Liu Bolin

On a hot Saturday two weeks ago, Matthew and I ventured to Linqing Lu to check out the Liu Bolin exhibition at MD Gallery. Liu is known for his invisible man series, in which he paints himself to blend in with his surroundings.

The exhibit was quite striking, but unfortunately, the gallery was not air conditioned. Being that the temperatures were hovering around 100 degrees, we made a hasty exit in search of a cool breeze. As we wondered outside the building, we came across these two beautiful pieces by VHILS, a Portuguese street artist. VHILS utilized a technique in which he chiseled away the plaster on the side of the buildings to create these human faces.

These photos unfortunately do not show the texture and depth each of these murals had. As a big fan of street art, I was psyched to discover these jems in our city. I've even heard rumors of a Banksy painting on Moganshan Lu and hope to check it out soon. Just not in 100 degree heat.

Flossy

At first glance, this crumbly topping may look harmless. But don't let it fool you. Nestled on top of an otherwise unoffending bun sits the one item that continues to terrorize me while living in China. My official arch nemesis.

This is Pork Floss.

Yup, you read that correctly. That breadcrumb like mixture is made of pork bits. Pork bits that the Chinese just loooooove to sprinkle on everything. The vegetarian order of stir fry you ordered? Comes with a topping of pork floss. Oh and the tofu dish it took you 15 minutes to translate off the menu. Also covered in floss.

For the average eater, this probably comes across as a mere inconvenience. But for me, this is a meltdown inducing offense. You see, I have not ingested pork in over 20 years, not since the Charlotte's Web incident of 1992. It was during this time in the Blake household in which I deduced that my beloved bacon was also my poor Wilbur. This love of pigs even lead to some swine related decor adorning my bedroom for a few years past when it was cute and acceptable. So you can see why sprinkling a massive helping of leftover pig parts onto my meals doesn't exactly have me handing out high fives to the chefs in back.

In order to keep this woolly meat from ruining my dinner, I have adapted various avoidance techniques which include emphatic pointing, mangled Chinese phrases, charades, and crying. My tutor proposed a new strategy for me this week however. She suggested I tell the waiter I'm Buddhist, as this will apparently keep all pork off my plate, though I'm pretty sure this will keep all meat in general from being served to me. Whatever. Game on floss.

Haikui

Don't worry, I am not about to write any poetry for you. Haikui was actually the name of the typhoon which hit Shanghai two weeks ago. If you ever wondered why you never hear of hurricanes hitting Asia, it's because they are referred to as typhoons in the Pacific Ocean.

Haikui was actually the third typhoon to hit Shanghai this summer and proved to be the most destructive. Shanghai came to a standstill as businesses were closed, outdoor activities were cancelled, flights were grounded and over 200,000 people were relocated out of their homes for fear of flooding.

Thankfully Matthew did not have to venture into work for the day and was able to snap this photo from our apartment. That isn't fog you see, it's heavy rainfall. He also noticed that the glass in our windows was flexing from the strong winds.

Thankfully, Matthew and Snowball survived their very first typhoon unscathed. I, on the other hand, was busy gallivanting around the US and managed to miss all the excitement. Is it weird that I'm somewhat disappointed? However, the weather service is predicting a few more typhoons before the summer is over so perhaps I will get to experience one after all.

Apple Pie

I apologize for the lack of posts lately. We jetted back to the US two weeks ago to attend the wedding of our dear friends. Since then, we have been visiting friends and family, as well as partaking in some good ole American fun.

Have no fear, we will be back in Shanghai soon, and up to our usual shenanigans.

Haze

A cheesy good time

Saturday was spent partaking in a very un-Chinese event.

We got our cheese on at the first annual Shanghai Grilled Cheese Cook-off. Cheese is not a staple of the diet here, making it a rather expensive ingredient. As a self proclaimed cheese-aholic, I was rather dismayed to realize I had gone a solid six months without a grilled cheese. Thankfully, I overcompensated this weekend.

This Korean Chicken and Cheese sandwich was my favorite in the Asian category

 And they all paired nicely with some hard cider on an insanely hot day

Walking home, I remarked that events like this make me almost forget that we are living in Shanghai. I was promptly hit by a bicycle and screamed at in Chinese. Thanks for the reminder.

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.