Summer Update

Natalie had summer camp this past week and I am a little embarrassed to report that the break was sorely needed! I think you have to know your limits and while I love being at home with my daughter, it leaves me little time to focus on my own adjustment here in Shanghai. To make it even better, Tom was in India this week, so I cooked what I wanted or ate out if we didn't feel like it. The picture here of Natalie is from the porch at Slice, Natalie and I's favorite resteraunt. So, what did I do with all of that "me" time? Shopped of course! My forays into having custom clothes made at the fabric market left me desiring a simple trip to a store to buy what I wanted. So I headed to the Super Brand Mall (next to to the Pearl Tower) and went to H&M. It is a store, originally established in Sweden, which truly carries western sizes. Sort of like a European Gap. So, I spent $100 US dollars! But I did get two pairs of Capri's, two skirts, and a tank top. Not too bad. I should explain about the bottoms I bought. I know it will be hard for anyone who knows me to believe, but I now own 4 casual skirts and, more surprisingly, I wear them! Outside. Where people can see me. I have found that when I wear my usual shorts here, I attract more attention than I desire. Not because I look so good, but because I look so different. So, I have taken to wearing more "acceptable" clothing such as Capri's and skirts. One thing that has been a benefit of this new style is that I learned how much cooler skirts can be hear during the rainy season. Ya get a nice breeze! Besides the shopping, I did spend some time cooking this week. I blog some recipes separately, but you can check out the new You Tube videos of our Ayi making us Zongzi! How fun!!!

So, enough of me. You are probably wondering how Natalie's camp went. It went a lot better than I thought it would. She was a little "iffy" on the first day, but another girl who knew her from swimming, took her under her wing and she adapted quickly! Of course I am not there during the day, but the teachers assure me she has done well. There are not a lot of younger children at camp, maybe 4-5 her age in the morning, but only 2-3 in the afternoon. Surprisingly, the new friend she talks about the most is Linda, who is 12. She is Asian, but speaks perfect English. She adores Natalie! Linda has a younger sister, but the sister is older than Natalie by a few years. Regardless of what drew them together, the two seem to be pretty inseparable except with they split the older and younger kids for certain activities. They do arts & crafts and a lot of outside sports. One day, Natalie told me her favorite activity was soccer. SURPRISE! She did caveat the statement by telling me that "they only practiced, no game". Natalie last year refused to play in her soccer team's games, though she was perfectly willing to do the drills in practice. For some reason, she doesn't like activities where there is a clear winner and loser. Oh well, I would rather have her that way then the other I guess. She has camp again next week and she is already talking about what they are going to do. So, that has been a success.

For those of you who might be interested, we have booked our flights home for Christmas break. You can check out the calendar here. Natalie and I will be home a month, but Tom can't take as much time. We all fly home December 17 and then Tom heads back on January 4th. Natalie and I are going to be in the States until January 17. Natalie will miss the Christmas parties at school, but we thought that would be no bid deal this year. We already know we will head home for the summer in 2008.

Summer is Here!

HOT... HUMID... MOSQUITOS... EMPTY...

This is the theme of Shanghai in the summer. And it is definately hot and humid. The rainy season is upon us and when it doesn't rain, you sort of find yourself hoping it does rain. That way it justifies the level of humidity you have to live in. But I am definately not complaining. Tom and I have lived in Indiana or Ohio our whole lives. I think we can learn to adjust to different weather, if not, then this trip is probably not going to be successful.

Besides adapting to summer, we have been busy saying goodbye to all of our new friends. We seem to be the only expats here that decided to stay this summer. So why did we stay? Well, it seemed like we just got here and coming home so soon didn't see necessary. That is the story and we are sticking to it! Natalie had a last chance to play with her new friend Jessie, who will be going to kindergarten at the school, Concordia, too. They have a ballet class together and seemed to hit it off well. We went to the Shanghai Children's museum with Jessie, her mom Heidi, and her brother Timmy. We had a good time, as we always do at the museum. This was Natalie's third trip in three months. I think it is safe to say it is her favorite field trip so far! Tonight we are going to have dinner and play cards with the Miller's, some new friends. They are leaving next week. It will be nice to have an evening that is similar to how we spent some of our time in Ohio: grillin' & chillin'. Their two girls, Jamie and Lauren, are very sweet and are very good with Natalie. They are in 4th and 5th grades at Concordia, so Natalie thinks that is totally cool to hang out with older girls from "her school".

My mother is coming on August 3, so I have to get ready for that. I am so excited to have our first visitor! Plus I have lots of projects to help me with while she is here. I want to have some painting done, and some cushions for our patio furniture made. She can help me build some epxertize on selecting fabric and buying items from the fabric market. Plus she is going to bring some things with her that we cannot find here. Like dry mustard and pancake syrup.

Chinese Cooking Class - Crispy Beef

I took a Chinese cooking a few weeks ago at a local Chinese restaurant. Some girlfriends here told me about it. For 100 RMB you get an hour of cooking and 2 hours of eating! Best deal is Shanghai. The restaurant is Hong Qiao Ren Jia Restaurant, and they serve what is known is Shanghaise style food. It is located at 406 Wulumuqi Nan Lu which is way over in the French Concession. In fact, very close to the U.S. Consulate building. The cooking menu was spicy beef and an almond dessert. The dessert was not so good, so I did not even try to cook. It was basically a simple flan with almond flavoring, but they serve it in sprite with fruit floating in it. Weird. But the beef was good. The chef spoke only Chinese so there was a translator who helped those of who are Mandarin-impaired. But again I observed the strange phenomena of many Chinese words (sometimes a couple of minutes worth) being boiled down into a few simple sentences by the translator. This is one of the main reasons I want to learn mandarin: what are all of the extra words for???? Anyway, the cooking was interesting. The lunch they served us afterwards was unbelievable. It was not the best food I have ever had (that award is still with Emeril's Delmonico restaurant in New Orleans!), but there were at least 25 different dishes on our zhuan pan (that lazy susan thing in the middle of the table). I tried some new things: sheep stomach (not good), rice with whole crabs in it (good), sweet and sour water chestnuts (very good) among others. It would have been nice if there was a list of what we ate so I could mark it. Some things I would recognize in a picture menu, but not all. It was a really good way to try to a lot of different things. There were lots of people who knew Chinese food at our table, so they could help me out with what I might be tasting. I tried everything on the table and other then the sheep stomach, all was pretty good.

So, it took me a while, but I finally made the recipe for the spicy beef they made. I couldn't find the bread crumbs they used and that took me a few days. And yes, this is a fried dish, so you wouldn't want to fix it a lot, but it was different and pretty good. The one thing that is a bit hard is the ingredient referred to as the crispy dried Chile. The ingredient that they used in the restaurant came in a small container and they told us that we had to buy it from this restaurant because we would have a hard time buying somewhere else. It is one of their signature dishes and I guess using hard to find ingredients makes is unique! Surprisingly enough, they had a whole box of these containers available for all of us to buy. I think that you can substitute pretty easily with a small mixture I have noted in the notes. Enjoy!
----------------------------------------------------------
Zi Ran Xiang Cui - Crispy Beef with Cumin
1/2 lb Beef Fillet (can use traditional fillet or thigh meat)
3 1/2 Tbs. Breadcrumbs
1 tsp chicken stock granules
2 Tbs crispy Dried Chili (see notes on substitution)
1 Tbs cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Peanut oil for frying
Marinade:
1 egg white
2 tsp Oyster Sauce
2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Black Soy Sauce (this is a lot less saltier!)
1 tsp Chinese Wine (Shoaxing Jiu or similar)

Slice beef into square slices, 1"x 2". Make marinade. Mix beef with marinade and place in fridge for 6 hours or overnight. If using really tender fillet, less time is needed! Heat peanut oil in pan to medium temperature. Coat beef slices with bread crumbs. Deep fry, for 30-45 seconds per side. Do not brown too much! If oil is too warm, cook for less time. Remove beef from oil and drain will on paper. When beef is finished frying, add dried chili, chicken stock, cumin, salt, and pepper to a heated wok or pan. Put heat on medium flame and add beef. Mix beef thoroughly with dry ingredients. Serve warm.

Notes:
If you don't know where to find the "crispy dried chili", and frankly, I can't even find it here, try this simple mix: rice crackers (the pretzel rod slices looking one), sesame seeds, peanuts, chili oil or just olive oil with lots of red pepper. Mix to your liking, you only need a few tablespoons. When I made it for Tom and Natalie, I just mixed in some sesame seeds with a little bit of red pepper, and it was fine. You just will miss the extra crunchiness from the dried chile's. But, if you can find plain dried chile's, try soaking them in some oil (olive would be fine) with the other ingredients. I think this might come close.

As I said, I made a special non-peanut none-spicy for 2/3 of the family. I ate mine with my special spicy stuff on it. It was interesting to take really expensive (well, here it is cheap) meat and deep fry it, but it was pretty good. I served with rice of course!

Field Trip: Shanghai Sculpture Space

This past Friday we took a field trip on the Metro to visit the Shanghai Sculpture Space. It is over on the West side of town, near the Shanghai Train Station. It is a part of the new "Red Town" that will house artists, clubs, restaurants. Our new friends, the Miller's, went with us. Kathy Miller, and her two daughters, Lauren and Jamie had never been on the Metro. So it was a good chance for Natalie to "teach" them. Lauren is 10 and Jamie is 8. They go to the same school that Natalie will go to, Concordia, and will be in 5th and 4th grades next year. We had fun at the museum, especially since some of the exhibits were outside and some were inside. It seemed like there many opportunities for all of us to explore both male and female identification. Always interesting with a four-year old. Natalie's favorite sculpture was a large duo of cherries made out of glass. Very interesting.

After gazing at so much art, we of course had to find some place for lunch. The area where the museum was located appears to be in the beginning stages of development, so there were lots of "potential" restaurants, but only one that happened to open. As we stood in front of Beca's menu board outside, an extremely helpful hostess came out to tell us that in fact they were only going to be serving their "Tea" menu that day and not until 1:30 (it was noon!). So we asked her if there were any local spots, preferably western, and she proceeded to give us some half-hearted directions to the nearest Holiday Inn. She could probably tell from looking at our faces, especially the girls, that a long walk for so-so food was not in our future. So, she said "why don't I check with our Chef and see if we can accommodate and early tea. In fact, maybe he can find some pasta or something for you." And he did! We had a fantabulous lunch of Tuna sandwiches, Roast Beef sandwiches, and Mozzarella sticks. Plus free after lunch coffee and ice cream for the kids. We were basically the Chef's first real diners! That is what I love about Shanghai, a willingness to go a little beyond what normal expectations may be. So, the little restaurant will have a special place in our hearts for a while as a great example of Chinese hospitality!

Special thanks to Kathy for sharing the pictures! I forgot my camera!

Fabric Market Trips

Here in Shanghai, there is no really easy way to buy new clothes if you have a western build. However, you can take clothes you have to the Fabric Market and have them copied. You can also just generally describe the article of clothing that you want or desire and they will try to create something similar for you. So, I have had an opportunity to do both. Let me describe what the market is like. There are three floors of stalls in the building, with stalls specializing in different types of materials such as silk, cotton, linen, etc. Some shops that sell buttons, belts, etc. Many of the stalls specialize in the Chinese style with traditional patterns, really beautiful. So you shop around for both the materials and the seamstress/tailor. Then you pick your material, state your design, and bargain for the price. When you pick it up, you try it on and most stores will adjust if it is not quite right. I had an Ann Taylor Loft skirt copied and it cost 120RMB or about $15.25. The original skirt, which I bought on sale, cost me $29. Plus the material I selected was a bit more luxurious. So, I think it was a decent deal. But, I don't have a shirt to match yet. What a goof I am. Today I went back to another stall to pick up another shirt I had ordered. It was just white, with some poofy type of material, and I had wanted a v-neck. Well, I ended up with about the plainest shirt I own (and I own some pretty boring clothes!). The craftsmanship is just so-so on the shirt. The skirt, on the other hand, was really good! So, today I also ordered a linen shirt to match my skirt. Tom also stopped with me on Saturday so that he can get some pants that fit. For about $22, he has ordered a pair of blue wool-cotton blend pants, just for everyday wear. We will see how those turn out. Tom also needed a new sports jacket, so rather than risk the idea of using a "stall" to get something that important, we went deep into the city to find a good tailor. So Tony the Tailor is currently making Tom a beautiful black, cashmere blend suit (we decided to get a pair of matching pants so he can wear it as a suit) and a custom made shirt. All for a little less than $200. We will also see how that turns out. If it seems OK, we are taking all of his pants in to get them altered! No more hillbilly pleats! Stay tuned for more...

Shanghai Walks - Suzhou Creek

I have taken two walking tours of the Shanghai City in the last couple of weeks. The tours are detailed out in a book on the local architecture, I don't know the name of the book! My friend Kathy copies the pages for the particular walk and then we use that to navigate. This week Kathy, Angie, Sabrina, and I toured the Suzhou Creek area. That starts at the north end of the Bund and criss-crosses the creek that runs east-west. I took a nice group pic at the start. The creek used to separate the British settlement (north side) established in 1842 and the American settlement (south side) established in 1854. In 1863, the two settlements combined to form the International Settlement. During the late 1930's, after the Japanese bombings north of Shanghai, the Japanese occupied the north of the creek and the international settlement guarded the south. it was a political boundary! However, by 1941, Shanghai was completely occupied by the Japanese. I realized after reading this tour book that I had a lot to learn to about China and it's history. After toodling past the People's Heroes Monument (no pic as it is kind of boring) we headed across the river on the Garden Bridge , which I also didn't get a good picture of. The Garden Bridge is also known as Waibaidu Qiao or "bridge of the outermost ferry". It was built in 1907 on the site of the first wooden bridge across Suzhou Creek, it was Shanghai's first steel bridge.

Next we stopped at the Astor House Hotel, #15 Haungpu Lu, known locally as Pujiang Binguan. That is the building here in this picture. It was completed in 1911 on the site where there was another hotel built in the 1850's. We walked around inside this hotel and it was interesting to read some of the historical things that took place near there. The first electric light in Shanghai was lit outside of the hotel. From the Hotel we walked back across the Garden bridge and saw the former British Consulate location. Not sure what it is now, though something is there as some of the gardens inside the fence were being maintained. From there we crossed and re-crossed the bridge a couple of more times. For lots of reasons there is not always a lot of significant landmarks left. Sometimes there are just small remnants like a part of a building or maybe just a part of some balconies. In the picture on the left you can see some interesting window designs in the Quinsan Garden Apartments. This is considered Queen Ann/Victorian style. So we saw some cool buildings and learned a lot of history (or learned that we didn't know!). But the fun part of taking these walks is getting away from the overly "touristy" spots and seeing the people and their culture.

I always find it amazing to observe the Shanghaiese conducting their daily lives. In this picture on the left you can see these two guys who clearly needed to rest so they just parked their bikes and rested. While at first this just seems funny, when I go back and look at them, I realize that is what I love about China: you get what you get. These guys are not ever going to be embarrassed in the least about laying down and resting and no one is ever going to judge them. It is assumed they had been working since 6:00 am (and the likelihood is very high that they had) and they needed to rest before finishing the next 6-10 hours of work! Still, it is pretty humorous. I also love the candidness of the Chinese. In the picture on the right you see the nice smile that this lady shared with me. And all I said was "Ni Hao" and pointed to my camera. She had been holding those flowers and talking to the man when I took a picture of the path they were standing on. I walked on down to take a closer picture and got nothing but big smiles. We also watched several groups of children walking from school to lunch, many of the children yelled "Hello!" and "Hi!". Like us knowing "ni hao" I guess. I uploaded a good You tube video on showing them walking, and you might be able to hear them calling to us. And then there are the signs with English translations on them. Some of them are just horrible! I guess they have a Chinese who has learned English translate them or maybe they are using BabelFish.com, but some of the translations you see are hilarious. I am actually going to start a whole page with just the funny English signs. In the park sign on the left you can sort of see that in rule number 1 that "children 1.2 and less of stature and spiritual disease patent can't enter the garden". And in Rule number 5 it clearly states that no "activities of feudalism or superstition" are allowed! So we had to leave...

We finished the tour and headed back to the Bund for lunch. We at at T Sen, a fusion restaurant right on the water and headed home. So, the walk was nice and we learned some history too. Overall it was a nice day and a nice walk.

Bzzzzz... Bzzzzzz....... Bzzzzzzzzzzzz......

Mosquitoes. They are everywhere here. We have gone through almost an entire large can of Raid since we have been here. Natalie and I have little bites all over. Tom seems immune (guess they bugs don't want to bite him). But the worst is the occasional awakening from a deep sleep at night by the bzzzzzz in your ear! A couple of times both Tom and I have lost hours of sleep trying to find the one little mosquito that insists on buzzing into our ears. So we have learned to spray the rooms well before we go to bed at night. One night, while we were still downstairs, we found mosquitoes practically swarming around us. We sprayed, but they kept showing up. They were clearly coming in from somewhere. I finally thought to myself "wouldn't it be funny if there was a door or window open somewhere and that is where they are coming from". Then I checked downstairs and found the garage door wide open! Geesh! Once we got the door shut and sprayed again, the mosquitoes finally were down to one or two that we couldn't seem to catch.

Oh, and something funny about how the mosquitoes are dealt with here in Shanghai. When you go to the local stores, there are lots and lots of spray and coils that can be burned outside. The coils are pretty harsh, but I understand that a lot of Chinese use them right in the house! Anyway, you cannot buy a simple, plastic fly swatter. You buy these large eclectic ones that ZAP the bug when you hit it, but no simple one! I find that hilarious. A fly swatter is not something I thought I would have to bring from the States!