Gary Soup

I've heard good things about this place from other sources but have never been there. Maybe it's either not old enough or too upscale for my wife/guide ($10 per head, YOW!) But I'll lean on her next trip over. For anybody looking for it in Chinese, it's: Old Shanghai Moon 老夜上海 1F, 59 Maoming Nan Lu (by Changle Lu) 中文 茂名南路59号锦江饭店北楼底层(近长乐路) The Chinese name is actually Old Shanghai Night (Lao ye Shanghai), most likely intended to be evocative of the wicked old days of the 1930's/1940's and a reference to the most famous song of the period by the incomparable songstress Zhou Xuan. I think there are a couple of other branches of lao ye shanghai in town and another restaurant just called ye shanghai in the new Xintiandi complex, which I'm sure is even more "upscale". Don't confuse the two!

Like you and Jo-Mel, I have not had any GI difficulties in China in my half-dozen stays there. Of course, I have not ventured far from the Suzhou-Shanghai-Hangzhou axis, though I indulge liberally in all manner of street food and temple fair offerings. BTW, in my one stint in HK, I frequently gorged myself on good, cheap seafood at the "temporary market" by the Temple St. Night Market (I was staying at the Evergreen Hotel on Woosung St., a real per diem-saver, nearby). I also pigged out on seafood on Cheung Chau Island for a song. The best option for old-line Shanghainese food, in case you're interested, was at Wu Kong in Tsim Sha Tsui. If you're in HK a month from now or anytime soon after, it's a good place to get Shanghai "Hairy crab" preparations. The female crabs will be in season, and Wu Kong should have dishes featuring the roe for less that an arm and a leg.

I was there for the first time on Aug. 12 and was mightily impressed (as mentioned in the other thread). I wish you had got a shot of the nicely lined up haricots of different colors so neatly lined up in small groupings. I visited Hamel (of course) but I liked the wider selection of aged cheddars (which I happen to be partial to) at a shop on the west side of the market (next to the sausage place, I think). I grew up along the St. Lawrence (on the NY side) and love Montreal, though not necessarily in the winter). I've lived in California for forty-some years, where we can get fresh produce year-round. Unfortunately, the bulk of it is utterly tasteless.

Curtido, I think. It's "slaw" to me.

Charles happens to be the owner, so I guess that WOULD be news. He and Nam may be related, since Charles hires a lot of his relatives.

Noodles with a gravy consistency? Can you elaborate on that?

I perceive that most of the unreasoning emotion has been displayed by the proponents of FG, but then you have your own filter. I think that the vast majority of people find foie gras so remote from their lives thet if there is the slightest hint of there being something unsavory (so to speak) about foie gras it might as well as be banned. That's enlightened disinterest, not emotion. The most dispassionate discussion of foie gras I have encountered was in the EU white paper I cited upthread, and although it had mixed conclusions, it certainly wasn't an exoneration of the practice. I think the operative principle is "When in doubt, through it out."

I am in San Francisco. I was in NY two weeks ago for two days visiting my daughter, and didn't get a chance to go to China 46. I get to China every year or two. I'll probably go in October for a couple of weeks. After I retire I will spend a lot of time in China (we own a comfortable apartment in Shanghai).

Opps, I thought you were a female Qing from the name. Then Jo-mel kicked me under the table and I looked at your post again and realized that there was a Connie to be accounted for in the picture....

I thnik they typically run around 8 lbs., enough to tire out my arms after a while. I think I'd just get a jumbo-size George Foreman rotisserie.

You must be a youngster, Liuzhou. I think it was under 6 RMB per dollar in 1992 when I first started going to China. In those days, actually, foreigners could only buy "FEC", not real RMB, legally, but you could sell them at a premium on the street for RMB. But what does this have to do with food? It means that you can buy the world's best xiaolong bao for about 7 cents per baozi

The food certainly looks tasty, and I'm sure I can pick you out of the lineup. With prices that high, though, I would think China 46 could afford to have someone make a more attractive menu board! My wife has a niece named Qing Qing, by the way (actually Xiao Qing, after the actress).

The linked "menu" didn't appear to represent any particular restaurant, and it was my impression was that it was a composite or prototype offered as an example of a translation company's work. I took the "monkey head" entry as an attempt at humor, albeit a tasteless one. I don't think the RMB has been that high in 15 years; it would be more like $2.20 now.

The chaozhou (taro) mooncakes seem to be quite popular in Shanghai, but as a carnivore I would choose the Suzhou style, even though they are still a little too sweet for my liking.

Sorry, I may be wrong about the timeline of the EU ban. I had 7 years in mind, but then that may have been the original California proposal. I also have no idea of what kind of teeth the EU panel has. I haven't studied the political aspects of all this very seriously, I just enjoy parrying with people who invest such a sillly (IMHO) matter with life-and-death seriousness. And I'll confess that I DO like thinking that the creatures that will make the ultimate sacrifice for my dining pleasure have been cut a little slack in their brief lives, and not been subject to any more tampering from mad scientists than your run-of-the-mill Olympic medalist.

Relax, you guys will have EIGHT YEARS to stuff enough of the stuff down your gullets to burst your own livers. ("What a way to go!" she wrote.) If not, I'm sure there will be a rogue nation someplace that will provide it (not in the EU, though, so there may be a diminution in cachet).

Relax, it's illegal, so you aren't likely to encounter it, unless you're a filthy rich and depraved businessman with connections. There's a fairly sanitized reference to the notorious monkey brain dish in this article. Even so, it's not for the squeamish. It's the Year of the Monkey, After All. No recipes for Jo-mel, either. BTW, Shanghainese people seem to think that this is what Cantonese people have for dinner every day.

I don't think you want to know what that is.

Jo-mel, the characters are just embedded Unicode, but Qing was creative in her selection of font size and color through the message board's interface.

Joan, since you seem to be in SF a lot, be sure to go to EastWind Books (1435 Stockton) for some serious ogling. Cookbooks in the hundreds, mostly from China, HK and Taiwan, but at least half bilingual. Lots from the Wei-Chuan and Pei Mei series', and many that I have no clue about, but have delectable illustrations.

I don't read cookbooks, but like to look at the pictures (which gives me equal access to the books in Chinese, of course). This one sounds interesting though. From the Publishers Weekly review (cribbed from Amazon's web site): Wok arcana, yeah! For a title, though, you can't top Hugh Carpenter's Wok Fast (and don't look over your shoulder?)

Nice log, Joel. I look forward to seeing your end product. Interesting to see you are a Montrealer. Montreal may be the best food city in North America, not just Canada (Chinese food aside). I made my annual swing through MTL two weeks ago. Next time I'll know who to ask for an insightful assessment of Asian food there.

I recall when I was on loan to our Hong Kong office and wanted to take a trip to Shanghai before returning to San Francisco. I determined it would be about as cheap to fly to Shanghai from San Francisco as from Hong Kong.

Are deep-fried wontons traditional in Cantonese food? My wife never fries them and she considers them peculiar. I've always thought of them as an invention of Chinese-American restaurants, but I've been surprised before..

To be fair, Eastern Bakery is usually jammed with Chinese patrons during the height of the mid-autumn festival. Browniebaker notwithstanding, not many people eat mooncakes year-round, and you won't find many Chinese buying mooncakes at ANY bakery this early. None of the other bakery items from Eastern Bakery have any local repute, and they are probably priced for tourists. EB's location is, after all Chinatown Tourist Central, and it's the first "exotic" noshery that tourists encounter when they wander up Grant from downtown, a reality that EB exploits quite well.