The Food Trail in Shanghai

As the Irish chef and his friends began to show me the city, I got the sense that I was embarking on an amazing culinary journey!

Awhile back, we went out with a young British fellow, Math Whiz and fellow teacher at the same school as the Irish chef. We wanted to check out the Woodstock of Eating in the Bund. The Bund, also known as wài tān, is a promenade on the west side of the Huangpu River. It's best known for the variety of architectural buildings (gothic, baroque, neo-classical and colonial), which are beautiful! Without knowing why the Bund is famous, the architecture was the first thing I was drawn to.

 

 The Bund: view across the river on a cool and cloudy day.

Take Two: a black and white which looks more like reality.

 Some of the gorgeous architecture! Too bad it wasn't sun shiny out :(

We made our way to the food extravaganza. Unfortunately, on the ad I saw for the event, there was NO MENTION of the entry fee (30 kwai/person, about $6 CAD/person). Not a big deal, but paying to enter a place where you're going to buy food anyway? Weird to me. It made us reconsider entering. Furthermore, it was annoying because we walked around, ate and drank from multiple vendors (for almost four hours), and this is where I bought my ID mask, so we spent a substantial amount of money overall. There were some interesting food vendors, but I thought there would be more variety. There was one Italian pasta vendor, pizza, burgers (a lot of burger vendors), Mexican food and various types of desserts, like ice cream and cakes. There were a few craft beer options as well, including another one of the Irish chef's colleagues' :)

 The first official event in Shanghai that I attended!!!

 There was a good attendance even when we arrived earlier in the day :D

 The crowd was a good mix of locals and expats!

 Dance music played allll day looong! I LOVED it!!!

 The lights offered a nice ambience as night fell upon the city.

I was oh, so tempted to try the cake, but I decided against it.

 Pies, too!!! Ohhh, they look so tasty!

 Locally brewed beer! COOOL!!!

 I eventually settled on a healthy granola bar from Lizzy's and it tasted delicious and filled me up!

The brew that the Irish chef's colleague was selling! The Irish chef and Math Whiz drank it all day and night :)

We've realized that, similar to Kuwait, some of the beset food spots are in malls. Yay. We went to The Cut with a co-worker of ours from AUM. This fellow halfie Canuck (half Irish, half Guianese and ALL Canadian!), hails from Guelph and helped the Irish chef get his current job. Let's call him the Diving halfie (he enjoys diving). The diving halfie loves food as much as we do! The Cut was a great choice. In spite of its steeper prices, the food was sooo worth it.

 The caveman-esque mantra and bored employee, lol!

 My fish and chips! :D  It was "all-you-can-eat" chips, and I've never seen the Irish chef so happy!

The Irish chef opted for burgers and fries :)

The Diving halfie settled on a steak dinner.

The Cut that we dined at is located at the IAPM Mall (Address: 6-7F, 606, 999 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Shanxi Nan Lu, about 2 minutes away from the Shanxi Rd metro stop), in the Xuhui  area. I would absolutely return! The wine was awesome, too!!! Information: http://www.thecut-shanghai.com/.

As I continue to walk around our neighbourhood, I've found a few Japanese-style bread shops. I confess that I indulged and bought some bread the other day...I couldn't help myself! I also snuck a jar of one of my favourite candies that have a sweet milk flavour).

Top: a sugar twist doughut and a hot dog style bread with mayo!!! Yummy!!!

One of the perks of being in China is the availability of food that's almost EXACTLY like Japanese food!!! These are identical to Milky candy (Peko-chan), which you can also buy here! :D

In spite of all of my eating, I have carved out time to apply for jobs here. Over a month of hard work has paid off as I am the new Lead Editor with a firm in the New Pudong district!!! The position straddles the creation and publication of ESL material (physical and virtual), so it's a new realm for me in many ways. I can't express how relieved I am to get out of teaching! I hope that the visa process goes smoothly. I won't have two months off of paid summer vacation, but I know that I will feel much more satisfied in this new venture!