I can hardly believe that it is already the end of January 2015! Between school, work, and traveling, our first year in Shanghai flew by very quickly. Although Nate has been really good about posting travel pictures to this site, I have been horrible about keeping up with my duties of blogging and sending out our Picasa Web Album links. My last blog was 5 months ago, and since then we have traveled to many new cities and countries in the region. I recently finished my second semester of full-time Mandarin classes, and will now have some time to work on getting these albums put together, sent out, and this blog kept up!
Due to our busy schedules, okay - Nate's busy schedule and my lack of cooking skills - we eat out more than we'd like to admit, and have been to just about every Shanghai Lonely Planet Guidebook restaurant recommendation, as well as all the various expat favorites this past year. With this being said, there is one kind of restaurant we still haven't tried - the mom-n-pop, hole-in-the-wall, no-English-menu restaurant. If you know Nate and I, we aren't afraid of eating street food; however, if you can't read the menu (I have learned to read about 1,000 characters - there are thousands more) then you might not know exactly what you are ordering. Luckily, I have a language exchange partner that was more than happy to help me with my first eating adventure of 2015!
Pam and I meet once a week for two hours to help each other practice speaking - one hour in English, one hour in Mandarin. This week we decided to have our language exchange over dinner. At first Pam was hesitant to take me to her favorite 饺子 (dumpling) spot and told me 这个饭馆不太漂亮和脏一点儿 (This restaurant is not to nice and a little dirty). I asked her 好吃吗？(Is it delicious?). She confirmed, 很好吃！(Very delicious!). Obviously I was in!
I had a blast! Although it was freezing cold, and we were sitting on metal stools wearing our down jackets, it was such a great experience to watch this lady make-to-order dumplings (we ordered 20 mushroom w/pork and 20 vegetable w/pork), go outside to boil them on her burner, and then serve them up to an endless stream of customers who were stopping by to enjoy them. There were only 3 tables with 4 stools per table, and Pam told me that at lunch time it is packed. I can see why! 20 dumplings for 12 RMB ($1.92 USD)?!? I'd be back everyday...if I could find this place on my own again...
~ Trisha