Hunan Cuisine

By the time of the Latern Festival, the 15th day of Chinese New Year (Mar. 4 this year), life has been more or less back to its normal track. I finished my class at 8p.m., as usual, having an impulse to try the small Hunan cuisine restraurant near the school, with a romantic name "The Orchard". Luckily we had a table; sadly the specialty "Spicy Fishhead" was sold out. On a second thought I decided to stay, partly because it's cold outside and I was hungry, and partly because it is a neat, cozy place to eat, as its name has suggested. We ordered preserved pork with mushrooms, spicy beancurd, and spicy and sour Chinese cabbage, big servings. With the spicy juice trickling down the throat to the stomach and with the lips burning with the hot flavor, we felt instantly warm, sipping and chatting over hot tea. Yummy! A nice Latern Festival evening, out with friends, thinking of the "Fishhead" unavailable...

Valentine's Day

Shanghai is a nice place for a romantic Valentine's Day, with smart and shrewd business people running shops online and offline to sell tempting slogans and nice-looking goods, with young stylish people obsessed with the idea of romance in the over-materialistic city, and with exotic restaurants, bars, cafes to maximize the surreal atmosphere.

Driving in SH

Quite a few of veteran drivers, i mean, westerners, are not bold enough to drive on the roads of Shanghai, especially when they come to the city for the first time, or sometimes no matter how long they've been here. I guess the city is itself on the way all the time, keeping going, pushing and being pushed. So everyone seems to be in a hurry, not just the taxi drivers. They change lanes or cut lines at your most unexpected moments, usually at a lightyear speed, raising your eyebrows or leaving you dumbfounded. Let alone schools of bicycles intimately going right beside you, trying to push YOU aside.

Yet I am told that competent as Chinese drivers or cyclists are, they will be so dumbfounded by the waves of motorcycles on the road of Vietnam that they may not be able to cross the street to the other side. Whatever, I'm going there to see it by myself; after all, seeing is believing.

I've never been crazy about Vietnamese food. A year or half a year ago my friend and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Metro City at Xujiahui, one of the hottest spots in Shanghai for dining, shopping, people-watching, entertaining, or just hanging around. I can't remember what we exactly ate; all I can recall is that we ordered the set menu for two, including some unfried egg rolls, some funny looking dumplings, and something with kind of sour-sweet flavor. Now since i'll be going to the country for my holiday soon, i'd better try more at some nice Vietnamese restaurant, despite the cost.

First Post

This is a test post