Shanghai late night & the people we meet

At 1:00am on a Thursday morning, the streets of Shanghai are rather desolate and quiet. Rubbish from the day can be seen scattered about near a 24HR supermarket. This little angel of a girl with pale ivory skin and thick strong thighs played happily along the dimly lit road lined by closed shops. The neon lights bounced outside the small Western-looking place slicing through the window.

Just in front of the market, that looked strikingly similar to an American 7-Eleven, a food vendor parked his barbacoa-like grill with wheels. Meat choices were plentiful and skewered up ready to be cooked. There was a variety of fresh vegetables - mushrooms, onions, bok choy, tofu, baby corn - and fish - large sardine-looking silvers, crayfish, eel - and so many other unrecognizable options.

A vendor just next to Mr. 'Food on a Stick' Chan had two large woks with bright orange flames jetting around from below the metal. Mr. Chan offered late night prowlers a choice of various thin and thick noodles, and rice, to be tossed in a selection of sauces with veggies and meat.

At that hour fresh wok-seared noodles and veggies sounded best to me. After ordering, 'juh' and 'nay', or this and that, and admired the gastronomic skill of this mobile-chef, we found a spot to sit down between the store and street where little 'tables and chairs' had been set up using plastic beverage crates.

With a touch of black bean sauce and spicy, thinly sliced red peppers, the thick al dente strands evened out the vodka inbalance in my head. The only brand that looked interesting in the store was called Chiznick! from the Czech Republic. I mixed the stiff white liquor with a peach flavored juice while the others sipped on local beers, or píjiu (pee-gee-oh) like Tsingtao or Suntory, owned by a Japanese firm that established a local brewery in Shanghai and is now one of the city's most popular brands.


The smell of the flavors lingered through the desolate streets luring even the most prepared-for-bed out of their apartment for a late night snack.

One of the guys sharing the table with us had ordered this very dark tofu that had been flamed to look crispy on the outside. My friend, who had lived in Beijing for some time, told me it was stinky tofu which is fermented in a variety of ways tracing back to the Qing Dynasty. 'Right,' I said. 'I'll try one of those.'

The tofu was crunchy on the outside and a bit tough to break off of the wooden stick. It tasted like it had been seasoned with Jamaican jerk, a bit spicy even for me, and I can put Sriracha on most everything; I really enjoyed it.

This wondrous little lady played happily on her own while adults wandered in, out and around drinking, eating and chatting. She had one of those toys that works like a helicopter's blades. She'd pull the string and the blades launched the toy high into the night air, two stories at least.
She was my favorite street act, keeping herself so busy with this simple toy. And, over and over again, she caught the blade nearly every time it soared down again to her from its peak. Her skills were impressive.
And her independence and confidence too - these qualities shone brightly from within her. I really wanted some nice photos of this little cutie, so one of my friends figured out who her father was and asked if we could introduce ourselves. Surprisingly he happily obliged. Maybe he knew we were harmless visitors jubilant and comfortable with lounging amongst the locals at this hangout. We had been there laughing, shooting the shit (well me mostly with my hands) and people watching for a couple of hours by that point.
Shy at first, Bao, 'precious' in Chinese, quickly let her guard down and listened to my English with curiosity. She understood my actions best and liked mimicking me with my index finger pointing to my bicep saying, 'See, I'm strong.'

We told her to practice English and to stay on course for her destiny to become a powerful leader in whatever she chooses to take-on in this world.

No doubt Bao had no idea what the meaning of our words were. Still, I am sure that this young lady will perform well for her country in the future. As sunrise's hour drew closer, with a swollen heart, head and belly, we bid our adieu to our new Shanghainese friends, never to forget how special an encounter in the streets can be.

Moscow: the other side of the curtain

The city of Moscow is a historical place with deep ties to the silk road, one of the reasons the city has obvious wealth. It sure is quite the place to see. It's filled with wonderful architecture spanning centuries. There are a number of outstanding restaurants that feature foods from all over the world. For anyone that loves to shop, this city has options everywhere, including malls that fall deep below ground.

Here are a few things I picked up while there:

1. Most restaurants have a list of fresh fruit juices of all sort - orange, grapefruit, pineapple, mango, apple, carrot, pear, kiwi, strawberry - and you can mix it up any way you'd like. I stuck with an orange, grapefruit sometimes mango concoction.



2. No matter how cold, when the sun is out, the people are going to enjoy the warmth of its rays - outdoors. It was about 18 degrees F on this afternoon.















3. My tour guide showed me this fantastic home built in the late 1800s. The architect was an alcoholic and eventually lost credibility and all lines for work because his addiction trumped his responsible capacity.



For this reason a good friend commissioned him to work on his house, but only if he'd give up drinking for good. Note the upside down wine glass. This was his artistic way to communicate that he'd given up drink.

4. The Bolshoi Ballet is more than I ever imagined it to be.

Recently opened after six years of renovations, president Medvedev attended the opening night of Sleeping Beauty, which featured an American male principle dancer for the first time in the theatre's history. Throughout the 1960s and the Cold War, the dancers were never able to travel to the West and vice versa. The night of November 18th marked a new point in the Bolshoi's history.

5. Moscow's subways are really special. Stalin built them during the Cold War. They have thick walls and gorgeous lighting, intricate sconces and chandeliers, colorful paintings depicting Russian country life and ornate mosaics with gold details and marble edging. I really enjoyed experiencing these.
It was like walking through a cold stone castle from the past. Be aware though - there is no English, so you need to be the obvious tourist and use your map frequently, matching the backwards 'R' and 'N' to ensure you find your way.

6. The Russians love their pickled vegetables as an appetizer. Mushrooms are particularly popular. Many city folk enjoy lurking through the rugged terrain on the outskirts of the city in search of great fungi to bring back home to share with friends. You can even find mushrooms used in some of Moscow's buildings. Pickled cabbage, cucumbers, carrots and other root plants are common as salads.



7. Everything you've heard about Russians and their vodka is true. Yes, they like to drink a lot of it. While we're used to an ice bucket next to the table for our bottle of white wine, in Russia you'll get a bucket of ice to keep your vodka chilled. While at Cafe Pushkin, a Baroque mansion of the 18th century, turned pharmacy and library in the 19th century, turned enchanting modern-day restaurant, a few of us enjoyed the high end Beluga Gold vodka post-Bolshoi Ballet.

Note the detail of the 3D metal fish that is found on the label. The servers brought the bottles out to us completely frosty and at first you couldn't even see the fish. Surrounded by dusty, leather bound books of the past and aristocratic antiques given as gifts to the former owner, we lost ourselves in the Russian city's culture of cold and strong.



8. Fur is in here. You'll see the majority of women with some sort of fur on her shoulders or a down or leather jacket with fur trim. While dining in the Italian restaurant of the Radisson Royal hotel, Buono Restaurant on the 29th floor, a guest joining her friends as we were leaving had a gorgeous sable fur coat on. Sable fur has been historically coveted throughout the world and remains a luxury good item.