Shanghai: The Man's Paradise

Hello all!  Happy New Year!!

I just got back from spending Christmas and New Year's with Malcolm and his mom in Shanghai.  While my trip there was cramped 14 hours in economy sitting next to someone rather stinky (mothballs, not BO, thankfully), I had a relaxing trip back to LAX in business class.  11 hours in a fully reclined position is a hardship I will gladly bear!

Malcolm and I have a very unusual relationship in that for the entire 6.5 years that we've dated, it's been long distance.  In addition, I haven't seen him since October 2009 when he left for Shanghai.  Even after we marry, we will continue the long distance and maintain a long distance marriage while I finish school in California.  Apparently, the LA-NYC relationship was much too close in proximity.  And I want to be like Henry.  ;)

Anyways, after almost 2 months apart, on my first morning there, Malcolm and I enjoyed a yummy breakfast at his uncle's pastry shop in Gubei, Shanghai.

Malcolm's uncle is a restauranteur, and his latest project has been opening bakeries in Shanghai.  Called La Paleta, the Gubei location is the first location, and is within walking distance from Malcolm's mom's home.  During my 10-day stay in Shanghai, we went to La Paleta everyday except for one.  La Paleta is really nicely decorated, with clean and modern interiors, and a focus on the pastries.  I really enjoyed the pastries...maybe a little bit too much!

This is a super cool coffee maker.  It uses the drip-suspension method that is popular in Asia and Europe.  The coffee was quite yummy.

After our daily breakfast pastries, Malcolm, his mom and I went shopping.  (Oh, the hardship!)  On one of our excursions, we went to a local outdoor market.  We saw many things that were definitely foreign to me, but very normal for the locals.  It felt like an episode of Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations."  I could easily see Anthony hunker down with the locals and dig into some fresh turtle and eel soup.

Malcolm is currently splitting his time between his mom's restaurant and his cousin Tony's restaurant for his training.  Tony's restaurant is located at the food court in Ganwei Mall.  Everything in this mall is blinged out.  The Pizza Hut is the fanciest pizza joint I've ever seen.  Everything kind of reminds me of Las Vegas.  The mall is 6 stories high, and they had this Swarovski crystal statue thingy that would go up and down.  It was kind of weird because I didn't understand its purpose, but people loved it and took many pictures in front of it.

The mall had a store called Astro Boy and they sold bags, apparel, and shoes that had the Astro Boy logo.  It was really funny because I thought it was just the movie but it's a major brand in Shanghai.  The shop was packed with people.

There was such a huge contrast between the Ganwei Mall and the local outdoor market.  In a country where there is no middle class, the extremely wealthy live side by side with the poor.  The Ganwei Mall is lavish by American standards.  The polarity between the two was hard to reconcile.  It was a bit disconcerting.  But I did enjoy many hours at the mall drinking my fancy American coffee and wandering through high-end stores while Malcolm worked.

(This must be the longest post ever!  Sorry.... I'm tiring myself out!)

The French grocery store Carrefour is pretty big in China, and it the most similar to an American supermarket.  As such, lots of foreigners shop there.  They have nice familiar brands, like Tide and Hershey's, and they had cute breads, like these guys!!

The last night of my stay in Shanghai, we celebrated Malcolm's mom's birthday.  Malcolm did a wonderful job surprising his mom with a dinner out with her friends.  We went to a famous hot pot restaurant called Kublai Khan.  They had pictures of all these famous Chinese people who ate there, including Yao Ming.

We ordered the cake from La Paleta (Malcolm's uncle's bakery), and the girl there asked Malcolm what he wanted the cake to say.  He wrote down "Happy Birthday Mom" and drew a smiley face on a piece of paper for her.  The funniest thing was that they copied EXACTLY what he wrote, including his messy handwriting!!  I guess that's what happens when you write things in a foreign language.  It was pretty funny.  And the cake was delicious!

So why is this post called "Shanghai: The Man's Paradise"?

Malcolm's uncle opened the second La Paleta bakery on January 1st, so Malcolm and I went to go check it out.  While Malcolm chatted with the staff, I sat and chatted with his uncle.  If you've never met his uncle, imagine a mid-60s Asian man, dressed only in black, kind of Yakuza-style.  He goes around Shanghai in dark sunglasses in his expensive, chauffer-driven Mercedes.  He's pretty bad-ass.  Or at least, his aura is bad-ass.

Anyways, I asked him if he ever came back to the States or had any desire to do so.  He said no, and then said, "You know, the Orient is a man's paradise."  Then he signaled his store manager over (a petite, cute girl), and handed her his glasses.  She then bowed, took the glasses, and hurried off to the front of the store, where she took great care in the cleaning the lenses.  Then she rushed back, bowed, and handed the glasses back to Malcolm's uncle.  He turned to me and said, "You see what I mean?  A man's paradise."  Sigh.

All in all, it was a fun and relaxing trip -- just what I needed before starting my last semester in law school!!

Happy New Year!