Monday, July 16, 2012

What wedding diet?

What did you do this weekend? We spent our time eating (what's new?) and exploring. Friday night, we tried Guyi, a Hunan restaurant not too far from our place. Hunan usually means spicy, but in this case, it was a bit of spice and a lot of taste. We ordered sauteed eggplant and string beans, fried fish in some kind of sweet red sauce (a dish Mike has had before and swears by), and sweet and sour beef. A few things to note before I move on:

  1. Most restaurant menus in Shanghai are ten to 20 pages long. 
  2. Thankfully, almost all of them have pictures; some of them have funny translations
  3. It's no wonder that they may be out of what you order (out of 100+ options, they have to run out of a few items on some nights). 
  4. Food comes out almost instantly. "How is this possible," you ask? I think I'd prefer not to know. Let's move on.  

After we started on our eggplant dish (delicious, by the way), a waitress approached Mike and told him they didn't have the beef; we ordered ribs instead. As we waited for our next two dishes, the waitress again came to our table to tell us that they didn't have the fish. Taken off guard by the fact that two out of our three dishes were no longer options, Mike quickly ordered "pine nut, rice cake and beef dice." It's always fun to see what will actually come out! Moments later, we were served the ribs (rubbed with a dry mixture of chili, garlic, cumin and other spices) and the "dice" dish -- which we know as lettuce wraps. The food was fantastic, and in the end, we were happy with what we ended up having.  

Saturday was Bastille Day; French food required. We ended up at Brasserie La Fourchette. And even though it was twice the price, the food was equally as good: steak tartare (yes, that's raw meat; yes, we're still alive and well), artichokes with blue cheese and a touch of olive tapenade, pork belly and duck confit. In case you're worried I won't fit into my wedding dress, these were small plates. Vive la France! 

And I've saved the food highlight of the weekend for last -- what I call Chinese cpurritos. As we explored the neighborhood Saturday morning, picking up a few fruits and veggies from the Avocado Lady, we stopped by the "Crêpurrito Lady." She is a one-woman show, standing behind a large, circular hot plate that looks like the same one used to make cpes. After covering the hot plate in a thin layer of dough (just as you would if you're making a cpe), she cracks an egg on top of the dough and throws on a mixture of green onion, cilantro and diced pickled something. She folds it in half and brushes on a layer of thick plum sauce. Before folding it again, she adds a large piece of fried dough, then gives the whole thing a karate chop (I kid you not) and cuts it in half. Each bite is a harmony of flavors and consistencies. For about sixty cents, it's an awesome little breakfast (and a very decent substitute for the breakfast burritos we miss so much).      

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