Hello from me to you, from my current location in the city of Shanghai, a big, bountiful and beautiful city on the Huangpo River in northeastern China. I arrived here on Monday evening, the third day of December 2018, traveling with my husband on his business trip.
After a few days here, we will fly westward to the central and ancient city of Xi’an, in Shanxi Province where he will be speaking at a conference. So lucky and thrilled to be here, and I have lots of deliciousness to share with you, soon. Right now, just a taste, because tech issues keep me from transferring photos from my phone and camera to the blog.
I’ll post those later, but it occurred to me that I could share some Shanghai goodness with you from the files! We went to Shanghai for the first time in 2014, and I found some photos that are still on-time in terms of what we found here on this second trip.
Our flight from North Carolina took us to Toronto for a 4 hour layover, during which we chowed down on Built Burger’s Toronto burger (bacon, cheese, shredded lettuce, and purple onions) and garlic fries. Then it was 14 + hours on a 777, during which I read and slept and ate good-enough airplane food, knowing that we had great food treasures coming up
We arrived late afternoon and headed to our hotel, the Radisson Blu New World Shanghai, right across from People’s Park, where we stayed four years ago on our first visit to this extraordinary city. It’s in a central older section of the city, within easy walking distance of the riverside area known as the Bund, and has small side streets nearby filled with interestingness and deliciousness.
I adore the 21st century dazzle of higher-than-the-sky high-rises with breathtaking neon, and the homespun gatherings of people dancing, exercising, or playing music in groups in the big city park, with a major subway stop in it making getting around the city simple and do-able and swift and cheap.
Food here is magnificent, so wonderful, and endlessly varied. — I started this post off with a tray of soup dumplings, which have roots in Shanghai and are easy to find and difficult to resist.
This is an elegant lunch in the hotel’s revolving restaurant on the top floors: Incredibly tasty hand-pulled noodles with scallion oil and greens, which I enjoyed with asparagus and jicama. The purple floral accompaniment was lovely but don’t worry, I did not eat it.
This bowl of plump wontons in a hearty broth came from a small cafe on the side street just up from our hotel. We weren’t sure of all the ingredients, since there was no English menu,. but we saw fellow diners ordering this and figured we would be pleased, and oh yes, we certainly were.
This fruit vendor’s shop is still in business around the corner on the food-filled side street, although a number of small shops have become fancier places with a theme and snazzy decor.
This previous trip was also in November, so the fruit available now is similar, with pomelos, the large, thick-walled, extraordinarily tasty and sweeter cousin of grapefruit is major in the marketplace right now.
Here’s the Radisson Blu New World Shanghai Hotel by night. We love the spaceship look of the revolving restaurant on top, because it’s cute and because it makes it easy to find our way home when we walk out far afield and are heading back. No mistaking this skyscraper for any other!
Breakfast in the hotel is as fancy as you want it to be, and if you want something more local, it’s steps away out the front door.
This is Xiangyang Park, and to my delight, we went there again this trip. It was raining both times, and I noted then and now that a little rain doesn’t seem to rain on everyone’s parade.
People are still out and about, even the elders visiting on park benches or gathering to do tai chi, line dancing or aerobics. Umbrellas come out when the rain gets heavier in spells, but doesn’t mean a day indoors as at home.
Smart to be working with whatever nature brought today — I love these little kids playing soccer under the beautiful bare branches of the ubiquitous plane trees with line so many streets in Shanghai.
Lots of treats to share with you, and here’s a sweet one we have encountered several times this trip, with which to end this post. These egg custard tarts are a dim sum favorite at home, but here in China, they’re easy to come by. in bakeries as well as at snack food stands.
Flaky crust, luscious filling, these goodies have roots in a Portuguese confection which I’ll write about shortly. The other treat top left is a waffle-cake, filled a sweetened red bean paste, warm and tasty, made on site.)
This image is one I couldn’t have shared with you this trip, no matter what had happened tech-wise, because this year’s weather is very foggy and rainy during our short stay. This photo from a nighttime boat tour last year gives you a sense of this city’s unique magic. It’s such a gift to be here and I’ll be back with more details from the road.
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