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.