Shanghai 2009

Never really expected it, but I am in love with Shanghai. Its a modern city, rather highly populated with foreign students and expats. You get great food at reasonable prices here, whether its Chinese, Japanese, French, South American, Korean etc. There's a comprehensive transport system, consisting of public buses, taxis (rather affordable), metro and spacious and clean trains to the outskirts of the city. For a relaxed afternoon, just pop into one of the cafes (American chains Starbucks, Cold Stone Cremery and Haagen Daz are everywhere) where there is wireless internet and magazines are free for perusal. Last but not least, there is H&M (haha!).

Ten things I learnt about Shanghai:
1. Customers do not have the habit of saying Thank You to service staff. If you do, you are very polite. But well, it doesn't hurt to show some courtesy.
2. Chinese on the streets love to push u to get space to walk, and its perfectly normal. So just get used to it if you are there, there is no point in getting agitated because no one really cares except yourself.
3. Taxis are cheap, start ups are about RMB10-RMB12 and can last 5 mins without any increment. A 15-20mins trip costs about estimated RM40 (S$8), so i guess sometimes sharing a cab is cheaper. As comparison, metro train tickets start from RMB3. Generally, taxis go by the meter. However, beware of taxis at the railway station whereby they will request for a fixed rate at outrageous price.
4. Head to Muse 2 for some clubbing action! Great music, no cover charge, cheap drinks, professional singers/rappers/dancers. Way better than Butter Factory or Zouk i will say.
5. Shopping for clothes is not that cheap here, especially at the malls. Nevertheless, there is H&M which offers affordable and fashionable wear. To get boots, go to qi pu lu. You can also get cheap books (around RMB10/per) and DVDs (RMB10/disc) on the street stalls
6. Eating is cheap. Meals at nice restaurants generally cost less than S$10 per person. For illustration: Korean bbq dinner costs RMB30 (S$6. Maybe $30 in Singapore). Chinese food alike Crystal Jade/Tung Lok costs RMB25 (S$5. Maybe S$25 in Singapore)
3-course fusion lunch costs RMB90 (S$18. Maybe $30-45 in Singapore for the same quality)
7. To tell the cab driver a place to go to, name the road AND the intersecting road. Telling them the unit number is of little help.
8. There are no so-called predestrian crossing here! So watch out for on-coming cars in both directions when crossing the road, even at traffic lights.
9. When shopping at qi pu lu, starting bargaining at 30% of the asking price. (i.e ask for RMB70 if asking price is RMB210)
10. Forget the tourist attractions and go off the beaten path!

Hmm, seems like its all about food and shopping.

sat with mum

30 Oct (Fri) dinner: Itacho Sushi
31 Oct (Sat) dinner: Itacho Sushi
5 Nov (Thu) lunch: Itacho Sushi
7 Nov (Sat) lunch: Itacho Sushi

4 visits to Itacho Sushi in 8 days!

Today I brought my mum to Orchard Ion to show her around the latest, hippest shopping mall. Haha, I actually quite like the place, cos there are many shops and... there is a lot of nice food around!

We headed first to Itacho Sushi for lunch. It is a very famous sushi chain in Hong Kong and they have arrived to set up a branch in Singapore. Staff in the restaurant speak mainly Cantonese among themselves because many of them are from Hong Kong and they are here in Singapore to help with the start-up. Yummy! The food is really good! And very reasonsably priced.

Next stop is Bread Society. Once, I bought these cheese and cranberry buns from the bakery and she loved it.. she ate 6 buns in a day! First time she ate so much of a food that I buy, haha! Yeaps anyway I love the bread there simply because the breads are really soft. And yea, we bought the cheese and cranberry bun again.

We shopped around and I brought her to B4 to look around the food stores. We ordered these takoyaki balls from Gindaco. Another delicious must-try at Ion! Love it because the "skin" is crsipy on the outside and not too starchy. Close fight with the ones I had in Osaka. But beware, the queue is usually very long!

Haha the food tour didn't stop there.. as I urged her to try the tea from Tea Loft. Very smooth, and the taste of the tea is not overwhelmed by the condensed/evaporated milk, which is a usual problem with the tea from many coffee chains nowadays. But a cup here costs a whopping $1.70, about $0.30 more than that in coffee chains such as Ya Kun and Toastbox.

We ended the (food-)eventful day by dropping by Imperial Treasure Teochew Restaurant to da-bao the Liu Sha (Custard) buns. We had that last week in the restaurant and it was REALLY GOOD. The hot custard, with the fragrance of the salted egg yolk ,oozes out when you bite into them. Best custard bun I have ever eaten!

Some much eating and shopping with my mum... what a wonderful day! =D

My loves

Last week I saw a friend's friend's facebook photos.. she went to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to study baking! Looking at the photos of her in classes, the cakes, bread, pies, cookies and bread that they baked.. makes me want to study Patisierie again. I guess thats what i really love.

Friday night, Ying, Keng and I went for desserts at Bakerzin after dinner. We had the choux pastry and molten chocolate cake.. they tasted so good! i told myself: i want to make and sell this in future.

I wish i can go to le cordon bleu sydney next year end to do the course.
I dun know when my dream of having my own cafe will come true, but i guess learning how to bake professionally will be a good start! Its ever so easy to just pick a recipe and bake according to instructions. But going commercial is not that simple. You really have to learn the character of each ingredient and how ingredients work together. You have to learn that if your bread turns dry, if ur souffle sinks, if your cake cracks, if your muffin is too dense - what is really wrong with it. And you need to know how to come up with new creations to distinguish yourself from other patisiers.

I am not particular about food which i eat (to fill my hunger), but I certainly can tell the difference between good and bad. I guess FOOD is really my interest. Not in the sense that I love to eat good food(who doesn't?), but my interest takes me to another level - Why does that paricular item tastes so good? Is it because of the quality/origin/freshness of the ingredient? Is it because of the way its cooked - the technique/time taken/control of temperature/different stages orfpreparation? Or is it there a special ingredient which was added? I like to know what I am eating.

Anyway check out this new Japanese restaurant at Orchard Ion - Itacho Sushi (I am a great lover of Japanese food and sushi is my favourite!). The sushi at Itacho is really good.. reminds me of the sushi I had in Japan. Yum!


Salmon sushi

Roasted mackerel sushi (Mackerel flown in from Tsukiji Fish Market in Japan!)

Yellowtail sushi

Wafu chicken salad

Crab and avocado salad

Chicken and carrot stew (hmm.. soup is too sweet..)

Home-made tofu

I seriously can eat these everyday.