Back in pre-war Shanghai the city was split up in to several "concessions." The British, Americans and French, among others, occupied these concessions. The local Chinese were not allowed in and foreigners rarely went out. For a great read on "old Shanghai" I recommend Kazuo Ishiguro's When We Were Orphans.
Today, the only concession still called by that name is the French Concession. Every foreigner in Shanghai knows the French Concession. Numerous cafes, bars and boutiques are found near or in the area. Interestingly, few local Shanghai-nese know the area by the name the French Concession. Really, they don't call the area by any special name at all.
Expats, on the other hand, probably go in to the French Concession at least once a week to eat, read, shop, stroll and wander.
Before Chinese New Year, I spent one lovely afternoon doing just that. I will describe it for you and hope that you may someday spend just such an afternoon. Thank you Becky for being my accomplice in all this.
The afternoon began with a lovely late brunch at Citizen Cafe just down the corner from the Shaanxi Nan Lu and Jin Xian Lu corner. Becky introduced me to this place and I fell in love. It is the sort of place where good food and a comfortable environment meet reasonable prices to create a lunch hour well spent. Light wood floors, warm lighting, dark mahoghany chairs and tables provide contrast to the white, wainscotted walls decorated sparingly with an occasional gilt mirror or large canvas painting.
The Citizen Cafe brunch runs both Saturday and Sunday from 10-2. Although I myself have not ordered off the brunch menu, B's Eggs Benedict was quite good and the neighboring table's pancakes smelled like they came straight from heaven with the looks to boot. Soft, fluffy, a dark golden brown with an ample helping of maple syrup on the side. Yum. The salads here are amazing, especially the walnut, apple, blue cheese salad (the name escapes me at the moment). Quality ingredients go in to this old favorite and the chef does well to not drown the greens in dressing, providing a nice acidic contrast to the heavier creaminess of the blue cheese. But, getting carried away, back to the wonderful afternoon.
Next comes a little wandering mixed with a sizable helping of shopping. The nice thing about this particular day was that it came just before Chinese New Year meaning everything in Shanghai was on sale. Go a bit further south on Shaanxi Nan Lu and you have two options. One, go east down Julu Lu. This will provide you with wonderful residential housing mixed with fabulous boutiques that only appear every once in a while, making it easy to choose and shop in a leisurely manner.
Two, continue down Shaanxi Nan Lu and pop down the cross roads for a quick look at the multiple shop windows. If you do this, I recommend hitting up Garden Books, Changle Lu, and the Big DVD shop on Xin Le Lu. The really big one, almost all the way to Fumin Lu. Planning to hit up the taqueria and tequila place there soon. This DVD shop is hands down the best I've been to. They literally have EVERYTHING. There's also a Dragonfly Spa two doors down and with an hour long full body massage costing 138 RMB, its hard to pass up.
I definitely preferred the Julu Lu route, which provided us with great shopping, great drinks when we felt like a pit stop (Velvet!) and helped us work off the day's eating.
It occurs to me that even though the French Concession doesn't officially exist anymore, the feeling still does. Spending an afternoon there oftentimes makes me completely forget that I live in China, or even a different country. Sometimes this is needed. Especially after one of those days where no one understands a word you are saying and everything just seems harder and more challenging than it ought to be. In times like those, its nice to take a little respite from the frustrations and obstacles of living in China and just pretend you're home, if only for an afternoon.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Back to Shanghai
And so begins my blog.
Tomorrow officially marks the beginning of the second half of my year spent at Junior Achievement, Shanghai. Thank you 8 pound half ounce baby Jesus.
I have convinced myself that once I've found a new job, everything will be great and my love for Shanghai will be rekindled. Naive? Perhaps, but I'm stickin' to my guns.
Plans for the day:
1. Drink so much coffee that my back muscles twitch. Check.
2. Go to cute cafe and pretend I am living in a romantic European city. Urban white flight, anyone? Does it count if I'm Chinese in China? I'm sure sociologists have an overly complex explanation for this phenomena.
3. Go to gym post gorge-fest at cafe.
4. Sit on couch.
After a very long flight yesterday I have come to the decision that airlines should discontinue the use of any planes made before the dawn of the personalized TV screen. Those TV screens are like crack and now that I've had a taste there is no way I can go back to the pull down screen with the wibbly color stripes. Of course, I suffered the lack of personalized TV screen luxury for both 15 hour flights to and from Shanghai. The horror!
TACO NIGHT.
Thankfully, I had a wonderful belly full of Taco Night deliciousness to soften the blow. Now, Taco Night is actually a misnomer. This weekly tradition should be titled Burrito Night, but that just doesn't pack the same punch, does it? There are many ways to host a successful Taco Night, but here are some tried and true methods via Amanda and Sarah.
1. Taco Seasoning. If you ain't got that, you ain't got nothin'. Double negatives confuse me. What I'm trying to say is that you must have taco seasoning.
2. Cilantro.
3. Tons of avacado cut in to little tiny bite size pieces so you can shove them in to the completed taco/burrito to ensure avacado goodness in every bite.
4. Huge burrito shells that can be grilled to a warm, crispy, chewy encasing.
5. Cheese, Cheddar.
6. Ground beef with...TACO SEASONING.
7. Onion.
8. Lettuce.
9. Tomato.
10. Pace salsa (only the gods know why this salsa is so damn good).
Tips:
1. Put the cheese and beef on first to ensure maximum cheese meltiness.
2. Don't overstuff. This is easy to do. Add much less than you think you need. Exploding Taco Night is not fun for anyone, right Amanda?
3. When wrapping completed taco, start with a slide flap and wrap in a clockwise direction. Your taco is now a steel trap of flavor. Yum.
4. Stuff as much avacado as you can in every bite.
5. Do not skimp on any of the above ingredients. We have added and subtracted with great care and we know what we are talking about.
The beauty of Taco Night is not in the cultural accuracy of the dish, but rather the amazingly delicious culturally insensitive result. It's perfect for college (how I miss thee) dinners and burgeoning career dinners.
I mourn the lack of pictorial documentation in my first post. This will not happen again.
----------------
Now playing: Cat Power - Lived In Bars
via FoxyTunes
Tomorrow officially marks the beginning of the second half of my year spent at Junior Achievement, Shanghai. Thank you 8 pound half ounce baby Jesus.
I have convinced myself that once I've found a new job, everything will be great and my love for Shanghai will be rekindled. Naive? Perhaps, but I'm stickin' to my guns.
Plans for the day:
1. Drink so much coffee that my back muscles twitch. Check.
2. Go to cute cafe and pretend I am living in a romantic European city. Urban white flight, anyone? Does it count if I'm Chinese in China? I'm sure sociologists have an overly complex explanation for this phenomena.
3. Go to gym post gorge-fest at cafe.
4. Sit on couch.
After a very long flight yesterday I have come to the decision that airlines should discontinue the use of any planes made before the dawn of the personalized TV screen. Those TV screens are like crack and now that I've had a taste there is no way I can go back to the pull down screen with the wibbly color stripes. Of course, I suffered the lack of personalized TV screen luxury for both 15 hour flights to and from Shanghai. The horror!
TACO NIGHT.
Thankfully, I had a wonderful belly full of Taco Night deliciousness to soften the blow. Now, Taco Night is actually a misnomer. This weekly tradition should be titled Burrito Night, but that just doesn't pack the same punch, does it? There are many ways to host a successful Taco Night, but here are some tried and true methods via Amanda and Sarah.
1. Taco Seasoning. If you ain't got that, you ain't got nothin'. Double negatives confuse me. What I'm trying to say is that you must have taco seasoning.
2. Cilantro.
3. Tons of avacado cut in to little tiny bite size pieces so you can shove them in to the completed taco/burrito to ensure avacado goodness in every bite.
4. Huge burrito shells that can be grilled to a warm, crispy, chewy encasing.
5. Cheese, Cheddar.
6. Ground beef with...TACO SEASONING.
7. Onion.
8. Lettuce.
9. Tomato.
10. Pace salsa (only the gods know why this salsa is so damn good).
Tips:
1. Put the cheese and beef on first to ensure maximum cheese meltiness.
2. Don't overstuff. This is easy to do. Add much less than you think you need. Exploding Taco Night is not fun for anyone, right Amanda?
3. When wrapping completed taco, start with a slide flap and wrap in a clockwise direction. Your taco is now a steel trap of flavor. Yum.
4. Stuff as much avacado as you can in every bite.
5. Do not skimp on any of the above ingredients. We have added and subtracted with great care and we know what we are talking about.
The beauty of Taco Night is not in the cultural accuracy of the dish, but rather the amazingly delicious culturally insensitive result. It's perfect for college (how I miss thee) dinners and burgeoning career dinners.
I mourn the lack of pictorial documentation in my first post. This will not happen again.
----------------
Now playing: Cat Power - Lived In Bars
via FoxyTunes
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