Lingbo Li
Why is there a tranny in my underwear?
Now, I don’t know about you, but I generally like my butterface underwear models to not look as if they are hiding a surgical scar beneath their cleverly located scarf. With a jaw line that looks like the sure marker of a Y chromosome lurking beneath a terrible dye job, I find myself left only with the feeling of dread that I’ll sprout an Adam’s apple and an inch of dark roots as I stand vulnerable in a pair of pink granny panties packaged inside. I understand that “high fashion” underwear companies don’t have a lot of money to hire Doutzen Kroes to make kitten eyes at the camera, but I don’t know a lot of women that aspire to ladyboy status.
Also, this creature appeared in a coworker’s noodle soup. She had already eaten half by the time the bugger floated, juice-drained and legs splayed, to the top of the whole soupy mess. The restaurant’s response: “We know that there’s cockroaches. What do you want us to do about it?” Oh, China.
Fun with dining advertorials
The crazy thing about my job as a City Weekend intern is that I’m often given tasks that my title really shouldn’t allow. Like take over a dining advertorial that another freelancer dropped. Thankfully, it was a pretty straightforward job – set up photo shoots with two chefs and their signature dishes through their PR people, make sure the photos were uniform and attractive, then write the blurbs.
The Langham, a boutique hotel near People’s Square, did a very nice lunch before the photoshoot. Witness:
Appetizer…
Here’s the chef’s signature dish – a pan seared turbot with vanilla (the stuff on top), dark chocolate, and eggplant puree. An interesting flavor pairing that worked.
A white chocolate mousse made with olive oil rather than cream, and with some tomato embedded inside, since tomato and olive oil is the classic Italian pairing.
Then the next day was the Hyatt’s chef, this time, no three course lunch, but some amazing views from their restaurant:
Here’s my favorite photographer, Mao Dou, who is really a big sweetheart and a great food photographer.
The main event: rolled veal carpaccio stuffed with goat cheese, side salad of artichoke, red onion, pea shoots, hazelnut dressing. Very fresh, simple, delicious.
Here’s the chef getting test shots taken. He eventually agreed to wearing a hat, but before giving me a heart attack when he refused at first. He hammed it up nicely for the camera.
Now, I’ve gotten the copy written up, talked to the designer, and I’m extra excited for it to appear in the next issue of City Weekend. Yay! If you’re in Shanghai, be sure to pick up the most recent copy of the magazine with the “expat evolution” cover – there are tons things I wrote in it.
Now, for a cultural aside,
Also, just for good measure, this is the proper way to wear your backpack to ward of sticky-fingered thieves in China.
The problems I have with China are usually these frustrating moments when the bus driver starts driving away as I have one foot on to board – and is blatantly apathetic to my rage. Or when I realize I’ve gotten ripped off since I’m not well versed on what things are supposed to cost here. Or like this morning, when I hailed a motorcycle cab, agreed to a price before I got in, then the driver suddenly jacked the price up 2 yuan. I tried to negotiate down a yuan, but he angrily demanded his full 6 yuan. Finally, we ended up in a screaming match, where I finally relinquished the last, pathetic yuan he demanded.
I was overcome by my linguistic paralysis – I know next to no curse words in Mandarin.
And well, a yuan is all of 15 cents USD.
I guess, despite my unpleasant experiences and daily near-deaths from aggressive traffic (no such thing as pedestrian right of way here), I’m lucky that I can afford to get ripped off a few dozen yuan and never really feel the pain. But that doesn’t make me resent that motorcab driver any less.
See my GoodEater.org post on crayfish + chicken hearts on a stick
Remember these spiny little pups? I wrote a post for GoodEater.org on crayfish with help from my Henanese friends. Now, some more food:
Chicken hearts on a skewer to the right, chicken cartilage (absolute DELICIOUS) on the left.
fish on a stick
This is what eating hotpot looks like. Good times.
More proof I have the best job ever:
Holding my beloved Barbie Cafe review
Bylinin'
Incredible skill and agility: making breakfast crepes in Shanghai
The first time I saw this in person, I just thought it was the coolest thing ever. So I took a video.
The inside is flaky and savory, like so:
Jian Bing in all its pornographic glory.
A Boston Epicure’s Photo Dispatch from Shanghai, China
This is where I live.
Hello, Internet. Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been getting acclimated to my (sweaty) surroundings here, where the humidity soars to 80-90% and the temperatures have been nearly hitting the triple digit mark in recent days. I only recently figured out AC, and this has meant that I’ve spent a lot of time waking up with my long head of hair soaked in sweat.
I have many more interesting conversations and experiences which I should really write down (conversations with taxicab drivers, mostly) but here’s some food I’ve been eating. There’s a lot more where this came from – check back tomorrow for more!
A better quality photograph of those strange little crayfish creatures - look for a GoodEater.org blog post soon!
One of my new Chinese friends who cooks at the restaurant which serves the crayfish above. He's from Henan, along with the rest of the staff. Here, he's holding a steamed Chinese bread called "mantou." We're about to eat our tasty dinner of stewed lamb bone soup, see below.
A soup made from boiled leftover lamb bones for many hours, combined with tofu and some other vegetables. This was the dinner that the employees of the small restaurant ate. I mix it with some extra chili and soak up the excess with mantou.
A Chinese table after a meal, littered with liquid and bony debris.
They serve fantastic mutton kebabs - smoky and crackling with fat.
A fish that has "squirrel" in the dishname because of the hatchback pattern the body is cut in, then deep fried. It was covered in a ketchupy sauce and sprinkled in pine nuts. Not very fresh and pretty underwhelming, but fun to look at.
The owner (center) was hilarious. He also had me serve as a translator for some Americans that came in who wanted to eat pork fried rice and fried pork ribs. I tried to steer them away from that option (because I had it, and it sucked) but hey, if you're determined...
I ordered a duck's head, and this is what arrived.
... and this is what was on the inside. I ate the brain (waxy) and kind of gave up on the rest. Not much meat here.
I can't ever get enough of chili-laced oil.
Lay's puts out interesting potato chip flavors here like "cucumber" "italian red meat" "mexican tomato chicken" and yes, "lychee." Which is a sweet Chinese fruit. It is basically a potato chip with this sweet aroma that wafts off of it. The plain flavor is called "American flavor."
Lana Lingbo Li
I'm a world traveler / enthusiastic eater who's now blogging and producing videos over at HelloLana.com. Visit me there!
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