Happy Thanksgiving!

We had Vietnamese for dinner, but it's only because preparations are under way for a Thanksgiving feast we'll devour tomorrow evening. With some last minute invites, it turns out our little dinner is becoming a bit of a party! Can you tell which dishes we have done so far?

Fatty Tuesday: Caliburger

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd bring it back with a taste of home found right here in Shanghai.

It may be a complete rip-off of a certain hometown favorite [Cali friends, I'll let you draw your own conclusion], but, I have to admit, CaliBurger offers a decent meal. The star of the menu is the "Cali Double," which can come in a meal (fries + drink), and fries can be "wild style"-ed, topped with American cheese, grilled onions and their signature "Cali sauce". [Rung a bell yet?] The menu, however, is more extensive than the original, offering more than just burgers. I tried their grilled chicken sandwich with an avocado ranch dressing, and even though the avocado is barely noticeable, it's a tasty meal. Mike went for the burger, which he thoroughly enjoyed. His conclusion: "It was good enough to make me miss the real thing."

I've said it before -- you can find anything here. And if you can't find it, you can probably find its fake.

CaliBurger:

1818 West Nanjing Road (but west of the Jingan Temple)

(In the basement of yet another mall on Nanjing)

Zhoumo kuaile!

This weekend, we'll be getting ready for Thanksgiving here in the Goubran-Wang Shanghai household, which means (if you remember last year's Thanksgiving) making the first of several trips to the various foreigner-friendly grocery stores around town. I've been browsing recipes, weeding out those with such "exotic" ingredients as evaporated milk and cornstarch.

We'll be hosting again this year, keeping the tradition going with some of the friends who joined us last year, and introducing the holiday to some new friends we met this year. Below is the invite and here is my expert Thanksgiving timeline.

Poor Shima!

Our little pup got fixed yesterday and her dew claws (also known as her sixth toe on each hind leg), removed. She's been recuperating and resting, though she tends to do that anyway (lazy puppy!).

Several folks have asked me about healthcare here -- for my dog and myself. I've actually been really impressed with both. Shima's vet is a caring and knowledgable European woman known as Dr. Stephanie. And although I've never been to a vet's office in the States, I'd say her office rivals those back home. The same goes for my doctor's office here where, if I let my mind wander for a bit, I'd turn to Shima and say, "Shima, I've a feeling we're not Shanghai anymore."


If you ever need a vet in Shanghai:
Dr. Stephanie Goltz
St. Anthony Animal Recovery Hospital
440 Hami Road, Changning District

Taobao-ing

If you read recent entries on Singles' Day, you know that most of the online shopping frenzy took place  on Alibaba's websites, namely Taobao, a C2C platform. Have you ever heard of it? I hadn't until living in China; come to find it out, the term is just as commonplace as "Googleing," and it's a likely bookmark or "page most visited" on a majority of computers here.

It's eBay and Amazon and Etsy combined but bigger, offering a marketplace for small businesses and entrepreneurs to sell new and used goods at a fixed priced (auctions do exist, but they're few and far between). And believe me when I tell you that you can find anything on there -- or believe City Weekend (giant penis costume, anyone?).  I've also heard you can get loans through Taobao, or hire someone to redesign to your signature in case you don't like what you've done with yours.

It's a bit of challenge for non-Chinese readers to navigate the site, but don't worry, this too has turned into a profit. Tao-how acts as a middleman, but Mike and I prefer a combination of Google Translate, guessing, and help from his mom.