Red Trilogy - Portrait of Zhang Yimou made of Bamboo Sticks and Socks

This is even more beautiful than the last 2 - and I really like Zhang Yimou. More my generation than Jay Chou or Yao Ming (what to do, old already!). I've actually disserted on one of Zhang's beautiful, powerful but boring work as part of a cinematography minor when I was studying in Paris.

Red's ingenious, fancy having come out with such an amazing (and beautiful) idea.

I repeat myself, but this girl will go far. And she's so pretty, isn't she?

Restaurant Jean Georges, Shanghai

Jean Georges Shanghai

This wasn't our first meal at Jean Georges though it was the first time we ate there in the day and managed to take a few photos in natural light. Because the restaurant is pretty chic with wooden panelling, dim lights (even dimmer in the toilets), leather seats...which while creating ambiance wasn't conducive to food photography.

We still think the cuisine is finer, plus travaillée at Jean Georges' than at Mr and Mrs Bund - though the latter remains our favourite restaurant in Shanghai to date thanks to its generous portions and good service. If I haven't mentioned it before, MM Bund's lobster steamed in a glass jar is something one has to try at least once when one is dining in Shanghai.

View of Liujiazui from our table at the Bund

Last week Hub worked through the weekend and had 3 days off (Wednesday was Tomb Sweeping Day in China) at the beginning of this week. Took the opportunity to lunch out most days as many good restaurants do prix fixe menus for lunch that would allow us to try different dishes without ruining our pockets (or our supposed diet). It's also nice to eat out on a nice sunny day - after weeks of continuous rain and grey weather. Our Champagne brunch at Jade on 36 last Sunday was too much though - I drank so much (we estimated we probably drank at least a whole bottle each of champagne and red wine between us) I broke my favourite mug when I reached home and couldn't sleep all night.

Foie gras brulé, candied pistachios - excellent and light

Sea scallops with caramelised cauliflower

The Chinese staff at Jean Georges needs to be better trained according to us. They seemed a little clumsy, lacking in elegance, savoir faire and rigour. I do not know if you have observed professional French waiters at work, but you'll understand then that serving truly requires technique and a certain finesse.

Baked salmon with black truffle crust

Caramelised tenderloin, potato confit with lemon

We took different dishes in the lunch menu and shared a second main dish - because Hub wanted to try their cheeseburger with Russian dressing and crispy onions. He said that since JG had a restaurant in the USA, he must be good at making burgers.

JG Cheeseburger, Russian dressing, crispy onions

The food didn't disappoint and the dessert was quite fine - a great way to end the meal with. We drank half a bottle of Chilean red wine which turned out to be quite good, though the cost of the sparkling water (98 rmb!!!) nearly freaked us out. Bill came up to 1000 rmb for the 2 of us, which I guess was normal for lunch. A similar meal for dinner would normally cost double.

Raspberry sorbet, mousse and meringue

Strawberry-Calamansi tart, lemongrass sorbet

Jean Georges Shanghai

3 on the Bund

Tel : 021 6321 7733

www.jean-georges.com

Cabbage with Bacon Stir Fry

Cabbage and Bacon Stir Fry

There are days when you want to eat simply. I do not need another medical checkup to tell me that my liver's getting too rich and oily. Not that cooking the humble cabbage with bacon is not rich nor oily, but it's a simple dish to prepare and if you often keep a head of cabbage in the fridge like I do (because it keeps well for a long time), it can be whipped up in a jiffy.

I have been busy trying to reorganise the house now that we have lived a year in it. Spring being round the corner also contributed to the desire to tidy up and age probably also had something to do with it. A quick poll among my secondary school mates revealed that quite a number of the ladies have become quite into packing and repacking in recent months/years (some age faster than others haha) though once you reach my MIL's age I'm sure said desire will go out of the window again.

So I've been to Ikea a few times and came back with new shelves for the Babies (that I'd have spent an afternoon or 2 assembling the modern woman being the new man), I've also bought new transparent plastic boxes (they were quite expensive, sigh) and repacked the garage. Need to return to Ikea next week to buy more boxes so that I can also reorganise the closets. Plastic is a good investment because if you had burst pipes or a leaking roof, you'd appreciate not having your clothes in paper boxes (speaking from experience, of course).

Now I need to find the energy to repaint the wooden garden furniture for spring. And finish my new mosaic projects. But sighting sunlight really helps to keep me moving, winter just doesn't agree with me.

I had rice porridge left over from dinner and felt that it would go really well with some Cabbage and Bacon Stir Fry. No time to cook elaborate meals lately though that would have to change with the coming of spring and a new season of entertaining.

Cabbage and Bacon Stir Fry :

small head cabbage (tender parts chopped into large pieces)

3 slices good-quality bacon (sliced)

2 garlic cloves (finely sliced)

a few dried chillies

sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Boil a pot of water and blanch the cabbage for 3 minutes. This would help make the cabbage less bitter but do not over cook or it'll lose its crunchiness. Remove and set aside.

Heat up a fry pan and fry the bacon pieces till the fat is rendered. Cook the garlic and dried chillies in the fat till fragrant.

Season to taste and add the blanched cabbage to the frying pan. Stir fry for a few minutes and serve hot.

Yuxiang Kitchen, Shanghai (渝乡人家）

Yuxiang Kitchen Himalayas branch

Fei was supposed to join us since she was the one who recommended that we try this Sichuanese restaurant 渝乡人家 that just opened behind the Jumeirah Himalayas Hotel in Pudong, but she felt queasy and had to give it a miss. So Judy and I went with the Teenager who surprisingly didn't sulk for once and actually seemed to enjoy his meal.

I am getting used to eating Sichuanese, in fact I sometimes have cravings for the numbing heat and spice of the cuisine. The oil that the food tends to be steeped in is a bit off-putting, but once you start fishing the stuff out, you will forget that you even minded that in the first place. Like my driver said, it can be addictive, so much so that many locals in Shanghai are giving up their sweet cuisine for the fiery one of their Sichuanese comrades - according to him.

Yuxiang Kitchen is actually a chain with branches all over Shanghai. The restaurant in the J Hotel being new, the decor was refined and we had the privilege of eating off new plates and sitting on new chairs.

Forget this beef skewer dish : dry, tough, stringy, raw spice taste

The service was reasonably attentive (not many clients that day) though I wouldn't listen to their recommendations too much, the beef skewers our waitress mentioned we should try was dry and stringy, a mistake.

Bullfrog in chilli oil - yummy and very oily

Chicken in chilli oil - quite nice but could be meatier

But the rest of our orders turned out quite well, though improvements can still be made. I loved the bullfrog dish but the pieces of frog were weirdly chopped, not easy to consume. There was much more eggplant than fish in the fish and eggplant dish, maybe we should have gone for the spicy fried fish instead.

Fried pig's intestines - nice and crunchy on the outside but to be consumed quickly

Eggplant and fish - a bit of a rip off

Finally I actually enjoyed the cold noodles more than I expected to. It had a good mix of sesame oil, peanut paste, soy sauce, vinegar and chilli. Quite yummy, much better than the Ding Tai Fung version, actually.

Cold noodles - very nice

Yuxiang Kitchen Himalayas Pudong Branch

1188 Fangdian Lu

Tel : 021 6047 9797

Chicken Dan Dan Noodles

Chicken Dan Dan Noodles

In my quest for a local substitute for imported tahini (which is very expensive here in Shanghai), I ended up buying a few jars of sesame paste some of which also contain peanut butter (and are therefore not suitable for making hoummous). Currently not in a figure condition to enjoy peanut/sesame butter sandwiches, I had to find some better use for said pastes and came up with a bowl of Chicken Dan Dan Noodles for lunch.

I had my first bowl of Dan Dan noodles at Ding Tai Fung last year and didn't like it. I felt that it was too peanut buttery. I've wanted to make my own version since then and was glad that I found a moment to do so a few days ago. Life has been hectic lately between meetings for Global Child Day (GCD), my mosaic and calligraphy hobbies, recent passion for picking up the piano again (too much stess?), housework, lunches with friends, cooking classes and preparing to receive friends and family to Shanghai starting from the end of May.

I've also been having quite a headache over Baby Girl and her lacking behind (according to all her teachers) in almost all of her subjects. We need to figure out if she's having problems learning, if she's slow and/or if she's lazy. How's that?

Dan dan noodles are also known as spicy Sichuan noodles. Though it has become such an important part of the Taiwanese snack culture that we probably think of Taiwan (or even American Chinese) first and Sichuan second when it comes to the dish outside China. My version was, I think, more Taiwanese than Sichuanese (if you go by the ones I've eaten in Sichuanese restaurants thus far).

I didn't have use of the driver that morning so I couldn't buy any fresh Shanghainese noodles (that I felt would go well with the sauce). I used fresh ramen meant for lanzhou lamian instead which worked out quite well actually. It was more springy and had a firmer bite compared to Shanghai noodles. I didn't use any spring onions because I do not like them much.

The result was a slightly sweet, salty, peanut buttery, acidic and fiery bowl of noodles.

Chicken Dan Dan Noodles :

peanut oil

1 large clove garlic (minced)

1 large slice fresh ginger (julienned)

1 tbsp sesame paste

1 tbsp dark soy sauce (or if you prefer it sweet use kecap manis instead)

1 tbsp chilli oil (I also used chilli padi)

1 tbsp black vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

125ml chicken stock

fresh wheat noodles for 1-2 persons

Garnishing :

1 tbsp roasted sichuan peppercorns

fried beancurd skin (sliced)

cucumber (sliced)

100g cooked chicken meat (shredded, normally minced pork is used)

Bring a pot of water to boil and cook the fresh noodles till they are al dente. Drain and set aside.

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Heat up the peanut oil and fry the ginger and garlic till fragrant. Stir in the sauce ingredients and simmer till well combined.

Pour the sauce over the noodles and garnish with shredded chicken, cucumber, bean curd skin, chopped spring onions and roasted Sichuan peppercorns. Mix well before tucking in.

The Locals' "Side" of Jinqiao

My pretty fresh noodle seller

The sun finally came out this morning. After weeks of rain. Rain morning, rain afternoon, rain night. Where in the world did they manage to find so much rain to pour on us?

Problem was I had nothing on my agenda today. Some paperwork to deal with, a failed soy bean curd experiment (I shouldn't have stirred it), then nada.

I decided to call the spa and arrange for a body scrub and hot stone massage. The stones were...hot. I felt like a (fat) chicken with grains of rough salt rubbed all over, oiled and then roasted. There was even aroma thrown in, it smelled of lemongrass in the room.

It felt wrong to go home and/or stay indoors on a day like this. But I didn't want to go all the way to Puxi just to walk outside. Told the driver to drop me off at the other side of Jinqiao (our nearest neighbourhood), in his words, "the poor people's side of Jinqiao".

Jinqiao - or our part of Jinqiao - doesn't look that much like what you have in mind of China. It is clean, with wide streets, lots of new condominiums, townhouses and villas. There is a Carrefour and a supermarket selling mainly imported products, lots of restaurants that cater mainly to expats and many white and S.E Asian people walking about. Cars with drivers line the streets and there are no shops selling anything that any body earning less than 10000 rmb a month would be able to afford.

Where the locals live in Jinqiao

Some time ago I asked the driver where he went for his lunch breaks (excluding Food Republic in Carrefour) since most of the restaurants in the area were so expensive. "The other side of Jinqiao" was his answer and since then I've always wanted to cross over to the other side for a visit.

Small wet market

A local primary school - quite nice from the outside

This area is really just a block or 2 away from Carrefour. It's more densely populated with lots of flats both high and low and especially lots of shops both small and big. When I told my driver that I would like to walk around, he looked at me like I was crazy, "What's there to see there?"

Recycling

Anyway he dumped me at a busy intersection and I started to walk around. At one point I saw an alley where there were small shops and stalls selling cooked food, woollen sweaters (you actually see an old woman knitting away at the entrance), clothes, sundry goods, fruit and vegetables...I find it hard to imagine eating anything there though as there was a strong smell in the air, probably due to this stall selling buckets of duck blood, or maybe to refuse pilling up in a corner.

Food and shopping alley

Street bazaar

In a street just opposite a primary school there were make-shift stalls selling all sorts of things including wooden shelves and buckets, and there were also permanent shops selling cooked food, household goods...and fresh noodles. I love carbo and found myself attracted to the white floury stuff on display. Though I had no intention of making dumplings or soup noodles, I found myself buying a stack of wonton wrappers (they were thicker than the ones I normally use) and a few fistfuls of fresh flat wheat noodles. All for 3,50 rmb - I didn't know before that one could buy anything for that amount here in Shanghai.

Wonder how many dumplings this client would be making with that

All that for 3.50 rmb!

I also passed by my favourite Shanghainese bakery Ruby which makes very yummy sponge cakes filled with fresh cream. In fact I bought a few cups of...fresh cream for my afternoon tea. The Babies are crazy about their cream too and ever since I gave some to the driver's little girl I've helped Ruby gain yet another (chubby) fan.

They are often found at the entrances of a residential complex

Local snacks

We finished the visit with a trip to the neighbourhood retoucherie - a mobile stall that repairs/changes your buttons, zips, alters your pants etc. 10 yuan to change the zip (versus the 100 that the shop near my villa wanted to charge me) and I let my driver do the negotiation because I was told that once they see my face prices will go up. I probably look gullible or just very foreign.

Left = repair and alterations, right = cobbler?

She didn't bother to find a green zip to go with the green dragon costume. I guess I shouldn't complain for the price, but still I thought that she could have made an effort.

Lunch at Table N°1 by Jason Atherton

Squid ink risotto @ Table N°1

When you are an expat in Shanghai, you usually look forward to picking up a copy of the free magazine Cityweekend filled with restaurant listings and reviews, the latest concerts and exhibitions etc.

For a year now I've been wanting to try Table N°1 by Jason Atherton since reviews have generally been positive and the menu seemed interesting and reasonably priced. The chef is famous (and has worked at El Bulli as well as won numerous awards) and I liked the idea of modern European cuisine, gastro-pub concept etc. That "N°1" was mentioned somewhere in the name of the restaurant probably contributed to said desire, you know how the psychology works for some of us.

I digress, restaurant opposite was making offering to the gods, burning paper money etc

I convinced Hub to join me there for lunch (he usually prefers French or Italian restaurants if he had to consume calories) one afternoon in February and we found the South Bund area where the restaurant was pretty cool. We were seated in a bright dining room decorated simply with modern fittings and I was quite intrigued by the fact that the kitchen was situated in the next building. It's like watching your neighbours cook, one of those thoughts that crossed my mind.

Salmon cakes with quail eggs

The lunch menu was simple and looked delicious on paper. But I must say that while the food was quite nice, we didn't find it exciting and couldn't find the incentive to return. Plus the portions were small.

Calf liver

We had salmon cakes with quail eggs, squid ink risotto, calf liver (for Hub)...They were cooked properly, the colours and presentation were lovely, but we just felt that there could be more to it. The risotto wasn't anywhere as good as the ones I've eaten in Italy, and the dessert while nice couldn't be compared to what I usually get in France.

Was it just a bad day? Maybe I should give the private chef dining a try? But Hub wouldn't have any of it.

Table N°1 by Jason Atherton

The Waterhouse Hotel, Cool Docks

1号 Maojiayuan Road,

Shanghai
Tel : 021 60802918

www.tableno-1.com

海底捞 Steamboat with Service

Yin yang pot

I've never been hot about steamboat (火锅/hotpot/fondue) until Fei brought us to lunch at 海底捞 (Sichuan Haidilao). Ever since that, I started looking forward to my next steamboat meal and realising that I wasn't alone, we lunched there again this afternoon.

What's so special about this steamboat restaurant? Without hesitation I'll tell you that it's the service. Yes, it's possible to have service in China. This restaurant positively sizzles with it. Though of course it comes with a price. I've brought my driver to lunch there on another occasion and according to him a meal at Haidilao costs at least 50% more than a similar one (with less service, of course) that he and his family would go for.

From the moment you step out of your car and walk towards the building housing the eating place, there would be someone waiting, "Do you happen to want to lunch at Haidilao?" Reply in the positive and you would be ushered to the private lift that would bring you directly to the restaurant and be greeted by a hostess.

At your table you would get a hot towel (that would be changed any time you want a new one), an apron, a cover for your jacket and bag, an elastic band for your hair (if you don't have one)...You order your food, your drinks (free-flow and served), specify if you want someone to cook for you, and you would always be checked on to see if you needed anything else, if the heat was too strong or not enough etc.

There would be a station filled with cold appetisers and a wide choice of sauces that you could mix yourself (and it's cleaned all the time by the staff), noodles would be prepared and pulled right in front of you, plates changed throughout the meal...The menu is quite varied and the prices reasonable. I love their special beef (that remains tender even after a long time in the pot), prawn balls and fried bean curd sticks.

Spoilt for choice

Cleaning and refilling the sauce station

You need to go to the toilet? It's very clean for a Chinese restaurant because there is someone cleaning it all the time. Need a sanitary napkin? Just ask. There may even be staff waiting to turn on the tap for you, provide you with a towel, hand cream, tooth pick, chewing gum etc etc.

Chillies and oil!

Their 麻辣 soup base was one of the best I've tried, so strong and hot Fei had to eat pop corn (courtesy of the house, of course) to quench the fire. Feel that maybe the meal may be too hot for your system? They would make flower tea for you to balance things up.

Division of labour is the way this restaurant works. There is someone for every task. There are currently 10 restaurants in Shanghai but we usually go to the one in Pudong. You can order steamboat to be delivered to your house, by the way. Or buy one of their soup bases online. On 淘宝, of course.

海底捞

上海市浦东新区张杨路588号中融恒瑞大厦6层

Tel : 021 38713936

www.haidilao.com