Spicy Scallop Soup

There's a lot to see in Shanghai. But it's hard to show it to others without a camera, and mine is in Canada. So this afternoon I took a field trip into buying electronics in China.



My Chinese source recommended taking Metro Line 1 to Xujiahui, an area with gazillions of electronics places. However said source also told me to go to Best Buy, a big ole Western chain instead of one of the myriad Chinese chains or independent places - perhaps trying to spare me having to haggle. I don't mind haggling, but I have had some bad experiences buying dodgy goods, so...Best Buy it is.

Cameras weren't as cheap as I was hoping, and I had the sinking feeling that I could have gotten a better deal out in the wilds of Xujiahui - but whatever, I came out of Best Buy with a camera, SD card, USB key and 250GB external drive. Hopefully I will take enough pictures to justify all this storage.

This mission accomplished, I looked for something to eat and found Ajisen Ramen, a Japanese looking place down the street. It was busy but they put me at the counter. In Shanghai it always seems that the waiter will hand you the menu then wait while you look at it - I suppose this is good service but it makes me nervous. I tried out some newly learned Chinese - "dong yi xia" - supposedly this is "wait a second". He didn't seem to understand me (which is pretty common!). After looking this one up at home it seems I was probably saying "west a second"...so no wonder. "deng yi xia" (等一下) seems more like what I wanted to say. This is the danger of learning Chinese verbally from people, it's so easy to mess up. Quite often I do get people to spell or write it for me, but of course not everyone can spell correctly, especially other Westerners!



Next to order a drink. Tea seems like a good idea and this word I know - "cha" (茶). However still a blank look. Ok, plan B (as always) is English and of course he does know what "tea" means. He shows me the page of tea selections....without much time to look I order "mint and lemon green tea" for 元15. This seems like an awful lot (though its only 2 bucks) but I am not good when someone is looking at me. We manage to communicate that I need a bit of time to consider my options.

The tea when it arrives is actually iced tea - which is good as they give me free hot green tea anyway and it is pretty warm, inside and outside. The ice cubes are of unknown provenance (tap....?) which gives me pause but only after having drank half of it. Mint iced tea tastes decidedly odd, kind of like drinking a glass of wintergreen gum.

The selection of noodle dishes look really good - beef, tofu, pork, various seafood combinations. I decide on spicy scallop soup, with only one red chili bean marker it's probably something I can handle.

Oddly enough the bill comes now, before the food has arrived. This confuses me slightly and I wonder if I'm being charged for someone else's meal (the place is really busy and the person giving the bill is not the waiter) - however figuring this out is likely to be a huge hassle so I just pay. For some reason I find myself giving money to people on faith like this quite often - it hasn't failed to work out yet but likely has to end in disaster eventually.


The soup arrives - quite hot and very good. It has a coconut flavoured broth with red chilies and green onions and comes with a cool big wooden spoon. The tea and noodles come to 元44 (C$6.50 or so) - not too bad.


On the way home at the subway stop there are a bunch of Chinese skateboarders. Its now just comfortably warm instead of cloyingly sticky - a nice night to hang out.



Chinese Word of the Post
水 shuǐ - water.

Context While pointing at a bottle of water and saying "water" in the ramen joint a helpful English-speaker beside me tells me the word. However the waiter still doesn't bring any. I had known this character meant water but for some reason had forgotten the pronunciation.