Of 大闸蟹, 小笼包 and a chance meeting with Nole

We were up in Shanghai for the weekend to catch the Tennis Masters Cup and managed to fill up on 大闸蟹 and 小笼包 along the way.

As soon as we had checked in at the hotel for a quick shower after our red-eye flight, we headed out to 豫园 for the yummelicious 小笼包 at 南翔. Ok, ignore the bad engrish on the signs, and don't bother queuing with the masses downstairs. We headed straight up to the top floor for 3 baskets of these soup-filled steamed pork buns.

There's a rather gimmicky giant bun, which usually only the Japanese tourists order, where they stick a straw through the top and you can suck up the soup. The skin is thicker than the regular ones, so I never bother. But here's a pic of the leftover bun from the next table:

Autumn is also hairy crab (or Chinese mitten crab) season and these little crustaceans fill up with a rich, creamy roe - interestingly, even the male ones do. Apart from the roe, there isn't much flesh to get at, since they are really tiny, so if you're thinking Sri Lankan giant crab or Dungeness crabs, you'd be disappointed. That said, whatever flesh you are able to get out of it is incredibly sweet. 大闸蟹 is usually served steamed and whole, with a ginger/vinegar condiment on the side. There's a technique to eating and it's ingenious how one can use the sharp tips of the crab's legs to push out the elusive bits of from the shell.

Here are our first victims, steamed to a cheery vermillion colour. Check out the cute mossy claws!

And the aftermath… wahahahah….

Of course SH isn't just all about the crabs and the buns. X took us to lunch at a Sichuan restaurant which I think (save for the the hairy crabs) was my best meal this trip. Sliced fish in sour and spicy broth, stir fried chicken in Sichuan peppercorns and chillies, flame grilled lamb… oh and my favourite 夫妻肺片 which is thin slices of ox tongue/stomach/tongue in a spicy, tongue-numbing 麻辣sauce.

The highlight of hubs' trip was, of course, the Tennis Masters Cup at Qizhong Stadium. We managed to catch the Bryan brothers in their doubles semi-finals, Djokovic vs Simon and Murray vs Davydenko.

But nothing made him happier, than bumping into Djokovic in the men's washroom at Changi Airport T2, who was using the urinal next to him! Hur hur… of all places…. Hubs managed to get an autograph (OUTSIDE the washroom), and a photo… :)

Some observations:

• It is always smoggy. We got lucky on the first day we arrived and saw some faint patches of blue. But air quality got progressively worse each day. The 1st picture is what you can possibly hope to have after days of rain. The 2nd picture is of the same view, taken on our last day and how I'd always remembered SH before...

• Taxis are cheap, don't bother with the public transport - 11RMB for the first 3km, which is practically any destination within the inner ring. It's also the easiest and a relatively inexpensive way to get to town from the airport (approx. 40 minutes and 150RMB). The alternative is (1) the Maglev train which stops only at Pudong and you have to transfer to the subway to get to Puxi or (2) airport shuttle buses that take up to 1.5 - 2 hours.

• Watch out when crossing roads, even at pedestrian crossings and don't rely on the traffic signals - motorcyclists and bicyclists pay no heed and will not bat an eyelid at ramming straight into you even when the light is in your favour, and I speak from personal experience.

• Most establishments accept international credit cards, but there are some eateries and shops that only take local credit cards. So it's always safer to have enough cash on you.

• As far as possible, bring enough cash and try not to resort to ATMs/cash machines although they are commonplace. Or at least withdraw a lumpsum. Bank charges for each withdrawal transaction, regardless of amount, is as high as S$8.00/US$5.00.

• DVDs are cheap and are of excellent quality, but their authenticity cannot be vouched for. Don't risk carrying them back to SG cos quite apart from copyright infringement, you get caught under the censorship rules too.

• Don't wear open-toed shoes - you never know when you might step into fresh spit.