The Tale of the Frog

I will start this off by saying NEVER trust menu translations in China. You know what sounds great after a day of traveling and building up my appetite? Stewed chicken with mushrooms and scallions. However, at this particular restaurant on this particular day in Hangzhou, the chicken had a consistency more resembling scallops than white juicy chicken. These tasteless scallop-textured bits that sat in front of me and in my mouth appeared to be chopped up and filled with bones. The menu said “chicken,” yet the substance in front of me only had a vague appearance of chicken and nowhere near the
consistency nor the taste of chicken. The "Tear Tree Mushroom Stone Chicken" was not Mushroom stone chicken; it was mushroom stone frog (whatever that means). After we figured this out, I justified the first few bites I had put in my mouth telling myself it was good to be adventurous and what better place to be adventurous than in China. A part of me was always curious about eating frog anyway. However, the bites that followed slowly turned what I thought would be a wonderful chicken dish, into an experimental adventurous dish gone wrong. Even though I am glad I tried frog, the remnants of frog bone on the plate next to me quickly destroyed what had been a booming appetite. Imagine little bits of bone encompassed by small chunks of fat.That's what I
remember from eating frog that day, poor froggy. Despite the frochicken, the rest of the meal was quite pleasing. We ate an ambiguous green vegetable in addition to red bean paste rolled in tarot root, which added a bit of sweetness to finish off the meal. I am glad to say I tried the frog but can confidently say I will never try it again, knowingly… I have included these menu translations for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Chalidays

To one and to all, happy Chalidays (throwing a little chanukah into the mix...thought it was clever). I was lucky enough to celebrate it with my mom whom I haven't seen for almost a year. She came down from Nepal and I think the best present I gave her was access to 24 hours of electricity which meant 24 hour heating! Max, my mom, and I shared the apartment for what turned out to be a relaxed, and extremely cozy holiday. From eating frog in Hangzhou (never trust menu translations), to eating about every cuisine offered in Shanghai, including a classic Christmas day brunch of Turkey and roasted turnips, my holidays in Sanghai were everything I could ask for. I will follow up with more pictures and stories but for now, I hope everyone has gotten a chance to Eat, Drink, and rest their heart out, as we prepare to begin the next year anew.

Tale of the Tampons (sorry gentlemen)

Communism and tampons. Tampons are quite uncommon here. I like Tampons, and only tampons. So when Judy (my stepmom) told me she was going to send me a gift she got for me in Bolivia, I thought it was a great opportunity to stock up on some tampons as well. She took the phrase "stock up on" quite literally and decided to send me a years worth of tampons. Fantastic! I will never have to worry about running out of them again! However, a week after she sent the package, I get a call from UPS asking me the contents of my package as it wouldn't make it through border control. After emailing them the exact contents of the package (+/- 200 tampons, a hat, and 2 pairs of leggings) along with a copy of my passport, a copy of my residents permit, and a copy of my last date of entry, I was sure the package would arrive a few days later. I was wrong. Sharing the story with a fellow teacher, I was informed that he had heard a story while in Korea, of tampons being used to send a little more than just cotton...if you get my drift. I just got off the phone with UPS after learning my package, and my 200 tampons are still sitting in customs. I understand how a box filled with a hat, leggings, and 200 tampons might seem a little suspicious but come on...I've got nothing to hide. Ah communism and tampons. If they only knew that I, nor my stepmother, had any other motives than to fulfill my feminine needs I would have my tampons and presents in hand. Moral of the story? I guess I don't have a moral of this story other then maybe a three months supply of tampons at a time is the way to go.

Three large meals

Three large meals in three days. The past week has been busy with an amazing pre-Thanksgiving day Thanksgiving dinner and two birthday dinners. The Thanksgiving dinner was filled with surprisingly typical Thanksgiving dishes, including a turkey despite doubts. Although it was bought for an astronomical price by my very generous friend Kit, the turkey was more than welcomed by all, as it was consumed in under 10 minutes. Along with the turkey we had cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and a variety of potato dishes. My boyfriend and I made scalloped potatoes, as well as a spinach salad with goat
cheese, honeyed walnuts, dried cranberries, and red onions. Sounds easy and cheap right? Let’s just say finding and buying two different types of cheeses, dried cranberries, and honeyed walnuts, came out to be half of what it cost to buy my new bike. However, it was Thanksgiving after all and every penny was worth it! The meal was a great pre-Thanksgiving day Thanksgiving, filled with tons of food, drinks, friends, and most importantly, turkey.

The first birthday celebration was for my boyfriend’s birthday. We spent it at the highest restaurant in the world, in one of the tallest buildings in the world. We ate at the Park Hyatt's 100 Century Avenue restaurant (thanks to his very generous parents!) Yes the views were amazing, yes the prices were as high as the restaurant, and yes they had the best restrooms I have ever been to. We started off the meal with fresh oysters flown in from the west coast of the States. For me, they were the highlight of the meal. In addition to the oysters, we had a charcuterie platter, steak, and lamb chops, which all added a nice change to our day to day diet. Don't get me wrong, the food was good, the view even better. Now, to the toilets. To begin, I opened the bathroom stall door to the toilet lid being automatically lifted. Ah, the delights of the Hyatt. I proceeded to sit down on a very warm, heated toilet seat. I sat enjoying the warmth while remembering all those bathroom trips I have made on cold winter days and how uncomfortable it is to sit on a freezing toilet seat. As I enjoyed the added warmth, I noticed a control panel to the right of the toilet with various buttons, which read “rear cleansing, front cleansing, oscillating, pulsing...” Who knew a toilet seat could have so many functions. Needless to say I didn't want to leave my boyfriend waiting at the table so I didn't get a chance to try out all the toilet had to offer, but I will definitely be back!

After dinner we went to the upstairs lounge, which I assume to be one of the highest lounges in the world. We ordered drinks while a James Brownesque cover artist serenaded the crowd. After alerting the server it was Max's birthday hoping to get a candle on the cake, I was sure we were going to have the perfect close to the perfect night. Woah, was I wrong. Before I knew it, the James Brownesque cover artist came over to me and pulled my chair up to the stage for all the classy expat champagne drinking guests to see. I was sure there was a communication issue..it's China after all. I thought, "No problem, I’ll just tell him he is mistaken and he will put my chair back at the table in exchange for Max's chair." The next thing I know the singer decided we were going to give Max a "present." This "present" I found out, was placing me on top of the piano so I could dance for Max. I realized this as my shoes were taken off by the James Brownesque cover artist, right before he picked me up and hoisted me from his arms up onto the piano. "Okay," I thought, "I will just sit and smile." As he faced the crowd and announced I was going to stand up and dance for Max, I looked around at all the expats sipping on their drinks and smiling at the entertainment. I had no choice. I danced, on a piano, in one of the highest lounges in the world, above the highest restaurant in the world, in one of the tallest buildings in the world. There is only thing in the world that will ever draw me back to the Park Hyatt again...toilet seats. The next night I was fortunate enough to be asked to go out and celebrate my friend Katelyn's birthday. She was handed a wad of cash by the mother whom she nannies for to makeup for her absence on thanksgiving and her birthday.


So Katelyn and I found ourselves at one of the most famous restaurants in Shanghai, M on the Bund. Having had an amazing reputation when in was first opened, it is now mostly frequented by tourists and those wanting to impress. The decor was warm and cozy, the views amazing. The windows looked out both onto the Bund, and onto Pudong, across the river. We started out with a vegetarian appetizer consisting of 3 different veggie spreads to be eaten with accompanying wafers. There was an olive tapenade, a ricotta filled eggplant roll, and a tasteless ambiguous mush, (asking waiters specifics of food doesn't bode well here.) For my entree I had a bouillabaisse, which looked like everything I expected. For the most part it tasted it as well, that is all of it that I could get to. There were some amazing looking crab legs but lack of a shell cracker made it impossible to eat. The large shelled prawns the size of the bowl were a little intimidating at first, but with some trial and error I managed to eat them. However sometimes after a long day of work, I just want to sit, eat, and enjoy a meal without having to debone fish, and be splashed by saffron broth. I need to keep this in my mind for future fish dishes in China. For dessert we shared a tarte tatin, which all my family knows, will leave my mom walking away from her computer in search of a tarte tatin in Kathmandu. Good luck mom! I promise you can get your tart tatin fix when you are here! This weekend was a great weekend with great food and great experiences. Even though it was hard to spend thanksgiving away from my family, being with my boyfriend and new friends reminded me that I am so fortunate to have these new experiences no matter how far away I am from family and friends.

Obama's in Shangahi and it's raining

Obama is staying two blocks away from me and the pure rainwater of Shanghai awaits him. Need I say more?

Hangzhou

So in the past few weeks I feel I have perfectly exemplified that signing up for my blog alerts will result in little to no emails. I just got back to Shanghai from Hangzhou. On my trip I realized no matter how much I want to write about different Chinese cuisines and the numerous dishes I encounter, the language barrier makes it extremely difficult. Most times when eating out I order either by pointing to a picture on the menu or by pointing to a poorly written English translation. Consequently, the majority of time I know only vaguely what I am eating and finding out the ingredients and cooking methods from the waiter is next to impossible. So even though I will post pictures of amazing looking, and tasting food, I most likely will not know anything more than the name of the dish...if I even know that. So instead, I will settle with describing my day to day experiences, travels, and encounters starting with my trip to Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a two hour train ride west of Shanghai and is known as the "Paradise of China." Now, when I envision paradise I think of an island with 50 inhabitants. This paradise is slightly different. People are drawn to the West Lake in Hangzhou, which is a lake surrounded by 5 million inhabitants. That being said, Hangzhou is beautiful. Along the East side of the lake you have a city of high rises with 5 million people roaming the streets. However, on the West side of the lake you have mountains and hills coated with temples and shrines. I went with my boyfriend and a small group of people from Disney English. We found a hostel across from the lake set back from the road and surrounded by trees. Definitely a great find until we were awoken by kids at 7 in the morning performing drills right outside of our bedroom windows. Behind the kids we couldn't help but notice a large painting on the side of the school depicting planes dropping bombs and tanks romaing the streets. No big deal. Ah, Paradise. In between renting bikes, walking around, and taking a boat ride, we got a chance to taste some of the typical Hangzhou cuisine. Besides being super tasty, there is not much more I can tell you with 100% confidence. We did have the infamous Beggar's Chicken, which consists of a whole chicken (feet and all) wrapped in Lotus leaves. The various versions of the history of the Beggar's Chicken all follow the same story of a beggar stealing a chicken and having to hide it from the Emperor's guards. In a hurry, the beggar covered the chicken in mud to disguise it and when it was eventually cooked, the mud proved to make the chicken extremely juicy (and a bit sandy too i imagine). A mixture of mushrooms, onions, soy sauce, and sugar seemed to comprise the stuffing for the chicken. Some flour and soy sauce must have coated the outside to resemble the clay (im borrowing this from a recipe because there is no way I could have gotten a run down from the server on the cooking methods). In addition to the chicken, an eggplant dish with scallions stood out not only in taste but color. The eggplant had the brightest purple coloring I have ever seen. The sauce it sat in was a concotion of soy sauce, sugar, and oil, perfetly complimenting the consistency of the cooked eggplant. All in all, Hangzhou was a great break from the city. I can't wait to go back when snow is coating the ground and I have more time to explore the multiple museums, historical sites, and temples surrounding the lake. But for now..back to teaching Chinese kids and searching for a bike to buy to navigate the streets of Shanghai.

Ingenuity at its finest...and yes I'm talkign about

both pictures :)

Alright friends and family. What do you get when two American girls go the Shanghai Tennis Masters Series? Heinekin box seats, convenient Heinkekin dispensers, photo with Ivan Ljubicic, and a line up of the current tennis greats...In the two days we attended the series, we got to see Roddick, who withdrew...(figures), Blake, Nadal, Djokovic, Monfils, Del Potro (representing the great country of Argentina even though he withdrew too), and Hewitt ( I forgave him for dumping Clijsters for a gorgeous blonde haired woman after seeing him). We had our fair share of Heineken beer, hitched a ride back to the city
avaoiding a 100 Yuan cab fare on a Hilton bus filled with ATP tour TV crew, and most importantly, experienced the tennis scene in Shanghai, which is catching on, slowly but surely. Ok..bragging a little bit but what can I say, quite an unexpected experience.

This experience has shown me a few things:
1) Shanghai is awesome and things are very easily accesible for westerners, even teachers who generally don't make nearly as much as other westerneres residing here.
2) The suburbs of Shanghai feel like the countryside

3) I need a new camera that will not blur my pictures of Blake serving

SUBSCRIBE to my blog and you will get to see bigger and better pictures of tennis greats :) But if you enjoyed my last post...and hopefully this one as well you should sign up so you can get emails whenever I write a new post. These will surely come about every other week...nothing that will dominate your mailbox, I promise. I don't have that much time..Im too busy meeting the 16th ranked doubles player whose name I cant even remember.
read on....

From the Top:

1) Blake's most attractive side

2) Easily Accesible Beer dispenser

3) Nadal Serving

4) Blake Serving

5) Emily and I

6) Ivan Ljubicic, Emily, and I in the Heinekin Box

It's official. Im a resident of Shanghai

Okay. So here it is. I, Sara Silverstein, am officially doing something I never thought I would do. I am starting a blog. These are my reasons:
It’s easier to write things once, then to have to write them over and over again to different people.
I am in a country so vastly different than my own I have never traveled to before.
I find myself seeing/hearing/eating/and doing things that someone out there besides myself will find interesting (I hope).
I am not making any promises about this Blog. I will not guarantee a high quality standard of writing (although I hope it comes naturally). I will not guarantee the amount of blog posts I will have per week. I will not guarantee that everyone will find my content interesting; to each his own. What I will guarantee is that not all blog posts will be this long.
I am writing from my desk in my one bedroom apartment (complete with a dryer and an oven!). It is situated in front of a window that overlooks a not too shabby skyline of the Jing’an Temple area of Shanghai. Along with the lights of high-rises, the honking of bikes, scooters, and cars echoing on the streets below me ensure that I, along with everyone else living in Shanghai, will never be in complete silence. City life, its good to see you again. After seeing roughly 10 different apartments, some of them multiple times with different agents all offering me varying asking prices, I can finally call an apartment my own. This is no small feat in Shanghai if you are on a budget. Between adjusting to working life, which is a lot easier when you are a given a 10 day holiday only two weeks after arriving, looking for apartments, getting over jet lag, and simply being a westerner in an eastern land, a lot has been going on.
A quick breakdown on my job. I am an English teacher for 2-12 year olds at Disney English, a branch of Disney Publishing. This means I teach kids after they get out of school. I sing and I dance with Mickey, Daisy and Donald Duck. I paint with Lilo and Stitch and play games with Lady and the Tramp. The first Disney English center opened a year ago. They are planning to open 200 total in China and expand to 9 other countries including Mexico and Brazil. I will get my own classroom after my centers expansion is completed in a few weeks. Its looking like I might get an Arabian Nights or an Under the Sea themed classroom! Oh yeah, things are looking up J

Some things I’ve discovered:
1) The western nod doesn’t exist. Other westerners who reside here so obviously try not to look at you, another westerner, that they instead prefer to look at the baby peeing on the corner behind them.
2) Couples of Western men with Asian women far outnumber the amount of couples of Western women with Asian Men. In fact, I have yet to see it. Also, the amount of couples consisting of two Westerners who are living here and not just touring the city, are few and far between. I have seen about 3.
3) All cab drivers shift into 4th gear at 25mph. If you drive standard you might be able to appreciate this.
4) There is construction everywhere preparing for the World Expo.
5) The Subways and streets are surprisingly clean.
6) There are restaurants and dumpling stands on every corner. The only problem is I don’t know what anything is, and the better the restaurant is the less likely they are to have a menu translated in English. This is my main reason for enrolling in Mandarin classes. There are other reasons such as being able to hold a conversation, not having to show a cab driver a text message with the address in Chinese, and being able to haggle when shopping. I want to be able to appreciate everything the Shanghainese cuisine has to offer me. I want to be able to go to off the beaten path restaurants and explore all the different ingrediants, cooking methods, and traditions of the Chinese Cuisine. I want to not have to rely on microwavable ramen noodles, although they’re good and cheap and amazingly not hard to get bored of. I want to venture off from the Kung pao chicken that we get delivered every day at work. I want to find the BEST soup dumpling in Shanghai. I want to be able to go into a Hot Pot restaurant and and order the ingredients I want to cook in a boiling pot of broth, knowing what they are and not just guessing what they are from a picture.
So there it is! My first few experiences of living in Shanghai. For many of you this may be the only entry you read, and I don't blame you. For those of you that feel you have to follow it because you are in my family, a close friend, of my boyfriend, I will not be offended if you don't and will not quiz you.
So...I'll keep you posted!