junk food: pizza, popcorn, burgers

Somehow I always get around to posting about food. Given my job in the art industry, one would expect me to post non-stop about art, artists, art exhibitions, and the like, but … you know what? Since I spend so much of my time at work around art (and especially around bad soul-sucking art and pretentiously snobby art people), I prefer to find comfort in food (like the good ol’ American I am) and especially in good ol’ American junk food, id est, pizza, popcorn, and burgers.

1. Margherita, Marco Polo, and Meatlover’s Pizzas from Una’s Pizza

I love pizza. I always knew that the type of pizza I grew up with wasn’t ‘real’ Italian, but I never realized how ‘fake’ the pizza I know and love really is until I came to Shanghai. Kinda random, right? Regardless, there are plenty of places to get fake-style pizza in Shanghai, and Una’s is one of them. To be completely honest, I don’t actually like Una’s Pizza. Their thin-crust style is decent yet sub-par and their toppings leave much to be desired, but the taste is alright and the price is acceptable. I much prefer Pizza Street, but their website ordering system is down so I’ve been exploring my options, and while Domino’s Pizza is okay-ing-ly chewy, it’s nowhere near as good as in the States.

2. Act II Microwavable Butter Popcorn

28 RMB for three bags of popcorn? That equates to about $1.50 per bag of popcorn and normally my cheap self would be completely against such an obvious laowai-gouging price, but you know what? Heck, yes! I didn’t realize until I saw that box of popcorn on the shelf of that small little stall on Changde Road that it has been years since I last consumed buttery popped corn goodness. I even used to own a popcorn machine back in New York that saved me a ton of money. But alas, microwaves in China do not have a standard Popcorn button so most of my popcorn turned out a bit burnt. Eh, whatevs. Popcorn (even burnt) is still a pretty satisfying snack while working.

3. Burger King Steakhouse Burger

I’m generally a creature of habit. If I’m at Burger King, I get a Whopper. If I’m hungry, I’ll add a side of large fries. It really is that simple. But for some reason, after a long day at work at which I got off around 9 PM, I decided to throw caution to the wind and order a Steakhouse Burger. No idea why. Unfortunately, the picture on the menu never lives up to expectations. The expected fried onions were barely detectable and the meat was kinda weird and the bun was kinda weird and the sauce was kinda weird. It was just … off. And 38 RMB compared to the normal Whopper’s 21? I should’ve stuck with my usual. But oh well, I was adventurous (if only a little bit).

And you know what? The longer I stay in China, the more American I feel and the more I miss the States. As in, only in seeing the differences do I realize how completely American I really am – in the way I talk, the way I act, the things that I like, the things that I value. Sometimes even simple things like my preferences for food really put things into perspective. I’ve been in Shanghai for almost two years now and as much as I like and appreciate Shanghai for its potential and as much as I’ve grown personally and professionally since moving here, there really is no place like home. And I really do miss the food.

yellow tail … gotta love screw top wines!

Alors, I’ve been a not-very-frequently-posting blogger lately, but I have a somewhat decent explanation for it. A large part of it has to do with me being busy, but another large part of it has to do with why I love Yellow Tail wine. First of all because it’s darn good (it’s always been my go-to brand). And it’s decently cheap by China standards (over twice what I used to pay in the States but still within reasonable limits). But also because it has screw top … which makes it easy to open if you’ve taken to wearing a splint on your left wrist … which I have.

Yay for carpal tunnel syndrome? Le sigh. I guess I type too much? Yay for the screw top!

I’m actually supposed to wear splints on both wrists. Yeah, take a moment to consider how much suck-age that is. But since it’s insanely hard to hold a pen or do anything with my right (dominant) hand while wearing the splint, I just … kinda … don’t wear it. (Don’t tell my doctor, he’d make a frowny face.)

Oh, and if you’ve dissected the above picture, then yes, I like white wine (Chardonnay this time though I generally prefer Sauvignon blanc) and I drink it out of a normal cup because I don’t own wine glasses and don’t feel like buying any. Is it really necessary to have specialized vessels for different liquids? I never quite understood that.

gin and tonic and a square glass

I’m a fan of gin and tonics. That I will freely admit. I’m not sure when the good ol’ g&t became my go-to drink, but by the time I got to New York and met roomie J who always had a ready stock of Hendrick’s, I had pretty much completely transitioned from beer (back in my Texas undergrad days) to wine or gin and tonics. This is to say that I have experience with gin and tonics.

I don’t mind if you play with it a bit, like Logan Punch’s pretty darn amazing rosemary gin and tonic (servied in a mason jar mug!), but what really gets my goat is when someone takes a perfectly good drink and does something super weird to it … like putting it in an annoying square glass. This was at a local bar somewhere in the French Concession and the drink was mediocre but the glass made me sad. I know it seems persnickety and square galsses do look cool, but they aren’t easy to drink out of! Who wants to drink from a corner? Awkward. Please people, stop it.

shades of grey and gray

Calm your fluttering little hearts, I’m not about to go into a discussion about that smutty little novel-turned-film. No, instead I’m going to talk about spelling and one particularly annoying variant between British English and American English: the difference between grey and gray.

Yang Yongliang (杨泳梁), From the New World (来自新大陆) (detail), 2014

If you check the dictionary, it’ll probably list ‘grey’ as chiefly British and ‘gray’ as chiefly American. So … what of those who use both? I am a proud American English user and use the American spellings of color (v. colour), organization (v. organisation), traveled (v. travelled), inquiry (v. the inquiry/enquiry divide), and meter (v. metre). Oh, and the last letter of the alphabet? That’s a ‘zee’, not ‘zed’.

But ya know what? I use both ‘grey’ and ‘gray’. I also use both ‘theatre’ and ‘theater’ – although for different things. The stage ends in ‘-re’ and cinema is ‘-er’ – a distinction that I’m not alone in making. Yet when I use both ‘grey’ and ‘gray’, drawing a difference between ‘gray’ for a warmer hue and ‘grey’ for a cooler/lighter/steelier/bluer variant, suddenly I’m a complete weirdo. Am I? Really now? I checked on the web and there are others who think like me. Then again, on the internet you’re bound to find someone who agrees with you.

Pang Yun (庞云), Portrait of Trees No. 3 (树的肖像3) (detail), 2014

Li Jinghu (李景湖), Sea Breeze (海风) (detail), 2009

In general, I use the spelling ‘gray’ to describe the colors on a ‘grayscale’. I fully realize that I am in the minority with my double usage of theatre/theater and that I am practically alone on a deserted island for grey/gray, so as a rule, if I’m writing something official or for publication (peer-reviewed, academic, in print, or must conform to CMOS), then I only use ‘gray’ and ‘theater’ for the sake of consistency and not confusing everyone with my non-standard spelling distinctions. But I guess this duality is what happens when you study so much (British) English that both end up feeling quite natural. Although serial commas are a must.