Ni Hao!

NI HAO!

Shanghai...I loved it.

A curious city a-buzz with mad dash construction (with bamboo scaffolding, you understand), ancient buildings alongside art deco buildings, alongside state-of the-art high rises with whole sides of 30 story buildings projecting advertisements to those zipping by in pleasure boats on the Bund.

From Bali, with security guards in dark blue uniforms, heavy black polished boots, guns in holsters and a frangipani behind the ear to bustling Shanghai street culture. Steamy mid 30 degree heat, beep beep traffic, tree lined boulevards, creatively coloured double decker art deco homes, wooden carts on bitchumen roads being pulled by old men alongside silver Mercedes Benz. NI Hao!

I immediately get that 'rush' travellers often experience as you tap into a whole new world. Everything around is alien and interesting and fascinating and juxtaposed to your usual state of 'normal'.

I'm staying in a gorgeous house number 808 Changle St (shong-le lu) in the west French Concession area.

There are two entrances to 808. One access is by walking down a hutong, or lane way complete with scooters and bicycles potted plants and strings of washing hanging out to dry OR From the connecting cross street Changshu St (Shong shu lu) where a small buzzer on an imposing door must be pressed to alert the cafe staff of 'Closed Door' to come and let you in. 'Closed Door' cafe is an interesting concept and occupies the first floor of this house. You must make a reservation to eat here for breakfast, lunch or dinner and it can really only be found by word of mouth. There is no street signage or advertising for the cafe but I can attest to them making a mean breakfast as each morning's meal is complimentary to guests of the hotel. The food is all western influenced, which gave me a good start to the day of exploring Shanghai's culinary street culture.

www.quintet-shanghai.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutong

The 'French Concession' as you might imagine has French style cafes with expansive terraces and familiar French names. Boulangeries and Patisseries, baguettes and tarte aux pomme, odd. Indochine, non? I even found street side creperies, well kind of creperies. One of my favourite street snacks was what looks like a crepe but is made from potato, like a potato pancake with shallots and seasoning sprinkled through out, they are sold by weight and depending on how much you want, cost about 1AUD. YUM! Someone told me once that potatoes had no nutritional value what-so-ever, a point to which I queried my traditional Chinese medicine studying, qualified acupuncturist, yoga teaching, massage therapist younger brother who swears they are one of the most vitamin packed vegetables around. So i don't know if my favourite Shanghai snack was even remotely nutritious or just a stodgy tummy filler. I did however by-pass the towers of raw chicken feet waiting to be barbecued in an array of sauces, nutritious or not and admired the 'china town' familiarity of roasted ducks strung up in windows. Steamed dumplings filled with pork and vegetables, or mixed spinach, onions & vinegar. Vinegar is popular on everything here, but honestly not once did i see a bottle of soy sauce on a lazy susan, or anywhere else here in Shanghai.

I was lucky enough to befriend an energetic ABC, (which is an anagram used for American born Chinese but, for me, works also for those born in Australia); who is accomplished in the 'Ninja Bat Arts' and the art of ordering and negotiating in mandarin. With this contact by our sides we were able to eat incredibly well and avoid what I imagine may have been disastrous digestive, cringing culinary moments.

For example, on an out-of-town excursion to a place called Anji, which houses the bamboo forest that was used in the filming of 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', a group of us ate in the front room of a local's house who cooked for us from the family kitchen. Complete with chickens running around the yard and a well used chopping block out front we were led to a 'private room' ( the 'private room' appears to be a very popular status symbol here - I guess with billions of people the ultimate pleasure is privacy) with dusty dirty walls and plastic wrap over everything, oh and a piano. Of course?! 'Bat Ninja', thankfully, took complete control of the ordering procedure and rapid fired dishes at our host, who complied willingly and energetically took herself off to the kitchen to prepare our feast.

Aubergine and onion, fresh sautéed bamboo, dried and fried tiny whole fish (eeek), beef and chili, chicken something (fresh off the block - maybe not..) and yummy yummy little potato slices battered and lightly fried with vinegar and chili. No soy sauce!

I was cautious and tentative, I was a little nervous about climbing the bamboo forest mountain and having to defile it in any way other than my bad mandarin..

Xie Xie Superstar Bat Ninja and co!