Shanghai Expat: April 2010: Shopping Outing

On Saturday, April 10, 2010, as one of Di Yin's presents, I let her drag me shopping. It was a nice day for Shanghai, warm and with clear blue skies, though I still miss being able to see the unobscured sun (as I can in most of the rest of the world). But, I think this is the nicest Shanghai gets.

We glanced in a couple of stores in Huashan Road, but really only spent time in one, the same one in which our guest J on his visit managed to find some clothes that looked good on him. I tried on a bunch of stuff and we ended up walking out with one decent shirt. Di Yin was elated.

Since it was her birthday outing, I let Di Yin pick the place, and, likely because we were in the Jing'an Temple area, we ended up at How Way, a regular destination of ours. As we entered the restaurant, we were engulfed in the smell of spicy oil. (This makes sense, as we, like everyone else, often order the bowl of fish in spicy chili oil, though we didn't order it this time.) See the pictures for details. Due to the strength of the flavors of How Way's dishes, when we left we still had room in our stomachs. We stopped eating because our taste buds were exhausted.

After lunch, we stopped by three Chinese bakeries on the way home, gazing at the wide variety of unusual baked goods China has to offer. Bakeries are expensive by Chinese standards, and one bakery had a day-old/damaged bread line in the back that was crazy crowded! From these bakeries, we ended up with an eclectic assortment: a cream horn (a horn-shaped bread (yes bread, not pastry dough) filled with cream), a potato roll (yes, a roll filled with mashed sweet potatoes), a coffee roll/muffin, a ham loaf (a loaf of bread with chunks of ham inside), and perhaps more that I'm forgetting.