We have had lunch here a few times already, and its proven to be one of my favorite places to eat in Shanghai. The food is an interesting fusion of Shanghainese
and French fare. The menu is huge and offers new takes on classics. Very interesting flavors, great ingredients, and nice atmosphere. Check it out for sure; Hai Pai Bistro, ANDAZ, 88 Songshan Lu, Shanghai, China.
This is my favorite little green here in China. They are herbaceous and hearty, have a nice refreshing crunch to them, and cool you down after spicy food. Very important here in Chengdu, where everything is swimming in chili oil! Supposedly they are called Qing Chao, but I’m not exactly sure. If you see this green purplely leaf, eat some. They are delicious!
Not every day a gringo gets ahold of a Chinese flag! I look like a fricken’ pirate.
Ding Coffee. 
This coffee is killer, plain and simple. There was a Starbucks next to this place, and we almost went there. Luckily there was a huge line in Starbucks, so I suggested we give this place a go. They had these small burners with a glass bottle, and a double ended tube that pops on the top with the coffee grinds. It was pretty cool, and it produced a damn good cup of joe. I guess this method is a Chinese one. It takes forever, but its well worth the wait.
When in Chengdu, check it out. http://www.lonelyding.com/ Kuanzhai alley, Chengdu, China.
The Chinese New Years is basically done, although the festive air continues with most people in most places. With a much needed break, we (a good portion of Osteria staff) are in Chengdu!
Now I’ve only missed three flights in my life (I thought two, but I was reminded of one that we missed in Beijing) out of I’m thinking around 600+ flights.
Two of the times its been trying to fly to Chengdu. (and all three times are in China). I’m not sure why this is, but I’m thinking that it has to do with the fact that Chengdu is much more relaxed than other places in China, and I’ve taken a deeply rooted agreement to this state of mind by taking my time getting to Chengdu.
Its alright, and I finally meet up with the crew, got situated at the hotel and headed straight out for some spicy food!
First stop; real deal Ma La Tang! Delicious spicy skewers with spicy dipping oil and chili powder. Complemented with a Peanut Milk, and you are on the right track here in Szechuan. After the Ma La Tang, we found a little food stall style place serving up lots of noodles including Dan Dan Mian. Its just so unbelievably good here in Chengdu (its replicated all over, but this is the true home). Peanuts, chili, some other unknown ground stuff (I’m supposedly finally getting a recipe for this dish after looking for over a year!!!) with fantastic fresh noodles. We also ate all these little dishes of cold noodles, some made of sweet potato, and some rice, I think. All super spicy, numbing with the Szechuan peppercorn, and served cold, giving you all kinds of tantalizing elements.
May have missed my flight, but happy to be late, relaxed, and super spicy!
Latest weird thing I’ve eaten was some local fish sperm in Fuzhou. Little local restaurant recommended by my friend Jason, this place specialized in local seafood. Just about every part of the seafood to boot.
It was white, a good bit chewey, and had a light seafoody-fish flavor to it. The sweet soy it was dished up with was good to give it a nice salty edge. Not bad for sperm. I guess. Not sure that I would pick this one out on a menu again, but they told me it was good for my giba. Yet, still, another aphrodesiac food in China! There needs to be a list of what is not good for mojo, as the list that is for god mojo is too fricken’ big here! Hahaha
The year of the Dragon has started! Happy New Year!
Being my first Chinese New Years, I was surprised at the energy and excitement around Shanghai. People get into the holiday mode for a long time here. Its almost 40days where there are people taking vacation time and getting ready to celebrate the new years…
Most interesting was the fact that I was still in Shanghai, when a HUGE number of the population travels all over China to go back home and visit family or go on holiday somewhere. Shanghai is normally bustling with energy and people. Its busy enough that other large cities in the world seem to be quiet little places with not a lot of people out and about.
During the new years time (especially the few days surrounding new years day/eve), Shanghai was a ghost town.
Its amazing to walk down the street and not bump into people, go out for a cab and there is one waiting for you, look down the street and not see any cars… Its quite a striking difference!
Biggest things about new years here, ONE being the fact that most restaurants are closed (and we were open at Osteria), and TWO the unbelievable amount of fireworks that were going off for a consistent 12 hours. I’ve seen some incredible firework shows in Chicago, Lake Geneva, and other places for the 4th of July. But this was nuts! People lighting off some pretty crazy fireworks, sometimes right next to each other and right near cars and buildings. It was super concentrated. The street Osteria is on had four fire work “shows” going off at once for about 2 hours. Helps that we had some Chinese Army guys (with lots of confiscated fireworks, and big ones too), they were going crazy! It was like WWIII, in festive mode.
Hilarious!
We have decided that Osteria will be a place to go during the time most places are closed for CNY. We will have very minimal staff, basically only the foreigners, so its a little crazy, but lots of fun. This year we had a fraction of the staff, and we were hopping. We were surprised at the amount of calls with people surprised that we were open!
Welcome, Year of the Dragon!
Finally checked out the pizza joint on Anfu lu, La Strada. Its a simple space on the first floor, that has a nice natural feel to it.
The menu had some interesting items on it including some good antipasti and cheese plates. The portions were generous, and the flavors good. Their bread is quite delicious, as to be expected from a pizza joint.
Service was a little mamahooho, but it was not enough to distract from the good zaa.
We tried a bunch of pizza’s, and the one that caught my fancy was the Quattro Fromaggio. Maybe its the sever lack of cheeses in my diet here in China!! (That can answer anyone’s question of “why are you so thin being a chef….??”)
The crust is good, nice and thin, slight chew, good crispy crunch. Its not Napoli, but its pretty damn good for Shanghai.
Pictured is the Melazane. Eggplant and Salami. Not bad, but being on Anfu Lu, its pricey za.
My biggest fear at the moment, about the Chinese new year, is actually the lack of food. 
What do I mean you ask?
I mean there will be so many Chinese restaurants and little food stalls around Shanghai that will be closed during the new year, and what am I GOING TO EAT!!?!?!?
The Holidays were crazy busy. And they flew by as usual. It sounds like all that I know have had good ones, which has been good to hear. Mine was busy here at Osteria in Shanghai. Ben and Rudy were both back in their respective countries, so I was at the restaurant every day keeping things rolling. This photo shows what happens when I work too much….hahaha!
Lots of great customers came in over the holidays, and we were kept very busy. Lots of holiday cheer, good food, great wine, and fantastic oysters!
Thanks to everyone for making the season fun and busy!
As for the site, I’m finally in the process of moving everything over to www.plumpoyster.com from the original site.
www.theplumpoyster.com will quickly become my business site. I’m still not a web designer, but I’ve been getting a lot of practice!!!
DIY restaurant/bar building baby!
Keep an eye out, and subscribe to the rss feed to keep in touch!
HAPPY NEW YEAR (belated)!!!
