“Ni hao. Xian zai ke yi wai mai ma?”
Hi. May I order delivery now? (The last time I called during lunch hour, they were too busy).

“Ke yi. Ni yao dian shen me cai?”
Yes. What would you like to order?

“Wo yao yi fen suan la mian, jia yi fen qing cai.”
I want one sour and spicy noodle, and a green vege side dish.

“Hao de”
Ok.

“Wo zai Shi Ji Shang Mao, er shi liu lou. fen ji yao jiu shi liu”
I’m at The Center, 26th Floor, extension 1946.

He repeats my order and address.

“Xie xie”
Thank you.

Yay! My first time ordering in Chinese.
And if it’s food from Heng Niu, I know it’s at the very least, decent.

T & S were in town from Germany and Macau respectively.

First stop, Pin Chuan, the trusty place for delicious Szechuan cuisine. We had the famous mandarin fish in oil, salted egg prawn, crab meat tofu, chicken with red dried chillis and szechuan peppers and green veges. Some of the most delicious classics here in my opinion.

After stuffing ourselves, we walked down to Dong Ping Lu, stopping at the little shops and they bought some pretty ceramics from the Zen store, followed by drinks at Sasha’s, housed in a mansion which used to belong to the Soong family.

The next day, I played squash with the gang, followed by a lovely brunch at Citizen Bar, an old school type establishment. Totally delicious Egg Benedict and decent coffee. After which I met up with T & S to Wujiang Lu for Shengjianbao.

CK was in town visiting from Hong Kong. So a group of friends took him for dinner at Osteria, a new restaurant in town (hence, no link). The set menu was amazingly fantastic. It was pricey at about RMB 188 per head (not including the wine), but we got heaps of good food to eat.

First, a selection of sliced bread and grissini with an espresso cup of mildly spiced pumpkin soup. I really loved the foccacia with the bits of sun dried tomato. So lovely, without being overly dry or oily unlike some other places. A wooden slab followed with cold cuts of parma ham, salami, prosciutto, and a fresh oyster for each person.

Next, seared juicy scallops (1pc each) and grilled squid (yummy), as well as a big bowl of assorted salad (finely sliced so it was easy to eat). There was also a bowl of roasted potatoes .

Then there were 3 different bowls of pasta to share - a wonderful gnocchi dish (potato dumplings) with earthy flavourful mushrooms, a fettucini marinara and a pesto penne. They were all pretty good, but the gnocchi with mushrooms really stood out.

The mains came. You could choose from quite an extensive list, be it lamb or beef or pork or chicken. I felt like chicken that night and had some roast chicken (thigh meat), served on a bed of red cabbage cooked in balsamic red wine. MY had a lovely and cute tiny pork loin. So juicy and mildly porky. YK’s lamb cutlets were amazing too.

We were already quite stuffed before the mains arrived, but were surprised we still had room for dessert. 2 plates of their dessert sampler arrived with a blueberry souffle (so-so), a pannacotta (fantastic with real vanilla beans!), a banana mousse (lovely, not too sweet), a chocolate cake topped with sea salt (it gave the chocolate a real kick) and a lemon meringue tart (not bad).

We washed everything down with 2 bottles of a French Pinot Noir. VERY good wine they were too. I suppose we could get such extensive variety for what we were paying because there were 8 of us. I wonder if it would be the same if there were 2 people. Bill came up to about RMB 300 per person after we included the wine. But for the quantity, quality and variety of food we had, I must say it was pretty good value for money.

We then hopped next door to Citizen bar after for some Martinis. They are famous for martinis. I personally love the Ginger one. They have some very interesting flavours too. Like basil!

The next morning I met up with T & S again at their hotel. We went for xiaolongbao at the new Din Tai Fung outlet in Yuyuan Bazaar area. It was quite a distance to travel, but interesting cos I haven’t been there before myself. Everything felt like a tourist trap, but at least the DTF here is pretty consistent with the other 2 branches (Superbrand Mall and Xintiandi). I finally got to use my vouchers to get RMB60 off! YAY! And they gave me another one too! Hahahaha!

We had the pork XLBs, the crab XLBs, the prawn and pork siewmai, vegetables, their onion noodles (my fav) and their very good fried rice. Oh, we had dessert too. T & S are really cute. They’ve been gushing at every single thing we’ve been eating for the past few days. Hahahaa!

After breakfast and walking around a bit, I left them to join CK and some other friends for lunch at Di Shui Dong. We went to the Dong Ping Lu branch, although I feel the Maoming Lu branch has more character. We had their awesome cumin pork ribs (a must each time we eat here), the double chili fish head, vegetables and dry chili chicken.

If you’re not feeling full yet, let me tell you about dinner that night.
It was a night out with the gang and we went to Lao Beijing for roast Peking duck. Oh, it was fabulous. The thin pancakes were just the way they were meant to be. The skin crispy, and was wonderful when wrapped up in the pancake with the sweet sauce, spring onions and cucumber. It was heaven. There was a plate of sliced duck meat as well. The carcass and the rest of the duck went into the soup and some other smaller dishes, but those were so so, if not bland.

After eating so much, we went to AW’s place for her housewarming, where we played Wii until our bodies ached, drank some booze and ate junk food.

I went home and had to retch a little to feel better. The food was all piling up until my throat.

Pictures to come later.

The presentation was held at the Ruijin Hotel on Maoming Lu, a very nice place consisting of several old mansions converted into a hotel, a meeting place, a restaurant and a pub. There are vast pretty gardens all around, surrounded by red brick walls.

Our meeting was held in Building One, which used to be the mansion where Chiang Kai Shek and Soong Mei Ling lived for awhile. Our presentation was in the very room they got married in. Click on the pictures to enlarge.

This is the team waiting outside after the meeting… and the hotel opposite the building.

Then we went to the building behind the hotel where the pub ‘Faces’ is for some drinks to unwind. At 4pm in the afternoon. Hahaha!

At Faces. What special permit? Hmmmm.

GO trying to get some work done in a quiet corner. Check out the garden outside the window. A very pretty place. Apparently it costs a pretty penny too.

Wasting food.

Had an 8pm meeting a few days ago, so I thought I’d just call for wai mai (food delivery) from the basement food court in my building. For as long as I’ve worked here, I’ve never ordered wai mai simply because I’m a food snob. Looking at my colleague’s often oily-looking food boxes, I shudder to think if the cooks even wash their vegetables or if they handle the meat properly.

But I was hungry. And I just got out of a meeting and had less than an hour before the next one. And there wasn’t enough time for me to order from the beef noodle place. It’d take too long to arrive.

So I got this chap fan delivered upstairs.

From top clockwise, some fried rice which I didn’t touch. I hate frozen veges in anything (the typical corn, carrot dice). Some cucumber and a slice of pork belly in a vinegary soup, which I also didn’t touch. The smell of cheap vinegar was enough to turn me off (and my colleague told me even she doesn’t drink it). Rice porridge for dessert (you add sugar into it… and it’s not even glutinous rice, just normal jook, so weird). Sweet and sour pork ribs, which were more bones than meat. Some sliced pork with green peppers and bamboo shoot. And the whitish green pile above it, some ‘fun see’ (tanghoon koayteow) and veges (kangkung and brinjal).

Let’s just say, everything was overwhelmingly oily - so much so I felt quite sick to the stomach after a few mouthfuls. Everything was swimming in oil. The brinjal was ok but ‘fun see’ was weird. I couldn’t bring myself to put sugar into normal porridge, and I bet you they used tap water. I just had some of the veges, some of pork and chucked the rest.

For RMB15, it’s gotta be the worse dinner I’ve had in Shanghai so far.
Never again.

Bak Kut Teh spices from Malaysia via Hong Kong, thanks to YL.
Made some BKT for dinner last night. Perfect for cold rainy weather.
Had leftovers for lunch today too.

In the bedroom:
Finally using my Muji bedsheet, duvet cover and pillowcases. Lovely soft t-shirt material type cotton. So comfortable I could stay in bed all day.

Got the duvet cover at Muji in Shanghai during a sale in summer! Half price! Bought some pillow cases then too, but found out they were bolster cases instead, so I’ll save those for next time when I have bolsters. Bought the bedsheet and the correct pillow cases in Hong Kong. Much cheaper than Shanghai cos of the exchange rate (20% cheaper).

*love*