The Blind Leading The...Actually, The Blind Rubbing The Daylights Out Of My Feet

They say that Shanghai is like New York and Beijing is like Washington DC, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when our guide Michelle took us to a delightful French bistro in the middle of downtown Shanghai. Franck is an attractive little place in the middle of a new shopping area (Ferguson Lane, 376 Wukang Lu, near Hunan Lu), with some lovely (although bargaining-not-encouraged) shops.

Franck has a fixed menu for lunch. They brought out a huge French charcuterie platter to start and then big salads. Then we had a choice of 3 entrées. 8 of my group chose Poulet Roti, I went with the fish. (I admit I took few pictures and no notes…but I think it was cod…it was perfectly cooked.) We skipped dessert in favor of coffee, very excellent coffee, before we embarked on a walking tour of the neighborhood.

Our second guide, Spencer, took us around on several occasions. Spencer is an architect, originally from Austin, Texas, specializing in renovating Shanghai buildings while keeping or restoring their original features. His walking tours of various areas were information-packed as he showed and explained the diverse architectural features of different properties and neighborhoods. (Email me for his contact info if you want a rockin' tour of Shanghai.)

Spencer knows every building in the French Concession area of Shanghai and many more besides. He has been living in Shanghai for some time and is fluent in Chinese, so he knows all the cool places to go. I have to admit I was a bit apprehensive about one of our stops, but I went with the flow.


I hadn't thought I had led a particularly sheltered life, but I had never heard of Blind Massage. It is exactly what it sounds like...blind people massaging, I suppose for the most part, non-blind people. It really makes sense when you think about it. Of course, blind people have increased sensitivities outside of sight, including, of course, their sense of touch.


6 of us were brave enough to try a blind foot massage, following the tenets of reflexology. We entered with our stalwart leader, Spencer, who knew what was coming and still agreed to have a foot massage.


It was a modest place, more therapeutic than stylish. And the blind people were sitting in a row waiting for us. We each took a comfortable easy chair, draped with towels. We soaked our feet in… water, I guess and then a blind person approached each of us. They motioned for us to put our feet up on an ottoman and they took the first foot in hand. There were no creams or potions or other concoctions used, just hot towels and powerful hands.


It started out okay, but then my person got to the bottom of my foot, which is supremely sensitive. I stuck my fist in my mouth and I couldn’t help laughing in a high-pitched unnatural way. It was my way of letting her know to stop, but she never did.


THEN she started kneading the bottom of my foot (sorry I don’t know the Chinese lingo for all the pressure points…I don’t actually know them in English either.) really hard, really, really hard. Actually, she was killing me. My laughing turned to breathless screams and then my neighbor said something about childbirth, so I moved to panting. It didn’t help.


OMG, it was more than painful. The friend on my right had tears going down her face, the one on my left was stiff upper-lipping it, but admitted it was rather painful. I could only yell. Heck, I'm not even quiet when I find a good deal at the supermarket, so when someone is kneading the soles of my feet up to wazoo, that is certainly no time to fall silent.


Apparently, it means something when they find a particular area knotted up. They said my neighbor and I definitely had trouble sleeping from what they found in our feet. That was spot-on for me (I haven’t slept well for 10 years), but not particularly meaningful to my friend.


We had arrived late, so the usual 70 minute appointment was closer to an hour, THANK GOODNESS!!!


As we left, everyone agreed that while incredibly uncomfortable (I would say excruciating) our feet felt amazing, as if they’d been thoroughly kneaded in all directions (which they were) and were completely supple and flexible. We were leaving Shanghai the next day and I’m not sure my heart could stand another session, but if I ever find myself in Shanghai again, I would certainly give it another try now that I know what to expect.

Shanghai Spring Rolls

I didn't realize how truly cool one of our Shanghai lunch (and cooking class) stops was until I got back and read how truly cool it was. I did learn from Michelle, our superb guide, that the Whampoa Club is in a most noteworthy building, which includes Jean-Georges’ Shanghai outpost. It’s at No.3 the Bund and was built for an insurance company in 1916 and is China’s first steel building. Its award winning renovation by Michael Graves (his first project in China) was finished in 2004.

A particularly interesting thing about this building is that it is the only one in Shanghai that is owned outright by a foreigner, Chinese-American Handel Lee. All the rest are leased by the government. A BUILDING may owned by the homeowner, but the LAND that it sits on is leased from the government for up to 70 years. CUR-RAY-ZEE!!!

So after our walk around the Bund, we went to the Whampoa Club for a cooking class followed by lunch. Wow, what a snazzy building. Very Art Deco.

Even the bathroom was noteworthy.

We went directly to a very spacious private room, which had been set up beautifully for a short cooking demonstration. Executive Sous Chef (not a title I’ve ever encountered in the West...or East for that matter) Hans Pan was a capable and skillful guide. The fact that he didn’t appear to speak one word of English was not in any way deleterious to our learning the steps of the recipe. Daniel, pictured in the suit, ably translated the chef’s directives.

The most important part of making the spring rolls is not overstuffing them. The Chef compared an attractive spring roll to an attractive man, not too big. Very apt.

The filling was mixture of minced pork, prawns, black fungus, water chestnuts and shitake mushrooms. I had always known black fungus as tree ears and I must say that I prefer that name to this.

Chef Pan chopped and mixed everything together quickly and then set about filling his spring roll wrappers. After he had done a few, he directed us to fill and roll up the spring rolls ourselves. I won’t say that mine were the best…but I wouldn’t have been surprised by a thumbs up from the chef. He did walk around and watch what we were doing, but no individual assessments were offered. Maybe that’s the community first Chinese way…

The neatest part was dabbing on a thick flour paste onto a good inch at the ends of each spring roll. These were rolled to be open at the ends, not folded. But then we dipped the ends into a mixture of white and black sesame seeds. Most attractive. (Email me for the recipe.)

The Chef fried the spring rolls for us, the most challenging part of which was to give each person back her own spring rolls, which I believe he succeeded in.

After repeated inquiries about the type of oil he was using…I was surprised it wasn’t peanut oil, Daniel brought out some rapeseed leaves…I think…He didn’t know what it was called in English. Since China is a huge producer of rapeseed oil, I guess that’s a good guess.

The spring rolls were delicious and they didn’t taste in any way greasy. The paper that they were drained on had almost no oil on it. I think that’s a function of using enough oil to begin with and making sure that it’s hot enough. Chef Pan told us cook them until they float to the top and are golden brown, just a few minutes. He also told us that as they cook, the bubbling subsides. I would guess the oil was about 365 deg F.

After this nice snack of fresh spring rolls. We went into the beautiful dining room. Luckily, lunch came pre-ordered and individually plated. (It would have taken the 9 of us forever to have ordered off the menu.)

We had pork with watercress soup, wheat gluten with mushrooms (good!), poached chicken with soy sauce, egg white fried rice (my fav dish of the day) and coconut pudding and dragon fruit. I love the black specks in the dragon fruit, but I admit it’s just not sweet enough for me.

Here’s Chef Pan doing his thing:

Beautiful Buildings In Shanghai And Pictures That Should Have Been

It’s not often (actually, it's never happened before) that I stay away from blogging for so long, but this Asian cough or whatever finally did me in. Just don’t get too close to the screen and you should be fine.

My Shanghai adventures included a wonderful tour by an expatriate art expert, Michelle, who took us to see the Bund, Shanghai’s most famous street and district, and gave our little group an excellent historical, artistic and architectural appreciation for the area. In some ways, the history of this one street is really a microcosm of Chinese history during the late 19th and 20th centuries – from the Opium Wars through the Cultural Revolution to China today - and it is fascinating.

We took a local ferry to get there, which I admit I was a bit apprehensive about. Gosh, are you lucky that I wasn’t blogging when we went to Hawaii and took a catamaran to Lanai. I hung off the edge during our 2 hour return trip. My kids pretended not to know me and H wasn’t much better.

We followed the motorbikes onto the ferry after Michelle had bought our tickets, worth 7 US cents!!!




In the 7 minute crossing, Michelle told us about what were going to see. Many of the most impressive buildings were built as banks and then after Communism became the law of the land, these were transformed into other uses, including government buildings.

A magnificent example is the HSBC building.



It was built as a bank for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and in its time was the 2nd largest banking building in the world. Especially noteworthy are the magnificent mosaics which remain today only because of the intercession of a very clever architect. During the Cultural Revolution, when the Red Guards were destroying every vestige of the old China, the architect told them that stuccoing over the mosaics was more efficient than knocking them down. Thankfully, they agreed and in 1997, when the building was renovated, the mosaics were uncovered.

Unhappily, this is another place were pictures are not allowed. Since I started blogging, I really resent situations where I can't take pictures. With a guard standing 6 feet away, it would have been a little dicey to try. I still would have, but I didn’t want to entangle Michelle in my shenanigans.

But I want to know how this person got this picture. And after a little (okay A LOT) of sleuthing, I found another picture. Now THIS is what I’m talking about.

There are 8 frescoes around the circular foyer in the HSBC building. Each one represents a different city where the bank had branches - in places as far flung as Calcutta, New York and Bangkok. Incorporated in each one were landmarks of the city. New York’s has the Statue of Liberty and a perfect skyline of lower Manhattan. Paris’s background is Notre Dame and the Seine. These were accurate representations of how these cities looked at the beginning of the 1920’s and still look in many cases. I’m so unhappy not to have pictures…

We walked around many other buildings. Here is some of what we saw:

Okay, food is coming…Here’s a preview:



PS If you're planning a trip to Shanghai and want an excellent guide, email me for Michelle's particulars.

Shanghaied By Shopping

I’m baaack...with an enormous suitcase (H was NOT amused) and a terrible, I believe pollution induced, hacking cough and fever (H was REALLY not amused, as he didn't want to catch it before his next trip in less than 24 hours).

What can I say? China is the bomb, except for the pollution, which is ever present and unremitting! Blogging was not particularly easy. I'm convinced that Google sites were being blocked the first few days in Shanghai and in Beijing, my internet access was spotty. I missed you!

THIS is what Shanghai looked like: cloudy, foggy, misty, polluted-y. I saw blue skies one day.

This was the only picture I have of the lobby of our hotel in Shanghai, the Grand Hyatt, because they’re very touchy about photographs in certain places, except you never know where those places are until the always-present minders tell you no pictures.

On to the good stuff...Have I shared with you how really touched in the head I am about shopping when I travel? I look at it as an extension of other cultural experiences like museums and monuments. H thinks it’s just because I like to buy stuff. Well, of course, there is that…but, actually, I take great pleasure in seeing various objects around the house from different places and remembering where I was when I bought them.

My 2 greatest shopping hauls until now, were in Cambodia and India – 2 separate trips. I LOVE the silk scarves I bought in Siem Reap and I wear one (or another or another or another) almost everyday, which makes me think of majestic Ankor Wat that I feel lucky to have seen. India was noteworthy for the cushions I bought. Since I know H isn’t reading this, the number hovered around 20. I now have a pillow or silk pillow cover to suit any need or situation. That was a trip with my beloved A, who was living in Bombay (before Paris) and boy, did she know where to take me!

In Shanghai, we were a small group of multinational spouses (this time, no husbands in our group). This one day was basically for shopping. (We enjoyed more cultural pursuits, with a bit of shopping, on following days.)

3 of us tagged along with one wily shopper (she was French…need I say more?) and we went to an indoor silk market, The Shanghai South Bund Soft-Spinning Material Market , where we found stand after stand of silks, cashmeres, scarves and bags and more...

We split up and I fell for one girl’s “Hi Lady!” I LOVED a green pea jacket (not green pea…jacket – a pea jacket that was green) and then, as we were bargaining - I AM a prodigious bargainer - she asked me if I wanted one in red too. I figured I wouldn’t be coming this way again anytime soon (after H saw my suitcase, he concurred) so why not? (The wrinkles are from the 24 hour trip.) It was my very first completely made to order clothing item(s). And since we're dishing, each CASHMERE jacket was about $65 - remember it was made just for me and ready in 48 hours. (Amazingly, I could have had it in one day, if I had needed to.)

 


A few more bits and pieces were procured, I don’t want to go into too much detail, so I don’t blow my line “Oh, this old thing” when new purchases are brought out from time to time.

We made a quick hotel stop and then back out again. This time we were accompanied by a fine guide whose mission was to take us to an antique market and to look at antique furniture. The Dongtai Antique Market starts out as a typical street market - stall after stall of things you never thought you needed, but then decide you can't live without.

Half the time, of course, I had no clue what I was looking at, but then when I found a doughnut-shaped lacquered box for necklaces or another box for bamboo skewers for lichee-gathering in distant parts of China (okay, I made that one up), I had to have it. I never have buyer's remorse, only non-buyers regret.

We saw some beautiful porcelain, old calligraphy pens and many other relics of old China, so many of which have been destroyed at various points in China’s history.

At a later stop, the furniture was striking. If not for the shipping around the world, it would not have been outrageous. I figured new dining room furniture might be a bit much to pull off, even considering that H doesn’t notice much. I’m trying to remember if he figured out we got a new car about 4 years ago…

Dinner that night was a fine banquet at the Xiao Shan Qing Restaurant in the Shile Boutique Lifestyle Centre with these beautiful folks entertaining us before dinner.

I'm guessing the name of the restaurant referred to the flute one of the musicians was playing.

The Menu
Mushrooms in Smoked Dried Bean Curd
Pears in marinade
Pork Terrine in “Huai Yang” style
Seaweed Egg Roll
Xiao Shan Qing Consommé
Five Wellness Bao
Sautéed River Shrimp with Long Hing green tea
Money Bag Chicken with Asparagus
Beef Fillet with Black Peppercorn Sauce
Thousand Layer Lotus in light spicy flavor
Braised Mushrooms with Abalone Sauce
Xiao Shan Qing Fried Rice
Fruit Platter

What did I like? I loved the bao with the soup. I liked the seaweed egg roll and the lotus root was good in a very spicy, very delicious sauce. The fried rice was greaseless and without a trace of soy sauce. In fact, the fried rice I had everywhere in China was superb.

Next time, a cultural tour of Shanghai with architectural landmarks and spring rolls made easy…

A Banquet, Bamboo And A Whole Bunch Of Extraordinary Food

H’s colleague M, a grand gent with knowledge of all things Eastern, hosted a banquet at his 1930’s house in the French Concession area of Shanghai. This was a part of the city controlled by the French from the 1850’s until 1940’s, when the French and other foreigners cleared out of Shanghai.

We walked through a wide alleyway surrounded by older apartment buildings into a walled garden, gently lit by lanterns. We entered the house through a large room divided into dining and living room spaces. Two enormous statues kept guard near the doorways. A beautiful tree (shaped like a giant bonsai) held colorful lanterns of different sizes and shapes which illuminated the room.

We moved to the long large roughly hewn wooden table, smartly covered with glass. Dish after dish appeared by the phalanx of folks in the kitchen. We were just catching our breathe and M informed us that those were just the appetizers and we were only halfway done! Gracious!

I may have left out a dish or two. We had gotten off the plane (14 hours from Chicago) hours earlier but here goes:
Fresh Tofu with lots of fresh cilantro on top. Very soft texture, mild flavor. Delicious.
Cucumber Salad, refreshing (my picture was too dark to show you.)
Salted Duck from Nanking
Spring Bamboo, imagine hearts of palm with an even more delicate flavor and that’s what you have. I imagine these are boiled first as here (agsyst.wsu.edu/bambroc.pdf) and then stir fried. Very delightful.
Crispy Bean Curd Skin stuffed with spinach. These were wonderful. A meaty flavor without the meat. The skin was chewy as it should be but slightly crispy.
Eggplant. The eggplant was cut into long very skinny strips. I think it was cooked in a chili sauce. It was very spicy and tasty. The eggplant was completely white inside and there wasn’t a hint of bitterness.
Whole fried fish garnished with strips of chilies.
Stir fried bok choy. The leaves were fairly soft, but the stems retained a bit of crunch, which was a nice contrast within the same vegetable.
Lion's Head is a tradtional dish of Shanghai and named for its large pork meatball representing the head of the lion, and the shredded cabbage (sometimes bok choy) its mane. This dish, to me, was really all about the cabbage. Recipes vary on cooking times, but the cabbage, in this rendition, must have been cooked for an hour of longer, because it was completely soft and meltingly tender and offered no resistance to being slurped up with the broth.
Pork surrounded by broccoli. I didn’t have the heart, actually the stomach, to try this, but it looked like a fine specimen.
River shrimp with vinegar
Vegetable soup (there was also chicken soup)
Dim Sum
It was an amazing array of dishes. Each dish was brought out separately on it own, which meant that everything was freshly cooked and could be appreciated by itself. The best part of the meal? M’s hospitality and dining in such convivial surroundings.

Where Am I?

Maybe the fruit bowl in our room will help you guess.

I'll make it easy. Take a closer look.

Do these help?

Okay, I'll tell you.

I'm in Shanghai for a few days with H. Yes, CHINA! He's on business, as usual, and I'm not (as usual). It's pretty quick visit with a couple days in Beijing tacked on at the end.

This is my first trip to China and I'm fascinated. It does and doesn't look like I thought it would.

I had heard the streets were teaming with people...not so much, but it WAS a Monday afternoon when we arrived. There were tons of trucks on the road, mostly big blue banged-up ones, with people occasionally riding in the back of the flat beds. There were no hordes of bicycles, in fact I saw more in Copenhagen a year and a half ago...

The amazing thing about Shanghai is the buildings. There are tall, very tall, very, VERY tall buildings that dwarf the people on the streets below. In fact, the lobby of our hotel doesn't even start until the 54th floor. We're on the seventy-something floor, out of 85. This is the view from our floor to that lobby...Yikes!

Okay, stay tuned if you want to hear about a banquet that had so many dishes that the bamboo trees thought they were going to be next...Wait a minute. They were!