More food of China

[Matt]

I didn't eat on the plane to Shanghai. I thought I would land and be in a packed urban environment with as many awesome foods as I could possibly eat and I didn't want to waste and appetite on any poor airline food.
I arrived 2 hours late and really hungry. The taxi driver could not find the hotel I booked online and in fear of paying an outrageous amount for him to drive around, I pointed to the nearest chain hotel near the airport. It was late... maybe 10pm.

Once checked in and settled, I needed to eat. So I walked out of the hotel, and for the first time in weeks, I saw real darkness outside... there was nothing around. Damnit! So I went up to the security guard and asked him. He waved to a line of taxis waiting outside the hotel and, of course, the one unlicensed driver in a black sedan comes over. He speaks English (thank God). He says he can take me to a restaurant for 20 yuan. He drives through hotel parking lot after hotel parking lot and we end up in neighborhood lit by light bulbs hanging by extension cords, which were hanging from some of the oldest shanties I have seen outside of the river country travelling I did last year in China. I'm thinking "this is ****ing Shanghai?" For the first time, I feel like a complete foreigner, out of place and perhaps fearing for my safety. This place is dark. No one here speaks English, and this driver lets me out and hands me his card to call him when I'm done, and takes off.

The restaurant is in the garage of a home, is small, dirty, and certainly no menu. The family who runs the place is eating their own meal at a table in the corner... the grandmother is peeling vegetables at the next table. There's a huge bowl of boiled meat on another table... surely this isn't going to be eaten fresh, it's almost 11 pm! A cooler... I don't think it was plugged in, is on the opposite side of the garage door, and it is stocked with fresh greens and bowls of cooked meat... again... how old is this meat?

[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food158.jpg[/img2]

I somehow communicated "Chicken" and the family nodded and all of them, but the 3 year-old, got up from their meal and began cooking in a super-cramped kitchen in the back. I felt guilty for interrupting, but just sat down and pre-typed some translations I would need into my phone. The little kids just stared at me. A cop came in.. sat down to watch tv... also couldn't keep his eyes off of me. Another man, must have just gotten off of work, his clothes were filthy and he was oily to a shine. This is a good sign. People eat here comfortably. This place must do good business.


15 minutes later the family brings out these:

This is chicken and those damn kelp-like veggies I hate. I twas actually pretty cook... plenty of meat, but to difficult for me to work around the shards of bone. Maybe I ate too much. I felt guity. I just figured I am going to get really sick from eating here... and I went all out. I didn't get sick though.
[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food159.jpg[/img2]

Hey... it's egg-drop soup... and a good one at that. Tomato soup in which eggs are cracked into it while it's boiling.
[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food160.jpg[/img2]

[Matt]

I went to a small restaurant around the corner from my hotel in the city.
[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food163.jpg[/img2]

This chicken dish in brown sauce is very western. Not much to it.
[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food161.jpg[/img2]

I loved this beef dish, which I thought was just a bowl of beef in a watery sauce... then I dug deap into it saw noodles... realized I have an extra bowl (that was not for rice). It was a soup. Pretty spicy and very flavorful. The glass noodles inside were very tender.
[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food162.jpg[/img2]

[Matt]

Played it safe and comfortable the last few days in Shanghai and just ate Hagen Daas and KFC.

[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food164.jpg[/img2]





[img2]http://www.nyfalls.com/posts/china-food2/food167.jpg[/img2]

What did I eat when I first landed in the states?
I stopped at Chili's and order the Big Mouth Bites :

Which just happen to be on ABC New's list of "The 9 Unhealthiest Foods You Can Order at Restaurants"
God Bless America!

[hobkyl]