Miscellaneous Shanghai Buildings and Food

Warning: The following post is a random assortment of photos from the past week. Not much newsworthy happened, but I did enjoy lingering on my office rooftop and eating delicious food around town. The rhythm of work followed its usual pattern of mild achievements and annoyances. My stomach varied from fine to disagreeable. It was a fast, hot, and mellow time in Shanghai.

Changle Road from my office’s rooftop.

Two dudes in blue.

A rival ad agency’s tower.

Shanghai Vice.

Sparring dummy and chairs on the roof.

Man washing dog.

Garbage collecting lady that hangs out on the sidewalk all day.

The secret garden amongst the rubble.

A neighboring deck.

Construction.

Warm afternoon light on the distant buildings.

Buildings.

A view between hospital buildings.

Early evening. The Pearl Tower is in the distance.

5RMB hot pearl tea on my messy desk.

Pouch of spicy rabbit.

Old school White Rabbit brand candies. Awesome packaging, awesome taste. They have the texture of a smoother Tootsie roll, but taste like sweetened condensed milk. The ingredients list is pretty short too, just milk solids, butter, sugar, and a preservative.

White Rabbit candy sack.

Little bananas.

My custom attack glider I call the “Mosquito.” The needle allows it to stick into walls and eyes.

Free sangria with a pricy pasta lunch at 808.

Eggs and chorizo for brunch at Azul.

Another brunch dish from Azul.

Blueberry pancakes from Azul.

On Friday night, A., J. and I went to dinner at Southern Barbarian. Excellent Yunnan food, nice mojitos, and echoing ambience. Afterward, we walked down Mao Ming Lu to an undiscovered and weird bar from another era. I think it’s called Madrid, which despite some bull horns and paintings is a confusing name. The centerpiece of the bar was fish. Various private tables were fish tanks connected to a main indoor pond. Water cascaded down a rocky wall. The lighting was dim and the furnishings tacky. As soon as we sit down, the fish swam from the main pond into our table. They expected food. If the timing had been right, the waitress would have provided a little jar of food to feed them under the lip of the table. This would have created a feeding frenzy practically in our laps. The last time we were there, a fish jumped out into J.’s lap. It flopped about the ground before the waitress was able to pick it up and drop it back into the pond. I also got a decent splash on my pants from one of the bigger fish.

Spicy mint salad and fried goat cheese from Southern Barbarian.

Chicken wings.

Pickled cucumber and spices.

A. and J. looking into the fish tank table at a weird little bar.

A. and his gin&tonic.

The fish that swam into our table.

More fish to the side of our table in the indoor pond.

This Saturday began early with booming thunder and rain. The gang was headed off to Nanjing by train, but J. and I decided to stay in town since it would be raining up there too. When the rain died in the afternoon, we headed to the electronics market and bookstore mall. Afterward, we visited and enormous supermarket full of every weird snack you can imagine. The scope and variety of Chinese snacking is unmatched by anyone but the Japanese.

Wheat tea and cinnamon bark. The pouch of cinnamon bark cost 1.6RMB(23¢). Insane value.

Butter pretzel sticks and a sack of green tea dried plums. The blurb on the back is pretty hilarious. It reads: “JINGONG Green Tea Jia Ying Zi is made with fresh plum with inartificial Green Tea Extract. It is produced by special technics originated in 1982. It tastes inimitable. It does not contain additive such as glucide, sweetener, edible color and so on. Nowadays it has become people’s favorite food in their leisure time. It is the best choice for people at home or on a tour as well as ideal food for banquets.” LOL.

Dried wolfberry (also called goji, western snowberry, or symphoricarpos occidentalis). I’m going to use it with hot tea.

Delicious mangosteen.

J. cracking open her first mangosteen. Verdict: tasty.

Time to eat some cumin, chew on some cinnamon, dried plums, spicy rabbit, butter pretzels, mangosteen, mangos, agar crackers, and wolfberries, washing it all down with wheat tea and cultured milk drink.

Burp.