Soulfood in Shanghai

I really really hope this post doesn't come up for anyone who is truly looking for soulfood in Shanghai, because if you are, then I'm sorry, I can't help.

Even though more and more American style foods are becoming available in the grocery stores here, the items are fairly expensive since they are imported from the States (not to mention the 17% customs tax added to it). As a result, Renee has been trying to make things from scratch. These things include homemade corn tortillas, homemade biscuits, homemade cornbread (no, this is not a picture that i took), homemade chicken pot pie, etc. In fact, while our domestic helper, Fen, cooks Chinese for us most of the week, she has begun to pick up some recipes from Renee and try to refine some of her cooking to include western items that we like. Hence, when I look back on this week's array of foods that I sat down to eat at home, I noticed that we had quite the American spread. Our meals included such Southern comfort favorites such as fried chicken, ribs (Chinese style), and biscuits and gravy. Throw in a spattering of homemade Gung Bao Chicken (in the US it is referred to as Kung Pao Chicken) along with rice, noodles, and some vegetables and I guess we are not really suffering for good food over here.

So if you happen to have found this posting by a google search, just come on by and you might have a chance of having some good soulfood, you might even have luck and come when we are serving Chicken Fried Cat...it's da bomb.

Three Guests, Two Birthdays, One Sleepless Night

Yes this all happened over the past 3 days, so needless to say it was a pretty busy weekend. A big Happy Birthday to Maddie and Jacob (Maddie turned 4 on the 28th of June and Jacob turned 2 on the 29th of June). Here in Shanghai most of the expat families have begun the exodus back to their home countries, so we didn't have big parties for them, we will try to put something together at the end of the summer when all her friends come back to Shanghai.

On Saturday we began turtle watching...yes turtle watching...for our neighbors upstairs. We will be watching their two small pet turtles for the next week. They are really easy to take care of, basically we have too feed them once a day and just keep them out on our porch, basically these are the type of guests I wish would come and visit us more often.

The one sleepless night related to the third guest that has come to visit us. I am going to be very cryptic with this next paragraph of blogging, if any of you have questions, just get in contact with Renee or I (or leave me a comment and I can get back to you). I am being cryptic because there are people that don't need to know certain things, so I am not going to reveal anything too detailed. This third little guest might be the subject of some upcoming blogs, so I feel that I have to at least mention the guest. The guest led to a long sleepless night last night, but the guest has been really fun to have around thus far. Anyway, running on fumes this morning, but I think I can make it through the day.

Viva La Vida means "Just Okay"

It actually means Live the Life (or long live life) and it refers to Coldplay's newest CD. Am I a music critic, no, but I thought I would add my two cents about their newest album just because that is what a blog is for. So after 1 week of listening, I think I am finally ready to talk about it. I am a huge Coldplay fan (yes me and the millions of 17 year old girls all around the world), actually Chris Martin's enthusiasm while on stage is actually something that I really enjoy watching (note that this is hard to do while listening to a CD).

Anyway, onto what I thought about the CD. As I said in the title, it was just okay. There are people that really slammed this album as being terrible, note that it is slightly different from their previous CD's, but it is not terrible. The music is actually pretty good, but the one thing that knocks it down are some of the weak lyrics weaved throughout the songs. It appeared that on almost every song, the band was trying to experiment, so, besides the theme of life and death, there is really not too much fluency that connects the songs together. It seems like a mish mosh of different songs thrown together to make an album. I was really worried about the album when I heard the first two singles (Violet Hill and Viva La Vida - by the way is anyone else as confused as to why this is a hit song?). But the rest of the album is better then those two singles, although I am not sure many of the songs will translate into radio hits like tracks from previous albums. I would like to see Coldplay build on some of the things they present in this album for future albums, but I hope they can see some of the faults in this one to move forward.

Overall I give the album 2.5 out of 5 gerken pickles. (note that Coldplay's 2nd album "A Rush of Blood to the Head" would have received 4.5 out of 5, Parachutes would have received 4 out of 5, and X&Y would have received 3.5 out of 5).

The spiciest chip in the....wait

One souvenir that I was given from Japan was the chips that were in the bag pictured above. Even though I don't read any Japanese, a fairly universal way of saying that something is really spicy is to not just put a hot pepper on your bag, rather put a hot pepper that looks angry and has taken a couple of punches in his day. The Japanese are not really well known for their spciy foods (unless you like to take large bites of wasabi), so I wasn't expecting anything too spicy. The chip was a corn chip shaped in O's, a consistency very similar to that of a Frito. The flavor, while not overwhemingly spicy, had a nice kick to it. The chip was actually a very very good chip with some nice flavor to it. All in all, it was one of the best chips I have ever had...not as spicy as it appears to have been advertised, but who cares that was a darn good chip. For the makers of this chip I do give one piece of advice: I would try to sell the product with more a friendly looking hot pepper...one that says, yes I have a little spice to me, but in the end I will leave you smiling...this pepper just looks like he wants you to suffer at both ends of the eating spectrum.

Tokyo and More

Maybe one excuse for not writing anything on this blog has to do with the fact that my wife and daughter were in Japan last week. They spent three days at Tokyo Disney Land and then the rest of their time in downtown Tokyo. They both had a great time (they went with a friend of ours and her daughter). Every time Maddie got on the phone she sounded like she was in heaven she was so excited. Renee was really impressed with Tokyo Disney (she has an idea as to what Disney should be after visiting Orlando and Anaheim Disney's). She was even more impressed with how amazing Tokyo was. She kept saying how clean it was and how things just work well in Tokyo (other then their really confusing subway).

While they were in Disney, Jacob and I got some good father-son time in. Actually he is a totally different kid without Maddie around, a lot more calm and peaceful and playing well on his own. Below you can see a select few pictures that were taken by Renee during their time there.

My daughter...future influential dictator

So before bed tonight we asked Maddie and Jacob to clean up their toys and we told them we would help them. So Maddie comes into the toy room and begins to clean up as we all sang the clean up song. About 30 seconds into cleaning she stops cleaning and climbs onto the couch and proclaims, "Alright, I'll sing the clean up song while you guys clean up." Upon which she began to sing the song while directing us to clean up. For some reason, instead of getting upset, I felt that just because someone was singing the clean up song that I should continue to clean up, so I did. Man my almost 4 year old has down the whole psychology of "how to be a dictator without people even realizing it"...watch out Germany!!!

He's a loafer

I'm ignoring the fact that I have not been posting to my blog over this past month. There is really no excuse for that. So for the 1 or 2 readers who would still consider reading my blog, I thank you for sticking through.

On my way home today from work, while I was standing in the subway, a guy came on and began eating a loaf of bread. When I say eating a loaf, I want you to reference the picture below (the internet is crazy, the lady in the picture below is basically eating a loaf of bread that is the same size, shape and probably brand as the guy on the subway today, I know that the picture is terrible, but look at the size of the loaf!!!). The bread is not sliced, so you are basically just pounding a loaf of white bread...mmmm...tasty. The best part was that as this guy was going to town on his loaf of bread, the person next to him was practically coughing out one of his lungs...which didn't phase the bread loaf guy, he was tearing into the bread like it was a turkey leg from Disney World. I wonder if you go into some kind of bread coma after you eat a whole loaf?