Crabs

These Suck!

Today's post is about some interesting things that you can drink through a straw. The first, which Kim is holding there on the left is "Bubble Tea" (also known as "Pearl Tea", or "Milk Tea with Sago", or "Tapioca Tea" depending on where it is ordered). Bubble Tea isn't anything new to us, as we'd often go out of our way to get one from downtown Flushing when we were living in Queens. However, it comes from this part of the world and if you haven't made it to your local Chinatown (or if you're living here in China) to taste one of these - do yourself a favor. Basically, its a drink made of tea, milk, and very large balls of tapioca. The drink comes with a wide straw for the tapioca to fit through. Very delicious!

The second thing that Kim is holding is a "Soupy Dumpling" - instead of a bowl, this soup is served in a dumpling, and usually has a big piece of pork in it as well. When you order a big one (like the one pictured here) it comes with a straw so that you can drink the soup before you eat the rest of the dumpling. There's a trick to eating the smaller ones - you place the dumpling in a spoon with one hand, and hold it steady with chopsticks with the other hand. Then you bite off a bit of the dumpling skin in order to let out the steam. At this point you can pour in some vinegar and/or soy sauce (might I recommend the vinegar?). In a few seconds, its cool enough to eat.

Yuey's Suzhou Video

This is the video that my friend Yuey took when we went to Suzhou a few months ago. Here you'll see something that is very rare to find in my own videos: me.

Yogurt and cigarettes

Here's an interesting promotion: Free ashtray with your purchase of 6 yogurts! Yeah, nothing goes together quite like Yogurt and Tobacco. Anyway, we saw this little gem of a deal on our grocery shopping expedition last night. Let me tell you, its hard to find stuff for a Thanksgiving dinner in Shanghai. No sweet potatoes! And I thought the sweet potato was from here originally. I'll have to check my horticulture facts. Anyway, we decided to purchase some Durian, which we tried for the first time. Durian (or Jack Fruit) for those of you who don't know, is a large spiky fruit. Sort of like a watermelon from hell. We've been told that its the kind of fruit that you either love or hate, and tonight we found out why.

It smells vaguely of rotten eggs in baby diapers. However, it tastes like vanilla pudding.

that's not a joke, that's really what it tastes like. The smell is terrible, but once you get it in your mouth, its actually quite nice. I remember being warned by my friend Toan about the smell, and so I held my nose when I tried it. Not bad. Second try, I tried it without holding my nose. Kinda gross. Third try - nose held. Pretty good. After that, I got past the smell pretty quickly. In fact, its hard to believe that there is anything that occurs naturally with such a complex and interesting taste. So, yes, I'm one of those who have found that they do indeed love the taste.

Who knew? Baby diapers and vanilla pudding. They go together like yogurt and cigarettes.

The Empire Strikes Back When Aprill Comes to Visit

Kim and I had our first visitor in Shanghai last weekend! Our friend Aprill was here on business, and we went to have dinner with her at the Jingmao Tower, where she was staying. We hadn't been there before, although we've seen it- here's the photo that I posted early on in the blog:

The Jingmao Tower is the tallest building in China. However, it will soon be succeeded by another building not too far away, which is slated to take the title of "Tallest Building in the World". It doesn't look as tall as the Pearl in this picture (the funky looking building with the spheres) because its a little farther away here.

As impressive as it is from the outside, the inside is even more so. Here are Kim and April in front of the 40-story drop which makes up the hotel portion of the building.


Standing at the top of the drop, you cannot resist the desire to reach your hand out and (in your best James Earle Jones voice) say, "Luke, I am your father"...

Hope to see you back in Shanghai soon Aprill! There's lots more to see!