Man, that was awesome. These guys know how to spend a Sunday. This day was jam packed, so I don't know how I'm going to fit everything in, and a part of me feels like even trying to describe it will be a disservice to the experiences. But, I know that we will all appreciate it more if I spend the time to get it all down.
We had Sichuan noodles for breakfast. Apparently, (so the lore goes), Shanghai cuisine is fairly spicy, and then Xi'an cuisine is even spicier, and Sichuan cuisine is the spiciest of all. And I was taken aback by the spiciness of Shanghai food. And there, to wake me up in the morning, was Sichuan spicy noodles. Do note that this wasn't simply a bowl of noodles. This was a Shanghai-portion of noodles. A whole big, bowl of hot, hot breakfast noodles. And boy, were they fun.
There was that first period of trepidation as I dug in, but I soon found that it was a pretty good dish, all around. After a while, though, as I was totally aware of my spice-drenched situation, I sort of just kept eating and eating, trying to get as much of the sauce and spice in my mouth as I could. Rolling the noodles around to catch all of that crazy hot red stuff as I could At first I told myself it was to get it over with, and then I told myself it was to fully experience it. But now that I think about it, maybe, I am just starting to like spicy foods?
I know enough mandarin to make jokes about breathing fire.
We tried to get my passport checked in at the local police station, but apparently they take Sundays off, so that was a no-go.
We went to the beach, which was an hour or so of suburbs-driving away (see earlier post about the buildings that I saw on the way). It was simply a beach on the off-season. We walked down a long way, making simple conversation about swimming and volleyball. There was a volleyball stadium that we ducked into for a sec, which was very cool. They had promised me yellow water, because of the sands, but because it wasn't warm enough, or something, it was just blue water. There weren't any people there at all, which at first I sort of took for granted, but then I realized how refreshing it was, compared to the shoulder-bumping of the city.
Baba really liked the lobster in Boston, when he went. I agree. The only not-good dish I've had in my entire stay here was the clam chowder from Pizza Hut, which, for some reason, I expected to be as good as that of New England. But it tasted really not good at all. This has become the thing that I wish Naiyi could experience the most: a good bowl of clam chowder. Maybe some lobster bisque. In terms of American Food, they've got burgers and chicken and pizza, and they're generally prepared quite well. But the New England seafood thing is absolutely untouchable.
Anyway, we flew kite at beach, (see picture). Baba was really good with it. He'd grown up flying kites, and it showed. I give it a try and did okay. I could save it from dive-bombing pretty consistently, but I was the only one who was at risk of dive-bombing the thing, so I don't know if you'd call it "skill," per se. On our way back, we walked
We had lunch at a pretty cool restaurant, which basically served a bunch of good traditional Chinese and Taiwanese dishes. I'm trying to liken it to a restaurant chain in America, and I think something like Uno's might be it. But less chain-y.
Soya bean milk in a big bowl and one of those soup spoons, lots of omelette things, which are very hard to eat with chopsticks (even Naiyi's family thinks so), spring rolls (which do, actually, translate to "spring roll." This translation always stuck out to me; I always thought "spring roll," if anything, would be an American substitute for a Mandarin word, but this is not the case), Scallion pancakes (which I could name as "cong you bing" [pronounced 'tsong yo bing'], and told them I could make them, which impressed everyone a good bit), and some really good dumpling things, xiao long , which look similar to baozi, but are a good bit different, which we dunked in rice vinegar, which usually detracted from the experience. They consistently eat far more than I can, and I fear for the integrity of the walls of my stomach.
First they brought a little vegetables, some deep fried mini-fish, some eggs in (what I think were) sweet potato noodles, pig tongue (yup!), and some really good crab claws in some sort of escargot-esque butter thing (but much better and different, in ways that I don't even begin to have the vocabulary to describe), which they said was very representative of Shanghai cuisine. Then came some more vegetables with fish pieces (it seemed like it had the consistency of squid or octopus, but I could be way off the mark), some more deep fried fish (note on deep frying: while the concept of deep frying is always sort of a scary thing, here it seems they've figured something out. Namely, if the thing you're deep frying is actually healthy, its sort of no big deal, especially if you eat other healthy things along with it. Same goes for all the oils and things used in the cooking. If you have a bunch of vegetables and fruits and normal things along with and mildly crazy things, you have a very good meal ahead of you. In America, "deep frying" more often means "putting cold fat in hot fat, so that it might cook," which is something to be wary of. But here it means "make delicious"), some rice things that reminded me of flat, marshmallow-less rice crispy treats, that you dip in a sauce that is many times hotter than the crisps, both in temperature and spiciness. It's all sort of blended together, at this point, I think. But it was wonderful. Fully bellies and laughter all around. Chunks of sugar cane to top it off, which is fun to eat. Crunching and ripping at the tendons, sweet juices spilling out, no matter what you do.
Afterwards, on the street, we saw some cane sugar. I'd said I'd never had it before, so they bought a whole length, and we had fun trying to strip off the bark and chunk it up into pieces. There was a wonderful finesse to it.
I can feel my thumb and pointer finger getting much stronger from all the chop-sticking.
Everything can take pagoda-form here. Even telephone booths. Even the tops of sky-scrapers. Anything.
The phrase "shen me shen me" (pronounced like "shun muh shun muh") is used as we would use "something something," which I find funny. It literally translates to "what what," and I keep trying to devise a theory around the British inspiring this language tic, but it isn't working out.
The phrase "beer belly" exists both in Mandarin and in English.
I find it tremendously embarrassing that "Dairy Queen" has been translated. I thought the phrase was our nation's secret shame, but alas.
3/8/10 8:12 PM
They like Mr. Bean!
Hannah's family watched some the day before, and I was really jealous. And then today, totally organically, my family offered to watch Mr. Bean with me. This is amazing. No one appreciates Mr. Bean anymore.
I bought a kick-ass umbrella. The thing is truly gigantic. The first mildly unnecessarily large thing I've ever bought. It's superbly spring-loaded, so you just pop a button, and it unfurls with a satisfying wHump! It comfortably seats two passengers. It has a drink tray. Sun roof. Stun mode. It has a cane-hooked handle so I can drape it over my lower arm as I stroll about town. I have yet to point at things with the tip, but the time will soon come. I remember how excited I got, the first time I gestured at something with a mug of coffee. Oh, how I've grown.
Guess how much? 5 bucks. That's right. 5 bucks.
The only problem is, it's so gigantic, that once I actually get out of the rain, it takes tremendous effort to get all of the water off of it. Surface area.
More ping-pong today. I felt sort of like a hustler. All (7!) of the tables were occupied, so I just sat back and watched the best game in the room for a bit. Then they, sort of jokingly, offered to play with me, and I am sort of just about as good as they are. I'm still fairly inconsistent, and I will loose my coordination and just whiff or something pretty often, but this is happening less and less. It's always fun, though, and I always feel I've played a little better, gotten a little more coordinated, no matter how sloppy I play, at times.
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