More to come from my Japan trip.

Two day business trip to Wuhan and Beijing. Got a little time with Chairman Mao and the snow.

What they come for is amazing Shanghainese home-cooked food. Excellent Red cooked pork. Great chicken soups. Sweet pork ribs. Vinegar fish. Each of these restaurants (Lan Xin Can Ting, and uh, the one owned by the sister and brother) are very good candidates for favorite Shanghainese restaurant.

But recently, Andrew went to the restaurant down the block, owned by another relative. Hai Jinzi Can Ting And while this place is very good for lots of Shanghainese food, they serve the single best thing I have eaten in Shanghai.

However, first things first. The wait. You have to wait to get in. A while. There’s a phone number (021-62550371) you can call to leave your phone number for a table, but I don’t think its really honored. Just go in and put your phone number at the front and wait. and wait.

Your companion(s) will try to leave. “Oh, Lan Xin is just down the street. So is Southern Barbarian” they’ll whine. Let them whine. Let them leave if they really have to, but you. . . you stay.

Because ahead of you – you have the single best dish I have ever eaten in Shanghai.

Say it with me: Xie Fen Dan (Stupid non-Chinese allowing blog)
That’s crab parts and egg. A simple description, but it won’t prepare you for the perfection of egg, sugar, vinegar and crab parts. Eaten alone or paired with rice, it is true Shanghainese cuisine perfection.

My friends Andrew, Colin and I have started a religion based solely on consumption of this dish. It is that good.

Hai Jinzi Restaurant
240 Jinxian road, near Shaanxi South Road
Luwan District
Shanghai
Per person – about 50 RMB for dinner

Why Yiwu? Good question – apparently this was all very last minute, involving a cancelled tour of Japan, some uncertainty regarding the local promoter and you end up ‘near Hangzhou’ in Yiwu. Where the heck is Yiwu? Well, its about 100 km south of Hangzhou.

Yiwu is famous here in China (and probably among anyone who buys and sources stuff from China) as the world’s best small commodities trading city. There they have a GIANT (and I mean GIANT) commodities market with stall upon stall upon stall upon stall selling plastics doo-dads, paper lanterns, toys, clothes, metals bits, power tools, watches, etc. etc. and there’s lots of etcs.

We took the bullet fast train down to Yiwu from Shanghai in little over 2 hours. The only thing we knew about Yiwu were that because of the presence of the trade markets, there was a large and vibrant Arab community (and Africans) and there were lots of Halal restaurants. So we came for football . . . and lamb.

For our first meal we decided at the Baghdad Restaurant – they didn’t have what I originally ordered, so I ended up with this lamb dish served on soggy bread. It was good . . . for the first 10 minutes. But after a while, it was like slogging through a soggy sandwich at a picnic.

Interesting set of clocks at the restaurant – Dubai, Baghdad and Beijing

After lunch we journeyed to the GIGANTIC Commodities Market and just marveled at the giant amount of crap that is available for purchase for sales in any number of different countries. We all recognized products that were available in your local dollar store or money tree or cost plus or whatever.

The infamous dress shirt vending machine that countless bloggers and media types have covered.

No, we didn’t buy one. 79 RMB – without being able to feel the product? No thanks.

Outside the commodities market, we found this woman selling these egg . . .well, what, cakes? It was an egg, cooked in a hot cup form, with a little bit of pork. It was freaking delicious.

The surprisingly modern Yiwu Meihu Sports Ground hosted that night’s contest between Arsenal and local team Hangzhou Green Town

The local team was unlucky to not score 3 times in the early going, eventually getting one goal off a counter. Arsenal played around with the ball a lot, but only scored in extra time in the first half.

In the second half, the visitors changed off all of their field players and subbed in mainly bench players (except for Jack Wilshire – a regular starter). And the subs played much more aggressively, including Ryu, a 17-year old Japanese phenom. But despite hitting the post several times, the Hangzhou goalkeeper was up to the task, stoning Aresnal several times with solid saves, and even distributing the ball for several dangerous counters from Green Town.

Several Arsenal fans made the trip all the way from London to Kuala Lumpur and Yiwu, as well. Including this very enthusiastic (and loud) woman, as well as this shirtless gentleman with many many Arsenal themed tattoos.

Colin and Jesse post-game

After the game, I broke out in order to walk around the Bin Wang Night Market and try to find myself some more Arabic or Middle Eastern food.

The night market was very similar to any sort of night markets seen in Greater China. Lots of street stalls selling clothing, snacks, noodles, and fruit.

I did spot a Turkish Barber though

After a bowl of noodles and some street snacks, I was still hungry and decided to head back to “Exotic Street” where the middle eastern restaurants were. On my way there, I passed a large amount of Chinese seafood grill sidewalk restaurants – if only I was with more people, I would’ve eaten here. But it is difficult to eat Chinese food for one.

I ended up having lamb with Arabic rice, which was very very tasty (saffron and some other herbs)

I’m not sure I’d ever go back to Yiwu, unless I had a business reason to go there. The Arabic food was good, but honestly, you can get quite a good selection here in Shanghai (and probably elsewhere too). But I’m glad I went. Once.

While I appreciate the message AND I recognize the right of printfection to engage in commerce, I really do rely on gmail and if this gets blocked in China, there will be an angry letter to Messers. Page and Brin.

The redacted words are “rubber-stamp”

I’ve cooked a lot of Italian and Chinese and some Spanish food before, but never had I cooked Thai, despite the fact that I own a Thai cookbook.

So when I had a friend come over for dinner last Sunday, I decided to avail myself of the pretty good selection of Thai sauces and ingredients (including the Thai holy trinity of galangal, keffir lime leaf and lemongrass). Unfortunately, I got into cooking so much, I didn’t take photos of my other two dishes that I made. But my menu was this:

Thai Roast Duck Salad with Mango dressing
Pad Thai (yeah, I know it it’s a cliche dish, but it is both tasty and easily made)
Yellow Curry Chicken
(unserved because we were too full) Sticky Rice with Bananas Poached in Coconut Cream

here’s the duck being prepared. (or pre-butchering) – my recipe was really to marinate it with dark soy sauce and stuff it with a mixture of lemongrass, galangal (thai ginger), sesame oil, dark soy and hoisin and roast at 190C for 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 150C for an hour.

I’m not big on trumpeting my own accomplishments, but it was pretty delicious. In fact, I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever made. Here’s the duck before we chopped it up and ate it.

I also made Yellow Curry Chicken – I’m beginning to think that curry, much like soups, chilis and stews, tastes better the second or third day. This was ok when we ate it – but it was excellent the next morning when paired with pita bread at work. The recipe is fairly simple because – shockingly – I did not prepare my own curry paste, but instead bought pre-made. Some mixing with coconut milk, some Thai chilis, chicken and potatoes over a hot stove and you get this:

And then as served:

Li is into her first major final but is growing in confidence after coming off a comeback win over the No. 1-ranked player and her victory over Clijsters in the final of the tune-up event at Sydney, where she came back from 5-0 down in the first set to win it in straight sets.

Wozniacki, playing at a major for the first time with the No. 1 ranking, had match point at 5-4 and 40-30 in the second set before Li rallied. Another 66 minutes later, Li served and won on her first match point.

Li lost to Serena Williams in two tiebreak sets in the semifinals here last year in her previous best run at a major.

Her trip to the final is just another first for Li, who was the first Chinese player to win a tour-level title and the first to enter the top 10. She is also the first player from Asia to reach a Grand Slam singles final.

Congrats . . .and good luck!

More photos after the jump

Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsson (from Grease)

Haibao x Lady Gaga (Hello Kitty Dress)

Popeye and Olive Oyl:

Snooki:

The rest of the photos can be viewed here