Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Food Glorious Food

How can a blog not talk about food? And undeniably one of the most exciting experience in travel is to taste the food of the country one visits. For you foodies out there waiting in anticipation, here goes...

The most memorable dish and the one I liked most during our trip was the Famous Wan San Pork Knuckle at Zhou Zhuang. Super tender and rich in flavor. We were all going wow wow.. yum yum... as we savour the juicy meat which melts in your mouth. It was the biggest pork knuckle I've ever ordered and the best I've tasted. For a bunch of us who are pretty health conscious we were attacking the fatty pork knuckle without a care. I was zooming in on the skin, minus the fat underneath and passing some to my wife as we were told by Western Doctors that the skin can be beneficial to the musculoskeletal joints and the skin elasticity. "The proof is in the eating" We ended up ordering another piece. I just couldn't believe it!



Shops selling take-away local Tim Sum (snacks) can be found in most neighborhood in Shanghai. Duck parts are local favourite - head, neck, webs, wings, heart, gizzard and liver.... and yes even tongues. Those crazy about tongues can consume a plateful of it in one sitting.


This local salad which I believe is made from garlic chive (known as ku chye in Singapore) and peanut is very popular among locals and is commonly served in restaurants. I did not particularly liked it, tasted rather bland.

Generally, we found the food there tend to be slightly more salty and oily than what we have in Singapore. The meat buns (we call it Pau in Singapore, they call it Mun Tuo) are thick skinned. It is very oily inside and have very little fillings. Our meat buns here in Singapore are the opposite.

Sunday, June 06, 2010

TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) knee osteoarthritis treatment

A large part of our visit to Shanghai were spent on visiting the TCM doctor to seek treatment for my wife's and my mother-in-law's knee pain. We made 9 visits in the 10 days we were there. The doctor recommended daily treatment without break. This resulted in Hangzhou being dropped from our planned itinerary.

Treatment entails Acupuncture, Moxibustion, Cupping Therapy and Massage and then finishing off with a herbal patch to the treated area.


Indirect moxibustion. An acupuncture針灸 needle is inserted into an acupoint and the tip of the needle is then wrapped in moxa and ignited, generating heat to the point and the surrounding area. The moxa is a Chinese herb Artemisia Mug wort, a type of Chrysanthemum. The leaf of the Artemisia is bitter, pungent and considered to be thermal and warming in nature. Moxibustion is known for providing relief to stubborn musculoskeletal pains. In ancient times a small, cone-shaped amount of moxa is placed on top of an acupoint and burned. Another method is holding a cigar like stick over the acupoint to deliver the heat.


Fire cupping facilitate improved blood-flow and generate qi movement in the patient. Specially made bulb-shaped glass cups are heated, creating a vacuum and applied against the patient’s skin. The suction is so strong that the skin is pulled out creating what looks like "extra large nipples" lol, and we really had a good laugh.


I decided to have a go myself, just for the experience so I told the doctor about my occasional numbness down my right arm to the fingers and stiff neck. In my case the doctor did not apply burned moxa to the needles but held a lighted flame to the tip of the needle. It was quite an experience and spectacle : )

Friday, June 04, 2010

The positive side of Shanghai

Shoppers providing their own Eco friendly bags

On a positive note, Shanghai is really a nice place overall. I would have no problem settling there. You can sense that the Shanghainese are really putting in the effort to project a good image to foreigners for the Shanghai Expo. The notorious habits of spitting in public and the pajama papas and mamas walking in the streets can hardly be found. The streets are clean, trees and flowers in bloom lined most major traffic junctions. People are approachable and are Eco friendly. :) At the supermarket shoppers brought their own Eco friendly bags. An old electric cable bus still run today to cut carbon footprint as I was told. Bicycles and tricycles are widely used.

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