“Glocal” Cuisine

Wafting from every block in Shanghai, the scents of street food and small restaurants can easily turn afternoon explorations into never ending food crawls.

With soup dumplings and stinky tofu being so accessible and affordable, the last thing on my mind was fast food. You can travel 15 hours across the world and still get your fix of McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen. I don’t eat fast food at home and had no intentions of stepping into any of those chains in China. But after passing one of those American fast food restaurants  in just about every part of the Shanghai, I found myself exploring the menu.

And here is what I found:  Glocalization. This hybrid word explains the pork burgers and milk tea at the Shanghai McDonalds and the side of rice at KFC. It’s how transnational corporations make products that adapt to the local culture.

I never tried any of the choices on the “glocalized”  fast food menus in Shanghai, but I will admit that Dairy Queen’s Green Tea Blizzard sounded pretty good.

On the outside, these fast food chains look just like the ones you might find at home. Even the environment inside is similar. But in the United States, McDonald’s is a place where you can get fast food for a cheap price. In Shanghai, you’ll pay more at one of these fast food restaurants than at a street stand selling tasty meats and scallion pancakes.

Because the menu is indeed different, the excuse that you can get this food at home and shouldn’t eat it abroad doesn’t really hold up. That being said, there’s faster food in Shanghai that tastes ten times better, costs half the price, and doesn’t have a cousin in Norway selling McLox.

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Food waste: a problem without borders

If I could use myself as a source I would. After spending a week in China I have realized that I am just as guilty as the people I am writing about. It may be because I am a foreign traveler who is unaccustomed to the culture, but nonetheless I feel regret.

Working my story about leftover food earlier in the week, I had trouble imagining how anyone could leave food to waste. At home, I always cleaned my plate. But after experiencing the style and culture of Chinese dining, I was able to personally bite into the concept. Many typical Chinese meals are served family style — plates in the center of the table for each patron to pick at. And at important gatherings an abundance of food is ordered to please guests and show hospitality. Per meal, anywhere from 10 to 20 dishes can be served.

Chinese are used to the food they are served and understand the portion size. However, they are still being encouraged by restaurants, the government, and fellow citizens to waste as little as possible.

As for us foreign visitors, we weren’t quite used to the types of food or the portion sizes. At most family style meals with a table of 8 to 10 people, we would still leave enough to feed at least a family of four. There were many dishes that looked too foreign or tasted differently than we expected. At one point in the trip, most of us were guilty of leaving at least one item we just couldn’t finish.

From visiting various restaurants over the week, I was able to grasp that American doggie bags weren’t a concept, despite on-table incentives from a handful of establishments. Food would be left on the table and would end up in a garbage pile on the street the next morning. Noodles and rice would sit for two or three days before being picked up by a trash truck.

It wasn’t until our group leader received a phone call from the hotel restaurant on the last day that I truly understood. They had called to notify us that we had left too much food on our plates at the breakfast buffet.  While it was good to see the restaurant cracking down on the problem, I felt embarrassed that we were causing a problem. But as Americans we are often guilty of having eyes bigger than our stomaches. And when the food descriptions are labeled only in Chinese and a mysterious sauce fills your morning dumpling, food is bound to be abandoned mid bite.

So as much as there is a food waste problem in China, the country seems to be headed in the right direction. And from this experience, I learned that there is no better way to grasp your story than to be the story — and don’t forget to use your chopsticks.

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“Ham, you idiot! Now we can’t play no more!”

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Mike Still, an intramural soccer player at Penn State, takes the pitch at Shanghai International Studies Institute (SISU) Hongkou campus. His strategy: “To do my best not to look like an idiot.”

I couldn’t have been on the field for more than five minutes, but with one shot I single-handedly ended the only soccer game on Chinese soil that I’ll likely ever play in.

But I didn’t score the game-winner.

When we arrived at our hotel in Shanghai early last week, the Jinjiang Inn located in the Hongkou district, the first thing that caught my eye in the area was a large turf soccer field sitting right across from our front door. Not even a block away from where we were staying is the Shanghai International Studies Institute (SISU) Hongkou campus, and the field sat behind the school’s massive gymnasium. In the morning, runners of all ages jogged on the track that circled the green field. But in the late afternoon every day was match day as soccer became the main event.

Right away I made it a goal of mine to hop in one of these pick-up games. I had an inclination that these middle aged Chinese men in Rec Specs and vintage Umbro shorts, and teenagers donning jerseys of their favorite players from around the world might not welcome an American kid without cleats into a game. But I knew I’d regret it long after we’d returned home at the end of the week if I didn’t at least try.

Upon arrival through the iron gate that surrounded the field, I realized I had no plan for how I would manage to get in a game if nobody spoke English. Fortunately I met a Villanova University student studying abroad at SISU who spoke a little Chinese. She asked guys standing on the sideline if they had room for one more, and just like that, I was running onto the pitch with what felt like all eyes on me.

Just a little background info on my soccer career … when I was five, I tried out but couldn’t run backwards because my head was too big for my body and I kept falling down. The coach suggested I try something else. Now I play goalie for an intramural team at Penn State. Oh, and I play a lot of FIFA 13. That’s about it.

Everyone wore different colors in this game. If any of them spoke English, they failed to let me know that. My strategy was to do my best not to look like an idiot.

I wasn’t sure who was going which direction, and when the ball came to me for a free kick in my own defensive zone, I quickly realized I didn’t know who was on my team. As I had learned in my short time in Shanghai, I’d have to rely on body language.

I panned the field with one hand, and patted the other on my chest. Quickly hands shot into the sky dispersed around the field, and I had found my teammates.

Crisis averted.

Soon after my team had a corner kick, and I had hoped to use my 6-foot-2 frame to my advantage for a header. Somewhere in the scrum that followed I lost sight of my initial goal — not making a fool of myself.

The ball came to my feet as I stood dead center in the middle of the goal, no more than ten yards away. As I wound up my right foot to drill it into the back of the net, I wondered how I’d celebrate my first goal in an international friendly.

Instead I blasted a shot not just well over the goal, not just over the track that circled the field, but over the wall and into the busy street beyond.

I don’t think I’ll be invited back.

I quickly hopped the fence as some around me threw up their arms in disgust and most others laughed loudly. Fortunately I found the ball nestled in a bush in the street’s median. But by the time I had thrown the ball back into play and climbed the fence again, everyone had dispersed and decided they were done for the day.

While I wish I had had more time to make a better impression, I was happy and relieved to even be invited onto the field. It had been my experience in Shanghai that in general strangers weren’t all that friendly to me. A day or two after my horrendous soccer debut, I went jersey shopping at a sporting good store just a couple blocks away from the field and the clerk hurriedly ushered me out of the store while I browsed just a few minutes after I’d arrived.

Perhaps it was my complexion, different from most everyone I encountered, but in many places in Shanghai I didn’t feel welcome.

On the soccer field, however, I felt no animosity. Even after I nearly lost some random guy’s ball, I mostly received sheepish smiles from strangers and no one asked me to leave.

I’ve been an athlete all my life, so maybe I’m biased. But even halfway around the world, competition and sport are unaffected by language or cultural barriers.

It’s still the same game, even if unfortunately I still can’t kick a soccer ball.

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Cafe recalls golden age of film

 

Photo Credit: Mike Hricik

Photo Credit: Mike Hricik

Surrounded by the cacophony of a booming metropolis, Duolun Road has been preserved as a quiet enclave that recalls the popular culture of a bygone era in Shanghai.

Famous artists and politicians, including the writer Lu Xun, lived on the road during the early 20th century. Life-sized statues, engravings and busts of cultural leaders have been erected alongside shops and restaurants built in traditional colonial styles.

In a corner of the winding street, one figure stands out from the rest: Charlie Chaplin.

Chaplin has remained popular in China since the silent era’s beginnings and a life-sized statue of the star in front of the Old Film Cafe aims to remind customers of cinema’s golden age.

Old Film Cafe manager Wu Chong Wei said Shanghai residents would dress up as Chaplin during his peak in popularity.

We wanted to recreate the older times,” Wu said of the cafe, which got its start in 2000.

Photo Credit: Mike Hricik

Photo Credit: Mike Hricik

Local government officials in the Hongkou district sold the building, which had been a library, to “increase the cultural atmosphere,” Wu said.

Shanghai’s passion for film has carried into the 21st century, and the city has seen quite a bit of screen time recently, from Ang Lee’s “Lust and Passion” to “The White Countess,” starring Ralph Fiennes.

While offering coffee, tea and snacks, the elegantly restored three-story cafe also shows old Chinese and Western movies on a big-screen TV.

Images of 1930s fashions and American movie stars like Audrey Hepburn adorn the walls. Film reels and other pieces of film equipment sit on mantlepieces.

Yan Jiwa, a cafe customer, said she buys coffee every week.

It has become a novelty for the nostalgic, like me,” Yan said.

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Shh, it’s a Secret. A peek inside China’s Post Secret.

School’s out in China. Students dressed in their maroon uniform sport coats dash to the best after-school hang out — Wenmiao Road.

Street vendors grill kabobs, teenagers line up outside a milk tea stand and young boys flip through superhero comic books. The elderly gossip on street corners as motorcycles zip by women selling knock-off designer handbags to tourists.

But, tucked amid the boardwalk-like atmosphere of Wenmiao Road the secrets of teenagers are hidden inside a tiny sushi restaurant.

The walls of Yi Sushi are covered with thousands of colored Post-it notes. Some even dangle from the ceiling. The scraps of papers prevent the restaurant walls from peeking through.

Customers scribble song lyrics, secrets about love, wishes and messages to one another on the square slips of paper and slap them on the wall for others to read.

A post it note that read “King & Ying forever” is taped near another that expresses a man’s wish to make his fortune in Chinese gambling. A message proclaiming that “Zhu Siyu” is “stupid” spanned across seven Post-its.

In the two years since the shop’s opening, young people flock to the restaurant to write their secret messages on the wall, restaurant worker Wu YinKui said.

Wu, 48, said the concept of secret messages came from other Chinese restaurants where tourists and locals post messages on walls.

The staff of Yi Sushi have stacks of Post-it notes in the kitchen where they roll salmon fish into traditional Japanese sushi rolls. Workers are always happy to dish out a slip of paper with platters of raw fish.

Seventeen-year-old classmates Wang ZhouZhou and Chen Qi often visit the restaurant for an after-school sushi snack. And when thoughts of boyfriends, love songs and school stresses cross their mind, the girls whip out post-it notes and pens to express their feelings.

Wang’s latest post — lyrics from Taylor Swift’s record-breaking hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”

“After a break up, when I feel sad and upset I’ll write something,” Wang of Shanghai said.

The restaurant can be considered China’s Post Secret. Post Secret is a project in which people mail in post cards with secrets written on them. The cards are later turned into books that are sold. In the United States, young people also turn to  social media cites like, Whisper to anonymously express secrets that are printed for others to read.

“They just love it because they can write whatever they want,” Wu said.

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Visitors receive a hidden treat at a popular tourist attraction

There is more to Tianzifang that is unknown to even long-time residents of Shanghai.

There is more to Tianzifang that is unknown to even long-time residents of Shanghai.

Tucked away behind an intricately designed black gate in a maze of neighboring streets, Tianzifang Road is popular among both tourists and locals.  Restaurants, cafes, souvenir shops, clothing boutiques, art studios, tattoo parlors and nail salons vie for the attention of passersby. Gold and Red lanterns are strung from the tops of brick buildings and sprawling plants line the narrow cobblestone roads.

But there is more to Tianzifang that is unknown to even long-time residents of Shanghai. The neighborhood has carefully preserved a style of Chinese architecture known as Skikumen that has been disappearing throughout much of the city.

Shikumen is charecterized by large stone doorframes, wooden plank doors and buildings being within a close proximity. In some cases, the doors in Tianzifang shops have been replaced by glass to become more modern.

Da Shiping, owner of the Shikumen Family Museum located on Yongkang Road, said this style of architecture first appeared in the 1800s. Many refugees came to Shanghai in 1860 because of the Taiping Revolution. To provide housing for this influx of people, merchants used the limited space available to build Shikumen-style residences, only allowing a few meters to separate two-or-three story buildings on the narrow streets.

Once the hidden beauty of this style of architecture was realized, neighborhoods of Shikumen-style buildings were constructed in the early 1900s on a larger scale, Shiping said.

“This style became popular just like anything else,” Shiping said. “There is a process for when something begins to be noticed, it reaches a peak of its popularity and then drops off.”

Many of the Shikumen-style buildings were demolished and replaced by larger apartment buildings in the last few decades but some areas have been preserved to showcase Shanghai’s past.

Jean Chin, an employee at Esydragon souvenir shop for the past 10 years, loves the beauty of the Shikumen-style buildings in Tianzifang and is grateful it is being preserved.

“I am quite honored to see this style every day because it helped me learn more about Shanghai,” Chin said. “Coming from Taiwan, I like learning about my new home’s history.”

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Halal food in the Pudong District

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A Muslim restaurant whose menu is strictly Halal food thrives In Shanghai’s Pudong District, Majiayuan.

Through the back door of the kitchen, up a spiral staircase and across a skinny, unlit hallway is an unfurnished room lined with green wallpaper. That is where one of Ma Zhongkui’s favorite pictures hangs.

The photo — a bit out of focus, a bit off-center — features Zhongkui posing alongside two German tourists.

“I love this photo,” says Zhongkui, manager of Majiayuan, a Muslim restaurant in the Pudong District. “It represents how successful my business is.”

Indeed, Majiayuan is doing well. The eight table eatery recently opened a takeout window. Zhongkui said he has some costumers who dine once a day while others drive up to 45 minutes to eat his food. It’s also a hotspot for foreigners, like the German businessmen who stopped in nearly every day over a six month span during the 2011 Shanghai Expo.

Zhongkui is a friendly host and the food is tasty, but there’s another reason Majiayuan has prospered. The food is safe — and costumers know that before they even walk through the door.

Majiyuan’s menu is strictly Halal food, meaning it meets Islamic dietary standards. For Zhongkui, taking extra measures to ensure his food is clean, fresh and safe is not a choice but rather a requirement from the Koran.

And in a country that has long battled with food safety issues, that’s a big selling point.

“My costumers know that I have some of the freshest ingredients in the entire neighborhood,” said Zhongkui, a practicing Muslim. “Other restaurants don’t offer that assurance.”

How fresh? Zhongkui flies in select meats from hundreds of miles away in Northeast China. Some of his beef is from Tibet. The cost to fly or transport the products in by rail is substantial Zongkui said.

The menu is a bit pricer than other restaurants in the area. An order of scallion pancakes is 16 yuan ($2.50) while they are 10 yuan ($1.60) in a similar sized restaurant down the street and maybe half that if you buy from a street vendor.

However Zhongkui get some help from the Chinese government, which offers subsidies such as tax breaks to minority business owners.

“It’s good for them because they want to keep diversity in the area,” Zhongkui said. “And it’s good for me because my business thrives on it.”

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Locals and tourists ask philosopher for blessings at Confucian Temple

A mother writes, “Dear Confucius, we wish for an excellent grade for our son, William, who is studying in America. Hope he can get a scholarship and be safe!”

A mother writes, “Dear Confucius, we wish for an excellent grade for our son, William, who is studying in America. Hope he can get a scholarship and be safe!”

“Hoping I can pass the exam for graduate school. I want to go to Fudan University, which has been my wish for a long time. I wish Confucius to help me open my mind and teach me to study efficiently. I hope I can get higher than 85 points in policy, 80 points in English, 135 points in math, 140 points in my major courses. I’ll keep studying hard. Thank you so much,” reads a note from undergraduate student Wei Kaidi.

This appeal is written on one of the hundreds of yellow blessing cards that hang on the shelves and trees inside Shanghai’s Confucian Temple.

Confucius was “a great thinker and a great educator,” says Wang Li, who is selling blessing cards, bookmarks and “Confucian Analects” books outside of the temple’s Dacheng Hall.

The ancient Chinese philosopher founded Confucianism in China, which is an ethical system that promotes humanism and loving others. Today, many Chinese students visit Dacheng Hall to ask Confucius for high marks in school. Parents also seek blessings, asking that their children do well on the all-important Chinese college entrance exam, get into top universities and secure good careers in the future. A large number of blessing cards ask Confucius for admission into Fudan University — the Harvard of Shanghai.

But Chinese students and parents are not the only ones who come to Dacheng Hall to ask for the philosopher’s blessing. There are cards written in many different languages, including English, French and German.

Hundreds of blessing cards hang on shelves in front of Dacheng Hall in Shanghai’s Confucian Temple.

Hundreds of blessing cards hang on shelves in front of Dacheng Hall in Shanghai’s Confucian Temple.

The Confucian Temple, or the Shanghai Wen Miao, is located on the loud, bustling Wenmiao Road — a noisy street notable for its shouting street vendors, zooming motorbike traffic and groups of chatty teenagers who congregate after school.

But in the temple, the only sound is the light, spring breeze. There is a calm and serenity throughout its three massive courtyards and multiple halls. The ancient architecture is a sharp contrast from the modern skyscrapers located just a few blocks away.

The temple has a 700-year-old history, Wang says. It was built during the 13th century, and it was once one of the most prestigious learning institutions in Shanghai. During China’s Cultural Revolution the temple was destroyed, but it was rebuilt in 1997. On Sundays, the temple is home to a lively secondhand book market.

One of the three courtyards at the Confucian Temple

One of the three courtyards at the Confucian Temple.

My request to Confucius

My request to Confucius.

 

 

 

 

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Couples find sweet love along the most romantic street in Shanghai

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Hong Yong points out her favorite poem to boyfriend Xia Jun along Tian’ai Road. (Photo by Dong Xue)

A couple strolls hand-in-hand along the brick sidewalk of a peculiarly quiet street, almost as if giving the two a hideaway amid the busy city in which they live. Trees stand in an orderly fashion along the road, offering the man and woman shade on a sunny day.

Every few feet, the pair pauses to examine the decorative stone slates that line the white wall. Each of the cream-colored palates contains a love poem, some written in English while others in Chinese characters, penned by famous writers hailing from all over the world. Some of the slates are etched with graffiti from past visitors who wished to share their own words of love surrounding poems from writers like William Shakespeare and Pablo Neruda.

Regarded as the most romantic road in Shanghai, Tian’ai Road, which translates as “sweet love” in English, is a favorite street for lovers. On the first of 28 slates along the wall, there is no poem – only a story, the tale of how the famous road got its name. A young woman named Tian’ai was born into a wealthy family and fell in love with a cattle herder who worked for her parents. Both families objected because the man and woman were from different classes. In the end, the two remained together and gave courage to other couples in similar circumstances. The narrow road was named after the woman from the story.

The legend is not lost on Dai Pingxi, a woman in her 70s, who lives near the romantic street. She said that as she walks to and from her home, she usually notices couples walking leisurely down the brick sidewalk.

“No matter how many times I see it, it still puts a smile on my face to see couples here,” she said.

One of those couples on a recent afternoon was Xia Jun and Hong Yong, both in their 20s, who walked the famous road because it has become a tradition among couples. Jun said lovers in Shanghai visit Tian’ai Road while dating because they believe it brings them good luck.

Their eyes met. “Walking on Tian’Ai Road is supposed to bring a lifetime of happiness and love to any couple that visits it,” Jun said.

Yong nodded and drew closer to her partner before continuing down the quiet street.

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Bridging the gap between past and present

The lore surrounding the Chinese culture spans thousands of years. The dynasties and visions of Disney movies we’ve been exposed to since children are often the visions we carry with us, nomatter the preparation or education.

Yet since I’ve set foot in Shanghai — 13 hours away from the world I’ve grown up in — it’s been hard to stop moving, stop letting my eyes wander from place to place in an attempt to soak up the energy and movement of these people and this culture. Whether its the speeding taxis whizzing mere inches away from my body to the street vendors sizzling with food, the sights, smells and sounds are both old and new, a modern metropolis full of life.

From the outside, Shanghai is similar to New York City, though the population surpasses the Big Apple by millions. Skyscrapers reach toward the sky, though through the camera lens, the pollution hazes out the metallic buildings. Large streets give way to smaller alleys, home to both workers traveling into town on bikes for the day and young men and women sporting the latest trends.

But a sharp turn into the Yuyuan Garden Sunday left me in an older version of China, architecture that took me back to the pictures in my history books with red walls and bright yellow Chinese characters.

A walk through the crowded marketplace left me gazing at smiling Buddha figurines and impressionist paintings of the Chinese dragon and lion. A Chinese student, Alison, pointed out the ornately decorated chopstick sets families give their newly married children to encourage them to have children. An occasional Dairy Queen or Coldstone Creamery sign stood out among the largely foreign names, though the actual shops themselves didn’t appear full. Thousands of people were here — and most, for one reason.

As we moved through the twists and turns, I lost all sense of direction until the buildings gave way to a large pond filled with some of the largest orange and white Koi I’d ever seen. Spanning the length of the pond was a bridge — Jiu Qu Bridge of Yuyuan Garden.

Packed with people, the bridge — also known as the Nine-Bend Bridge — is a place millions of people flock to after the start of every new year in hopes to rid themselves of the ghosts of their past. Another Chinese student explained its popularity as we made our way across the 10-foot wide bridge filled with people of all ages and ethnicities.

The languages varied from couple to couple and group to group. Some parents led their children forward, pulling them away from the slats that revealed large fish below. Others stopped for a photo in front of a tea house with windows overlooking the market.

As we crossed the bridge, I couldn’t help but wonder what the people around me were leaving behind. Was it the memory of a lost loved one? The negative feelings of the past year? Or were they just crossing to gain a better hope for the future?

Frankly, I’ll never know the reasons that thousands of people made the tightly packed journey across the bridge and I’m not sure if I really want them. There was something about the human condition that could be felt as we crossed together. The bonds, though unspoken, of leaving behind the past transcend language and understanding.

Quite simply, no matter where you are, a smile really is universal.

brittany photo

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