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.