Shanghai VS.

I like food. This is a fact. I usually spend half my day thinking about what I will eat next. Not in an I’m obsessed with food I weigh 300lbs kinda way, more in a this student is really boring how can I amuse myself, oh yah, what will I eat when I get out of here kinda way. Now I’m a big fan of Chinese food in Canada. Huge fan, its delicious. Beef and Broccoli, General Tao’s Chicken, sesame beef, lemon chicken, etc. Shanghai has none of these dishes. And if they do, there are no pictures of them and therefore I can not order them. You see when I eat at a some of the local street vendors they got here, and the countless small ‘restaurants’ on every street I can only eat what I see. Most of these places don’t have an english menu so I’m forced to pick between what I can see on the walls if there are pictures or just pointing if there seems to be only one thing on the menu (ex. noodle stands but more on that later).

So after years of whats your favorite food question and never really knowing, I think after being in China for a while I have the answer. And its really quite simple. A good sandwich. A good sandwich transcends eating from a mundane ritual of survival to an epic adventure. And I’m not exaggerating. Good sandwiches are hard to find in Shanghai.

Exhibit A

what you see up there is a salami sandwich I bought ready made at a western style supermarket. Let me break it down for you layer by layer starting at the top:
1)whole wheat bread – good start
2)luttuce, tomato, mayo – ok….
3)bread
4)lettuce tomato, mayo and salami – not lots of salami heavy on the mayo
5)bread
6)lettuce, tomato, mayo,, – what the heck is going on here, who needs this much lettuce tomato and mayo
7)bread

So to conclude, that is 4 pieces of bread, one layer of salami and enough lettuce tomato and mayo to last a life time. Damn you Shanghai!

My favorite sandwich of all time is the standard club sandwich. 3 layers

1)bread
2)chicken or turkey (not the sliced but the real thing) mayo maybe cheese
3)bread
4)bacon, lettuce tomato
5)bread

This Club Sandwich is best exemplified at the Black Bear Diner in Redding California. I was 11 at the time, on a good old fashion family road trip through America. This is where I fell in love with the club sandwich. I know its weird but I remember this being the best sandwich of my life. You know how if Oprah talks about something on her show the company will send her that product. Well if your out there Black bear, send a brother some love.

Proof that the club sandwich is a sandwich fit for royalty such as myself: it was the favorite sandwich of Kind Edward the 8th. Too bad it wasn’t Henry the 8th. However it appears that the sandwich I enjoy today the triple decker is ‘bastardized’ as it was originally a 2 decker sandwich. I gotta say, I think it has evolved, developed, improved. The three decks gives you a chance to appreciate each layer for its own merits.

A good sandwich, although one costing a pretty penny (for me anyways), can be found at Waga’s they have these all over the city and it offers a nice business on the go type atmosphere. I had the pesto chicken with walnuts sandwich the other day and devoured every bite of the panini. Actually the sandwhich are all under 50RMB which works out to about $7. I know, cheap in western standards (subway will cost more) but I’ve been used to the pointing and ordering of Chinese food for too long. I guess in some ways I like it.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.