Shanghai day 3, flavor is where you find it...
... and I've not found much.
You'd think that being as much of a fan as I am of Food and, particularly Asian cuisines, I'd be in heaven here in Shanghai. Sorry, try again.
For the most part. I'm finding the food to be fairly bland. For example, last night I tried "Sushi Tei," a rather large traditional Tokyo-style Sushi bar and restaurant. I wouldn't say I was disappointed in the food, but Zach and his team back in Omaha don't have much to worry about from these folks. Even the Baby Octopus in Spicy Brown Sauce as... bland.
Now that's not to say that all of the food here is that way. For example, I went looking for "the Peoples' Cola," which is actually call "Fei Chang," or "Very Special" Cola. What I grabbed instead was a Vanilla Coke. It was probably the most pronounced flavor of anything I've had here yet. Well, there's been more thing. On the route between the Microsoft offices and the Hotel, there's an actual Western style Coffee house. And I had an honest-to-goodness Mocha last night. Strong and sweet and bitter all at the same time.
I'm even more reminded of this in something I saw on my way back to the Hotel, Mocha in hand. By the fountain I mentioned yesterday, there was an area set and what sounded like electronica-meets-traditional Chinese music was blaring over tower mounted speakers. In a well-light area near by, fifty, maybe sixty couples were dancing. But they were doing Western dance. I recognized what some were waltzing, some were Tangoing and a few were fox-trotting. And none of them looked happy to be doing it. Utterly bizarre to me. Maybe they were and I just couldn't tell.
There's an old Foodie adage that I suppose I really should be keeping in mind before lamenting too much. "Flavor is where you find it." Maybe I just need to look harder.