As Seen by TV

…and on the seventh day God created the potato.

Here is the whole family of Lay’s (乐事: “Happy Things” in Chinese) potato chips in China.

The cucumber ones are on my weekly grocery list, oh my they are über good, while the blueberry flavor tasted like powdered pancake mix, with salt.
As for lychee flavor… after testing out blueberry and mango, I couldn’t stomach the thought of a lychee flavored potato chip, considering I despise lychee anything.
The Chinese relationship with sweets is a strange thing… I bought sliced bread the other day (the entire bag was decorated with American flags, so it had to be decent… right?), and it was sweeter than a croissant dipped in chocolate and covered in powdered sugar.

Week 51, this is the second post in my “Mission: Lunch” series, which will showcase some of the lunches I have had the [mis]fortune of having.

First up was “the spiciest thing on our menu”, a hot beef noodle to which I added some Chinese cabbage at Ajisen Ramen, a Japanese restaurant located in the Infiniti Mall on Huai Hai Road (*update* just found out via wikipedia, that they have over 86 locations in Shanghai alone!)… good stuff (but not spicy enough for me!).

Second and third up are from the company hot spot, where we take new colleagues for their first lunch, definitely a good spot.  A Hunan-style restuarant located just around the corner of the office on Yunnan Road (south of Huai Hai Road).  Their spicy string beans are mighty good, although I am biased as this is one of my favorite dishes (picture #2).  Image #3 shows roughly 2/3′s of the dishes from that day… which included bullfrog (square dish), 2 varieties of tofu dishes (one with shredded pork that was amazing), cabbages, pork, chicken, normal eggs and quail eggs.

The last image is of a pickled pepper sort (very unlike the ones you can find in the US which have no spice-factor whatsoever), from a hot pot spot that were so damn tasty I just had to snap a shot.  I was with 2 other guys, and we held a little contest to see how many we could each eat.  Contestant #1 had zero (0).  Contestant #2 had three (3).  While contestant #3 had six (6).
I’ll let you decide which one was me.

Later that evening [after the spicy peppers] I finally knocked in my first 8-ball off a break… which I have been trying to do for years.  Yes, it was a good day…. yay me!

This is the first post in my “Mission: Lunch” series, which will showcase some of the lunches I have had the [mis]fortune of having over whichever given week.  This was a pretty damn good week… although I have to admit that some of these meals were prior to this past week, hopefully you forgive me.  Also forgive the iPhone camera quality…

First, a little background information… I work in an office building called the Huai Hai Tower located on Ren Min Road and (you guessed it) Huai Hai Road, in south Huangpo.

View SHlunch47 in a larger map.

The first two images are from lunch a couple weeks back, when it was still warm outside.  Kevin and I hit up a hole in the wall, this is ALL they served… tangyaun.  With 2 choices, vegetable or meat.  The meat ones were absolutely delicious, simliar to a dumpling with a pork gravy inside.  While the vegetable ones looked kinda like tea leaves mixed with crude oil, and were sweet as hell (*update*, wikipedia has me to believe they were actually filled with a “ground black sesame seeds mixed with sugar and lard“).

The next two images are from another little place located on Yunnan South Road, just off of Ren Min Road…  authentic spicy chicken hotpot (notice the chicken foot!).

While the last two are from a random restaurant Kanishk and I randomly walked into (for dinner, hence the beer!) somwhere around Linping Road in Hongkou.   It was filled with locals, so you know it had to be good.  There wasn’t a thing we ordered that wasn’t spicy (besides the rice), I’d have to say that the Hunan-style cuisine is by far my favorite.  The last picture is of one of my favorite dishes, consisting of green beans that have a light crunch to them, cooked with chili peppers and mixed with shredded meat (in this case pork, but shrimp & beef are also used).

So I just got back from lunch with 2 colleagues, and not only did we have one of my favorite types of meals in the world, but it was probably one of the best too… Chinese hot pot!  The restaurant is called 重庆小天鹅 and is located right by my office.  Of course I had to order the spicy edition, and it was pretty damn spicy.  Ooh man, just looking at these pictures wants me to go back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

We (they) ordered lamb, pork, ball variations (fish ball, shrimp ball, and beef ball), 3 vegetable baskets (including a mushroom assortment and 2 others including things like lettuces, cabbages, sweet potato, seaweed, tofu, bean sprouts, and lotus root).

There was also a “sauce bar”, where you took a bowl and made your own concoction of a dipping sauce… with bases like satay, beef, XO, soy, peanut, chili, etc… and then toppings like fresh garlic, chives, coriander, chillies, and crushed peanuts.  I’m not even naming half, because I’m actually just listing the things I recognized.  I made two variations for myself, a spicy beef sauce mixed with fish sauce, coriander, garlic, and chillies.  And the second was a sweeter satay with peanuts and chives.  I’m still drooling.

Well, after a bunch of drugs, about 2 hours sleep, and many many hours wasted, this guy is back to about 83% health, which is way better than the 38% I was at yesterday…!  I’m definitely feeling better, and damn, am I happy that is over.  So what should I post today…? Well, considering I’m back in the world of the eating, how about fried snack-food?
Potato chips/crisps to be more exact.

I’m a huge fan of the potato chip, and make sure to try them wherever I go… the weirder, the better.  From ketchup-flavored potato chips in Holland to Peruvian cassava chips, I find they are very region-specific in regards to flavorings, which reminds me of Gozilah’s Burger Patrol, and probably just about as healthy .

Food poisoning sucks!
And I got it pretty bad. 

…but I happened to be getting some more water when I glanced out the window:

It looked like a scene from Ghostbusters and I think it is testing for this Thursday, October 1st.   China National Day which will mark the 60th anniversary of Mao’s People’s Republic of China.
So had I not had these stabbing pains in my stomach and spent the better part of the day at my “other desk”, I wouldn’t have seen this… let’s try and remain positive here!

*EDIT/UPDATE*
So I went to the hospital today (09/29), as I couldn’t handle a third day of on/off stomach pains… the doctor told me it was most likely “severe food poisoning”, although the source is anyones’ guess.  I left with a handful of drugs and a grin on my face, considering that they also checked my blood pressure, which was normal for the first time since… -since ever!  Another day of once again mixing negative and positive, and affirming my firm belief that, in the end, everything is balanced.
I also added two new images: my drugs + a shot from earlier tonight (I just missed the fireworks testing, but I’m pretty damn sure I won’t be able to outrun tomorrows week-long festivities), please note that the window on the right is [always] wide open, and I’m on the 17th floor.  Wonder how many kids tumble out, or if that’s just a western dilemma…?