Brunch in a market, Dinner in private room.

---

This morning, J, MT, T, E and I piled slowly into the hired van and headed off to the Taikang Road Market to explore and meet some of J’s co-workers visiting from Seattle for brunch at Kommune. This area was once mainly residential, but now is clearly a tourist trap, though a lovely one. It is a maze of tiny streets and strange alley shortcuts complete with open public toilets. The kids truly enjoyed, despite the excessive heat, exploring through the warren of shops and cafes. I enjoyed the contrast between the shops directed to foreigners and the places where people still live out their daily life and air their clean laundry.

J showed us into the Woo Scarf shop where he had purchased MT’s beautiful silk/acrylic modern Chinese shawl. The walls and shelves in the tiny shop were piled high with gorgeous scarves and shawls in an array of intricate designs, delicate fabrics and a rainbow of colors. Of course, I had to pick something out especially since my grandmother’s 92nd birthday is coming up soon. She is always somewhat chilly and I know she will love the pink shawl decorated with peonies I picked out. Aside from that, it will fit her (at 5’3” much better than it would me at 6’ tall!)

We saw windows full of touristy knick-knacks: chopsticks, dolls, photographs and other ethnic art. But one window held tiny, intricate traditionally designed doll furniture. If I hadn’t been worried that it would break into itty-bitty pieces during the trip home, I might have bought it. There were people everywhere, sitting in doorways, working on buildings, chattering away and going about their daily lives.

We spotted J’s co-workers sitting comfortably at shaded tables outside Kommune, a café with an American menu, mostly, and Korean armed forces recruiting posters. MT and I asked if we could sit inside, thinking it would be cooler. It wasn’t, but by then we were seated and had ordered. The kids had kid’s meals, while 4 of the 6 adults present ordered crepes with fresh fruit and yogurt (MT, J, one of the guys and me.)

After brunch, we headed home and I, for one, was quite happy to enter the nicely air-conditioned house to cool off! MT and J headed off to Carrefours for some shopping and a mini-date at the coffee shop after escorting me and the kids over to the clubhouse for a dip in the pool. The water was lovely and cool, but too deep for the kids to touch. They took turns riding on me across the pool, pretending to go to work on the other side.

After playing for an hour, we rinsed off in the showers in the slippery locker room (everything here is made out of slippery surfaces) and neatly avoiding a concussion when T, trying to put on his underwear while sitting on the locker room bench tipped backwards in slow motion while I quickly grabbed his arm, we all quickly walked back to the house in an attempt to limit our exposure to the ferocious mosquitoes. I fed the kids a snack and jumped in the shower. There is so much chlorine in the water here that I constantly feel a little itchy and stiff.

At 5 PM, we were all dressed up as fancy as we were packed to be (in T’s and my case, not very fancy at all) and J’s co-workers arrived to have drinks before we all headed out to dinner. At 5:45 PM, then we unloaded on Hong Mei Lu (“lu” means road, by the way) across the street from the movie shop where J had found the secret room full of pirated DVDs. We walked in the door, 5 American men, 1 American woman (MT decided to wait in the car) and 2 American 4-year-olds and were ushered up the stairs. At the top, the door cut out of the wall, complete with shelves holding DVDs was already open, a Chinese woman waving us up another set of stairs.

We found ourselves in a small room, with walls covered in American DVDs, clearly contraband by their prices, and three or four people waiting to take your money. Every movie I could think of, and many that I couldn’t, was there waiting to be purchased. They had the newest season of LOST, not yet out on DVD, The complete 4 seasons of Gray’s Anatomy, House, and even WALL-E, which is of course, still in theaters. I was a bit in awe.

This is the way it works:
1. They recognize you as an American or other foreigner and direct you to their hidden room
2. You pick out what you want.
3. You pay the man sitting at the couch in the hidden room.
4. They bag your movie up.
5. You exit down the stairs and out into the legit part of their business.
6. You go home, watch your movie, and if it is like the WALL-E or Zohan copies that J bought previously, laugh at their poor quality.

But here is what I found hilarious. They have gone to great lengths to keep up appearances and keep the secret room hidden behind a false wall. BUT, if (I’m not saying whether I did or not, but none of the guys did) you’ve bought a DVD and you take it home and remove it from the bag you will find a business card, complete with address! So you can direct the taxi drivers back again.

After leaving the movie shop, we headed to Lan Beauty, an upscale, decadent dinner club, bar and cigar bar covering five floors. The place was beautiful and so were the hostesses wearing flowing black gowns with large gold brooches. We went up an elevator and into a private dining room. I have to say, a private dining room is definitely the way to go when you have little kids with you in an upscale restaurant! They loved it! It had its own restrooms and sitting areas complete with tables. Which T and E took over turning one into a kids table, which no adults were allowed to sit at. One of J’s co-workers, JD, had them laughing uproariously as he tried to shrink so he could join them at the table.

MT and I kept the kids amused drawing connect-the-dots and mazes. One was for a bunny to find his carroty-dinner. Another was of Chrissy as a ballerina trying to get to the stage, T’s idea definitely not mine since I have two left feet when it comes to dancing! J ordered dinner and talked with his business associates. Then the food began to arrive. MT and I lost count of exactly how many courses we were served, but I am pretty sure there were more than 10, with at least 16 different foods. Unbeknownst to me, one of them was eel. It was salty and slimy. I ate some before I knew what it was and though it was not awful, I did not really enjoy it.

Each plate came with tiny, but interesting servings of food. I ate without knowing what I was eating for the most part, while entertaining T who had snuggled up to me so I could draw him another and another and another connect-the-dot or maze. Finally, the piece de resistance arrived, Mud Chicken. This is what the kids had been waiting for. A special server brought out the clay baked chicken. The waitress offered a mallet to the kids, who each banged it three times, traditionally for good luck and prosperity.

Then the server cracked it open, peeled the clay and banana leaves off and carved the meat. It was delicious, so tender and tasty. E at first refused to eat any, then asked for more and more. I fed her bites with chopsticks like she was a little baby bird. MT and I were sitting at a leather bench at the table, with T on one side of me and E stretched out behind me with her head on MT’s lap. Once the mud chicken arrived and she’d had some, E was asleep in, oh, about 5 minutes.
MT helped T lay down on one of the side couches and I lifted E up and moved her to the other. Now both kids were asleep. MT and I went back to dinner, only to watch in surprise as the waitress came in a few minutes later with four plastic wrapped packages. She ripped them open and carefully covered each child, one by one, in two Pashmina shawls.

My favorite part of the meal was one of the desserts, an individual mango pudding for each of us. It was molded into the shape of a carp. And it tasted divine. Another dessert, on the other hand, fell flat. MT and I had wanted to try Turnip cake. It was on the dessert menu. But when it came, we both decided it was misplaced. Tiny squares of turnip cake were covered in tiny, salty shrimps and vegetables. We couldn’t eat much.

We left sometime after 10 PM. J carried T out and laid him in the backseat of our first taxi. MT climbed in and I followed with a sleeping Emi in my arms. I discovered that there are no seat belts in the taxi’s here, well, there are the straps but you can’t get to the buckles, so they are not at all useable, as we headed home. Suddenly, I realized I didn’t know if MT had the key.

When I asked, she replied with a word she wouldn’t have used if the kids were awake. It was late, the mosquitoes were out, and we had two sleeping kids and no house key. Neither of us knew enough Chinese to ask the driver to turn around or to take us to a different house, or really know anyone to help us out. MT called J, and he headed home from drinks with his friends.

It turned out that we needn’t have worried so much. The driver let us off at the clubhouse, which finally had the keys we’d ordered the day before ready. We walked around the block to the house and MT let us in. Unfortunately, E woke up while walking back to the house, and was a bit inconsolable. She was tired and was not in the best place to sleep, you know, being held and walking through the mosquitoes. But soon she was in bed, snuggling with her dad (who arrived right after us) and her dit-dit with T and MT snuggling in the other bed.

---

Photos

Oh, how sweet, a kitten!
Without exception, every single cat I have seen here looks too hot and ill! I kind of want to rescue one and bring it home with me!

My introduction to the Chinese squat toilet.
Not very pleasant, but I have seen much worse since!

The Shanghai Restaurant Supply store.
We stopped here to get some plates and bowls, but this place is awesome. I bought a tube of yellow cupcake liners that should last me a lifetime.

The soon-to-be kids table.
In the private room at Lan.

Two sleepy kids.
It was so hot and humid that upon leaving the restaurant, my camera lens fogged up!