Taste bud tantalisers

As you all know by now, I have a love affair with food, Asian food in particular.  My time in South East Asia saw me trying all manner of new and exotic foods, whilst gaining a slightly unhealthy obsession with fish sauce.  Here in Shanghai, your taste buds tingle as you walk down roads, past vast arrays of food and beverage purveyors.  In contrast to Vietnam, however, temptation lurks around every corner in the form of corporate giants such as McDonalds, Burger King and Starbucks, temptation that is a little easier to avoid once you’ve sussed out where to buy my old favourite, street food.

I’ve maintained for a long time that the most flavoursome food is found on a tiny budget.  Chow mien, roasted sweet potato, all kinds of skewered meat and ham, cheese and egg filled crepes can be found just a few steps from my apartment block.  A vast variety of street food awaits you here, from corn on the cob to freshly squeezed sugar cane juice and a whole host of things yet to be identified, which makes me like them all the more!  Every weekend I make a slight detour before heading for work.  Just outside the metro station lie rows of shops and stalls selling freshly made breakfast goodies.  I usually opt for an omelette-like light bite.  I point, say I want one of those (in my best bad Chinese), a lady points to random sauces, I nod, job done: and it leaves my purse a mere 30p (50 cent) lighter.  I have no idea what the sauces are, but they’re damn tasty, with a subtle early morning wake up spice kick.

Besides the street stalls there is a row of local restaurants near my apartment selling all kinds of rice/noodle based meals, most of which also sell my favourite discovery since arriving here: dumplings.  All shapes, sizes and fillings can be found here; my favourites are soup filled and made famous in the area.  They’re also the trickiest to eat, requiring care and precision.  If you bite into them you will be showered with soupy goodness, no doubt squirting you neighbour with some too!  The trick is to grasp firmly with your chopsticks (which I’m loving using again, incidentally), make a small hole in the top of them, suck out the soup, then dip the remaining dumpling in a spicy mix of vinegar and chilli flakes, before devouring devilishly!

My love of spicy food hasn’t gone unnoticed.  Both western and local colleagues have commented how they love my love of chilli and the like.  Eating out is a social affair and dishes are usually shared; my ability to eat foods drenched with chilli sauce has become common practice, shocking a few people whilst amusing others.  After 2 months of reasonably bland food in the UK, I’m back in my element here – the spicier the better!

If you can remember my foodie blog from Vietnam (see ‘Food thoughts’ post – Friday, 17 June 2011), my one bug bear was the unsatisfactory sweet stuff in South East Asia.  It is with great pleasure I can inform you that the chocolate and cakes here have met with my approval!  Not quite on par with Belgium, but not half bad.  The bread is quite sweet, but I kind of like that, even when they stuff it with pork floss… yes, it’s like pork flavoured candy floss, sounds wrong, tastes amazing though.

It can be a bit of a carb fest at times, but the local greengrocers are on hand to top up your vitamin and mineral levels.  Pineapples on sticks for 10p are always in favour to maintain those iron levels.

So thumbs up for food in Shanghai, and the booze is better than in ‘Nam: bonus!

A xx