Boots in the Oven

Guangzhou: Yum Cha!

OK, actually, we did more in Guangzhou than just stuff our faces with dumplings, dumplings, and more dumplings.  We wrote eleventeen blog posts!  We went for long walks!  We imitated street art and watched brides and grooms taking wedding portraits on Shamian Island, 沙面岛, which was a French and British concession for years where Chinese were not allowed.  Weird, right?

I'll start with the dumplings, though, as dim sum (or yum cha) was really the reason we'd come to Guangzhou in the first place.  Along with Hong Kong, Guangzhou is one of the parents of dim sum and boasts a wide variety of delicious tidbits.

When we asked at our hotel where the best dim sum could be found in town, they immediately directed us to Guangzhou Restaurant (Guangzhou Jie Jia; 广州饭店).  The dim sum we had there was spectacular, though ordering was quite difficult.  Sure, you get that same dim sum menu where you select items by checking them off.  Unfortunately, that menu looks like this:

Through lots of miming and pointing and arm-waving, we managed to get an array of tasty dishes.

First, Logan's favorite, the baked BBQ pork buns (豬肉包子?).  He said these were the best of his life to date.

Of course, we had to get the steamed char siu bao (叉烧包) as well as har gow (虾饺) the light glutinous rice dumpling stuffed with shrimp that's my favorite dim sum offering.

Oh yeah, and turnip cakes tossed in spicy XO sauce (easy to spot, because the XO is in English on the menu - ha ha, aren't we clever!) and cheung fan (猪肠粉), a rice noodle roll stuffed with whole shrimp. Oh right, and a pot of pu'erh tea.

Ha!  I bet you thought we were done!  Well, we would have been, except we spotted the seafood tanks arrayed outside the restaurant.

So we ordered fresh eel, fried in a batter that included fermented tofu, and topped with a most generous piping of mayonnaise.  The fermeted tofu wasn't that strong, adding a nicely funky note to the rich eel.

We also had dim sum at a couple of other places, and while all were good, none stood out like Guangzhou Restaurant.  This sweet offering from Kai Yue Restaurant (you know what, cutting and pasting all this probably incorrect Chinese is making me lose my will to blog) in the Golden Palace hotel was worthy of note; pounded sticky rice dyed green, stuffed with crystals of sugar, sugarcane, and peanuts.  It arrives looking just like a beautiful stick of fresh sugarcane.

After spending so much of our time eating, we had to at least TRY to walk a bit of this off.  So, off to Shamian Island and its wide European-style streets!

We hijinked around and took pictures.  I'm pretty sure this kid is playing marbles, but I thought it looked like he was coaxing squirrels with bits of food.  I was more than happy to play the part.

There were a ton of statues on Shamian Island, and lots of greenery and nice strolling pathways.  Though it's still a very large city (once known as Canton - hey, Cantonese, right?) it felt way more laid back than Shanghai.

Chinese ladies through the ages.

Sometimes the statues got involved and tried to take pictures of us.

The island's mailboxes were pretty sweet, too.  I don't think our HOA would take kindly to me painting our mailbox red and installing smiley faces, but I might have to try.

And... Markets!  We stumbled into this one late in the day after accidentally getting off at the wrong subway station.  oops.

They had a staggering array of goods.  Beautiful eggs!

Greens, trimmed and ready for the pot!

The back of the market contained all the live chickens, and many of the seafood displays showed mostly skinned and filleted fish with their hearts still beating in their exposed chests. I'd forgotten about this aspect of Chinese marketgoing.

But even more surprising than that was the large crocodilian we spotted. Have you ever wondered what a crocodile cross-section looks like? Neither had we. But here it is!

Guangzhou.  Altogether a good place to spend our last few days in China.

Yes, that's it for the PRC!  Goodbye to the smoking and the spitting, the delicious, not at all dumbed down for Westerners food, the terrific public transportation, and the constant shoving.  You've been quite the experience and I appreciate all the things you've taught me, even if I'm not quite sure exactly what all of those things are yet. More reflection needed. Xie xie.

Bring on the Classy: Kappo Yu 割烹雄

I had to go to China to find out about Japanese Kaiseki. Perhaps I should have been more up to speed, but hey, I takes my learnin's where I can gets 'em.

Kaiseki is basically a high end Japanese tasting menu where the chef works to highlight seasonality by presenting a a wide-ranging but balanced spectrum of texture, temperature, color, and flavor. Definitely my kind of party. Being Japanese, there are of course a lot of rules. But on this point I found I benefited from willful ignorance.

We weren't planning on splurging on any fancy meals during our time in China, but our friend Kent sold us on the idea with a wistful sigh; "Kappo Yu is my favorite restaurant in Shanghai."

Words like this are not to be discounted.

Communal area of Kappo Yu helmed by chef Terada.

The very next evening we found ourselves walking through an unmarked door, framed with a smattering of bamboo and single divided red curtain. Moments later we were cozied up comfortably to the bar grinning expectantly at head chef Yohei Terada and his talented sous.

Every man needs a good blowtorch.

As I watched the younger man grating wasabi root on an actual shark skin paddle, I got a sense of the sort of attention to detail we could expect.

Since we didn't have to make any food decisions, our little group put our heads together and decided to start with an aperitif of the house made plum wine (a little sweet, a little salty) followed by a bottle of extremely pleasant sparkling sake (which I will admit I didn't even know existed until it was in my glass).

The first dish out was a pillowy abalone chawan mushi with a slightly bitter liver vinaigrette; an undemanding and satisfying way to ease us into the meal.

This was quickly followed by a piece of grilled unagi with grilled apple, miso apple sauce, and a bit of steamed broccoli rabe. Fatty, sweet, salty, and smoky. Like a savage, I even ate the tiny apple cup.

Terada-san then took a cheap shot, blatantly trying to bribe our affections with a plate of obscenely fresh otoro, mackerel, and sweet shrimp sashimi.

With a side of otoro nigiri for good measure.

What kind of chumps does he take us for? I mean sheesh, it was barely even incredible.

Following the fishes, a martini glass of uni appeared, topped with an airy sweet potato mousse and a little spike of the same potato, fried. I'm a sucker for sea urchin dishes and this one was no exception. I did question the choice of serving vessel though. Seemed a bit like my 1980s auntie trying to get fancy with the parfait.

Check out the cool purple ume salt.

To counter the sweet and soft, out came salty and crunchy- a progressive selection of tempura bites. I think my favorite was the scallop wrapped in shredded onion, but the white fish rolled around shiso and plum and the plump scallop roe both made a good play for the top.

Palate cleanser intermission! Cold seaweed salad with fat salmon roe and cubes of mountain potato. Like an inspirational poster for my mouth; I felt buoyed up for the second half.

This marlin and grilled leek in a lightly sweet soy sauce (soy sauce sauce?) came out fighting. It was certainly worth eating but my favorite thing may have been the ass-fabulous covered bowl it came in. I love a good anticipation.

Our main course was Hokkaido king crab and Kagoshima beef shabu shabu. The thoroughly marbled and thoroughly enjoyable beef cooked in that iron pot of dashi in about 8 seconds. The crab took around a minute and was so sweet and meaty I briefly considered a career change to join up with the Deadliest Catch.

The final savory offerings were a selection of temaki or hand rolls. In theory we could pick two out of three between flounder, salmon roe, or eel. But unfortunately, these were the all-time best temaki I've ever had (entire life here, with all the eating parts included) and we made such an embarrassing show of smacking, oohing, and fawning that the sous chef kept making us more, even bringing out some otoro for an encore.

The seaweed wrap alone, crisp, fragrant, briny, still keeps me up at night.

Dessert was anticlimactic; a decidedly weak link in the otherwise impeccable line-up. I remember that it was three dishes starting with firm and cold and ending with liquidy and warm, but the flavors escape me. I wasn't overly worried though as I was still somewhat dazed from the hand rolls.

At the end of the night the chef himself, along with the hostess escorted us outside and thanked us for joining them. You don't see that everyday.

Kappo Yu's menu changes monthly, so you have plenty of reasons to go back. If you're feeling more like straight sushi, the sister restaurant Sushi Oyama is supposed to be stellar. If you make it, let us know what you think. Based on our Kaiseki experience it's definitely on the list for our next Shanghai visit.

Kappo Yu 割烹雄
Address: 33 Wuxing Lu, near Huaihai Lu / 吴兴路33号，近淮海路
Tel: 6466 7855 (you know, but with other numbers in front depending on where you're calling from.)

Hours: 6:00pm-11:00pm, closed Sunday
*Reservations Required

Marketing, Shanghai Style

For all you SEO peeps that maybe just came to this MARKETING post hoping for tips on the stock market or bonds or summat, well, in this case marketing means like the food kind.  Food, basket of eels, giant wall of Snickers... Shanghai has it all!

Let's start at the wet markets near our hosts Kent and Larisa's house in Jing'an.  Come here for vegetabes, pickles, eggs (both cooked and hundred-yeared), meat, and fish.  All fresh.

In fact, some of the ingredients are quite a bit fresher than we're used to in the States.  Fancy an eel?

Perhaps veggies are more your speed.

SO many greens, right?  And such beautiful ginger!

It's also a good place to come for cured and dried meats.

If you want your fish fresher than fresh, you can also go to the several-city-block-sized wholesale fish market.  We got there around lunchtime, which I think might be a bit late for a fish market, but were impressed by the stands still operating.

Geoduck!  What a strange creature.

Not sure why these fish were split open.  Drying?

We found a nearby restaurant, where Kent made some selections for lunch directly off the seafood display table.

The boys LOVED this sea urchin, but Larisa and I thought it was just a bit too rich.  One was fine for me, thanks!

If you're needing random toiletries or a t-shirt or a crapload of Snickers, there's always the gigantic Carrefour, too!  It's basically a Wal-Mart or Sam's Club, but they carry Chinglish shirts and hawthorn candies.

And I wasn't kidding about the Snickers. 

Sweetlordwhy?

I enjoyed wandering the Carrefour especially to see the snacks marketed for the Chinese palate; jasmine-flavored Doublemint, cucumber or green tea potato chips, orange/mango Oreos.

Logan was excited to try more baiju, China's stupidstrong booze.  Neither he nor I have yet developed a taste for this stuff.  Phew.  Turpentiney.

Turns out if you look interested enough in the baiju section one (or two or three) young ladies will materialize and start pouring random samples. I deferred but Logan soldiered through a dozen or so mumbling "one of these will be good, blech, surely one of them..." He eventually admitted defeat.

Shanghai's markets are a great tourist attraction in their own right, and I'm glad we got to see such a range! Still working on my jasmine Doublemint mints... don't know if I prefer them or the lemon mint.  Decisions.

Suzhou: A Shanghai SideTrip.

Suzhou!  It's a nice side-trip from the urban hustle and bustle of Shanghai.  I mean, it's only got 4,000,000 people in the town, so it's like a sleepy little hamlet by Chinese standards!  

Also, you can take the superduper high speed bullety train to get there.  This thing was FAST.

Freakin' WHOOSH, guys.  At like 200 kilometers per hour.

Sexy.

Suzhou's popular with the Chinese because of its beautiful gardens, of which it has many.  Some people get a little misty-eyed and write odes and paeans to Suzhou.  There is a lot of poetry out there about the place. Folks even get excited and call it the Venice of the East, which seems a tad overblown. 

The gardens are certainly beautiful, and because the weather was iffy they weren't even particularly crowded.

This is the Lion Grove Garden (狮子林园):

Peaceful.

And full of pathways that turn and crisscross over each other and go under waterfalls and over bridges. It's a small space, but easy to get lost in.

Supercool doorways.

The bonsai were just beginning to bloom.  Their perfume scented the whole area, a nice respite from the street fumes outside.

A walk through Suzhou's older streets.  We stopped in to chopstick stores, ceramics factories, and fabric stores, but bought little.  

A stop for tea; once again, my favorite, Tie Guan Yin oolong, Iron Goddess. 铁观音, if you're trying to order it.

And a stop in the Garden of the Master of Nets, where I fail at not being a goofball as well as double fail at wearing my scarf like a normal person.

And then back on the train and in under an hour, the craziness of Shanghai.

Eating China's Wild West: Xinjiang Comes a Callin'.

Being the sexy cosmopolitan melting pot that it is, Shanghai was able to offer us some tastes of China from areas we weren't physically able to visit.

One of the most interesting expat communities in town are the Uygurs (weegurs) from Xinjiang (Shinjang) province. Xinjiang is tucked up in the far northwest- bordered by Mongolia, Tibet and about 300 countries ending in -stan.

When they move, the people have a tradition of opening food stalls and restaurants in whatever area they settle in and they are serious about their food. Lucky us.

Mr. Chaplin comes back as a Uygur chef. Still hilarious.

The Uygurs are almost exclusively Muslim so no pork of course, but think lots of mutton, flatbreads, dried fruits and nuts. And cumin. God they love cumin. The men also love mustaches but that's a different story.

We started our Xinjiang feasting at Sapar Uyhur in the Jing'an neighborhood not too far from the massive temple. We had some impressive lamb ribs, a braised chicken dish, and some delightful stewed eggplant with peppers.

My favorite though was the large fried, stuffed pastry they styled as a Xinjiang pizza. Despite having no relation to a pizza other than being round, I can forgive them the name since they made up for it with flavor. Packed with tender mutton and various aromatic veggies, the filling is a little spicy, a little sweet, and extremely chop-licking good.

Just in case they didn't jam enough goodness inside, Sapa goes ahead and dumps a bit more filling on the top for good measure. As a warning, the fat from the sheep's tail is quite prized and it's a common flavorant. This ain't no Lean Cuisine.

I also really loved this raw watermelon radish salad. It came across as practically Mexican since it was tossed with tomato, cilantro, chili, and onion. Pico de radish. The dish is refreshing and a good palate break from the fried sheep fat express.

Even better than the restaurant though was our visit to the (creatively named) Friday Muslim Market. Located just outside the mosque on North Changde Lu, the FMM is two and half blocks of pure eating pleasure. (But only on Friday in case you're slow.)

If you're a do-it-yourselfer, you can procure everything from half a raw lamb to bags of dried raisins and apricots,

to this extremely adorable lady's boil-at-home glutinous rice dumplings.

The uni-kebaber. What? Like you weren't thinking it.

Since we were more inclined to sample the stuff all ready to go directly in our mouths, we started with some spiral cut mien jīn (wheat gluten) sausages on a stick. Sproingy and fun to eat.

Sticking to the kebab theme, we also went with some rich lamb kidney, slowly grilled over open coals until the thick layer of fat was rendered off and then wrapped in a sesame flatbread to soak up the savory drippings brimming with herbs and iron. As a side note, the large volume of grilling meats adds a certain something to many of the sweet baked goods left out in the open. Fancy a cœur de bœuf eclair?

While a lot of interesting food was to be found, the highlight for me was the dumplings. Lots of variations were on hand.

We tried what basically amounted to over-sized potstickers from this lady. Crispy and chewy with a filling of chicken and ginger, it would be hard to complain about these little guys.

But what you must not miss under any circumstances are the shamusa, also called samsi or baked baozi 烤包子. These bready dumpling balls are filled with beef or lamb and plenty of onion, pinched into disks, anointed with sesame, then slapped onto the inside of a piping hot tandor to bake until golden brown.

Could they be any more adorable?

Give them a few minutes after they come out to cool off or you may end up with what's known as "being Logan" or more accurately, covered in dumpling juice and having a scalded mouth for the rest of the day. Whatever. It was totally worth it.

And that wraps up our Xinjiang extravaganza. Next we trot out around town with big buddhas, graffiti, wholesale brides, and ball riding bears. Oh my.

Sapar Uygur Restaurant
20号 Yuyuan Branch Road
Jing'an District, Shanghai
+86 136 1160 3279 ‬‎

Friday Muslim Market
In front of the Huxi Mosque

1328 Changde Lu, near Aomen Lu
Northern Jing’an District, Shanghai