Xinjiang Cuisine

Last night, Jeff and I took Beth to one of our favorite local restaurants, which specializes in food from China's Xinjiang province. Xinjiang is home to the Uyghurs, who are Sunni Muslim Turks (and have been at the heart of much of the ethnic violence in western China in recent years.) The food is delicious - spicier than Shanghainese and richer in flavor. They specialize in lamb kebabs (which are cooked over a fire outside), but it is easy to put together a vegetarian meal, which we did last night.

We ate homemade yogurt with raisins, shredded potatoes, green beans with chili peppers, tofu cooked in a clay pot, sesame flat bread, and a cold tomato and onion salad. To drink, we had tea and Tsingtao beer. And, for dessert, we had toffee apples - caramelized apples that are served hot and need to be separated right away before they harden. What a feast! I'll definitely miss this place. Luckily, there are a few Xinjiang-style restaurants in the U.S., so I may have to seek those out. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4632.

Hanging with Haibao

The city has Expo fever. The opening day is May 1 and the excitement/anticipation is palpable. The government is making a concerted effort to clean up the city and to keep things orderly, as evidenced by the "no smoking" and "no spitting" signs hung up everywhere and the guards in every metro stop and tourist destination.

The Expo mascot, Haibao, also seems pumped. Haibao is everywhere, from stuffed versions being hawked on the street to the large-scale versions in parks and public areas. (Even our school has a large Haibao at its gate.) Though he looks more like Gumby than anything else, Haibao is modeled after the Chinese character for the word "ren," meaning people. Enjoy this picture of Beth and me with Haibao at the Xujiahui park yesterday.

Up in the Air

Another full day of showing Beth around Shanghai. We started with brunch and people watching in the park in Xujiahui before heading out to PuDong to venture up into the World Financial Center. Completed in 2008, it was briefly the world's tallest building (now the third?) and stands 492 meters high. It's lovingly referred to here as the "bottle opener building," because that's the shape that sticks out in the skyline. There are several options for visiting and we opted for the best-of-the-best: a combined ticket to the 94th floor "sky arena," 97th floor (with a glass ceiling at the bottom of the bottle opener), and 100th floor (with a glass FLOOR at the top of the opener!) The entire experience, from the staff to the lights and music in the elevator was very futuristic. And, it was amazing to see Shanghai from the "world's tallest observation deck." Even on a clear day, it was hard to see through all of the haze. But, what we could see what a jungle of buildings and skyscrapers as far as we could see in every direction. Pretty unreal. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4553.

Beth's Here!

Last night, our good friend Beth arrived from Minnesota for a visit. We're so excited to get to show her around some of our favorite sites and to venture with her up to Beijing next weekend. China must be excited to have her here, too, as the weather was the best we've had in months today. We took advantage by having a very full day, starting with a neighborhood tour, then heading to Nanjing Road and the Bund, then to Yuyuan Old Town, then Taikang Lu, and finally ending with dessert at a bakery in Xiantiandi. Whew!

 

The first picture is of Beth munching on a cucumber. I took her to our local wet market where one of the vegetable vendors I frequent was so excited to see a new face that he insisted that we both take a cucumber (for free) and peeled them right there for us to enjoy. The second is of the three of us on the newly restored Bund, with the PuDong skyline in the background.

 

Can't wait to see what we get up to next!

Kung Pao Chicken

This is a very common dish at Shanghainese restaurants. It consists of diced chicken, peanuts, and chili peppers (with various other spices thrown in.) It can be ordered in most local restaurants and is a favorite dish at the what teachers have dubbed the "English Menu Place," so named for its partly-translated menu.

Office Space

Better three-quarters of the way through the year than never... here's a picture of my office. I share it with five other 9th and 10th-grade "foreign" teachers (all Americans.) Across the hall, there are another twelve foreign teachers. And, throughout the building, there are similar offices for the Chinese teachers. My desk is in the bottom right corner of this picture - covered in preparations for the next unit. (It's midterm week here, so the teachers have more free time for grading and prepping.)

 

Look forward to Jeff's office in a future post...

Fancy Cakes

Following the theme of baked goods, I thought I'd post a quick picture of some of those fancy bakery cakes that I wrote about yesterday. The decorations on them are always incredibly elaborate, even in the smallest hole-in-the-wall bakery in our neighborhood. Even if it does take some guess work sometimes to imagine what they might taste like, they are fun to admire.

Bean Bread

There are bakeries everywhere here. On the block outside of our school, there are probably five. They always have amazing-looking cakes and goodies and lots of interesting pastries. Once in a while, Jeff and I treat ourselves to a loaf of sweet bread to supplement our normal yogurt breakfasts. They're always a gamble, though, as sometimes it's difficult to tell what's in them. We've accidentally ended up with meat - one time with sweet cream - on more than one occasion. I bought this loaf last night, thinking that it must be either raisins, walnuts, or chocolate, any of which would be delicious. I totally forgot about the strong possibility of it being beans, though. (Red bean paste is a popular filling in many sweet treats.) Imagine my surprise when I got a closer look (and taste!) this morning. Still, it's passable and will no doubt be enjoyed.

Weekend in Nanjing

After weeks of wanting to, we finally made it to Nanjing for the weekend. Nanjing, which literally translates to "South Capital," is full of history, some of it tragic. Yesterday afternoon, we set out for a long walk through the city, stopping for people-watching and coffee breaks along the way (see the dueling Costa Coffee vs. Starbucks stores in the photo album.) Our walk took us to a portion of the old city walls, built during the Ming Dynasty. What was left was open for wandering around and felt very untouched (especially the incredibly steep stairs leading down to the road!) From there, we headed up to Purple Mountain, home of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum. Viewed by many Chinese as the founder of modern China, he's interred in a marble tomb 300 long steps up the mountain. Not a bad view for a resting place! We finished that night off with some delicious Korean food.

Today, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast buffet (now the third time since being in China that I've had cereal and milk. Yum. Also, they sprinkled a little cinnamon on the cappuccinos. Excellent.) Following that, we visited the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre, a difficult but essential stop on any city tour. Nanjing was invaded by Japanese soldiers in 1937 and over the period of a couple of weeks, 300,000 Chinese were killed. The museum pays tribute to them and also is home to a mass grave of thousands of the victims. Though the museum eludes to the difficult history between the two countries, it does urge visitors to work for lasting peace. From there... off to the train station and back to real life.

More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4420.

The Newly Reopened Bund!

The Bund, the area of Shanghai just west of the river, has been under construction since we got here in August. It's one of the city's most iconic spots and has been getting a face-lift for the World Expo (which is set to open on May 1.) It finally reopened to pedestrian traffic this month and is an awesome expanse of walking paths overlooking the river and facing the PuDong skyline. Jeff and I went on Sunday to check it out. It happened to be pouring rain and incredibly foggy, but was still worth seeing. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4399.