Charlotte: That was the worst lunch.
Bob: So bad. What kind of restaurant makes you cook your own food?
quotes from lost in translation, excellent korean barbecue by a restaurant called soba, dongxin road. the whole thing for 4 1/2 people, 124rmb (12 euros). :)
i take all the pictures of food in the blog on the restaurants we go to for dinner, so today i thought i’d show something different: a typical lunch in the company. here it is:
it’s basically a set of random chinese dishes with meat, fish, vegetables, tofu, etc that everybody shares. the ayi orders it from a small restaurant, and an hour later, the delivery boy brings it around and she screams “chi fan le!” :)
sometimes the dishes are good, sometimes they’re not, but since there’s some variety you can always choose the ones you like best. stuff in heavy sauce doesn’t make it to my dish, but in contrast, the beef strips and the curry chicken are a favorite.
we’re usually 8 people eating, and the bill is a grand total of 80rmb, or 10rmb per person (8 euros total, 1 euro/person). amazing, hein?
my happy bread!
me and paulo made a list of all the places we want to go before we leave shanghai – i guess we’re now in official count down mode (though i still feel a bit in denial…)
one of the places in that list was thai house, which was one of the first restaurants we visited in shanghai. it was introduced to me by my first colleague in the company i work (in the beginning, it was just the 2 of us, now we’re more than 16 in the office…) who has meanwhile got married and had a baby… yup, china is fast.
anyway, thai house. it’s a little restaurant tucked away inside an apartment building (really!) on wuding road/xikang road. it has the feeling of a hidden treasure that you can brag about to your friends, as if you were a city connoisseur :)
the pictures:
they have a new menu and it is much less confusing than their previous menu with hundreds of choices! :D
the shrimp crisps, they’re so addictive! i almost ate them all before i remembered to take a picture!
i always have pad thai in this place, i can’t help it, it’s delicious!
paulo had the beef and mango dish, and luis had chicken and mango. they were both happy with their choices.
and this coconut jelly dessert is so good! i really like bite-sized desserts, and they get bonus points if they have coconut :)
that’s it! i definitely recommend it, it’s not an expensive thai restaurant (which seems to be the rule in shanghai) and the waiters are all nice and smiley, very thai-like!
my teacher decided to present me today with a trip to the shanghai museum for lots of historical learning, and a traditional shanghainese dinner. shanghainese cuisine is typically a little sweet, and uses quite a bit of soy sauce… promising, heh?
she ordered a bit of everything, so i thought i’d do another yummy/bah test :)
salty chicken: hum… mamahuhu, just so so. it was a bit dry and cold… that’s probably the way it is supposed to be, but it’s not really my thing.
kaofu: a sort of spongy tofu, it was good.
meat in black pepper sauce: errrr, it was good, but somehow i don’t think this is a shanghainese delicacy? perhaps she just wanted to be nice and offer us something a bit more familiar. it was quite hard to eat with the chopsticks, but we made it!
egg and shells: sea shells in a semi-solid jell-o-like egg mixture. a bit strange. i still don’t know what to think of it, not my favourite.
deep fried fish: simple dish, but quite good! also a bit hard to eat with chopsticks :)
bean curd soup: when i looked at this soup, i was expecting the worse… it looked quite consistent and i was fearing the flavours might be a bit too strong for me… but actually, they were just right. the bean curd strips were so soft they melted in your mouth… yummy!
spiky fish: i don’t know the real name of this dish, but it’s something to do with pine. maybe pine tree fish? anyway, it’s yummy, probably the best of the bunch. they take the bones out, shape the fish in this spiky form, then cover it with flour and fry. in the end, they top it all with a sweet (and slightly tangy?) sauce. it’s soooo good.
stinky tofu: i’m not sure this is a shanghainese dish but my teacher made a point in making me try it. paulo has this rule: “try everything at least once”, and so he did, bravely. oh, his face was quite priceless! :D i tried it too, but frankly, like paulo, i was also expecting something exceptional that would make up for the horrid smell. the flavor is actually quite bland and honestly… blergh. i still don’t get it how can someone like this stuff. oh well…
so now you know what to expect. my teacher says this restaurant is quite good, so if you’re in the mood for some shanghainese delicacies, it’s a little place called farm restaurant in kangping road, 220 (near huashan road).