good food...

Hello all,

Today, I found the greatest lunch spot around my work area. It's this Italian restaurant inside the Parkson. The Parkson is like a giant Macy's and a Walmart combine. So weird...you can get your high end clothes, then grocery shop in the basement while buying tampons on the next floor. It does have the cutest dessert shops though...all kind of stuffs you can imagine and it does have a pretty decent selection of foreign goods. I'm still, however, am pissed over the fact that I can't find SALT still. I found salt here, but it's 90% salt and 10% MSG....I don't get it??? And the pure salt I found were in crystal form and it cost way too much for me to buy. I have made it my mission to find real 100% iodize salt in Shanghai.

Anyhow, this Italian restaurant, which I can't remember the name to because it was some ridiculous name, has the cheapest menu yet while still delicious. I got a bowl of pasta for only 9 kuai ( the slang term for money as I found out). Delicious!!!! And you can get a pizza for like 12 kuai. I called this place the Shanghai version of a Fazoli. Josh and I plan to go here often for lunch. Although there are other japanese restaurants around that we want to hit up. Maybe one day I'll splurge and go to a all-you-can-eat sushi, sashimi or korean bbq for 100 kuai ( about 14-15 dollars...but when in shanghai, you always try to look for cheaper deals).

After being bored at work, like I always do, I went to Carrefour after work in this...ridiculous heat. Sweating all the way to Carrefour, I checked out some face wash of the brand I always use but has been struggling finding it in Cincinnati before I left. I mean, in B-more, i bought these things at the grocery store, but not in cincy..grrrr.... anyway, i found the stuffs, but it was a bit more expensive than I expected it to be. It was 100 kuai for the tube smaller than the normal size...it's quite annoying. Sometimes, in Shanghai, stuffs are expensive for no reason. I mean, i can get a bike for 200 kuai and you're telling me my anti-wrinkle matte finish sun protection cream is half the price of a bicycle? Anyhow, I fork over the money for the face wash ( still have some anti wrinkle cream left for a while just yet), went and look for fabric softener and found it. Quite excited about that, went to paid and walk home in the horrendous heat. By the time I made it home, i was soaking wet. Although I did find out that there are certain colors that I can wear that won't show my sweat as much. Those are: white, and shades of white ( although it gets see through sometimes), bright yellow ( you can tell but not as bad), and bright orange. Green...not so much as I found this out.

Josh called me because he was slacklining between 2 trees in our apartment complex, which would explains why all the old ladies were not talking about me as I walk into the complex today. They were too busy looking at the weird foreigner tight rope walking between trees. We went to search for dinner at Brilliance West which we found hold the secret to a plethora of delicious cheap eat. We went to one of the japanese noodle shop that has many chains in Shanghai and all over the world actually. I think according to its map, it has one in LA, NYC, and Boston??? The food is AMAZINGLY good here and huge portion. I had the most delicious Crispy pork curry with steam rice. Think like indian saag, but with breaded pork in it. YUM. They also have a variety of octopus meal on skewer, pretty cool. I plan to explore this menu further. After dinner, Josh and I went to try this fruit juice stall next door where we tried to get these delicious dessert drink but apparently they're out of and somehow I wanted some coconut drink and we both got mango juice instead. I wasn't thrill but Josh was excited either way because it was delicious. Then we walk around and look at clothes, pretty pricey...( Ok, so they're the same price as the US, but i'm in china damn it, i want cheap stuffs!!!) Then...we finally found a UNIQLO and all hell broke loose. Shanghai UNIQLO is freaking awsome. It's weird that the price is different between each UNIQLO though. The other night, i went to a UNIQLO near Shanghai's version of Times Square, and saw they charging me 125 kuai for a v-neck t-shirt. Here, this UNIQLO were having a sale where these AMAZING CUTE graphic T's were only 50 kuai.

Alright, these graphic T's require their own paragraph because I don't know if the US would have them or not, but these T's are freaking awsome. It's a special Japanese street art collection so it's pretty colorful and bright and hit the currently club trend right in the head ( for those of you who follows fashion trends). They break down to classic japanese screen prints vs. modern what you might think of harajuku prints. Some of these graphics were too amazing for words and you probably could never be able to wear them in the US, but in Shanghai, ROCK ON. SO i bought a t-shirt with the screen print of Kwan-Yin sitting on top of a giant Koi and another t-shirt with this abstract guy and girl figure but with golden metallic prints on it. Then of course I cracked and bought a pair of linen pants because...well...they were linen, white and super cute. Josh and I thought that store is quite dangerous. There was this one shirt that I really like, it has giant prints of Chrysanthemum all over it and in the back, it's quite pretty, but I stopped myself because it was one of the delux edition one and for 99 kuai...I need to stop. lol.

Well that was my night. I'm waiting for my firm to reimburst half of my plane ticket so I can get some money to go to the gym. Wanted to join this gym that has the hottest model on the ad. He's probably the hottest asian guy I have ever seen and I can only wish to look like that. Although the gym is not close to me by any mean, i figure that since it's a pretty decent gym ( with a pool) and works out to about 30 US dollars a month, and I can use any of their branches in Shanghai once I'm a member, it's worth walking to the subway after work to go to the gym. Not to mention that I found out that in this brand of gym, 50% of the population is gay so hopefully that'll motivate me to go to the gym even more and with the competition between the gay guys, I'll actually work out and not just run on the treadmill and go home. lol. But exciting news, I have lost 15lbs in Shanghai so far...so for all of you guys wanting to shed the winter fat, please come to Shanghai. The heat will do it.

Well I should go to bed, kinda tire tonight. Can't wait for lunch tomorrow, I think i might try the fish pasta... My days revolve around me eating....I get to work and think about what I'll have for lunch, then after lunch I think about what I'll have for dinner. Speaking of which, for dinner tomorrow, I think Theresa and I are going to another one of the asian fast food joint where you can get dumplings, juice, and other dinner items, all for less than 10 kuai. I think half the fun in Shanghai is to figure out where you can find things cheaper than the last cheap thing you found, all you have to do is look. Maybe tomorrow morning, if i'm super adventurous, I'll stop by this dumpling shop and get one of Shanghai's famous "xiao long bao" ( shanghai dumpling) to eat at work. I always chicken out because i know that none of these people speak chinese and there are always 20 or so people standing around getting it. The pastry shop last week was a big step from my day to day walk....baby step trinh, baby step.

Night all. I really need to start taking pictures of my food. lol.