Cheap Eat Beat: Of Pharaohs and Figs

When I was a kid, my only exposure to figs was the bible and my great-grandma's box of Fig Newtons; think evil Egyptian Pharaohs or the smell of nursing homes. As you might guess, neither the concept of stale "fiber boosters" nor heathens burning in hell were very appealing.

Then, after college I made it out of the United States and motorcycled around Crete. I was converted. Oh! They were everywhere! Figs - gorgeous, sweet, luscious figs -- were laden upon...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Watermelon Salad?

A good friend, GP, was recently raving about a salad. We had just awoke, at  the crack of 11am, and were  downstairs watching a watermelon turn into a smoothie. I was blabbing again about how great the fruit was. "Oh yea, I totally agree," my friend said. "My favorite is watermelon and feta salad."

I'm ashamed to admit, my little "food prejudice demons" immediately started screaming "NO WAY!" Watermelon, as I mentioned in a earlier blog, is to me the...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: No stoves, continued

Allright ladies and jellymen, I tried out the gazpacho recipe from last week (with mostly Chinese ingredients instead of "basil, goat cheese etc) and it was awesome and involved little sweating on my part. But I tweaked it again. Here were my proportions

7 super ripe, red, juicy tomatoes. Discard pips, chop

2 small tender cucumbers, roughly chopped

1 lemon, juiced -- seeds removed

4 cloves garlic, chopped. (I stuck the garlic to soak in the lemon juice)

15-20 sprigs of cilantro, chopped roughly....[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Fancy and Stove Free

What I'm (non) cooking tonight

One of my favorite things to do is peruse the food and dining section of the New York Times and LA times...especially when I'm hungry, sick of eating noodles or had a particularly unsatisfying lunch. My bookmark is literally crawling with recipes and half-cocked ideas.

While many of the recipes, NYT's especially, can be a little high-handed and relatively impractical in China - it's more for the concept. And a lot of recipes can meld...[read more]

Your Watermelon and You

Well, it's finally that time of year. The time when the only thing that seems worth buying at the fruit stall are the watermelons piled so high, so vibrant green, so cool and fresh looking, that the rest of the fruit looks wane and dusty.

There are three main types of watermelons that seem to be on market. The big seeded red ones -- super sweet, brilliant red, full of seeds.  The little red ones -- also super sweet and crisper,...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Tasting Wine

It seems to be the season for wine tastings, so I would just like to pause a moment to reflect on these events. In terms of spending smarts, wine tastings are not generally events for the masses who count their jiaos and maos. However, I have found that in Shanghai you can increasingly attend these events without searing your pocketbook or offending your palate with rotgut.

I have to say, RMB200 is about my limit. I'm a cheapo though, and a...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Eggplant Party

Oh, how I love walking into my local market and seeing these rich purple-skinned morsels (sometimes, I am told, also called aubergines) piled up and glistening among so much green stuffs. 

--- Five Facts I betcha' didn't know about eggplant

1. Eggplants are not only classified as a fruit, they are technically a berry.

2. Eggplants, tobacco, tomatoes, chili peppers and potatoes all belong to the deadly nightshade family - and all of them contain some form...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: What's in a biscuit?

I was having a conversation about the definition of a biscuit with a British person last week. I am American. To me, biscuits are not cookies or something you have with afternoon tea. But then I found telling this British person what a biscuit is just didn't do this American piece'o heaven justice.

How do you explain an American biscuit to someone who has never sat at the breakfast table of a Grandma in South Carolina, spooning gravy over two biscuit...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Soup time

Even though it's April, it seems that the Shanghai weather is still trying to convince us that warm comfort food is in the cards. Luckily, it's as simple as gathering together some old bones, and throwing whatever veggies you have around in the pot. Here's the way I do it. Because the urge to make stock only hits me once in a while, when the weather is really crappy, I save all my old bones by sticking them in a...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Potted Food

I have to admit that I've never really understood the allure of things like hot-pot and other self cooked dishes eaten in restaurants. People love to go out and eat these things, but my thing is - if I'm paying someone else to feed me....I don't really want to do any work! And man, boiling your own meat means you get hot and sticky from the splattering oil, and your clothes smell like hot pot for the rest of the...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Old Ducks

I have to admit, to someone not accustomed to the idea, it probably sounds pretty gross. Old duck soup with rice noodles (老鸭粉丝汤) in Shanghai is basically just that. A broth made from old duck bones, served with all the duck parts that reside inside of the animal. This means you get the works - blood, intestines, and kidneys - all swimming in you soup alongside some fried puffed tofu, cilantro and thin rice noodles. Please, before you react, look...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Eggs!

Something that was ingrained into my consciousness at a very young age was that leftovers were meant for eggs.

Last nights pot roast?
Pot roast omelets!
Left over stir fry?
Stir fry scramble!
And if there was nothing in the fridge besides kimchi and lunchmeat?
Well, guess what kind of meal we had for dinner.

And the thing is that, eggs work as a great binder! They absorb strong flavors while highlighting the good ones. We loved...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: On Not Cooking

Do you ever just have one of those months when it seems like there's just no time to cook? You get home from work and it's like - I don't want to move, think or breathe any more than is necessary. Well, I'm having one of those months.

It's too cold and rainy to drag my butt over to the wet market. The idea of walking into a Tesco and listening to that stupid song they play over and over and...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Julia Child in Shanghai

So I admit it. I recently watched the movie Julie/Julia, and was probably the advertising departments dream target. Meryl Streep was electrifying as the odd-ball awe-inspiring cookbook author, and I promptly became fixated on the idea of Julia Child and her recipes. So much so that for Christmas I asked my mother to buy me the mammoth two-volume bible "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." This was an intriguing request for my mother, as she knows that I follow recipes...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Cake in a Soup Pan

I don't own an oven, but for my sweeties birthday I was bound and determined to bake a cake. This is a dangerous prospect for a half-hazard cook like myself, but hey. A birthday's a birthday and love is love. So after getting the birthday boy out of the way, I high-tailed it to Tesco, where I was sure I could pick up an oversized oven, big enough to bake a small cake in. On arrival, I realized it was...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Quite a Pickle

I like sour things, especially those that have been dunked in vinegar. And what better way to indulge in my cravings than pickles. Real and worthwhile Kosher dills are difficult to find in this dear metropolitan and a small bottle often costs a bundle. Plus a bottle of pickles will only last me...I admit it...probably about a day. For those who need something crunchy and sweet and sour to lighten up a heavy meal, brighten up a sandwich or satisfy...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Coming Home

I have to admit, while in the States for the holidays, I overindulged in all things "Western". I blissfully gnawed on chunks of sourdough bread, ate baby spinach by the crate, brie cheese by the wheel, hummus by the container and drank red wine by the bottle. I know we live in Shanghai, the most metropolitan city in China, but for the most part, all of that stuff tastes better in the states.

However, upon hitting the streets of Shanghai after...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Home for the Holidays

Don't get me wrong, I love Chinese food. I grew up eating it. It's in my blood and it is pretty much all I can cook. However, when going home for the holidays, there is just something extremely satisfying about going to a local supermarket and buying all-American. Leisurely perusing the multicolored isles, I have the freedom to ponder the infinite things that I would like to eat, and haven't for about a year. The snack food row housing "low...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Old Bread

Ever wonder what to do with the old half a loaf of French bread that has been sitting in you cupboard for the past few days/past week? Have no fear; there are lots of ways to turn that shriveled loaf into a tasty, savory, fragrant dish. My personal favorite (and a favorite of guests) is my bread salad - Think a mixture with fresh veggies mixed with an even bigger proportion of homemade, savory croutons. No tedious roughage involved. It's...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Joyous Diversity

I recently became re-acquainted with my love for lamb after a late night visit to the blandly named Xinjiang Restaurant (新疆餐厅). It's on Dingxi Road near Kaiba (#825) - You'll know it when you get there as there are always loads of Muslim men standing outside gnawing on rounds of bread and grilling skewers of lamb.

This place is (more or less) the real deal. All the servers and cooks in the restaurant were obviously Uigher, many of them speak better...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Wasabi Potatoes

The lowly Chinese potato has a bad rap. An Italian chef told me recently that he only uses 50% potato mash in his gnocchi because the potato strain sold here is not as flavorful as those in other places. Some tell me they are too mealy. Others say they have no texture whatsoever. However, as holiday season fast approaches and the weather turns bone cold, thoughts inevitably turn towards the idea of heavy comfort food and the poor...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Warm up with Wine

You love the idea, you know you do; hot red wine warming your hands and tummy while filling the house with heady fragrances of cinnamon, anise and fruit. As the weather drops us and our Shanghai brethren into a soggy cold darkness and people are starting to gripe about how they wish they were somewhere else, why not make the most of a bad situation by making the best of another bad situation. Cheap Chinese wine.

Mulling wine makes even some...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat: Kumquat Season

Kumquats are in season! But lucky for us, we're on the Kumquat's home turf. According to my extensive Wikipedia research, kumquats originated in China and have long been cultivated here, noted in literature dating back to the 12th century. The fruit originates in Guangzhou, and the name comes from the Cantonese word "kam kwat" meaning "golden orange".

Even more exciting, they are sold in kilo bags for about RMB15, not the boutique prices of other countries. Eaten peel and all,...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat #4: Does This Chinese Food Make Me Look Fat?

A lot of foreigners are convinced that Chinese food is the culprit of creeping waistlines and spreading derrieres. I admit there are times that my dish seems more fried than noodle, but when compared to a lot of Western cuisine Chinese food (eaten right) probably kicks our cuisines fat butt. I mean, my own America is the home of both McDonalds and the Atkins diet! For years, dieticians over there have been telling us "Eggs, no eggs; juice, no juice;...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat #3: Street food shut down (part 2)

As mentioned in my blog last week, Shanghai seems to be cracking down on street food. Despite my loyalty to these traveling cheap eats, the sweep has some defense. The government cites sanitation as the big danger of street food vendors. If people get sick or die, it's hard to trace which vendors are cooking with contaminated food or oil, and even harder for the sanitation department to do regular investigations. The city is also responsible...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat #2: Street food shut down (part 1)

Eating late, the best bet for my neighborhood is the trusty shaokao place around the corner. Operating out of a storefront past 4am, the place is perfect for a beautiful night of squatting on little stools and tearing meat off sticks. Last Sunday however, just as I and my dining partner had tucked in for a 9pm feast, the grill-master informed us that the police were coming and that we couldn't eat there. They promptly took the seats from under...[read more]

Cheap Eat Beat #1: Picking your hole in the wall

The lights are neon. The walls are white and bare. The wait staff ignores you until you kick them in the shins. Picking the right hole-in-the-wall (HITW) restaurant can be difficult because they are ubiquitous in their dingy looks, non-English menus and the fact that they never get a smiley face from the board of hygiene.

However, some of the best Chinese food is served for cheap in the crummiest looking places, even in Shanghai. Telling between a HITW that serves...[read more]