Japan, September 2014
Ah, Japan. The place I've wanted to go to ever since discovering the world of anime. What an amazing place, and I'd actually say I enjoyed it the most on my trip, probably because I had the least expectations for it. I should figure out how to eliminate expectations for everything that I want to do, because it works wonders.I was pretty delirious from having been awake since morning in London, then getting only a few hours sleep on the plane because I was enjoying the in-flight entertainment too much and its manga feature plus some space pirate movie which was pretty awful, and then spending nearly a full day exploring Tokyo again. (Did I mention there was reindeer meat in the form of a sandwich on the Finnish leg of our flight? There wasn't much actual meat I think, so I couldn't taste it at all)
The second day was much better since I'd actually gotten decent sleep, and went to Odaiba, where there was a massive Gundam statue outside that evceryone was taking pictures of. I didn't realise just how big Gundam is until I learned there are Gundam cafes everywhere (and by everywhere I was aware of two).
Godzilla is also a thing, with a statue sitting happily in the middle of a square.
Our first real part of exploration was the Miraikan, or Future Museum. There were some pretty interesting things going on there, such as a mini petting zoo with lizards, lambs, rabbits, monkeys and a toucan. There was also a poop exhibit that was an "only in Japan" moment for me, however it was classed as a premium exhibit which doubled the cost of an entry ticket, so we didn't go. Considering I don't have particular interest in museums, I'm glad I didn't spend as I pretty much ran out of money at the end of the trip.The Miraikan is a very cool museum, featuring a nixie tube, a simplified demonstration of how the internet works, a massive revolving earth which had different display settings, stuff, and tardigrades! I was actually impressed that they'd feature such a nigh indestructible creature that'd I'd recently learned about. I think they are the answer to the time-space-end-of-the-universe conundrum (if there even is such a thing), even though they're not the prettiest things. It was definitely worth a visit.
There was also a mexican festival along one of the main walkways, and I was highly tempted to get shaved ice, but I decided not to. What really surprised me though, was that at the end, I saw what I thought was the statue of liberty! It was an amazing sight and I totally wasn't expecting it.
It was even prettier at night when the lights went up and she was awash in the glory and brightness. Or something like that.
Wandering around the Diver City complex also lead us to an evening show with a monkey. I wasn't particularly surprised, though I questioned the simple leash around its neck. That being said, I couldn't help but think that the monkey was judging us and wondering why we were getting it to do such tedious and simple tasks such as leaping large distances, walking on its hands and jumping around on a pogo stick.
I felt very lucky to have witnessed a traditional Japanese wedding while visiting the Meiji shrine. I don't think I ever knew exactly what one was like, but it was super cool because there was a Western guy. Yes, that makes it cool for me. Also, I loved the umbrella man. I can't believe I've actually now seen an umbrella man in real life. How epic would it be to say that your job is to hold umbrellas for people!
Hello Harajuku! What a crowded busy street, and what a shame I never actually got to eat a crepe from here. I did decide that I would try some clothes on from here - mainly for the loli/goth factor but it turns out that one size does not fit all! So I gave up on my quest to obtain more obscure clothing. Instead, it was time to hunt for coffee.
So I may or may not hold a few baristas in very high regard, so much so I'd call them my idols. After a bit of twitter stalking, managed to get a few cafes on my list. This one is Nozy Coffee, an espresso based cafe that has a really cool setup - grinders and machines on opposite sides of a large oval-ish bench. It was pretty awesome though I'm not particularly sure about their preference for service espresso in all kinds of different glasses, for example, my brother's Colombian was served in a flute. It was pretty tasty and they even had "New York Rings" - cronuts! I still preferred the ones from Shanghai though - they were pretty awesome!
What's Japan without random shriney things from happening!
Of course, we had to visit a cat cafe. There was also an opportunity to visit an owl and parrot cafe, but we decided not to go. So cats it was! They were pretty awesome, and a couple of them kept trying to sniff one of my brother's cameras - possibly because of how many smells had accumulated on it. Cats seem to be rather cautious of me, not sure why though. Still, they were pretty cute, especially when one went to sit in a glass bowl, another went rampaging on a run around the room, and one was terrified of a toy of the sun. It was also pretty much full of tourists when we visited, rather than locals.
One of the days we were in Tokyo also coincided with a public holiday, so our quest to see some plastic food shops didn't go as planned. However, we did end up visiting a very cool cafe. This one was called Bridge Cafe, designed by Sturdy Style. They made an amazing Yirgacheffe pourover and had a super tasty espresso too. It was an interesting concept and similar yet different from all the garage cafes in Sydney and Melbourne. They had office spaces at the back and upstairs full of architecture stuff, and they had some pretty interesting magazines too. It wasn't on the list I'd compiled, but I'd definitely recommend it.
Asakusa is quite old fashioned, in a good way. Full of stalls and people, with a shrine at the end of the street, it was a fun place to walk past and see all the different stores. It's also a pretty vast place when you're actually traversing all the side streets too. It was here that I got to eat a curry bread, and also sample some taiyaki!
Street theatre with crossover! How awesome! Even though I had no idea what was going on, it was absolutely hilarious and we even saw Frieza evolve!
What's a trip to an Asian country without taking pictures of koi!
This was a pretty interesting skyline, with the Skytree and Asahi building side by side. And that weird gold wiggly thing!!
Ah anmitsu, my favourite Japanese dessert! Managed to have some, but I was weirded out by the salted beans because I've never had them in Sydney before. I also didn't realise how much clear, flavourless jelly there'd be, since I've only previously had ones with small amounts of jelly. Overall I still enjoyed it, and that mochi! One day I may try and make my own!
The famous tuna auctions. I had a bout of insomnia for the first time ever, which was both annoying and fortuitous as I had a 3:30AM start to line up to view the auctions. I didn't realise until after we sat down in a little room, that the viewings didn't start until 5:25! But they only let 120 people view it per day, and at 4AM the second group of 60 people was almost complete. Waiting in line sure was tiresome! Travelling through the busy driveways when it was finally time, was quite an experience of motorised carts whizzing past. We were confined to a small area to watch the auctions, and it was hard to tell what was going on except that several auctioneers would yell at once and they all kind of sang to differentiate themselves.
All the random tuna thawing out ever so slowly and looking sad about it!
After watching the auctions, we lined up at Daiwa Sushi for breakfast. There was already a half hour wait at 6AM in the morning for this place, which is pretty crazy. The food inside was delicious though! Now I know why my brother loves sea urchin, as we had some here and it was so fresh and creamy. The style of food here is "omakase" which is basically the chef's selection. Good thing it's my favourite way of being served food! The toro was also amazing and it's true that Japan is indeed the best place for sushi. Apart from the 7 piece omakase, it was also possible to order a la carte, so my brother had another toro and sea urchin, and I opted for the scallop, of course. It means I can now claim this as the most expensive breakfast I've ever had, at about 4800 yen per person.
After breakfast, it was a stroll through Tsukiji fish markets, where there were several speeding cart-things and a lot of bits of fish. There was plenty of tuna, river eels, cephalopods and molluscs - I've never seen so much shellfish in my life. Lots of sand crabs and sand lobsters too. I was pretty interested in how they killed the fish too - that needle in the head thing - it's awesome and supposed to be painless. I really wished that I lived here so that I could take part in buying, preparing and cooking all this wonderful produce!
Apparently this is a thing called the Shibuya scramble? Basically that famous crossing or something. Watching the people go is pretty awesome, especially in the only Starbucks worth going to in Tokyo. Good thing we did, because Asians are awesome at making tasty pudding drinks - the caramel pudding frappuccino was so good!
As our uncle was free, we got the opportunity to visit Mt. Fuji. It wasn't as far out from the city as I thought, but then again we got lost a few times so I don't know how long it actually took. Getting lost was also serendipitous because we came across a beautiful shrine. The place was so green from both leaves and moss and so beautiful that I really wished I already had a figurine so I could go taking really cute pictures!
We didn't manage to pick a particularly great day to go, as there was a lot of fog and cloud, and visibility got really low at times as we were walking around, which in itself was a surreal experience as it felt like we were in our own little bubble world, all quiet and misty. I also finally got to order oden, and this is where I discovered that when I had egg in my soba, it was raw! Since I wasn't expecting raw egg, I had incorrectly been concluding I had some sort of 62 degree egg and couldn't figure out where all the white was, and assumed that it had mixed in with the noodles and broth. There was also a gift shop that sold Mt. Fuji air in cans, which was hilarious to see.
What a cute little fortune telling dancing dragon thing! The way it moved actually reminded me of the robot from the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, which I had always wanted to challenge to a dancing competition but never managed to because someone else was always playing with it.
Finally the fog cleared, and we could see the top by the time we'd driven back down. It was also weird since it was summer and therefore not snowcapped, but still distinctive and pretty!
Second last day, and it was time for one last overseas coffee crawl. First stop, Switch Coffee, which was a tiny little shop tucked away in a little residential street, so much so that I was convinced I had the wrong place and that Google was wrong, until I stood in front of the cute little light blue wall. Costa Rica Los Lajas was my filter of choice, while my brother ordered an espresso tonic which was an amazing and delicious concept.My brother did ask if I knew if any of the cafes on my list served food, and my default response was always to assume there was only coffee sold - and I was correct. So breakfast ended up being at a ramen place, which claimed to be famous for its backfat. What does that mean? You get to choose the level of fat in your broth! This was an amazing idea so I ordered mine with extra fat, and that was delicious.
Next stop, Onibus. Another tiny cute little place with a bright red roaster at the door! Plus you can see the London coffee guide sitting next to one of their grinders, and a coffee poster in the background! This was a really cool place and we were lucky that the barista in the picture here spoke English, so we had a little conversation going and again, what a small world - first the waiter in City Social who used to work at Rockpool, and now a roaster who spent a couple of months in Newtown at a cafe called Papercup! I absolutely love travelling and talking to people for this reason. He let us know that the owner of Onibus had opened up two other places that we could visit - but alas we were out of time! Yet another reason to go back to Japan after this.I personally loved watching this guy roasting away, and I finally saw the entire process from start to finish. It was fascinating seeing the beans go from green to brown, and that cracking process sounded a lot like popcorn. It's something I would love to learn more about, but first, I have to start being a barista and learning about coffee.
And here is the other awesome barista who was there making our pourovers.
Oh you delicious and gorgeous looking sauri pike. Oooh yes! Our last day, we may have possibly made a bad decision to attempt to visit Sushi Dai at 8AM in the morning, because we ended up queueing for four hours! The queue was long enough that my brother was able to buy a suitcase, pack the final bits of stuff for our departure, and check out of the hotel. I can't believe that people would line up for a single sushi store like this, but once you get in, it's amazing and you forget how long you've spent in line. The chefs are super cheery, friendly and polite. We also got there just when a new giant scallop was being opened which was quite the sight! Again, what a delicious set of sushi, some similar, and some different from Daiwa sushi. I loved the sanma and chose scallop as my sushi of choice, and here I also got asked what level of wasabi I preferred, which saved me from wasabi shock. I was very impressed.If going here, I'd definitely recommend queueing as early as possible; it's totally worth a two hour wait, but four hours is definitely a stretch!
The last few hours were spent in Akihabara while I agonised over the figurine(s) I should get before I left. I can't believe that we came here three times in a single trip and there was still more to see! I had to restrain myself and not get everything in sight that was pretty. There was a lot of Fate Zero merchandise that I wanted - and while I really love the show, I didn't feel I had to buy everything from it. Except that Saber on a Bike figurine. Oh wow that was amazing and I really really really wanted it, but it wouldn't have fit in my luggage and would have taken the last of my money. Instead, I was super happy in finally getting my hands on a Gilgamesh nendoroid who I can now take along with me for photography cuteness! Yes, I'm going to become one of them.Other fun things involved sampling "every flavour ice cream," including basil, sea urchin, eel, crab, roasted tea, miso ramen, and yuzu at Namjatown, and trying out canned ramen from a vending machine. Wow, that was weird! I think they used potato starch noodles to stop it from going mushy and it comes out kind of lukewarm. Probably not going to try that one again!I definitely have to revisit Japan for the cafes, Yoyogi park (which was closed to due a mosquito related disease outbreak), Skytree (it was so unfortunate that I hadn't had the time to visit!), the Ghibli museum and a Pokemon centre. And possibly a lot more that I don't remember. I'd also love to learn some Japanese so I knew what I was doing half the time, but that was actually the charm of this visit. The first day or so was daunting, but after that, I loved being able to do anything and taking a chance at pointing and choosing random things on menus without knowing what it was. The people could also speak enough english that exploration wasn't prohibitive at all - in fact I saw the appeal in buying things from convenience stores too, because they are so convenient! Plus there are vending machines on every street with all sorts of drinks so it was easy to stay hydrated!I can't wait to come back!
My REM hacked my memory
I've always wondered how my dreams work because I get some weird ones - not just in terms of what happens but also the timing. I've had crazy dreams where I've had part 2 before part 1, and episodic dreams. They're pretty amazing if somewhat trippy.So last night I had this great one where I was at a set of markets, where there were all sorts of stalls, but there were three distinct ones that I interacted with - a stall where I bought a pastry and promptly lost it, which was a reference to the handmade croissant I left behind on my trip back to Adelaide from Sydney; a portuguese tart stall which had custard in a bucket and would put the custard in as you ordered and they had a special that was 3 for $4, and in my dream I knew it was a good deal but didn't get one; and lastly a pastry stall that I bought another pastry from to replace the first.As I was walking I entered a watch shop, where I was acquainted with the watchmaker from a past dream - though I can't actually be certain that it was truly from a past dream. In my dream I remember it being a real past dream, but I'm not so sure. Looking for a watch, I initially tried on a silver one, but I didn't really like it, so I asked for another. I wanted something more elegant, so out came an Omega, a rose gold watch, and at the time it reminded me of the one that Nicole Kidman modelled. Full of rose gold, with diamonds to indicate the hours. However, I didn't like the colour against my skin, even though it was a very pretty watch.At the end I asked for the price, at which point he jokingly said $9. I knew it was in the thousands, so I asked if it was 10, and the answer was yes. That's when I said I couldn't afford it, but that I'd come back for a watch one day - a watch that would capture my heart. He seemed to understand.And with that, I gathered the pastry crumbs that I'd spilt while trying on the watches and walked off.The end!
London, September 2014
Oh wow, London. This is going to be a massive post with a lot of pictures!I've been tempted to go to London for a while now, but New York is still the place I want to visit the most. I took advantage of the fact that I was going to be in Shanghai to travel through the Northern hemisphere, and managed to get a very beautiful stopover at Helsinki too - a place that's a little bit of an in-joke with my friend from a radio play called Cabin Pressure, but also because I think Finland is a cool place - and the view from the plane is certainly pristine and amazing!
I guess I start at Hyde Park - the first place we walked through as it was near where we stayed. I absolutely love the royal gardens here, and it's a bonus when the birds aren't afraid of people, so I could get fairly close them and take all the pretty photos.
Workshop in Clerkenwell is a full fledged cafe, with a very nice food menu. I couldn't resist trying out the smoked salmon, avocado, wasabi mayo, ginger and seaweed dish. I did find it odd that it didn't default with bread, but the waitress did ask, and having just come from China where everything is overcooked and mushy, I decided to go granary, and then executed my pseudo plating skills to place it on the bread. I kept getting asked at regular intervals if I needed butter or jam to go with the bread, but I kept declining, to the point where I was eating plain bread, but I was loving it - not having had good bread in two weeks meant it tasted so good!
SQUIRREL
My brother could spot squirrels from far away, and I could barely find them when he did! I had managed to find a couple of squirrels in a trip to America a few years back, but here there were plenty! And some of them will even approach you if you have nuts for them, but they notice pretty quickly if you don't have anything at all.
Walking around lead me to a place called the Horse Guard's Parade, which is a parade that happens, but I had gotten there too late and there was only a trail of poop. However, there were still two horses stationed at one of the entrances so I took a photo.
Famous landmarks of London city. I really love Picadilly Circus, mainly because Whole Foods Market is there - which I was very happy to discover. I visited there many times for my coconut water hydration! I'd say it's my favourite supermarket in the world, but I'm not sure it's a valid statement. Also, I loved how close Picadilly and Oxford are - though I did accidentally spend too much money when I saw people walking around with Liberty bags, and that's when I decided it was time to pay a visit to a store I knew I'd love - mainly because all the shirts I get are Liberty prints, so I knew their branded products would be both pricey and gorgeous. Came out just under 600 pounds poorer with a really nice bag, wallet, earrings and scarf.
Baker Street was relatively empty, so a visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum was warranted. We also had a pit stop at Monocle Cafe - which was so hipster with a German/Japanese food menu, which was pretty interesting. My brother was quite interested in the layout/design of the cafe too, with its two levels and small rooms where it looked like you could have a business meeting over coffee. Ah how nice it would be to have meetings like that all the time!
Ah, I gravitate towards Death because he is so pretty (pun intended)! There are a whole row of these buskers as all different characters here, but Death was my favourite. I think the way these are done are really cool and wish there were some in Australia too.
And back to talking about food. On a trip to Riding House Cafe, my brother and I got separated at Oxford Circus station - very awkward when he didn't exactly have a working phone service in one of the busiest places in London - plus I was the one leading the way! It turns out I had followed the Way Out sign and reached exits 1, 2, 3, 4, and my brother had used the 5, 6, 7, 8 exit. Luckily, being awesome siblings, I knew my brother would probably find a wireless spot, and we were once again reunited. After a very busy service for breakfast at Riding House, we ducked over to the cafe across the street - Kaffeine! And it turned out to be one of my favourites. They offered a fantastic tasting plate of espresso and flat white, with a very unique palate cleanser - cascara and earl grey blend. Wow, everything about this was just so awesome. That espresso was so good, bright and sweet, and the cleanser was perfect, the cascara complementing the coffee and the tea just gave it that extra layer of flavour. Then that flat white - it was so sweet I almost thought there was sugar added, even though there wasn't! I've actually never had a flat white that sweet before in my memory. I don't know how they did it but it was amazing!And those portuguese tarts. Wow... those were the best I've ever had! That pastry was so good and that custard! Mmmmm. In fact, it wasn't till I came back to Adelaide that my barista asked me if I'd had the tarts - looks like I made a good choice to sample one! I would go back to London for this cafe and the Liberty shop alone.
We spent almost an entire day in Greenwich and explored the area of Cutty Sark, and I'm glad to say I managed to use the Underground, DLR, bus and taxi during my stay! The DLR was pretty cool because it's a fully automated system; driver optional. It kind of felt like a roller coaster at times due to the shakiness, but it was certainly fun to be able to stand at the front of the carriage and just watch the tracks.
Another day, another cafe - this time to Prufrock! I actually got there right on opening and was waiting for my brother, at which point one of the staff asked me if I was there for the espresso class. Alas, I had to say no! I would have loved to do a coffee course while in London, but exploration was my number one priority. A lot of cafes here offer the espresso flight - black and white, and my brother was lucky enough to get a super fancy latte art! I learned that the owner is actually not a big fan of art, so we were lucky to get a super pretty pour.
Workshop, Fitzrovia gets a special mention as it's the newest of the four Workshops, and also because it is so elegant and features Madagascan granite! I didn't realise how pretty granite could be until I saw this. The whole place is just so classy looking that it's amazing; each Workshop has a very different feel. This was one where I felt like royalty because of the way it was designed. I also took the opportunity to sample their almond croissant - which was massive and oh so tasty!
During our stay we made several visits back to Oxford Circus, mainly because it was always near us, and also because public toilets were hard to find and cost money - but they were also better maintained than Australian toilets so I was happy to pay the 20 - 50p required to use them - so the guaranteed toilet access I had was at Liberty! As a result, we ended up visiting, and revisiting a pretty cool burger shop called Carnaby Burger Co. We had the tasting plate, burgers, ribs and steak. My brother took great joy in devouring wet chips.
The last of the Workshops, this time in Holborn. This was larger, but a simpler design than the other small cafes, with a double counter. I also noticed that each branch uses a different colour for their cups, which is pretty cute. Some really tasty espresso and milk coffees here too!
And who doesn't go to at least one Jamie Oliver restaurant while in London. I was forewarned that it was hard to find good food in London, and food that was good was expensive, though the cost of food was never really any reason for me not to eat anywhere. When we needed food, Jamie Oliver restaurants were great in a pinch - and I had no need to visit his Italian restaurant. Instead, we went to his Dino Diner and Union Jacks. Fish and chips are pretty tasty here, and I love that they come with mushy peas! I love pea mush.
No trip to a new city is complete without visiting tall buildings, so not only was there a visit to City Social, but also the Shard! The gift shop wasn't so flash but the view was pretty cool - especially because we had a full moon that night too.
Right, apart from just pictures of the top of the Shard from inside the Shard itself... here are the pretty shots of the city!
I decided to also pay a trip to Canary Wharf - mainly because all that runs through my head is "the battle of Canary Wharf" from Doctor Who - and I don't even remember the details! While there wasn't too much there to see, I did get this very nice shot of the Shard.
Reflective water is pretty cool too!
Towards the end of my stay, I managed finally duck into Lyle's, a new restaurant that had opened and I was curious to try it. Had some beautifully cooked quail, chanterelles and crab apple jelly; chicken of the woods (a mushroom); and apple sorbet. I liked the fact that the sorbet came with a shard of elderflower vinegar meringue - which tasted delicious and made the dish look pretty.
And here's a nice reflective building!Now for the text dump, for everything that didn't have an accompanying photo. First of all, a trip to London is never complete without a visit to one of Heston's restuarant - in this case, Dinner, at #5 in the San Pellegrino top 50 restaurants of the world.City Social is another one worth visiting - for the views and the food. And some crazy rare wine like a 1996 Chateau d'Yquem that I didn't actually order because I chose a Chardonnay from Burgundy instead.In my wonderful ways of exploration, I also managed to stumble upon Martin Freeman starring in Richard III, and I pretty much payed through the nose to get premium seats to watch the adorable little man in action. What an intense play, but I'm glad I got to see it, as my only prior experience of Richard III was back in high school, at the back of the theatre, all dark and unable to see or hear anything and on the verge of falling asleep. It was a requirement for me to see a play while in London, and I felt very lucky to have had this particular experience!On the topic of live performances, another afternoon was spent watching Book of Mormon - which was the most hilarious and inappropriate musical I've ever seen! It was highly entertaining and so different from the seriousness and intensity of our previous theatre experience. I enjoyed attending these things so much that if I had the funds, I'd make it a regular occurrence.A standout of the Underground was how organised it was - I absolutely loved how efficient and orderly people were when commuting - the whole "stand on the right" works really well, and the fast lane is beautiful on the escalators. On weekends the efficiency dropped a little, but it was still better than every other city I'd visited so far. In addition, each station was very unique and some of the designs are pretty epic. One exited into a massive glass buildings, others into quaint courtyards. Then there was Westminster, an epic station that for some reason reminded me of the Prometheus from Stargate, even though it probably looked nothing alike, but that's the memory it invoked for me. Another was Waterloo station, which reminded me of the Tardis.If I thought China had gaudy, over the top stuff, then London has set a new benchmark via Harrod's. Oh wow, it stocks the most hideously, filthily expensive shinies I've ever seen! The food hall was pretty epic as well, and all that caviar was so tempting to try! My barista was right in telling me to pay a visit.There are definitely a lot of museums that I still need to see, but with the ones I did visit, the Hall of Enlightenment in the British Museum was beautiful - all library like. The way the hall is set up is amazing, and felt like the most epic library that I could live in. Now I know how my friend feels about museums and why she loves them so much!Overall it was a fantastic experience and I'd love to visit again, to go to places like Cardiff, mainly to see if there's anything being filmed there. I'd definitely revisit Kaffeine and a lot of other cafes that I skipped over from my list, and definitely revisiting Lyle's, and any other place that takes my fancy. Funnily enough, I'd also bring fancier clothes because I felt so underdressed amongst all the suits in the city. Then I might summon the courage to enter a shop in Savile Row too.But for now it was off to Japan!
China, August 2014
I keep telling myself I'll never go back to China, but family matters always come up and I inevitably revisit. I'd consider my expectations of the place to be so low that I really shouldn't be disappointed, but alas, but I've actually increased the amount of spoiledness (I know that isn't a word) from polite, Western society that I continue to be surprised.
Obligatory lobster shot from one of the first days in Shanghai when we celebrated my grandfather's birthday. I'd forgotten that important events were held in private rooms, with massive tables with massive lazy susans, and way too shiny. I even surprised myself when I realised the first thought I had was, "how come we can't see the kitchen and the chefs" and realised that for the last few years, I've been used to too much fine dining. The next thought I still recall is when the food came out, and I asked, partly to myself and partly to my brother, "oh, we don't get our plates cleared or new cutlery?" Welcome to real life! I felt so out of place and awkward!
There was also a lot of cemetery visiting, so what do I do on the first visit but run off at the sound of a cat meowing - and managed to get this picture! At which point I figured I'd start a small project to take pictures of all the cats in Shanghai - mainly inspired from my brother's time overseas where he also took pictures of cats. He'd unintentionally started a trend!
With the amount of restaurants we were visiting, I found that my happiest food moments were from cheap street food. 1 yuan pork and vegetable buns were tastier than most restaurant food - which remained too oily and poorly prepared. It was stuff like the 6 yuan bowl of beef noodles that I wanted to have every night. This place was cheap and tasty, and they even had a variation using spatzle! Well, that's what I called it because of an episode of Masterchef where Gary cheated by scraping the dough off a board, which is exactly how my mum described the version of noodles here.My mum had actually chided me for wanting to visit expensive restaurants and Western restaurants, and though I kept reinforcing the fact that I simply like tasty food and don't actually have a need for particularly high end places, I don't think she actually believed me until I kept talking about the buns and noodles - which my parent's weren't particularly fond of. That being said, I did get the opportunity to try out Commune Social which was an interesting experience.
Obligatory lost in translation picture :)
Due to our length of stay, we managed to visit Hangzhou and all its natural beauty. It was a nice break from Shanghai and the taxi drivers here were really helpful with telling us of places worth visiting. The fares are also a lot cheaper!
Again, the food from stalls was tasty, though we had some Hangzhou cuisine too, including a water-plant vegetable soup that was too gooey even for me, and some great chicken and fish.
Finally we had some free time, so I started going to a few cafes that I'd spotted in the first week. It was actually a bit of a challenge - while there are plenty of chains, a Starbucks and Costa's around every corner, the specialty ones were still tucked away. Luckily, hipster places give off a specific hipster vibe so it became easier to look for cafes the more we looked. This one was my favourite, a place called Essence Cafe in Xintiandi. They had a great selection of single origins that had great flavour, very clean and refreshing. I'd spotted it for their giant "SCAA" sign and figured that gives me the right to hold some sort of expectation about their coffee, and I wasn't disappointed! For 50 yuan, a single origin was provided both hot and cold. There were other cafes we visited - but their filter coffees came out too dark and one that the almighty Google gave as "the best" was actually one of my least favourite coffee experiences. The language barrier didn't help as I was unable to then ask and clarify any details and find out more about how they roast their coffee.
We also found a cafe called Woody Baker that makes some pretty awesome cronuts! They bake them fresh regularly throughout the day, as we were advised of a 20 minute wait, but when you get them, they are warm and oozing custard and oh so delicious! I've only had cro-pastries from a handful of places in Sydney/Adelaide, and wow these ones are way up there!
Cat spam! Because cats belong on the internet. Plus, Boss Cat is actually Demon Cat, as he revealed to us on our final day.Overall, China is a lot less messy, dirty and noisy than it was before, to the point where I'd possibly consider a return visit, but I have plenty of other places to see in the meantime!
Backlog >>> futurelog
So it turns out that returning from epic adventures has resulted in a backlog, giving me plenty to do till the end of the year.I NEED TO BLOG AND DRAW AND READ AND WATCH THINGS