I had an intense craving for Korean “Chinese” food. Since I didn’t experience cravings during pregnancy so far, I had to satisfy it!

I looked at the hubby and said “I have a craving for 짜장면 (Black bean noodles)!” 

He didn’t even hesitate, he said… let’s find a place and GO!

So I did a quick search and found this CNN Travel article of “The Best South Korean food in Koreatown (Shanghai)“.

We immediately got into a cab and headed over to Tao Yuan (도워) in Hongqiao. It’s located near many Korean stores, restaurants as this is Shanghai’s Koreatown. 

We ordered the 탕수육 (Korean sweet and sour pork). I have to say, this was actually really good! The pork was very crispy, the sauce lives up to its name and I highly recommend it.

We also got an order of the fried dumplings (군만두) and you can’t go wrong with anything fried. It’s gigantic, which we weren’t expecting and we ended up taking half of it home. I haven’t had Korean dumplings in so long, this was an immense treat for me. 

The hubby got 짬뽕 (Spicy seafood noodles) and he said it tasted authentic to him. He has  a tastebud of a Chinese so I can’t comment if this is true or not. I would have tried it but spicy isn’t my thing, even more so while pregnant. But it looked and smelled delicious to me!

Ah, the reason why we went… my craving for 짜장면! The noodles were a bit too done for my liking, I like mine with some bite and the sauce was underwhelming. I’m really surprised by the above article that raved about this dish. It did satisfy my craving, but in all honesty… I’ll probably never order this dish again. 

While 짜장면 is supposed to be less salty than the original version in Beijing.. it shouldn’t be bland. The sauce itself should have a punch from the bean paste and be smoothed out from turning it into a sauce. But it was only 20RMB ($3USD) so it’s hard for me to complain too much. 

Pros: Everything we ate was cheap, delicious (minus my dish which was just ok).

Cons: The black bean noodles were meh. The restaurant allows smoking and since the dishes aren’t the healthiest and if you have a tendency to swell or get bloated after fried/salty foods, this is probably NOT the place to go!

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Tao Yuan (桃园 )

103 Jinhui Nan Lu, near Hongquan Lu

金汇南路103号, 近 虹泉路

When you take the line 2 subway to Jing’An Temple, off of exit 2, you’ll find yourself in a food court area of the Jiu Gang Mall. One of the first places I took immediate notice was Uncle Tetsu’s Cheese Cake. You can’t miss it with the gigantic lines, probably the only place in the food court you’ll find a line this long.

Every single time I have been, the line is just too long to bear. I’ve always wanted to try it but neither the hubs or I wanted to wait that long. This is where my in laws come in… I took them to the grocery store that is next door and was telling them how much I wanted to try this cheese cake but the line is too long. 

My FIL told me he doesn’t mind waiting and told me not to worry, he’ll buy some for me. Awwwwww, I told him it’s not a big deal but he did! Him and my MIL both waited 45 minutes for this cake! You can only buy one per person so they wanted to make their wait worthwhile so they bought two.

The cakes are cheap, 39 RMB per and baked fresh in front of you. It’s given to you steaming hot, right out of the oven and the smell is wonderful. It’s quite funny because when I showed them this place, they showed me a picture of the same thing in Taiwan! It’s famous there as well, with giant lines and when we did the currency exchange… it was about the same price. I hear they also have this in Japan as well.

They brought it home and I was so thankful for their patience to buy it just for me. (I’m so spoiled, so lucky huh?) We had some after dinner and we all enjoyed it very much. At room temperature (and I imagine hot) it has a strong egg taste, more than a “cheesecake” taste. It’s light, airy and spongy. Quite good in my opinion.

We put the other cake in the fridge overnight and had some today and I have to say that I prefer it cold. The egg wasn’t as strong and it did have more of a light cheesecake taste. It reminds me of a Japanese cheesecake I used to love. 

Now, is the wait worth it? 

It depends on your patience. It’s cheap, it’s delicious and to me it’s worth it if you can stand a 45min-1 hour wait. But I know that most people probably don’t have that kind of time. But I really like it for afternoon tea or dessert and feel pretty blessed to have the in laws sacrifice their time for my sweet tooth.

If you happen to try this, let me know what you think and if it was worth the wait.  

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Uncle Tetsu Cheese Cake
1618 Nanjing West Road, Jiu Gang Mall B1 (Subway Line 2, Jing’An Temple: Exit 2)
南京西路1618号久光百货B1楼(近静安寺)

The hubs continually amazes (and spoils) me! He told me to go to my salon and he got a hair treatment for me. It was a deep conditioning treatment for extra dry/coarse hair. My hair is so damaged, I don’t even know why… I don’t really blow dry my hair but it’s naturally frizzy and rough. So they put some kind of Kerastase deep conditioning treatment in my hair and then put my hair in a steamer? I have no idea, I saw the orange bottles and they were tiny with a little pump. 

It made my hair so smooth!! I asked if it’s a permanent  thing and my stylist said it’s just a treatment to nourish my hair and make it stronger. The hubs didn’t recognize me afterwards, he thought I got a haircut as well but all I did was the treatment! I wish I had taken a picture of the actually treatment but I forgot. Sad. And what’s even more amazing is that it cost around $10 USD. I’m pretty sure it might cost more but the hubs gets the discount. Lucky me!

We celebrated my birthday with Alina and Kin today. They suggested japanese hot pot (OMG it was only $10 USD) and it was delicious! I was so stuffed and they even gave us iced coffee and dessert for free. Alina gave me the innisfree (Korean brand) green tea seed serum/global launching celebration set. I’ve been really interested in innisfree since they have stores here because their ingredients are from Jeju Island and supposedly extremely good for your skin. I can’t wait to try it out, if I end up liking it… I may have to buy a set for the BFF.

I don’t know if you can tell from the above picture but Alina and I have the same purse (in different colors)! So naturally we had to take a picture together. She and I were talking about how we’re thankful to have each other and that our families are so close. Although the language barrier makes it hard at times, I’m so thankful for her. Sometimes when we don’t know what the other is saying, we use google translate to help us. Sometimes the translation is horrible and we end up laughing so much. 

After lunch, Kin and Alina took us to the Hongqiao flower market. This is where you can go and get flowers and plants for wholesale prices. The peonies, mini cactus and mini plants were only 15 RMB (Around $2), the medium size leafy plant was maybe 30RMB ($4 or so) and the orchid (including the vase) was 85 RMB ($11/12 ish). 

I might have overdone it a little bit with all the things I bought at the flower market but our place needs some plants. I wanted to improve the quality of the air in our home since we never open the windows. Shanghai has horrible air quality so having plants is probably the only way to go. Not bad for the prices huh? I wish America were that cheap… you have to buy a lot in America to buy at wholesale prices but at the Hongqiao market, you can bargain with them. But if you’re not the type to bargain, their starting prices are pretty inexpensive.

I am exhausted from a full weekend of birthday activities. I was a little skeptical that this birthday would be not so great but it turned out WONDERFUL. Even though I’m half a world away from all my loved ones, they still found a way to make it special for me.  

I’m glad I got the surgery before my birthday because when my birthday hit, there was so much love that it was next to impossible to feel even remotely sad about anything. The hubs went above and beyond for my birthday and I always wonder how I got so lucky. My wonderful friends made me feel extra special, wishing me well and sending so much love. Everyone who left comments for me on my little blog made me feel loved and I can’t believe how kind some of you are to me even though you’ve never met me.

I think the second half or 2012 is going to be good for us. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend too!

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Salon ESPRIT
Super Brand Mall – Lujiazui, Pudong 

Hokkaido Kelp Pot
771 Hongjing Lu, Hongqiao, Puxi

Hongqiao Bird and Flower Market
718 Hongjing Lu, Hongqiao, Puxi

Hey everyone! I’m guest blogging over at Married Up With Wine, so please swing by and say hello! Mandy is a good friend, we met through Weddingbee where we both blogged about our wedding. She is also an Expat and is currently living in Spain with her husband and two adorable dogs. We have shared many IMs, video chats and emails about how our lives differ from when we lived in America. She has amazing reviews of restaurants, her travels, her life in Spain and who doesn’t love a girl who loves wine?

I previously blogged about Nanjing West Road’s pedestrian Street. Oh, honey! I was mistaken, the proper name is Wujiang Road Leisure Street. As I blogged before, it is located off the Line 2 subway stop Nanjing West Road, exit 3. Once you get out of exit 3, you are in the middle of the pedestrian street!

Remember that ramen place I ate at with my in-laws there? My husband and I decided to check it out again this past weekend and he loved it!

Once you get out of the subway, you’ll see Ramen Play. Their service is so-so but their deals are amazing. The food was tasty, I had a hot and sour ramen soup, hubs had black sesame fried rice. We shared two appetizers (cheese and pork fritters and lobster salad) and got drinks. It was only 138 RMB for the both of us and we were plenty full. If you’re looking for cheap eats and happen to love Japanese food (ramen, fried rice, omurice and so forth) then Ramen Play might be for you!

This was the set menu they had for 1, 2, and 4 people. It’s definitely a better deal than getting it separately but there are a lot of things on the regular menu that isn’t on the set. So have a look and see what you fancies your taste buds.

After you’ve finished, walk around! There are tons of other food places like the desserts I mentioned in my previous post, Happy Lemon, Krispy Kreme, Korean food and there’s a decent amount of shopping. Make sure you check out some shopping at Hot Wind (they are kind of like a Forever 21, cool accessories, clothes and shoes) and the mall that is attached to it. They have quite a few Korean shops, which surprised me and made me feel instantly at home. I miss being able to communicate easily, seeing Korean words made me feel a lot better!

We’re going to go back this week and give this Korean place a try. It looks like typical Korean snack food, I hope it’s good! I really miss authentic Korean food and I know we should venture out to Honqiao (which isn’t too far from where we live by cab) but I’ve been too lazy to go there. I’m also looking for a bookstore that sells Korean books (children and adult) to keep up with my Korean and to give books to my nieces since they are half Korean! 

Isn’t the window absolutely adorable? It made me smile and it was wonderfully sunny that day. I think I found my new hangout area!

What are your favorite hangout places? I usually like places with tea, a small snack and free wifi.