We started the day in Yuyuan Gardens and Bazaar, in old town Shanghai. If Shanghai is the birthplace of soup dumplings (and it is), then Yuyuan is home to the best soup dumpling house in all of Shanghai (it is, it is!). There is usually a line extending several hundred feet back from a window where you can get 16 small soup dumplings for 8 RMB (~$1). Alternatively, and this is what we did, you can go upstairs for a seat in an air-conditioned space, and get the same basket of dumplings for 16 RMB (highly recommended).
Ordering is easy, they only serve one thing. And to accompany the dumplings, mix the proprietary dark vinegar and hand-slivered ginger to use as dipping sauce. Slurping the soup out of the dumplings is completely normal, if not necessary. Warning: do not expect to find napkins, water, or plates in front of you. You are given chopsticks and the small dipping plate for your ginger and vinegar. The rest is up to you.
From the soup dumpling house you can see the tea house. To get to the tea house, you must traverse a zig-zag stone bridge. Evil spirits can only travel straight across, therefore the bridge is a feng shui defense mechanism. Americans would never do that. They'd just build the bridge straight across. What does that say about Americans?
Back to China: The bridge is over a coy fish pond. The woman selling fish food to children can routinely be seen with a plate full of fish bones. The kids have no patience, and dump their little bags of fish food with haste. The young girl with only one bag to pour into the pond is sad that the boy a few feet from her has dumped in two bags and is inspiring a feeding frenzy among the fish.
Another woman, much older, walks by with fragrant flowers for sale. Half a quai (~.06) per set. They are small white wire-wrapped buds, meant to be worn for their pleasing scent. I don't know the name of the flower, but it was reminiscent of sweet jasmine.
As I mentioned before, at the end of the zig-zag bridge, is the tea house. Here you can have tea for $7 USD, which is extremely extravagant by Chinese standards. Accordingly, the atmosphere does not disappoint, and they leave you with a souvenir (a keychain?). This place, most definitely, is for tourists, but less noticably so because of the serene energy of its ancient enclosure.
Next we strolled through Yuyuan bazaar. Gurie bargained for anything I wanted to buy, and I left the market happy. It was extremely hot, though, so our strategic next move was to hop over to the (air-conditioned) Shanghai Museum. The building itself is interesting, as are the exhibits inside. Ming and Qing dynasty furniture; a room devoted to seals (not marine); another to jade; a floor for bronzes, and another for ceramics. The museum is four circular floors with a central, open, cylindrical courtyard. Not over- or under-whelming as far as museums go; I'd highly recommend it.
Just a block away is the Urban Planning Museum where elderly Chinese go to see when their homes will be torn down for new developments. We didn't go in.
The next two hours were spent eating. Gurie took me to a street full of food vendors - something akin to a boardwalk, minus the beach. We sampled street food from several hole-in-the-wall shops. We started with shrimp balls : chewy, slightly spicy, not bad ($0.37). Next we had iced fruit smoothies. Mine was kiwi, and had gelatin cubes at the bottom ($0.60). We tried pan-fried dumplings: not soup dumplings, but still pleasantly soupy inside ($0.37). The Maillard-browning gave the bottom of these dumplings a satsifying (if carcinogenic) crunch. Our last dish was deep-fried stinky tofu ($0.12) -- soft-crisp on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. It's called "stinky" because of the pungent, spicy sauces you pour over it. All in all, not the most gourmet day I've ever had, but my adventurous palate had a good time, minus the short bout of food poisoning that kept me from checking out the Cotton Club tonight.
While I should be working on module 6 of EatWell, or more pressing still, reviewing the vintage choreography I have to teach (in front of avidly video-taping Chinese swing dancers) on Thursday -- I think I'll get in some Murakami before going to sleep.
