u m a m i

Shanghai March 2005 - Eating

 

We were walking along Xiang Yang Lu one afternoon when we saw a little old lady waiting stoically by an actual hole-in-the-wall stall while the 3 degrees wind blew fiercely about. She may be on to something good, we thought, so we crossed the road and waited with her. We couldn't actually see what was being sold, because the vendor covered the pan, though he turned it every so often and kept insisting gently that no, it was not ready yet. The smell from the pan was driving us crazy. We waited 10 minutes, though it felt like 10 years.

Finally he deemed it ready. He lifted the cover and we saw these beauties- pan fried xiao long baos. The Shanghainese call it shen jian bao, literally this means baos fried from raw.

Hot he said, be careful. Mum and aunt tore into the buns not caring if they got scalded or burnt, besides they were already numb from the cold. We all know how delicious xiao long bao is, now imagine the pan fried version which has a crispy caramelised skin at the bottom. Once the delicate yet resilient skin on top is breached, hot broth squirts out just like a regular xlb and finally we reach the little nugget of juicy pork inside. That first mouthful of contrasting skin textures and pork juices was ecstasy. It was the best thing I have eaten in Shanghai, ever.

Apparently the stall is not even considered the best in town but my mum and aunt would definitely disagree. Later, we ordered this dish at every Shanghainese restaurant we visited. None came close to the street version. Their skins were thicker, almost fluffy like regular baos.

Food was not really a big priority for my mum and aunt. When I ask them what they would like for dinner, their answer would inevitably be " something simple lah", or ' something light'. So that meant I had to cancel the Whampoa Club booking. But looking back, we managed to eat quite well and I ended up liking Shanghainese food more compared to our previous trip. How did this change come about?

Well, there weren't any drastic changes in the cooking style of the local cuisine. But I changed my style of ordering. I paid more attention to the appetiser section, especially the leng cai (cold appetisers) and discovered a whole new world of wonderful dishes such as the endless variations of tofu skin and greens like the one above. Appetisers come in small portions and are usually fresh tasting and lighter on the oil and seasonings and if we didn't like it there isn't much food to waste.

Shanghainese appetisers are fun. One of our favourite default orders was cucumbers tossed with garlic- crunchy, sweet and garlicky, this dish is hard to mess up. Another perennial favourite is chicken tossed with peanut sauce or what the Chinese restaurants in London would call bang bang chicken. At the Liu Hui Guan Restaurant in Xintiandi (tel 63850188) I sampled an intriguing dish of 'jellied eggs' which means hard boiled egg white with soft-cooked yolks. I liked this restaurant very much because none of their dishes were oily, even their delicious braised pork was relatively light. Mummy loved their spinach and pine nuts which was moulded into a tall pyramid.

Another new favourite is 1221, located at the same number along YanAn Lu Xi, near Fan Yu Lu (tel 6213.6585). I ate there with aunt L, as mummy had to forego dinner because she had indigestion from eating too much Xinjiang lamb satay and xlbs. The restaurant, by virtue of the lack of alphabet in its name, heads the Shanghai restaurant listing in most of the city magazines, therefore ideal for whoever is not sure where to eat and likely to pick the first listed place, like me and the many expatriates eating there that night.

We were pleasantly surprised to be served by their very friendly and attentive proprietress. She took one look at the two of us and concluded rightly that we would not be able to eat much, so she said she would ask the kitchen to serve us half-portions of whatever we ordered. How very considerate, that meant we ate pork ribs, their signature ma-la beef with sesame mantou (very good, no dumbing-down for the ang-mohs), garlicky cucumber and stir-fried string beans and yet were not stuffed. So that we could still manage to eat some of their very delicious complimentary dessert of ba bao fan or eight-treasure rice; there weren't really 8 ingredients as far as I could see, but the glutinous rice was adorably soft and sweet with a bittersweet crispy edge and the middle of the pancake was filled with bananas which did it for me, I adore banana desserts.

So it was mainly good eating for us. But some food were a little weird. At a little noodle house in front of the Sheraton, my colleague was very excited to see crayfish on the menu for about SGD8 per jin, i.e. cheap cheap. So she ordered one jin. What came were little red shells no bigger than my thumb, even smaller than yabbies or marron. The meat inside the hard shell were a little like prawns, but all of us could not get past the suspicion that the 'crayfish' in its uncooked state very possibly look like a big bug. We were not Fear Factor material, and after a while nobody's chopsticks ventured near that plate.

Other than the crayfish incident, the eating was generally good and rewarding. We also had some fun drinking, but that story will have to wait for a while yet...

Impromptu Pumpkin Pie

While eating my healthy dinner of congee with fish and vegetables, I was interrupted by the domestic who showed me a can of pumpkin puree that will expire tomorrow.

There is a recipe on the label for a pie- the ingredient list includes  spices like cinammon and clove which I don't care for, ah, but it also mentions condensed milk which gave me pause. My eyes scanned the kitchen counter and zoomed in on a bunch of bananas. Hmmm......

I decided to make a pie. There wasn't any pastry at home, nor was I thinking of making any,  but there is always crackers lying somewhere in the kitchen. So I crushed some pieces roughly and scattered it over a lightly oiled dish.

Then the pumpkin puree was de-canned and mixed up with sliced bananas and very generous squirts of condensed milk. Instead of the traditional cinnamon and allspice, I added a good dash of paprika and topped the mixture with more sliced bananas. The ' pie' went into a  190 degrees oven for about 30 minutes.

Ugly but good was the general verdict. The bananas were curiously more assertive than pumpkin and the paprika prevented it from becoming too stodgily sweet. The crackers were the perfect base, crunchy and salty to merge merrily with the soft and sweet topping.

Discounting baking time, it took only 5 minutes to put together. I realised that I haven't cooked much these few months. This is nothing fancy, but I am happy at the way the improvisations turned out. Felt good to be back.

Shanghai March 2005- Shopping

(Yep, self-picture of umami.)

One of the reasons for the Shanghai trip was to spend time with Mummy and Auntie L. I planned to show them the glorious architecture, the snippets of daily life played out in the parks, the smell of the old city... all of which they took in with interest.

But not with as much enthusiasm as when I took them shopping.

My mum is a shopping queen. As long as they are selling, she is buying. Even at what I call 'tourist traps' shops, she would give all the outlets a good going over -each shop is different, she would insist. Her stamina is good too. She introduced me to the idea of taking tea in fancy salons during shopping sprees, but in her much younger days she could shop for a whole day without any breaks.

My aunt is her willing partner. Auntie L is blessed with a very petite frame, she is now in her fifties and her dress size is still 'small'. She is also the shop assistants' dream customer because she is unfazed by price tags and does not insist on trying clothes on before buying. Her closet is full of beautiful clothes.

On the first day the two of them blazed a path through Maoming Parade and made the people at the likes of LaiCareFore and Shiatzy Chen very happy. I benefited too-  Mummy bought me a lovely pink top from Tsai Ming Hsia. At the fabric market in Dongjiadu Lu, they went quite mad over cashmeres. At Citic Square along Nanjing Lu, they selected nail colours with abandon (they don't just apply nail polish, they do their own nail art too) and fell in love with a Hello Kitty clock.

I think I inherited their shopping genes. The blue coat was from the fabric market, it needed no alteration at all. The scarf was so soft and warm I carried it to bed every night. If I ever live in Shanghai I would need lots of closet space.

Other than clothes, we also shopped for food. At the Shanghai First Food Store I came across these wonderful preserved plums. Rather expensive at about RMB42.50 per 500 g, they were very meaty and delightfully chewy, and flavoured with a myriad of spices including anise. A colleague told me that it is really terrific sliced up and stuffed into cherry tomatoes to make appetizing canapes. At the same store, another colleague introduced me to airy pumpkin wafers which are mildly sweetened. Mitsuba peanut crackers are peanuts with crispy coatings, at Citic Square there was a boutique all to itself; a bag of mixed nuts came with all my favourite flavours like ika (squid), curry and sesame. All above snacks fit into shopping bags and are perfect for snacking yet quite kind on the waistline.

At the Red Earth shop, I needed little persuasion to buy the Honey Lip Treatment. It tastes very much like honey, and at the rate I lick through it, I doubt it can exert its effects. To give it maximum chance, I bought four tubes at one go- as a good shopper should do.

It is very cold in Shanghai, nearly 0 degrees with much brisk chilly wind. Right now it is raining, so we are staying in and I can make use of the RMB50/day internet access. I didn't think it would be that cold, had to ask husband to courier my coat over. The duffle coat did not quite work with the rest of my clothes so this morning I acquired a knee-length slimline coat in baby blue cashmere.

This trip started with work in the first few days. Mostly stuck inside the Sheraton Tai Ping Yang Grand which has every amenity a business user needs but is unfortunately located in a drab commercial area.  The most unlikely meeting place for us was the hairdressing saloon opposite the hotel. Conveniently, it stays open until 12.00. A typical 'wash and blow' in Shanghai is actually an hour-long pampering session augmented with plenty of head and shoulder massage (and some places will even dry your ears with cotton buds- ticklish but nice), nothing like the robotic service we get back home. I will definitely miss this service when we leave the city.

The work finished by Sunday, and I checked into the Somerset Grand Shangai. Later in the afternoon Mummy and Aunt L flew in from KL. I meant to take them around the city, and so far we have done the Bund (or half the Bund, the aunt and mother were too frozen to continue) and Xintiandi, and a coupla relaxing massages at Greenmassage...but really, we haven't done much else apart from shopping for pretty clothes along Maoming Lu and Dongjiadu Lu. Tomorrow we will head to Wuchen, a water village which is apparently less commercialised than other attractions, at least then we can tell people back home that we did some sightseeing.

I am going to Shanghai for about two weeks. Will blog if Typepad is accessible in China. Take care.

Dental Exercise

It has been a very crazy day. MIL fell ill and we had to send her to the hospital. Mimi, our little hero, was the one who alerted the domestic; husband and I were out at work at the time of the event.

We went to one hospital first, then another because the waiting time at the first was too long- though the first place did offer free Milo, congee and crackers to ease the wait.

Only managed to get lunch at 2.45 p.m, and another quick coffee break at 5.30 p.m. It was a good thing I grabbed a cylinder of Pringles Sour Cream and Onion chips on the way out of the apartment. And cradled it close when we drove home at 7.17 p.m, not really giving it up until I finished all 120g of it while watching Desperate Housewives. Husband ate some, but I was responsible for about 90% of it I'm afraid. That was what I ate for dinner tonight.

At least I chewed with my right teeth.

What the Dentist Said

The teeth on the left side of my jaw seem to be more worn than the ones on the right. Am I a left-chewer? I haven't noticed it myself, but starting today, I will chew on the right. Don't want to end up with a lop-sided face.

My Office Mug

This post was inspired by this post.

My office mug came from the diner near our hotel in LA, when we visited the lonely city some five years ago. At my workplace, the cleaning aunties know my mug well because "it is very heavy hor." Like Tim's, it is thick all round and doesn't hold a large volume of liquids. Unlike Tim, I did not have the foresight to buy four in case I break this one piece. Four, I must remember that for next time.

The shell of the mug is smoothly moulded and the handle is reassuringly stout to grip. It feels heavy and sturdy. The red font, with its dashes and flourishes, is highlighted beautifully against the pale cream background. It is a very reassuring and comforting mug, almost like my own security blanket against uncertain office conditions.

I use this mug for hot drinks, like the Milo in the picture. Milo is the default office beverage for me. There is only Lipton and an unidentifiable Chinese tea in the office pantry, both not serious consideration although in times of big stress I have resorted to making myself a cup of Lipton sweetened with at least 3 teaspoons of white sugar. Occasionally I put coffee in it; not always, as I don't know yet how to get nice coffee from the coffee maker.

umami: Eh dear, my new office hor, the pantry selection not bad. Got Milo, the original type, not the 3-in-1s.

husband: Not the 3-in-1s, wah, so they have to provide the milk and sugar lah?

umami: yar, so now I can make my own Milo. 4 heaped teaspoons Milo, 2 teaspoons sugar.

husband: (wincing) Nooo, that's way too much sugar. I make mine with 2 teaspoons Milo, 1 teaspoon instant coffee and 1 teaspoon of sugar. Try it, it is much nicer than yours.

Husband is wrong. My version is far superior. The only thing that will improve mine is to remove the water and sugar altogether. Milo granules are very tasty on their own, though just maybe my new colleagues would think me strange to see me crunching Milo.

Milo is a unique beverage in our part of the world. It is like hot chocolate but not terribly chocolatey, with a faint taste of malt and caramel. I don't think the Brits are into it, nor have I seen it in US supermarkets. Malaysian and Singaporeans get indoctrinated into the Milo habit from very young. To this day I still remember their jingle " Minum Milo anda jadi.. Sihat dan Kuat" (we're talking ancient history here) promising you that drinking the stuff will make you healthy and strong, you may even get to be a swimming champion. On sports days, the Milo van would come round and dispense tiny paper cups of Milo that none of our mums could duplicate... intensely sweet, chocolate-malty rich, and icy cold. Maybe they added Nestle condensed milk?

The other day a Filipino colleague brought these cookies to the office. It is like the butterfly pastry (or palmier, but I've always called it butterfly pastry in my head), but in a round shape. Very crispy, so crispy that when one bites into it the cookie disintegrates and sprinkle crumbs all over; It is impossible to eat in a dignified manner. Sweet but not too sweet as to need a coffee to accompany it. It is really from the Phillipines, do not be misled by the the Irish-sounding name and colour.