My Curry Chicken

May 1st holiday is coming to an end. Today is the final day! Will have to wait till Oct 1st for another long holiday such as this ...duh....that means 5 months of wait!!! Grrrrrh........

I took the opportunity of being at home on a Monday (yah when all back in Malaysia are busy working!!) to cook curry chicken for lunch! It's my first major cooking session for a meal in Shanghai.

Ingredients:
=========

• Chicken


• A1 Indian Curry Past for Seafood (which I brought back from Malaysia during CNY holiday)


• Potatoes


• Brinjal


• Coconut drink (substitute for coconut milk and cheaper. Only cost RMB2.90 as compared to a can of coconut milk from Thailand which costs RMB12.00)


• Cinnamon stick
  
• Star anise

As the curry paste is all ready to cook, it saved me a lot of time and trouble from preparing the "rempah". No need to peel, slice and cut onions, garlic and chillies.

It was so simple. Just put everything into the wok and voila! In 20 mins, I have a wok of delicious Chicken Curry!!

It went very well with my "Pad Thai" - fried thai koay teow ~ left over from last night's dinner at Mah Boon Krong. The koay teow was so oily and I only managed to consume half of what I packed. The other half would be for dinner tonight. So not bad, huh. A plate of RMB32 koay teow for 3 meals. Which means I only spend RMB11 per meal!!

May 1st Holiday

Ever ride a bike in Shanghai? I did!!

During this May 1st holiday, it's my best opportunity to take my bike out for rides around town. So far I have covered Xintiandi, The Bund and Yu Yuan trails. Next I hope to go to Century Park in Pudong. And later on join a local cycling group and try to cover as many miles as possible on weekends.....who knows may help me to lose some weight and at the same time I will discover more of Shanghai!

My trails were:

1. ZhiZhaoJu Lu (制造局路) -> ZhaoZhou Lu （赵州路）-> Jinan Lu (济南路）-> TaipingQiao Park (太平桥公园）-
This is the park near to Xintiandi.

2. Fuxing Lu （复兴路）-> Zhonghua Lu （中华路）-> Renmin Lu （人民路）-> Jinling Lu （金陵路）->
The Bund （外滩）-> Fuzhou Lu （福州路）-> Guangdong Lu （广东路）-> Xizhang Nan Lu (西藏南路）


3. ZhiZhaoJu Lu (制造局路) -> ZhaoZhou Lu （赵州路）-> Fuxing Lu （复兴路）-> Henan Nan Lu （河南南路）-> Central Fangbang Lu （方浜中路）-> YuYuan （豫园）

I usually don't have a clue which road to take. Use my instinct and from time to time, stop by the road to ask other fellow cyclist or traders along the street to guide me. It has been fun seeing Shanghai on my bike.

I hope to see more of Shanghai during my stay here!!!

Wesak Day in Shanghai

Wesak Day is not of any significance to the Shanghainese. It is just another Full Moon Day. Shanghaineses visit temple to offer prayers as usual.

I started my day by doing a puja in my apartment. It's the first time I had a proper prayer after I had my altar set up. Feel at peace to start the day with chanting the suttas. I pray that my beloved ones and myself would be bless with good health, happiness and abundance. I pray that they would receive these blessings every day of their lives.

In the afternoon, I catch the No. 43 Bus to XuJiaHui. From there I catch a cab to Longhua Temple. Traffic leading to the temple was heavy as there was a temple fest ongoing. The temple fest was more like a fun fair back home. There were booth for games, food; fortune tellers lining up the sidewalk. There was even a puppet story-teller, dressed in ancient Chinese costume, even came with a pigtail hat.

Longhua Temple is a Mahayana Temple. I found many nice, big Buddha and Guan Yin statues here. Captured many photos of them which I hope to use to design my graphics. I can't find serenity in the temple as it is crowded with people burning bunches of incense. But I felt a sense of celebration ~ a different kind of Wesak celebration away from home.

Spring has Arrived!!!

Spring has arrived in Shanghai!!!

We took the opportunity to visit Nanhui to check out the tulip garden & peach blossoms there!

Look at the colourful flowers that are so beautiful! Flowers can really brighten up one's spirit. Like children, we were hopping around, so glad to be surrounded by the multi-coloured flowers.

Coincidentally Roxanne and Huay Chen were in town. My friend, Sabrina was our guide and she

helped to arrange the trip for us. We took a cab from Longyang Subway Station and it took us 45 mins and cost us RMB140. I got the food and fruits to keep us going! We had a picnic at the tulips park where we sat by the lake, across the windmills and surrounded by multi-colored tulips.

I just love spring. The fresh air. The warm sun. The cool breeze! That's SPRING to me!

Chinese Lessons

Glad to announce that I have started my Chinese class!!! Yup, learning how to pinyin, write Chinese characters and speak better Pudong Hua!

My classes are held in Pudong Public Service Centre. It incorporates speaking, writing and cultural Chinese lessons. It's held on every Saturday from 2pm - 4pm. We had 23 students during our first lesson but now it has dwindled to 13 of us who are regulars. That means 10 dropouts!!

Seen above with some of my classmates & teacher (in Qipao).
From left: Me, Chris, Mr. Wang, Ray, Jane, Jenny (our lao shi or teacher), Alison, Yolander,
Ray, Fanni & Reinhard.

Today is my 4th lesson and we had our first Cultural lesson. The place is quite a distance from my apartment in Puxi. So I always have to rush out latest by 12.30pm. If I am early I would catch bus No. 18 that brings me to People's Square. From there, I would take Metro Line 2, stop at Museum of Science & Technology. I would walk for another 15 mins to reach the centre from the Metro Station. Usually I would take a short cut through the park. I always enjoy the walk through the park, now that the weather is warmer and flowers are beginning to bloom!

For our cultural program today, we were introduced the Chinese Opera. I find this very enlightening. For one who enjoyed watching Cantonese Opera when I was young, I didn't realize that there are so many things to learn about the characters, stories, gestures, types of Chinese Opera.

Our teacher, Ms. Cai, introduced to us to Chinese Opera. She showed us some of the movements made by female roles in the opera. She made the women in our class to walk like the female role (Hua Tan) and the men to walk like the male lead (Sheng). I can't help laughing because for me it was so tough to walk gently and make a decent bow!

We were encouraged to at least attend an opera performance while we are in Shanghai. We can either go for a Beijing Opera (Jing Ji), or Shanghai Opera (Yue Ji) and preferably choose a performance that features a few famous scenes from various opera pieces. That would be more interesting than going for one full piece performance. Some of my classmates are determine to check out the performances available at the famous Tian Chan Peking Opera Performing Centre (http://www.tianchan.com/) at Fuzhou Lu, Shanghai. It is highly recommended by Ms. Cai. I may check it out on of my free weekends.

The Bund

The famous Shanghai Bund or Wai Tan (in Chinese) is located along the Huangpu River (黄浦江). Across of it is the newly develop suburb, known as Pudong （浦东）. This is where the famous Pearl Tower and Jingmao Plaza (one of the world's tallest building that took over that position from our Malaysia's Petronas Twin Tower a few years back).

I captured some nice photos during a visit to The Bund with my friend, Kim Huat & family members. Unfortunately it was drizzling lightly and the wind was too strong for us to stay longer. I only managed to catch some photos and hope you like these night views of The Bund. It reminds me of Frances Yip's Shanghai Beach hit (上海滩)....Long pan, long lau........la la la....

The Beauty of Shanghai

I captured some lovely photos of Shanghai's night scenes recently.

What makes Shanghai beautiful? It's lights, lights and more lights!! Check out the photos enclosed, and I bet you would agree with me.

The photos above are taken at PuXin Jie, the famous pedestrian street at Nanjing Xi Lu. On weekends, residents of Shanghai would flock here. They shop, feast and also sit along the benches people-watching ~ which is also my fave activity here!

What I do during my free time in Shanghai

Friends always ask what do I do during my free time. Just to give you a glimpse of my activities of what keep me occupied, here are some pixs to tell you more!

Apart from celebrating festive ocassions with my colleagues in Shanghai, as seen here ~ where we had steamboat on X'mas Day ~ which was a working day for us!!

I also take the opportunity to visit some local tourist sites. For instance on New Year Day (2007), with a colleague, Fui Mang (a fellow Malaysian), we joined a local tour to visit Zhou Zhuang. It is a water village located in Kunshan. About 1 hour away from Shanghai.

Seen in the photo on the left with some local Ah Yi's and didn't hesitate to make them agreed to a photo session with me!! Aren't they cute?

The best way to get to know colleagues in the office is to give them avenue to let their hair down! Where else but the local karaoke!!! We head down to karaoke as a farewell get-together for Fui Mang, my predecessor. She was returning to Malaysia (JB) to join her hubby. Seen in the photo below with Fui Mang and Mandy in People's Square's Haoledi Karaoke on Jan 5th.

Not forgetting the best of all, is checking out the food in Shanghai! There are many delicious food that can be found here. One of the famous snack is Xiao Long Boa! The most famous one is found in Yu Yuan! As one bite into a Xiao Long Bao, the soup in the dumpling will flow out. It's crucial to be careful or else you will just end up with scalded lips and tongue!

My favourite place in Shanghai now is Yu Yuan. This place has ancient looking Chinese architecture. It's a famous tourist spot in Shanghai. On weekends, it's hard to catch a cab to go home! I love it most during Spring Festival when the whole place is lit-up with lanterns and red decors!

Yu Yuan is close to Chen Hua Miao, the wholesale market. I like going there to buy gifts for my nieces and nephews! A good place to check out if one is looking for a present!

These sum up what I have been up to during my 3-month stay in Shanghai! I hope to see more places and experience more adventures as days go by! Looking forward to the Chap Goh Mei celebration here, which will be on Sunday!!