Dear 2009/11 cohort,
While my classmates cover the logistics of moving to Shanghai, talk about managing/overcoming culture shock, and generally share their vast wisdom and life experiences with you, my one-track mind has me blogging about:
“The food,
Once again, food
Fabulous food,
Glorious food!”
Yeah. These are the real reasons you are coming to Shanghai:
1) Xiaolongbao (小龙包).
Fancy restaurant dumplings.
Shanghai’s famous soup dumplings, usually pork-filled (my favourite is the seafood/crab variation). This is how my housemate has taught me to eat them - gently pick up dumpling with chopsticks, place dumpling on spoon, pierce skin of dumpling with chopsticks and pick it up again, let soup/dumpling juice drip into spoon, sip soup, eat dumpling, sigh with joy. If you are particularly hungry/greedy you can also stuff the whole dumpling into your mouth and risk getting burnt.
Street dumplings. A whoppin’ RMB 3.50 (£0.31) for 8 dumplings.
(If your chopstick skills are quite shoddy, please remedy this before heading to Shanghai - a friend of mine clumsily grabbed her dumpling with her chopsticks, prematurely piercing through the skin as it made its way to her bowl, thus wasting that glorious soup by dribbling it all over the table. NOT amused.)
2) Hairy crabs (毛蟹).
RMB 10 (£0.90) per crab. Increase in cholesterol level, here I come.
October is a great time to be in Shanghai, since it’s hairy crab season (mid-autumn till early winter). The chilly change in weather causes the little critters to get a bit lazier, fatten up, and produce more delicious roe. Crab-eating has become a city-wide sport - every time I meet up with a Shanghainese friend, we exchange details of how many hairy crabs we last had the privilege of eating, and the manner in which we devour them (”I pull off all the legs first, suck the roe, bite into the body!” “No, save the best for last, legs first, then claw, then body!”). My heart bleeds for those allergic to shellfish.
3) Other stuff.
Like stewed duck noodles.
And baiji (steamed chicken).
And a lot more I need to remember to photograph.
Anyway, all the best settling into London and the LSE!
P.S. Two food recommendations for your time in London - New World, 1 Gerrard Place, Chinatown, for old-fashioned trolley service dim sum, and Raavi Kebab, 125 Drummond Street for the best Indian food in London (credit to some Passfield Hall girls for discovering it).
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Happiness.