Exploring Shanghai – Indian food at Tandoor in the Jiujiang Hotel

Another special place that we found after we had such a great experience at the fairy tale castle was on the grounds of the Jiujiang Hotel in the French Concession in Shanghai.  The hotel is part of a conglomerate now – there are hundreds of branches across the country, but initially it was a special hotel founded in Shanghai only used by senior members of the Communist party.

Deng Xiao Ping is said to have told the hotel that it should be open to all people, not just party elite as he implemented his reform and opening up policy.  Now anyone with enough money to eat at one of the restaurants can come in and enjoy.

The grounds are extensive with multiple buildings and restaurants.  I think a couple of years ago I also went to a wedding in one of them (though I went to a lot of weddings of colleagues in a short period and I’m not 100% sure).  Once you enter past the gates the noise and bustle of Shanghai falls away.  There are tailor shops that line one walkway and when we were there one side was under construction where it appeared another Chinese restaurant would be opening soon.

We however, were exploring – looking for what is supposed to be the best Indian restaurant in Shanghai, Tandoor.  We had researched it and heard that it was the favorite of the Indian Consulate and so went to take a look.  The prices initially scared us off, but Li managed to find a Tuan Gou deal (similar to US Group-On) that provided us with a huge set menu at a very affordable price.

The entrance to Tandoor

When we entered the restaurant, we were the only patrons for the first thirty minutes – and we arrived around 12:30 on a Sunday.  It made us a little nervous as typically in China empty restaurants don’t have the best reputation.

Empty restaurant?

They seated us near one of the many mirrored walls and we sat back and waited for the food to be delivered.  One of the nice things about pre-set menus is that you don’t have to worry about what to order when you arrive.  It’s already been chosen!  I added a mango lassi (had to have it), but everything else was pre-selected.

The ceiling was covered with hundreds of Chinese characters – the only Chinese accompaniment to a very Indian meal

The food was phenomenal.  There were three different curries, a huge basket of lovely warm naan bread, vegetables, tandoori chicken and beef, different sauces, dumplings – way too much food for two people.  As we ate, slowly the restaurant filled up, and around 1:30 as we were finishing a large table of Indians came in and sat down.  It made the restaurant warm and welcoming.

The pakoras and tandoori chicken and beef came out hot and not oily at all

Curries, rice and vegetables

I would go back again just for the naan

Enjoying my lassi (and the other dishes

I haven’t eaten at every Indian restaurant in Shanghai, but it was the best I’ve had and I would believe the Indian consulate may order from there.  The combination of the story of the Jiujiang Hotel and the excellent food made our afternoon.

Have you searched for something and found it to be even better than you expected?  The empty restaurant almost made us turn around, but we were very glad we stayed.

A walk by St. Paul’s Cathedral…

Since I took my hiatus from the blog earlier this year, there are lots of places that I have visited in the last six months – both for pleasure and business – that I’d like to share now that I have some more time to go back through my memories.  Enjoy!

In June I visited the UK for work.  I was there nearly a week, first flying into London Heathrow and spending not quite 24 hours in London, then heading to Scotland, then back to London for three days of meetings.  Since I was coming from the farthest away, I needed that night in London to balance myself instead of directly transiting to Scotland.

The hotel that I stayed in had a view of St. Paul’s Cathedral – so I decided to take advantage of the summer-like weather and the blue skies to try to combat my jet lag and take a walk – both right after I arrived, but also the next morning before I headed back to the airport.  I wandered around – not quite aimlessly, but tried to hug the Thames and soak in the sunshine.

Here are a few of my favorite shots.

View outside my hotel window

The shard in the distance from another bridge

St. Paul’s peeking from the bridge

Puffy clouds and classic building silhouettes

I really liked this view from under the bridge – a different point of view

My time in London the weather was amazing – no dreary skies.  It wasn’t a standard visit – I didn’t take the Tube, visit a museum or have afternoon tea, but I managed to have a great time.  As the weather turns cool here and the air quality goes down, looking at these photos take me back to that visit.

I’d like to also call out a Happy Birthday to my father who has always encouraged me to talk the walk by the river or sit in the café in the square.  Happy birthday dad!

Where have you wandered recently?

A fairy tale castle in Shanghai

Shanghai has many hidden treasures – places just around the corner with history dating to pre-Communist days.  Lately we have been trying to search them out – enjoying the autumn weather to find these hidden gems.

First view from the restaurant

One such place that we found was the former residence of Eric Moller which looks like a fairy tale castle, just under the Yan’an elevated highway in the French concession.

Inspired by Snow White?

Li found the secret garden when he was looking for lunch special deals – there is a beautiful Japanese restaurant situated in the garden overlooking the castle and so on a perfect blue sky day, voucher in hand, we went to explore.

Beautiful blue sky day

The castle was built in 1936 and was supposedly inspired by Moller’s daughter who wanted to live in a castle – but the plaque outside states the castle was inspired by ships and ship-building as Moller was a “merchant prince.”  Either way, it is not something you’d expect in an Asian city today and it appears to have been preserved relatively well, though we didn’t enter inside.  Now there is a Chinese restaurant and event space – we could see people busily preparing for a wedding later in the afternoon/evening as we poked around the grounds.

Our lunch was absolutely lovely – beef udon noodles in a lunch set under the terrace with a small goldfish stream to the side.  Initially when we arrived there weren’t many people there, but it slowly filled up.  I could feel my breathing slow down as the bustle of Shanghai fell away.

Under the terrace, waiting for lunch

Beef udon sets

Finished off with a sweet treat

Have you found fairy tale castles in other places?

 

Tea and jazz at The Peace Hotel

Another special thing we did when my mom was in town was treat her to afternoon tea at The Peace Hotel.  When Li and I celebrated my birthday, we had slipped inside the lobby and happened to notice that every Sunday they have a special jazz tea with musicians who had played in Shanghai prior to the Communists taking over.  All of the musicians are in their 70s and 80s now so it seemed like a limited opportunity.

We booked a table and my mom’s final Sunday in town we dressed up and headed out for lovely afternoon tea.

It was a set menu – the only choice to make was what type of tea to enjoy.  There were all of the English classics – tea sandwiches, sweet cakes, milky tea and of course – scones!  The scones were my favorite – they came to the table warm with clotted cream and lovely jam.

My favorite – the scones!

The jazz took us all a bit by surprise.  I think we were expecting jazz more from the 50s and 60s – but instead it was more Big Band music.  They played When the Saints Go Marching In and other classics from the 20s and 30s – more Depression Era Jazz.  Mom commented that it would have been the music that her father grew up with.  Thinking about it after the fact though – that made a lot of sense.  When jazz was evolving, these gentlemen were not playing music in China.  They had other things to worry about.

 

The musicians – still going strong. They played for nearly an hour without a break.

Given the age of the musicians, I don’t know how long this afternoon tea will last, but it was globalization at it’s best – English tea and American jazz in Shanghai, China.

Where have you had your most interesting mix of cultures?  How does music influence that?  I remember when I first moved to Shanghai my students assumed that I knew every song in English – because it was in English and I was a native speaker.  Have you ever had that happen?

The NBA in Shanghai

NBA in Shanghai!

A couple of weeks ago we went to an NBA pre-season game in Shanghai between the Brooklyn Nets and the Sacramento Kings.  I had read about it on a website a long time ago and convinced Li to get tickets back in August.  They weren’t cheap – even far up the tickets were over $100 USD, but I figured for once in seven years – why not?

They held the game at Mercedes Benz Arena – the last time I was there was when I went to the Elton John concert a couple of years ago.  This time I realized that the Chinese name is actually Mercedes Benz cultural center (文化中心).  I suppose Elton John and basketball are cultural events – but it’s not a literal translation of arena – that’s for sure.

We got to the game a little early to make sure we were able to soak in the experience.  I wasn’t sure what it would be like – and I haven’t been to an NBA game in over 8 years, but it was pretty much like I remembered.

Li had a great time too! We sat next to a father and son who spoke Spanish and English the entire time so I got to eavesdrop a little.

Our seats were great – we were right above one of the entrances so nobody was sitting in front of us and we had extra leg room which is always a plus.  I had a hot dog (seemed appropriate, though the chicken sandwiches appeared to be the more popular choices) and some popcorn and we enjoyed the dancers and people warming up the crowd.

Looking up above the big screen, I noticed that there were the Chinese and American flags at the top of the arena.  Basketball is fairly popular in China – Yao Ming is retired now, but he made an appearance court side and still caused a stir.  There were a couple of players who were definitely more well known than others who got huge rounds of applause.

A pair of flags – one in sport

It was obvious that some folks had never been to a western style sporting event before.  They had the “kiss camera” and the first several couples they zoomed in on seemed oblivious.  Finally one couple got the idea and the entire arena erupted into applause.

The game itself was high scoring with the lead changing constantly.  Players rotated throughout to get their minutes and things weren’t decided until the last two minutes or so – which meant everyone stayed until the end.  One highlight that occurred during the fourth quarter was that Shaquille O’Neal showed up as an ambassador for Meng Niu – which is a Chinese dairy company, in a cow print T-shirt to help judge a dance competition.  It was pretty funny and not something I think he would necessarily do in the US.

Enjoying the game

After the game was over we made our way slowly back to the subway.  I had never gone to an event there during the day, so we were treated to some nice views of Lujiazui across the river.  Development appears to be continuing in the area (which was the old 2010 World Expo site), but still not very much has happened, considering the Expo ended four year ago.  The Chinese pavilion still seems to be a big tourist draw – I have heard that it is a decent museum, so maybe one of these days we’ll go explore it.

We had a great time and am glad that we planned far enough ahead to enjoy it.  What was the last sporting event you went to?  Have you ever gone to a sporting event in another country where the culture is different?  Any fun stories?

 

 

The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth quarter review

I am trying to play catch up with my blog after such a long hiatus, so the content posted in the last nine months was not up to previous standards.  That said – I was reminded by my friend Carissa at Everyday Adventures in Asia that it is not a competition and I should continue to blog for the pleasure of it.

The eleventh quarter (like the last 12 months) was one of lots of travel – I had just finished six months at my new job and was definitely in the swing of things.  Unfortunately, that meant that the time I had to blog was reduced quite dramatically – meaning that I had to cut my post schedule, but I did manage to continue, which is more than I could say for June, July and August!

Even with the reduction in posts there were some fun elements and wanted to take the time to relive a couple of my favorites.  Do you remember either of these?

• I posted on part of our trip to Greece and taking wedding photos in front of a certain church in “Do you speak English? (A Santorini photo shoot).”  Every time I walk into my apartment I am reminded of that wonderful trip because our “money shot” has been blown up and framed on the wall above our couch.  Believe it or not, I have even more photos from Greece that never made it onto the blog – but at least I was able to give you a sense of the wonder of that honeymoon.  I would go back again in a minute!

The church and the two of us – a perfect pairing – the money shot

• Replacing things in the new year (part 2) – My saga regarding the main air conditioner in our apartment where I narrowly missed an electrical fire thanks to the circuit breaker flipping.
  

  Would you use this plug?

  We have continued to have to replace things in this apartment, but did decide to stay another year when our lease came up in September.  The price is right, the location good and the landlord very responsive.  That said – I will predict now that this is our last year in this place (but I’ve been known to be wrong before.)  The most recent change was we got a new refrigerator at the end of August which we used as part of our negotiations.  It is larger than our old one and does not frost over every other week, so both of us consider it a good trade-up.

The eleventh quarter also contained Chinese New Year – introducing the Year of the Horse and after the official holiday we did slip off for a lovely vacation, so I’ll see if I have the energy to post on that one.  Any guesses where we went?

The twelfth quarter I also managed to get a handful of posts together – though this is when my work travel really started to pick up.  I’ll be posting retroactively on some of my trips (like the Hong Kong post earlier this month) to give you a sense of where I was and what happened – so more to come, but I did want to call out this post on living in Shanghai that I posted in May:

• Door to door service – talked about the convenience of a big city – the good and the bad.  I’ve had even more things delivered since this post – not having to carry them and getting lower prices is a strong incentive, but luckily I have not had any more visits from the police recently.

I also thought I would leave a teaser – not all my travel in the twelfth quarter was for work.  Li and I managed to slip in a trip to Bali at the end of April that was absolutely phenomenal.  Here are a couple of photos.

A temple – and beautiful blue sky

Exotic Indonesian fare

Finally – the thirteenth quarter when I started posting again.

My most popular post was on Taxi Roulette – trying to figure out the best way to get a taxi and get around this city.  I have downloaded a new taxi app recently and am trying it out as well.  We’ll see how the taxi situation continues to evolve here in Shanghai.  Also – as per one of the comments – I have finally seen the new gold taxis on the streets.  They look like London Black Cabs, but they are gold – and since I was in London in June, I have a pretty recent comparison.  I haven’t ridden in one yet and don’t know if they are more expensive or have any special features, so more to come.

There are a couple of posts that continue to rack up the page views – even when I wasn’t posting which I find very interesting and thought I would call them up here as well.

1) Buying a jade bangle – which I did in Hong Kong two years ago AND

2) The pineapple cake wars – my descriptions of the two main competing pineapple cakes in Taipei in the summer of 2013.

I am guessing that somehow these two posts have gotten picked up by one or more search engines and they provide a steady stream of visitors to my blog.  It was definitely strange when I came back to see that traffic had not dropped all that significantly – which could be a good thing or a bad thing!  Folks don’t tend to leave comments on those posts now though – so I really appreciate those of you who stayed with me during the hiatus and your support as I share about my jumbled life.

Now I am (kind of) up to date, so hope to be back here soon with more stories in Shanghai and looking back over the last year.

Did I miss any posts you would have put at the top of your list?

 

More dumplings! Discovering Paradise Dynasty

Eight different types of soup dumplings!

I was lucky to have my mother visit me over the recent October holidays.  We had clear skies, readily available taxis (because so many people were out of town) and we ate like queens.  Each day we tried something special – either something I hadn’t had the opportunity to try before – or that I thought she needed to experience while in Shanghai.  It was a great visit.

On one of her first days, we tried something that had been on my list – Paradise Dynasty (乐新皇朝) – a dumpling restaurant that is known for its varied types of Soup Dumplings (小笼包).  I had been eating with colleagues at another restaurant talking about Din Tai Fung but one said she like Paradise Dynasty better.  One late afternoon we were in the new iapm mall in Jing An and I noticed that they had a branch there.  It seemed destined that we try their dumplings.

Their most famous basket of dumplings is the picture at the start of this post.  They give you a sampler of all of the different kinds of flavors you could think of.  In the middle is the traditional pork and then surrounding it there were cheese, foie gras, spicy Sichuan, black truffle, mushroom, crab and spinach dumplings (in no particular order).  Some of them we loved – the crab and spinach especially, others like the cheese were pronounced kind of strange.

In addition to the soup dumplings we ordered steamed veggie dumplings and the traditional pan fried shengjianbao (生煎包) pork dumplings.  They were lighter than Xiao Yang‘s and very good.  I would go back for more.

Finally, because we ordered the traditional basket and I shared it on my WeChat group they gave us a free basket of durian dumplings for the publicity.  My mom had never had durian before and Li really likes it so I went along.  They were okay – but I’m not sure I would get them again – I find durian has a strange after taste that lingers for a very long time.

All in all a very successful dumpling experience that I would recommend if you’re in Shanghai.

When you have visitors do you take them to tried and true favorites or do you experiment?  This trip we tried a little of both and I think the balance worked out great.

What is your favorite type of dumpling?

Happy Valley – a night at the races

Since I took my hiatus from the blog earlier this year, there are lots of places that I have visited in the last six months – both for pleasure and business – that I’d like to share now that I have some more time to go back through my memories.  Enjoy!

During my trip to Hong Kong in April I went to Happy Valley for the first time.  Happy Valley is Hong Kong’s horse racing track and they have races every Wednesday night there.  We were doing a launch for a new product, so had invited partners to celebrate with us and hear a product overview.

Because of the crazy rain the three days previous I wasn’t really sure what to expect – or even if the horses would race, but luckily the rain started letting up just before we headed over.  The box was packed with people ready to gamble and eat (I think our product launch was just the excuse).  They had a mix of traditional Hong Kong favorites and classic western dishes and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The last time I had been at the races was when I was still working in Chicago at a summer outing to Arlington Race Track.  I didn’t remember much about betting and so had to ask advice from others and study the guide.  In addition – some of the names for the types of bets you could place were different as well because Hong Kong follows the British system instead of the American betting system.

I had decided before I went that I would be leaving after the third race because I had a phone call later that evening.  I was so caught up in eating that I missed the opportunity to place a bet on the first race, but for the second I studied my book and my horse came from behind!  It was amazing – my odds were pretty much the highest on the board and I won at a 9 to 1 ratio.

After such a great win, I didn’t bet on the last race and slipped out as the rest of my colleagues and partners settled in for a late night.

The lone photo I took as I headed back to the hotel. I’m not sure I would describe Hong Kong as the “Equine Capital” – but it was a fun night!

I thoroughly enjoyed my introduction to Happy Valley and would gladly go back for another Wednesday evening of fun next time I’m in Hong Kong.

Have you tried something again after a long absence and had a great experience?  I am not a gambler (despite many actuaries being very serious about playing the odds, especially for poker) – but the win was a bit addictive.  Share your travel or local explorations!

Happy birthday to me!

This year I was lucky and got to celebrate my birthday early because my hubby will be out of town today, the day itself.  He organized a perfect afternoon as a birthday treat – and I didn’t have a clue!

We started by heading to Shook! restaurant on the Bund where they have a special lunch menu – with beautiful food.  Even though the day was misty – we got great views of Lujiazui and felt very pampered by the staff.

After a delightful lunch Li said we had extra time, so we headed across the street to the famous Peace Hotel which has been completely renovated in the last several years.  We wandered through the lobby looking at the photos of all of the famous guests, marveling at the beautiful stained glass ceilings and then eventually treated ourselves to a slice of fruit cake in the coffee shop looking out over East Nanjing Road.  I had never gone into the hotel – even after nearly 7 years in Shanghai, so it felt like we were exploring a new (yet very old) place.

Finally we headed to another district and got educated on the colored gem stone industry and my hubby presented me with a very delicate birthday gift – my Chinese zodiac symbol (a monkey) on a necklace.  It is adorable – and something  I will wear a lot, I’m sure.

A lot has changed in the last year – I wonder what my next year will bring!

What is your preferred way to celebrate?  For me, friends, food and something new to see made it perfect.

 

Flying business

As I mentioned before, I have traveled a lot in the last four months.  I’ve been all over – the States three times, South Korea three times, the UK (Britain and Scotland), Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.  All told I was traveling over two thirds of the time from May through the end of August.

Blue skies

With that much travel, I spent a lot of time in airports – on planes, in lounges and in the duty free shops.  I also saw many, many more blue skies than if I had stayed in China.  My status on Delta and its alliance partners has ticked up to the top and I must admit that I’m getting a little spoiled from not standing in line, cutting security queues and having first access to the plane.

In London I got to explore the Virgin Clubhouse lounge which has waiter service, a hair salon, a music studio and a pool table inside.  In San Francisco, Korean Air uses the British Airways lounge where I was the only person in the highest lounge for nearly an hour with a full buffet to myself.  In Shanghai I now know which lounges let you access the plane directly and avoid the scramble around the gate above.  Sydney’s lounges have a full barista set up where I could get a fresh cup of chai and homemade scone.

A buffet for one

I bought English breakfast tea and Winston Churchill’s caramels in London, kangaroo jerky in Sydney and my ultimate foot lotion socks in Seoul, plus lots of candy and other small gifts as I made my way through the airports.  I completed a survey on the Seoul airport and got a free toothbrush.

The best way to pamper your feet – only found in Korea. Single use lotion socks that are incredible!

I spent a weekend exploring the area near St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, I ate traditional Korean food in Seoul and caught up with old friends in Singapore.  My boss bravely tried haggis in Scotland where I marveled that there was whisky on the breakfast buffet.  I met up with a former colleague for a weekend in San Francisco where we had sourdough bread and met people I haven’t seen in nearly 10 years at an actuarial conference.

My visit to Jakarta was punctuated with a breakfast with one of my first friends from Shanghai who was in my Chinese class way back when I was teaching English.  She’s Indonesian and had moved back with her husband a couple of years ago.  One visit to the States I had a rental car and enjoyed driving again with the windows down.

Of course I also met with clients and colleagues and had conference calls at odd hours.  I struggled through jet lag and time differences and not remembering which room was mine at the hotel because I had three different room numbers in a week and none of them stuck in my head.

Will my carry-on fit? Of course… I am flying business!

It was fun and invigorating and exhausting.

In short, it was business travel.

I’m ready for a break.

Have you ever traveled a lot for business?  What are your favorite memories?