Groceries

Cost = 50 RMB ($7.92 USD)

Cost = 439 RMB ($64.09 USD)

It is really amazing how there is such a great difference in cost for food here.

Pretty drinks

Elaborate Bacon...

For those special occasions when regular bacon just won't do...

Disturbing Images Ahead

If you have a weak stomach or are a member of PETA, don't look at this photo. It's pretty gross; gross enough I made it smaller than usual so you don't have to see many details unless you want to click on it.

Frogs are sold as food here.

One vendor apparently will gut the frogs for you, using scissors.

This is one reason why you really need to watch where you are stepping in China!

Wholesale Food Market

Bonnie has a custom baking business, and has learned where to get the supplies cheaply.  (All of the foreign stores are NOT cheap.)  We went to a market with at least 20 huge halls of vendors.  The vendors live above the stalls.  The stalls are filled with massive sacks of mushrooms, flour, rice, nuts, peppers, dried fish, cinnamon sticks, and all kinds of other things.    We bought cream cheese, butter, almonds, pistachios, cashews, walnuts, canned peaches, flour, corn meal, evaporated milk... and maybe a few other things I'm forgetting about!   The address is 1255 Lianhua Lu.

birthday cake

This is the cake I made dad for his 60th birthday.  It's a retro-colored cake.   (Really, the frosting was supposed to be white, but mom didn't have any white shortening.  So it turned out yellow.  I decided to tint it slightly blue, but the blue combined with the yellow to make green.  So I kept adding blue until it wasn't green.  Not exactly what I had in mind!)

Nanxiang Dumplings

Yvonne invited us all to her hometown for dumplings, to wander in the park, and dinner with her parents. It was a great day!


I've only seen the dishes piled on top of each other a couple times. Usually there is tons of food, but not piles and piles of it!

Raw meat

This is one of the big differences in grocery stores here. The meat just sits out and everyone paws through it with their bare hands. This is pretty good - it actually has ice underneath the meat. The meat counters don't actually have glass in them and aren't refrigerated. A couple weeks ago, we saw a worker clipping her nails behind the meat counter. She was about half a meter away from the open case, with fingernail clippings flying everywhere.

Food Photography

My friend Bonnie started her own business here, doing custom baking for other expats. I volunteered to shoot her goodies for her brochure. I got to take home samples of each of her offerings... YUMMY!

Wine Tasting

At the grocery store today, Steve wanted to get a bottle of wine just because it had a cool bag covering it. Jon commented that he wanted to try a bunch of wines, but he was afraid he had too much against some of the Chinese wines. We noted the huge price difference in foreign wines, local wines, and the high end Chinese wines.

We decided to do a taste test.

We bought four bottles of wine, as pictured below.

We bought the lowest cost wine we could find - a bottle of Tesco "dry red wine." It says "Imported From Spain." Dragon Seal and Great Wall are Chinese wines - not known to be that great, but we wanted to give it a chance. Also, the Great Wall was expensive and a 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon. Lindemans is an Australian wine, a 2007 Shiraz Cabernet.

I printed out a wine tasting scoring sheet, and served, in random order, the wine to Jon and Steve for a blind taste test.


They both wanted to pour out the Dragon Seal wine with the bag Steve had liked.

Jon thought the Tesco tasted best, while Steve liked the most expensive one best (which Jon placed 3rd). Steve had placed the Tesco brand second. We agreed that for 15.5 RMB, the Tecso one was the best value and very drinkable. We were a bit surprised at that.

Final Placing - Jon
#1 Tesco
#2 Lindemans
#3 Great Wall
#4 Dragon Seal

Final Placing - Steve
#1 Great Wall
#2 Tesco
#3 Lindemans
#4 Dragon Seal

Cost of food in Shanghai

My friend Lura still gives presentations on the SDARL class visit to China. She said she gets asked a lot how much food is here. I put together a list for her, and it was quite the eye-opener!! We spend SO much more money on food here.

If we ate more local, it would be much better. Rice and vegetables are cheap. (Though the rice is bulk and you can watch hundreds of people dig their fingers though it - remember hand washing isn't so common here - and the vegetables are probably grown either in "night soil" or with massive amounts of chemicals.) However, we like things like bread, milk, and meat.

There are 25 things on my list. 13 of those are more than twice as expensive as they are at home. Only five things are less expensive here.

One of the things we spend the most on is milk. In the US, we'd pick up a gallon of Hy-vee brand milk. After the milk contamination scare here, we began buying imported milk. Now, we have to buy 4 boxes to get a gallon. At home a gallon is $2.87; here the same amount is $11.47. That is a 300 % increase. Yes, 300%.

I guess the answer is "stop drinking milk." However, we really like milk and it's where we get our calcium from.

Click on the images for some more comparisons.

Swedish food

We were surprised at the amount of Scandinavian food! One night we even had meatballs with lingonberry jam. Apparently a LOT of people retire in Thailand, from all over the world. We only heard American English a couple times. The only other Americans we met lived in Hong Kong and were vacationing over Chinese New Year, just like us.

Stick Street Food

After the company Chinese New Year party and some Karaoke, Jon and Jon decided they needed a midnight snack. They bought 34 sticks of food such as chicken hearts, chicken wings, beef satay, pork, potatoes, mushrooms, and fish.

The Orphans' Christmas

On Christmas Day, we took the day off work and went to a Christmas party held by a couple of friends I know through book club. A couple husbands are professional chefs at major hotels here, and they cooked for us!

There were actually 2 huge turkeys! Plus lamb and pork.

Rito and Rolf.

Stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy....

Alicia, Jo and Suzy making a special Australian (New Zealand, really) dessert. The crust was baked meringue!
We did a Secret Santa gift exchange and also donated money to an organization that provides disabled people with wheelchairs who can't afford to buy one. We were able to purchase 10 wheelchairs.

It was a great time. The holidays have been hard for all of my family members; it just reminds you of what is missing.

Christmas Cookies

I made a bunch of Christmas cookies with glaze for my friends and co-workers. I think they were a hit. I used this recipe from the Reisch cookbook.

Flat Stanley - Sushi & Jing'an Temple - December 7th

We decided to take Flat Stanley out for sushi. There aren't many places in South Dakota where he can have Japanese food.


He thought it was cool how a conveyor belt brought many kinds of sushi around in front of the customers.

Stanley also visited Jing'An Temple.

American Food

One of the best things about being home is the FOOD! Jon said, "Even the bottled water here taste's better." (I agree.) Things I have really enjoyed so far:

• A thick steak grilled to medium-rare over a charcoal grill, along with corn on the cob (thanks Dave!)
• Mussels, crab, and calamari at The Fransiscan in Fishermans Wharf
• Blue Moon beer (enjoyed in the sun at a restaurant overlooking the harbor in San Francisco)
• Broccoli cheese soup in a breadbowl at Quiznos
• A turkey-swiss with ranch croissant at a local coffee shop
• Chicken strips with ranch & BBQ sauce, a baked potato with cream cheese, and cottage cheese
• Indian taco (that was Jon's)
• Wheatables (crackers)
• Milk! (non-tainted)

the Grocery Store

These are all photos that Esther took. We stopped by our local grocery store for a peek at some differences in Western and Eastern cuisine. She has been living in Thailand for 10 months, working as a tour guide, so I didn't think these things would surprise her but they did.

This is from a male pig. Enough said.

Chicken feet

Not the pet store.... frogs. (yep, alive.)

Soft-shelled turtles - I've had them before.

A fish no one will pick - they need to be alive and well. It is very important to pick out the freshest and best animal, which is why the meat counter is so interesting to me.

None of the meat counters have glass in them. You can slap, pinch and poke each piece of meat before picking one. Then the next person slaps, pinches and poke each one too. The process is repeated all day (remember most public toilets do not have soap or hot water.) This is why we don't buy meat at the local stores. (Probably, cooking the meat would kill any germs. Our western ideas of how meat should be treated still prevents us from purchasing it though.)

Durian - the famous fruit that is supposed to be wonderful if you can get past the awful smell! Most hotels even ban it. I haven't had it.

Finestre

We took Esther to supper at Finestre her first night here. It has great food and a great view - we actually take all of our guests here.

Why Daktronics needs to be in China... check out ALL of the LED lighting! Buildings, boats, etc.

The Bund

Qibao

Today, Esther flew in! She took a 2 AM flight from Bangkok to Shanghai and I met her at the Maglev station. After relaxing a bit, we met Jon for lunch and then went to Qibao, an area that is like an old water town. It was a little bit touristy, but we only saw 4 other white people in about 3 hours so it was quite local.



One of the thousands of guys who bike around, constantly ringing a bell, to remind you to bring all of your recyclables to him.



Baby birds on a stick... yum.

We've been following the situation in Thailand, as Esther should be flying back there Sunday. However, with the state of emergency and such, maybe she'll be staying a bit longer! Who knows. We certainly wouldn't mind!

Check out her blog here.

Whisk

Whisk is a little cafe on Huaihui Lu that is famous for its chocolate! It is so rich! Jon and I also love their antipasto platter.

Roof-top dining over the Bund

Wednesday the weather cleared up a little so we decided we HAD to take advantage of that. Emily made reservations for Finestre, a restaurant on a roof-top terrace overlooking the Bund.





The atmosphere was the best of any place we've ever eaten in Shanghai. It may have been the company, the view, the food, the wine.... or most likely all of the above! We'll definitely be going back sometime.

Pet Market & Sushi

(These are all photos Hanna took.)

We wandered down a small side street to find a pet market we'd read about. We didn't find a real market, but the street definitely catered to locals looking for animals.


After a walk down Nanjing Lu, we were starving.

In the metro stop is a Japanese restaurant with sushi going around on the conveyor belt. You just grab whatever you want to eat off of the belt. There are also hot water spigots between every other person so you can refill your own tea whenever you like. Fast and convenient!

After eating, Jon needed to go back to do some work on bidding documents, and Emily took Hanna and Henrik to the Pearl Market. Susan is happy to see everyone that Emily brings to her and gives them all great discounts - no bargaining needed, even!

After a rest at home, we decided to go to a little cafe that Emily had book club at once. It is full of unique items and all are for sale. The food is good, atmosphere homey and prices reasonable, so Jon and I think we'll be going back a few times.

People's Park

(Hanna took all of these photos.)

Jon, Henrik and Emily at People's Park.


Parks are really a gathering place, especially for older people. You can see lots of people playing cards or doing Tai Chi.

Cold Stone Creamery just happens to be very close, so we had to introduce Hanna & Henrik to the best ice cream in the world!! There is a couple Cold Stones in Sioux Falls and I was thrilled to find out they are in Shanghai too!

Grilled over disabilities?

Yes, the literal translation is correct. None of my Chinese friends were able to figure it out either (a Korean word, I think).

If I negotiate, can I have the daughter and father too? Once again, the literal translation is correct as far as anyone could tell.

Cowboy food

When the SDSU group was here, this was one of the snacks served. Cowboy food is good for the SDSU group, I guess!

Cowboy food is a literal translation. Yvonne explained that it meant something like "on-the-road food". My interpretation would be "trail mix." It was sunflower seeds roasted with a sweet coating.

Minna's Wedding

A couple weeks ago Jon and I were able to attend Minna's wedding. Minna works at Daktronics in HR and also tutors me in Chinese occasionally. There didn't seem to be an actual ceremony like we usually see, but just a large celebration, speeches from the family and the biggest meal I have ever seen! The dishes were piled on top of each other and kept coming long after everyone was stuffed.

Minna and her husband. She started out in a white, Western wedding dress, then changed to a gold dress, then finally changed into a red traditional Chinese dress. (Red is lucky in China, while white is the color for funerals.)

The guests all signed this, which was then cut up and names drawn for prizes.

Shelley and Sue (both work at Dak)

Yolanda, Gina and Chris (all from Dak)


Keyframe with the couple

Cody (Dak salesperson) and his family with the couple

A new dish for me - soft shelled turtle.

Ryan and Jon drinking baijiu (white wine, but really strong alcohol)

Minna toasting at the table. The couple toasts every table.

Spring in Shanghai

It was nice enough today to just wear a sweatshirt. These row houses are right next to our apartment complex. They also taken all of the burlap wrapping off of the trees.

These things are cabbages! We noticed they were planted in winter, and for a few months they just sat there, in the ground, looking like cabbages. (It seemed a little strange to us to use cabbage as a decorative plant.) Now the tops have grown out a lot and they look fine.

More potato chip flavors - Stewed Eggplant and Fish with Onions! I am happy to report that they both taste good. Luckily, they taste nothing like fish!

Seafood

We ate at a seafood restaurant in Zhuhai on Monday night during the Asia-Pacific regional meeting.

Cracking oysters

You can pick your dinner right out of the tank.

Macau trip

I spent almost a week in Macau and Zhuhai.

Wednesday Pete and I met a client for supper at the casino who she is the brand manager for. We ate the Japanese restaurant there, and it was one of the most delicious meals I've ever had! The chef gave us a starter that was a rose bowl covered with wax paper. We peeled the paper off and it started smoking, as if there were dry ice in it. It smelled like a very fragrant wood smoke, and in the bottom was smoked salmon with a special sauce.

The client loves sashimi (raw fish) even more than I do. We had a great platter that included blowfish and a fish with huge eyes (I can't remember the name), plus the standard tuna and such. We also had Oumi beef, which is similar to Kobe, but even better according to the chef. (Yes, the chef cooked special dishes for us that weren't even on the menu.) He also showed us the certificate that proved it was Oumi. He said many places may claim they have Kobe or Oumi, but they don't have the proof. It was the most amazing beef I have EVER had. By far. (Sorry Dad!) The next morning she told us the bill was a bit more than expected - she implied that the beef alone was somewhere between $300 - $400 USD!! Of course she was way too polite to ever tell us what it actually was.

For more information on Oumi beef, click here. If you are in China, click here. (It's the same site, but on Blogspot so it is blocked on the mainland.)

Friday night we went out for dinner with the Macau office.

Adam, Jon, Dan, Anthony, Carol, Rosa, Yvonne, Geoffrey and Pete at an Italian restaurant.

Pete, I and Dan at a bar in Taipei (another island in Macau.)

I somehow managed to lose my voice on Tuesday, and it was gone for an entire week! When we saw the "Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil" monkeys, we had to take a photo. Pete was tired of hearing the girls all week, and I couldn't talk, so it was easy for us to be like the monkeys!

Street Meat

This guy was on the street one day and I said I wished I had my camera out quick enough. A few days later, my boss Dan got the photo. He said: Right on the main road. You pick out your chicken or pigeon, and he butchers it right there. Mmm Mmm Good.

Menu Chinglish

I haven't posted any Chinglish for quite a while. On menus, usually the translations are literal. So they aren't quite Chingish - just interesting names for dishes!

Around Yuyuan Gardens

Traditional red lanterns on the "street of small commodities."

Street food - grilled chicken and squid.

Making bouzi... (steamed dumpling.) Very famous and tasty!

Merry Christmas!

Jon cooked a delicous meal consisting of rack of lamb, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. I made an apple pie for dessert. Yummy. (We started looking for a turkey to roast a little too late. The only one we found was too big to fit in our oven!)

Our mini-tree.

Mom, Dad and Jared opened their presents in front of the web cam while chatting on Skype. It is our tradition to open gifts before Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. It was that time for them, but Christmas Day for me.

My dad. He was just elected to the national Farm Credit Services of America board. His term starts January 1st and will last 3 years. Congratulations Dad!!

Las Tapas

Last Friday, Jon got some good news so Dan and Sai invited us out to celebrate. (I can't say what it is until it's been announced officially.) We went to an "Entertainment Street" near their new house with lots and lots of restaurants and bars. We ate at a place called Las Tapas and we thought the food was great! The sangria was not made traditionally at all, and not that good, but really potent. Think jungle juice.

Indonesian food

A few of the MIB guys took us to a very local Indonesian place. They brought out about 20 different dishes of food.

These little fish were fried and crunchy. It seemed a bit strange to eat the whole thing, bones and all, but they were pretty good. I also had a papaya shake. One of the best things about the Indonesian food is the fresh fruit. I have never gotten to experience fresh papaya, mango, etc. like I have in Asia.

Perk ordered a drink that had a lot of different fruit, jelly-like stuff and various liquids in it.

I had been making fun of Perk taking photos of all of his food, but I had to do the same when I ordered a fresh strawberry shake. Just ground-up, fresh strawberries. Yum.

Steaks

Home-grown beef is one of the things we really miss here. Jon bought four steaks the other day, at over $10 per steak. Ouch.

I made him bring back baking supplies that are either impossible to find or super-expensive here, such as chocolate chips, pecans and lemon flavoring, when he went back to SD recently. I also had been craving salt-and-vinegar chips so he brought back those. I'm so lucky to have someone smuggle things home for me. :-)

Random stuff

Everything is a bit of an adventure when you are living in a country with cultural so different than your own. At the store I saw Wasabi flavored chips and also "Red Wine Chicken." I couldn't resist. Jon will like the wasabi ones. I tried the Red Wine Chicken. I can't taste any wine. They do taste like chicken, grilled or barbequed chicken. Interesting. I wish they had Salt and Vinegar though! Other flavors include ketchup, cucumber, tomato, prawn, and potato (aren't they supposed to taste like potatoes?)

This is pretty near our office. Nibe. Just do it.

Saturday Shopping

Aileen, Maggie, Louise LV and I went shopping. Aileen is looking for a qipao to get married in, someday. She lives in the states now and works at corporate, but is learning project management here for 5 months. I thought these things looked interesting, so Aileen bought some and showed me how to eat them.

The outside has a peel and is a fleshy. When you apply pressure opposite directions, it tears open. The inside is like a white mandarian orange. It is very sweet.

Lane's trip - July 15th

Lane Munson was at Dak Shanghai for about a week. On this day we took him to Yuyuan Gardens, which has lots of traditional architecture and tons of little shops selling mostly to tourists. We had some jiaozi for lunch. They have beer girls that walk around with a cart of beer too. The girl is always covered head to toe in that beer's brand.

Unfortunately, about 3 days before he left, he got food poisoning. Really bad. After an IV and multiple shots and pills of antibiotics at the Worldlink clinic, he was doing a bit better. He is pretty sure it was from some chicken. I've noticed they don't cook chicken here like we do at home. If you are eating a leg, there is almost always red meat by the bone. (I've stopped eating chicken if it is still on the bone.) Poor Lane. What a way to end his trip.

Jon and Dan could probably live on jiaozi. They are steamed dumplings and there are many different kinds. It's the food that had the big story about how someone was making them from chemicals and cardboard in Beijing. The government jailed him for false reporting.

Dan thought we should attempt a Chairman Mao pose. I think we just look silly. But - Dan is the chairman, if you had forgotten. Scroll down to July 13th for that post!

Chinese guys playing a game, probably Mahjong. Very common. (photo credit belongs to Lane)

Beijing Duck

A group of about 12 Dak people and family members went to a restaurant that specializes in Beijing Duck. It is so good! We ordered about 100 dishes as usual and were stuffed before the duck arrived. It was a nice place and even with drinks, it only cost about $10 per person. We actually got a certificate with the number of our duck on it.

Scorpion was on the menu so we all wanted to try it! It actually doesn't taste like much - just crisp and crunchy.

1000 Arabian Nights

A bunch of us Dakkies went to an Arabian restaurant and ordered TONS of food. Before this came out, we were all stuffed already. It was a huge amount of various meats skewered.

Supper

Shelly, Axel (new Dak guy living in Hong Kong) Mina, Cooper, Mike H, Sheena, the Dak driver Mr. Huang, and me at supper. Beijing duck is the best!

Mr. Huang drives us to work every day, takes people to the airport and picks them up, runs parts around or errands, and drives visitors around to the sites. He puts in a lot of hours! He didn't speak any English when he started, and is doing very well. Dak has a teacher come in every week and teach to all of the workers, and has another class for business English for everyone in the office. This morning Mr. Huang said, "Would you like to go to the Baileman?" and we all were amazed that he said it perfectly. I think he is a very dilligent student.

Sunday Shopping

Sunday we went to the Antique market. It's most fakes and we have no idea what really would be old, so we just assume everything is fake. Lots of old-looking trinkets. We bought an old camera and a door knocker.

Across from the Antique Market was a Pet Market. Animals of every kind. They have big plastic aquariums - Jon will probably get one. They seemed very cheap! But nice and well-built. Notice the guy in his pajamas on the right. That's pretty common to see. Everyone sits around, smokes and plays games in the markets.

Pet crickets - they are more like huge locusts. Dan said they are sold to fight. They don't fight til the death; one just backs down. He said after it backs down it's fighting days are over because its spirit is broken.

We also found some more waxberries! The last one we had were too old and very bad tasting. I examined these closely and tried one before buying them though. Good thing we have our hepatitis shots.....

Link from my brother

My brother Jared sent me this link today - he said it was very appropriate if we are moving to China. It's pretty funny. Make sure your speakers aren't muted.

The Always Cafe

Ritchie and a beer girl. We've seen these girls in various bars - they dress up in short skirts and tall boots and promote their brand of beer. Most of the American guys are quite a bit larger than the Chinese girls....

Ritchie thought it was funny that Jon was still working.

Jon and I - check out the new pearls!

(photos courtesy of Ritchie Hart - thanks!)

Photos from dinner Tuesday

Emily, Maggie and Sai

Jon eats the duck head - not only fish are served with the heads here.

Judy, Dan and Ning

Sunday in Shanghai

We slept in until about 9:30. Dan had to get Lisa (his 14-year-old daughter) a new cell phone, so didn’t pick us up until about noon. We met Sai and Sally (Dan’s oldest daughter) at a new restaurant called California 101. It is a Japanese restaurant. It had about 10 different buffet lines, with mostly seafood on them, such as many types of sushi, California rolls, whole crabs, and king crab. They also had a grill so they’d cook whatever you wanted. I tried two things I didn’t like: stomach lining and bone marrow in a gel. They were both very chewy with and odd taste. There were two stations full of gelato, a chocolate foundation, and many little bite-size desserts such as cheesecake and tiramisu. At the drink station, along with pop and juice, they had beer on tap and bottles of wine and champagne. Even Lisa had a glass of wine and of champagne. (There is no legal drinking age here.) All of this for about $15 each. The whole place was gorgeous, with black leather seats, glass tables, and lavender sheers draped from the ceiling.

Sally has been talking Chinese lessons here, for four hours every day. She is really good. She wants to come back to teach English after she graduates from college. I would really like to learn the language. It is certainly not like Europe, where everyone speaks some English.

After lunch, we walked around this shopping complex a bit. Sai showed us the grocery store and started telling us where to buy certain things at. They had some interesting items, such as a whole pig’s face smoked. It looked smashed, but everything, including the eyeballs, was still there. I took a photo of Dan holding it up.

We walked around more shops in the subway station. Jon and Dan went back to their apartment while Sai and I got our nails done. I had asked to get them filled, but this didn’t come across as they didn’t speak any English. I pointed a lot to try to explain and they said they could do it. I sat down and she started putting stuff on my nails and wrapping them in tin foil. Then we realized she was taking them off! I wasn’t too happy about that but it was too late. So now I have a manicure instead of acrylic nails. My real nails are so weak – they really need new fake ones.

This took so much longer than planned that we missed part of looking at apartments. Amanda, the manager of the apartment complex that Dan, Sai and Ning (Chinese engineer) live in, showed us several different apartments. The complex has a pool, a gym and a restaurant too. It is very nice.

After having tea at their apartment, they decided we needed to go to the spa. Spas are very big here. We went to Sai’s favorite one, Spa de Regent. The entrance was very impressive. Over half the room was a pond with lilies in it! Two wooden brings crossed the pond. When we walked up the stairs to go to the massage room, red tea lights were burning on both sides of each stair.

After we were finished, we went to a restaurant/bar called YeeHaws. It was a piece of Texas in Shanghai, complete with country music, and billed as such.