Martetatin

Shanghai food.

By martetatin on April 26, 2013

I went to Shanghai with the plan the eat my way through the city. I think I did quite a decent job, however, I wouldn’t mind going back another time to get some more pan fried soup dumplings or the weird, purple bean drink.

Fried soup dumplings 生煎, at Yang’s fried dumplings.

IrishCoffee Irish coffee with view over the Bund.

Standing in line for this crazy delicious drink..

Some kind of warm drink with purple beans in it, really delicious.

Soup dumplings 小笼包 for breakfast, yes please.

Two amazing pastries: the one on the left is savory, no idea what was in it. The one on the right is the best egg tart I’ve ever stuffed in my mouth, I extremely regret not getting more than one.

Twenty meters away from the line for the crazy drink was this one: people waiting for their fried pork chop. When there’s a line like this all day, every day, you know it must be good.

Cutting up the pork chops.

Fried pork chop sprinkled with vinegar.

Wonton soup at Din Tai Fung.

Vitamin shot.

Japanese for dinner: very good ramen and ..

Chicken skewer with plum jam and grilled chicken skin, damn good.

Fried soup dumplings for breakfast, miss these so much.

Western food craving: chocolate chip cookie and Bakewell pastry.

Best Thai food I’ve ever had: mild spicy curry with roasted duck meat and pineapple, served with an infinite amount of prawn crackers and jasmine rice. And to top it off..

Baked pastries filled with banana and covered in syrup and served with ice cream.

The best fried chicken in the world. I’ve had this one before in Taiwan, but now the shop has expanded to Shanghai, so I could have it again – lucky me. Last time I wasn’t able to handle the “very spicy” and I would just order regular spicy, but I was sure that by now, two and a half years later, I was able to conquer the 辣辣的. Tears were streaming down my face while I was eating the chicken, not sure if this was because it tasted exactly the same as I remembered and I loved every bite of this humongous monster, or maybe because it was so spicy it felt like I was on fire. Anyway, it was the best way to end my food adventure in Shanghai.

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Shanghai.

By martetatin on April 24, 2013

I used to think that people who prefer Shanghai over Beijing were sissies. With all its Western influences it is much easier to live in Shanghai, but because of all these Western influences it could not be the real China. And I though only expats and people without any knowledge of China or the Chinese language would like it there, just because the real deal would be too hard for them.

Beijing is a rough city: the winter is intense, the influence of smog on your physical health and mental wellbeing is much bigger than I had expected, the dialect is ugly and hard, and many parts of the city are ugly with grey and dirty concrete buildings. Beijing has a lot of good food, but the food is often oily and covered in thick sauces. Shanghai on the other hand felt so light, there were many parks in the city and the streets were filled with trees. Shanghai is full of skyscrapers, but these look clean and the architecture is nice and there are whole neighbourhoods where you would think you’re in Europe instead of China. The food I had in Shanghai was extremely good, there’s a lot more variety and the flavors are light. And even though it is such a huge city, almost everything is walkable (when you’re able to walk at least).

So already after my first afternoon in Shanghai I had to admit to myself that either I was becoming a sissy too, or that living in Shanghai is just really enjoyable. Either way, I completely fell in love with the city and this was definitely not my last visit to Shanghai.

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Soup dumplings －小笼包.

By martetatin on April 23, 2013

A couple of weeks ago I made a 5 day-trip to Shanghai. It was time to become more independent and I didn’t want anyone standing in the way between me and all the delicious food I was planning to eat. So no boyfriends, no friends, nor family to accompany me on this trip.

Due to going to a bar, a nighttime skype session and still having to pack my backpack at 4 am I set of for Shanghai without any sleep in the early morning. That lack of sleep came at handy, cause I had to share the room in my hostel with five snoring guys.

I loved every single minute of my trip, I loved walking the streets and parks of Shanghai, having conversations with locals, and most importantly: eating a lot of the sublime food the city has to over.

To be honest, I actually did not enjoy everything. Without any reason, my left foot started hurting about a week before going to Shanghai. I didn’t think it was necessary to go to the hospital (note: it’s a bit more of a fuss to go to a Chinese hospital than to the GP back home) and I figured my foot would heal on its own while walking the whole day in Shanghai. Surprisingly, the opposite happened. At the hospital I got some antibiotics and (highly appreciated) painkillers and the advice to ly down and rest. The result was a cripple girl gimping around the streets of Shanghai.

Anyway, these soup dumplings are one of my favorite Chinese foods (I think I say that in every post on Chinese food..). Admittingly, they are quite a fuss to make, but please don’t let this stop you from making them, cause when you bite into one of these it makes all your worries, and foot pain, go away.

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Evening walk.

By martetatin on March 29, 2013

The other day I had a Peking duck dinner with friends in a small and authentic restaurant in an old hutong (just a normal night in Beijing) in a part of the city where I hadn’t been before. After dinner the others went to a bar (a karaoke place called Uranus), but since I’m ~~boring~~ studying really hard for a big test, I decided to go home and avoid the alcohol and have an early night sleep.

Ducks waiting in line to go into the wood fired oven (on the left) and ducks being roasted (on the right).

While walking to the subway I recognized some of the buildings around me and suddenly realized that Tiananmen and the Forbidden City were around the corner. My resolution of going home early suddenly dissapeard and I decided to have an evening walk. I walked around (it’s closed at night) one of the largest squares in the world and passed the entrance of the Forbidden City. Even at night people were taking pictures of themselves in front of Mao Zedong’s big portrait.

The entrance of the Forbidden City, with Mao Zedong’s famous portrait.

Normally these places are crowded with people and this makes it, for me at least, hard to really grasp the meaning and importance of their history. But walking there late at night, when it was – relatively of course, it’s still Beijing – quiet and not crowded, it was so special to be there. It reminded me why I got so fascinated by this country and why I – not knowing anything about the country, the language or the culture – decided when I was 15 that I wanted to study Chinese in university. This little walk made me fall in love with Beijing again.

Pictures are taken with my crappy iPhone, I’m sorry for the poor quality.

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Soda bread.

By martetatin on March 21, 2013

This bread is the reason why most bread is made with yeast. It is possibly the easiest, effortless and least time-consuming bread to make, but texture wise it loses big time from all the other decent store bought/homemade breads. I’m not saying this bread is no good, but it’s just not as good as this easy bread or any other decent store bought/homemade one. It did work pretty well with this chickpea stew and also topped with filet Americain and fried egg as shown on the picture below.

Two years ago a housemate, my friend and me had been to a bar and when we got home we were ~~slightly tipsy and~~ incredibly hungry. Cause we were having the munchies, my housemate decided he would make us this sandwich. We stayed in our kitchen till the early morning chatting and eating until we were out of both food and energy.

I know these toppings don’t get everyone excited, but this bread also tastes good with a big slab of salted butter – but what wouldn’t taste good with that?

Lucas － level up health.

By martetatin on March 21, 2013

Picture was taken on a boattrip in Hong Kong, summer 2010

Life is unfair: sometimes bad things happen to people without a reason. There is nothing you can do about it, except for changing your own attitude. Life can be extremely hard and difficult, but in the end you’re the only one who can change the situation you’re in.

I’ve been wanting to tell you about my friend Lucas and his new blog for a little while now. Lucas is the most energetic and lively person I’ve ever met. I know him as a person who embraces the life that was given to him, meeting as many new people and travelling as much as he could. He is devoted to sports, physical health and helping others in any possible way.

He was playing basketball in December 2011 when he got into an unlucky accident. Because of this he severely injured his spinal cord and was unable to move. Just like that.

Since then he has been working incredibly hard to get better and to be able to move again. With amazing willpower and determination he has gotten himself so far that he is able to walk again. I can’t imagine the pain he must’ve had, and still has, to endure. I truly admire his attitude towards life. From one day to another he was unable to move and had to focus fulltime on recovering, and still he looks at life as if the glass is half full.

So nowadays when the going gets tough, I like to think of Lucas. He inspires me to stop complaining, work harder every day and look at the positive things in life.

Since a couple of weeks he has been blogging about his recovery over here, posting (almost) daily. Check it out, his story is truly inspiring.

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Lebanese chickpea stew.

By martetatin on March 4, 2013

Last Monday I had dinner with a friend in one of the canteens on campus. It was freezing cold, outside and inside, and while we were having dinner we could see the steam from our breaths coming from our mouths. I don’t know how much longer I could’ve kept it up with the numbing cold and the depressing, smoggy skies, but luckily not even one week later spring has unofficially began. I’m talking about blue skies, sunshine and walking outside without a coat.

So here it is, the last winter dish of the season. After having had to endure my fiercest winter so far for the last 4 months – since the first snow fell in the first week of November it has been one long depressing period. So I’m in full right to gloat about the lovely weather I’m experiencing right now, even though you might still have to wear a thick coat when you go outside.

If you are in that position, I do not envy you. Hang in there for a couple more weeks and spring will make you smile again as well (unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere). And until then you can make this warming and soothing chickpea stew. Not only is the stew on its own the perfect dish for a crappy weather day, but you can pair it with crusty bread (coming soon) and dip this is in garlicy yoghurt.

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