lunch, aka the delivered meal

I rarely go out for lunch, because in a small office where clients can come in at any moment, it’s not a good idea to be away too long. And as much as I’d like to say I brown bag it, I’ve left my packed lunch on the kitchen counter way too many times while I rushed out the door in the morning, and it’s just so much less effort to order delivery.

Good thing there’s a whole host of cheap deliverable food in Shanghai!

rice set with broccoli, eggs, chicken, and pork patty

pan-fried dumplings (guotie)

beef noodle soup

Taiwanese beef noodle soup

rice with caggage and chashao (char siu) pork

katsudon

wonton

fried rice

chicken curry rice

Noodles, rice, oh my. Often I just order from whatever place my colleague is ordering from, so it can be hit or miss. Lately I’ve just been going with fried rice, because it’s the least risky option. Usually it’s at least decent/edible … but if anyone ever offers you curry chicken rice from a chain called Babela’s Kitchen (巴贝拉), save yourself the trouble of throwing it out and just say no. Seriously. Say no.

chillin’ on the west bund boardwalk

It’s spring! Oh my, oh my! The weather these past few days has been amazing. Warm, sunny, vaguely blue skies! My perception of ‘sky blue’ has totally warped during my time in China. If it’s more blue than yellow, it’s blue! And blue-gray totally counts as blue. Yay spring!

Over the weekend I hung out down in the West Bund area and chilled for a bit on the boardwalk. Ah, so relaxing to just sit and stare out at sky and water. Reminds me a lot of Long Island City in the way that it’s technically still city and not too far from the action, but feels like it’s a world away. LIC is so much more awesome, but I’ll take what I can get!

when antique pottery fails so hard

You ever have those days where you’re just, like, so over things? But to your sleep-deprived and highly-caffeinated mind, it’s hilarious? That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. And that’s how I felt when I saw these pieces that were on display at the Aurora Museum in Shanghai. They’re probably still there. I want to meet the curator and shake his/her hand for displaying such wonderful pieces that scream “FAIL” in such a wonderfully amazing manner.

Because even though these two pieces of pottery totally fail (all collapsed and what-not), the fact that they’ve survived from the Yuan Dynasty and made it into a museum collection is just fantastic. I love it. When we see historical objects in a museum, they’re usually all just so pristine and untouchable and holier-than-thou perfect, even when they’re broken fragments. But these aren’t just ‘broken’, they’re failures in craftsmanship. That just makes me smile!

way behind the holiday schedule

Seriously, what holiday season is it now? Apparently I completely missed out on St. Patrick’s Day yesterday. Easter is coming up on April 5th, so ostensibly it should be Easter season, but that’s not celebrated in China and the next Chinese holiday, Qingming Jie (Tomb-Sweeping Day) is more of an observance than celebration.

But whatevs, it’s been almost four months since Christmas, three and a half months since the New Year, a month since the Chinese New Year, and two weeks since the end of the Chinese New Year (Lantern Festival). And you know what? All my Christmas, New Year, and Chinese New Year decorations are still up. Why? Because I’ve been busy. Can I just get that phrase made into a stamp already?

Oh well. Maybe I should just turn the tree into a year-round holiday tree because I have nowhere to store it anyhow. And the little ram is pretty adorable, so he can stay too!

my last meal in hong kong … popeyes!

For my last meal in Hong Kong, I had Popeyes! Yay Popeyes! Although it was actually kinda disappointing and a tad disgusting. My flight left around 10 AM, so I left my hotel in Central around 7 AM, which was too early for most places with decent breakfasts. I grabbed a cab to Hong Kong Station, caught the Airport Express, and searched for food at HKIA (Hong Kong International Airport, aka HKG).

I ordered one of their breakfast sets. The scrambled eggs were hella watery. The day before, I had breakfast at the hotel (a super fancy breakfast buffet) and the scrambled eggs were watery as well. Is that a thing in Hong Kong? There were also chicken tenders (decent but ho-hum), really squishy nasty sausages (but edible with a helluva lotta ketchup), and a cup of coffee. Yum, coffee. So much coffee these last few days!

No biscuits though. Goodness gracious I miss normal Popeyes. Sometimes I just want some good ol’ fried chicken with mashed potatoes and biscuits. Even for breakfast.

indian food, oh how i crave it (tbt)

Ah, it’s been such a while since I last posted! Shame shame on me. I’m currently up to my eyeballs in work, and am at this moment sitting on a hotel bed in Hong Kong taking advantage of the fact that I don’t have to use a VPN to access WordPress. Hurrah for no GFW!

Anyways, here’s a throwback post from my last trip to India in 2013. The best part of India? Indian food. Ah yes. Haven’t had Indian food since I’ve been in China. Sigh.

I went to India for the first time in 2012, and it was way outside my comfort zone and all-in-all a valuable experience, but I gotta say, I never thought I’d go back. That time around we were traveling around Delhi and Agra (North India), and we mostly ate vegetarian curries … which I got super sick of after a while.

Then I went back to India in 2013 with some work/school colleagues, and again, I thought it would be the last time. It was an all-around better experience because we went to Mumbai, which was safer and cleaner, and we went in January as opposed to July. And the food! Much more varied. Egg bhurji, chicken lollipops, oh so much naan, and lots of masala chai. And now I kind of want to go again. It’d be nice to explore more, especially cities where you can still see the old colonial influence like Kolkata or Chennai, but I’d definitely stay in the developed areas and travel with a group given all the recent news.

Basically I think I’m getting a bit sick of China and Chinese food and want some adventure. I’m currently in Hong Kong, but still. Starting to get super restless, ya know?