Today we are just looking at the frogs - and go to cooking school

  

Last month I wrote about how expensive it is to cook western style in China. (See Post from 30.06). After 6 months in Shanghai now it was finally time for us to learn a bit more about how to cook Chinese food.  Not that we (or to be fair I should really say Paul..) didn´t know how to do it.  But the challenge was always that when we wanted to use our brand new wok we struggled to find the ingredients or didn´t know what they were called in Chinese, or most of the times - we saw something looking good but didn´t know a) what it was and b) what to do with it.

So together with our friends Silvia and Andi we signed up for a Chinese cooking workshop at "Shanghai Kitchen", which is luckily located round the corner form us (- and the Paulaner Beergarden for that matter :-) )

Our teacher was a young Shanghainese called Jimmy, which I soon wanted to start calling "Jimmy Oliver" because he approaches cooking with no less passion than his famous English colleague. When Jimmy is not teaching he is a chef at the Ritz Carlton and therefore we were very excited to find out how he prepares every expats favorite Shanghai dishes:

• Shanghai fried noodles
• Eggplant cooked with spicy sauce
• Kongbao chicken
• Fried Pork with Pinapple

But first we went on a tour to a local wet market. From fruit and vegetables to tofu, meat, fish, rice spices - you can get anything here, see for yourself:

Below Left: Making of Fresh Dim Sum

Below Right: Tofu Stand

Below Left: Frog was not on the menue (maybe part of advanced cooking?) but it is  worth mentioning that Paul had it last friday and aparently it does really taste like chicken.

Below Right: Hairy Crabs - they are a delicatessy in Shanghai. We were told that you take them alive and boil them for 2 minutes in water. After having to swim stacked up in a drum filled with a marinade of ginger, sugar and vinegar probably in some way a relief....

Once we had completed our shopping it was time for the kitchen:

I think Paul was probably ready to kill a chicken....

no worries.. it was already dead...

Hobby Chef vs. Domestic Science Degree:

Here we go - my Shanghai noodles - approved by Jimmy!

 

Now guess how much this 4 course dinner feeding 9 people cost?

100 RMB = ~ 12 EUR!

I just hope that Paul doesn´t expect me to take on the lead in the kitchen now ... :-)