Foodage

I have a secret to share. Matthew and I don't eat Chinese food all that often in Shanghai. Shocking I know. When we lived in the US, we certainly didn't eat "American" food every night (though this may have had to do with the fact that I don't eat hamburgers, BBQ, or other typical fare) and instead had a diet which varied daily from Indian to Mexican to Macrobiotic. Even now, when we do eat Chinese food, we tend to cook it ourselves at home in order to decrease the oil and pork that is liberally used here.

Yet after Matthew returned from a business trip to the US last week, he wanted nothing more than to indulge in some typical Chinese cuisine. So off we went to Cha's Restaurant, a diner specializing in Cantonese dishes.

We sampled a number of foods including sweet and sour shrimp, ramen noodle soup, fried noodles, and salted fish fried rice, all washed down with traditional milk teas.

 

 

But most importantly, they had bōluó bāo (pineapple buns) on the menu. A bōluó bāo is essentially the love child of a sugar cookie and a dinner roll. Or perhaps they are made of fairy dust. Hands down, these are my favorite Chinese dessert (sorry egg tarts!). Despite the name, these babies don't have a dash of pineapple in them. Instead, the name comes from the pattern which appears on the top when baking. You can't really see it here since I was halfway through eating them before I bothered to snap a photo.

Cha's is located in the basement of our complex and it somehow took us six months to try this place out. My waistline thinks this is a good thing.