Shanghai Airport Spaghetti

Shanghai, China June 2011
Jeez a 5/10 at the airport is alright. I'm not sure if Australian airports would get that kind of score. I was dubious when I saw the kitchen equipment consisted of 5 microwaves but was pleasantly surprised. I'll be back to China again soon and will stop in at Hope Star on my way out.

Mr and Mrs Bund

Shanghai, June 2011

When I visited Shanghai 5 years ago we snuck into the hotel restaurant for a steak a couple of times. We just didn't seem to be hitting the good spots and a particular beef soup with floating bits of cow hair is burnt into my memory. This time around, the food was outstanding. We ate like kings every day whether it was chinese, indian, italian or western food. One special meal was at Mr and Mrs Bund - a well designed restaurant by Paul Pairet overlooking the Bund. The artsy meals were tiny but delicious. The middle picture is little restaurant down some stairs that had cute booths and no english (we had to act out cow vs pig). The bottom picture is Ricey ordering 5 meals ( he only ate 1) at Grape Restaurant - if you go to China, look this one up.

Chopsticks Spaghetti

Shanghai, May 2011

The Chinese are masters of imitation. They can perfectly copy something so well you can't tell which one is the original. Lucky for me this extends into italian food. The Taikang Road Art Centre in Shanghai is a grid of alleyways filled with boutiques, bars, galleries and restaurants. It's so cute, all the shops are miniature and often have little ladders leading up to an upstairs section. After eating Chinese for breakfast we felt less guilty about eating at an italian restaurant for lunch. The spaghetti was clearly made fresh and the sauce was divine. I gave it an 8 in the piccy but it deserves a 9 for sure. We went back again 2 days later.   

Sue Ching's Spaghetti

Brisbane base soft-sculpture artist Sue Ching has made her own spaghetti and outdoor BBQ made out of felt. Best thing I've seen in ages. See more here http://sue-ching.blogspot.com/

Don Gato the Cat

Melbourne, March 2011
You roll the dice when you fly Tiger. I chanced it last minute to pop down to Melbourne and surprisingly everything went smoothly. There were other interstaters in town and much merriment followed. As usual I got a little overexcited at the amount of old friends in one place and peaked too early but by now we're all used to that. The next day we headed back to Giz's to inspect her prized capsicum plants. Much to her horror, her bumper crop turns out to be something other than capsicums...most likely weeds. Fertilised, stalked weeds. The best loved weeds in Melbourne I'd say. After this crushing revelation she kindly humoured me to some homemade spaghetti and we sat outside, staring at the capsicums/weeds. I left out some key ingredients to the spaghetti but it was a lovely all the same. 6.5/10