine !!! Bon Appetit !!!

Now let`s take a culinary break and see what delicacies you can expect when visiting China ;) (when visiting me in China - sounds even better :)

My top 5 of "I`m ready to eat it whenever wherever" :)

1. Xiaolongbao otherwise know as steamed BUNs ;)...there is one secret place in Shanghai...and buns are soo good there!!!

2. Hot pot or cook-it-yourself-experience :) You basically get a pot of regular or spicy (or both) soup and order raw ingredents that you dip into soup and cook as you eat...real fun & real tasty & real dangerous cause you always eat more than you want ;)

3. Seafood!!! no comment...yammm :)!!!!!



4. Street food! All sorts of meet/veggie/seafood barbecue!

5. Tea (in this picture LongJing tea) & water melon


Now let`s look at some delicacies that I find a bit more challenging to try ;)

Don`t ask me what that is... all I know - that`s seafood! Didn`t dare to try ;)

Now this one is called elephant nose! It was served raw... yet somehow I still prefer raw salmon ;)

Elephant noses in action :)))

Another mystic sea creature...haven`t tried yet :)))


Other "hot must-try" food items :)

Hairy crab! Cute crab prepared for winter ;) Real popular here in autumn season...actually still sold all around... even saw them sold alive in tax-free of Shanghai airport :))

Megabun...that`s how I call it :) Delicacy filled with gravy!

Fish,frogs, snakes, turtles... in a traditional Chinese restaurant you will see them alive (live interactive menu ;) and then pick... Still haven`t tried snakes & turtles

Zongzi - traditional food for Dragon boat festival in May. Look cool, but that`s the only cool thing about it to me ;)

Dumplings: all kind os shapaes, fillings, etc...

Smoked stuff (ducks, for example): haven`t figured out how to eat that stuff exactly, but sure looks impressive and seems to be very popular among locals!

The typical Chinese round table: every meal is like a feast and according to Chinese tradition it`s polite to leave some food as to show that is was good and you had enough...cause if you eat it all they might think it wasn`t enough and you are still hungry!

and...it`s important to feed the Gods, of course :)



And latest discovery in Shanghai is "ALL YOU CAN EAT & DRINK" offer in some restaurants!
There are some barbecue places for true meat lovers: for around 19 Euros (per person) you get unlimited amount of different kinds of meats and unlimited salad & dessert bar. Now this is real dangerous...cause the food keeps coming...and the food is good!
And there are many Japanese teppanyaki places offering ALL YOU CAN EAT & DRINK for 10to 20 Euros (depending on the restaurant) which includes all sorts of teppanyaki, sushi and yeah...sake, plum wine and other nice stuff :) Feast guaranteed ;)

See you for my next post ;) Hungry yet?:)

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Artistic Shanghai: MOGANSHAN ROAD

Moganshan road (M50) is the cradle of Shanghai's modern art scene full of nice galleries in old factory buildings and warehouses located next to Suzhou Creek.



Opening of the exibition "PLACEBO"





Spent quite some time wondering around this exibition...all of the exibits in this exibition were pinhole cameras!!!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Barbies in Shanghai :)

Might seem strange to have a whole post dedicated to barbies at my age, but hey... I never got to see something like that when I was a kid, so why not to return to childhood for a moment... wanna join?;)

So there is a huuuuge 6 floor Barbie Store in Shanghai - dream come true for all the little ladies out there: barbies, fashion runway, day spa, doll design center, barbie cafe, etc... and even as an adult it`s hard not to be amazed by this pink wonderland!

I`m a barbie girl, in my barbie world...life in plastic..is fantastic ;) (that`s what happens during weekends!)

Barbie style






Turns out there are barbies of different nationalities...

CHINESE

PUERTO RICAN

RUSSIAN

NATIVE AMERICAN

SOUTH AFRICAN

PERUVIAN

PARISIAN

GERMAN

LITTLE BARBIE FASHION SHOW :)


BARBIE CAFE