Shanghai Spring, Food, IBS

Spring has come to Shanghai. Flowers bloom, new leaves bud on the well pruned trees. All sorts of foreign pollen irritates my eyes and throat. At least the weather’s been perfect.

Here are some random photos from the last few days, many of them documenting food:
image
Peacocks in the Shanghai Flower Market bicycle parking lot.
image
Flower market parking with friendly attendant.
image
The door to Narnia.
image
J. flying a 5RMB($.75) kite in Zhongshan Park.
image
J.’s kite getting entwined with others.
image
Other kites flying proud on a clear day.
image
Kicking the feather with the Eurotrash.
image
J. and I at our 3rd anniversary dinner: all you can eat Japanese teppanyaki for 150RMB each. We ate a wide variety of grilled meats and vegetables, ramen, sushi, sashimi, and deserts. To drink was peach juice and beer.
image
Asparagus and egg filled fish.
image
Beef.
image
Special duck.
image
Sushi.
image
Construction crew resting.
image
Pork and diced vegetable wraps.
image
Spicy tofu.
image
Vegetables at the apartment.
image
A sweet potato snack.
image
Lays wasteful packaging consists of a tray within a tube.
image
Fired shredded potatoes at Southern Barbarian Restaurant.
image
Chicken wings. Another delicious dish not pictured was mint salad.
image
Fresh beef noodle soup from Bull Noodle.
image
Sesame noodles.
image
A typical lunch at work from a cheap delivered Chinese restaurant. Fried noodles with beef and broccoli with butter (and bugs).
image
Massive and expensive burger at Bulldog Pub.
image
Sichuan Beef in spicy broth with mushrooms and vegetables from Charmant Restaurant.
image
Baby sugar cane and greens with slime sauce.
image
Black sesame smoothy, our favorite.
image
All the trees in the French Concession are blooming.

There’s good food to be had in Shanghai, but I don’t have a taste for it. It’s Thai food any day for this picky fellow; even the tastiest fare here can’t compare. One problem is that the food in Shanghai is either really cheap or really expensive. The cheap food is oily and often good, but prepared under questionable conditions. The expensive food may be good, but it isn’t good enough to justify the cost. The worst offenders in price are other cuisines like Indian and Thai. For the price of naan or papaya salad, I’d rather put the money towards airfare to either country.

Worse, my stomach has issues in Shanghai. I’m not sure if it’s food related or due to stress, but I’ve been getting bloated, big time. If John Mayer were to write a song about me, it would be titled “Your Body is Problematic.”

For now, I’ll chalk it up the mysteries to the always funny IBS.

April 12th, 2009. Categories / China, Shanghai

News Menu

About Categories Archives