Dining & Food in Shanghai China
While I was in Shanghai three weeks ago, I had a chance to try all kinds of food I’d never tried before. It was all great–I loved the authenticity of eating Chinese food in China. I also went with my girlfriend Wendy who did a fantastic job of finding us places to eat. Had I been alone I might have succumbed to the temptation of the familiar “golden arches” of McDonalds. That would have been ironic beyond belief. Never go to a foreign country and eat American food. It’s just bad taste!
The above little beauty is a mound of shaved, packed ice covered with sweet beans, black jelly, and some caramelized vegetables. It has also had a sweet sauce poured over it. It may very well be the strangest thing I ate in Shanghai, yet my girlfriend loves them. And, once you get over how odd the combination of ingredients is, and the shape, so unlike anything I’d ever seen before, it was actually quite tasty. You want to balance the solid stuff with the cool ice, and enjoy them in mixed proportions together.
Walking in that same mall’s food area, we came across this phoenix watermelon fruit juice drink. I wanted to order one just to take a picture of it, but I settled for a quick shot in the window. I think the price was $18 RMB. Only $2 for something so majestic! Drink the elixir of the everliving bird and you shall never die!!
Our last dessert for the evening, I point out this ice cream advertisement on the streets of (correct me if I’m wrong darling) the Xujiahui district. I was immediately struck with how clever the execution of the ad was–it reminds me a little of the Freakonomics title with its classic orange/apple synergy.
We did end up eating Pizza once from a Western pizza chain… it wasn’t bad, but my garlic breadsticks were cold. And, it wasn’t Chinese food. However, the next image shall redeem me:
Oh, what is this? Well, it’s the delicious brunch that Wendy brought me for in the rotating restaurant at the top of the Oriental Peal Tower, the tallest tower in Asia, and the third tallest tower in the world. The view was spectacular, the food well presented and wide in variety, and the company stunning. I couldn’t have asked for a better meal!
Expedia Unconfirmed Flight Sucks!
I got the following message in my inbox from the kind folks at Expedia:
We have received an unconfirmed response on your reservation. This means that the airline has not acknowledged the flight and/or fare that you originally purchased. We have attempted to restore the original flights and have been unsuccessful. Without confirmation from the airline, we are unable to ticket this reservation.
Please call us at 1-800-EXPEDIA as soon as possible and refer to your itinerary number so that we can work with you to make alternate arrangements. Unless you call within 72 hours of receiving this e-mail, your reservation will automatically cancel.
If you have further questions, feel free to reply to this e-mail or contact Expedia customer services at 1-800-397-3342 and reference case ID xxxxxx. You can also visit the Expedia.com “Customer Support” page (
) for more customer service information.
I always thought when I bought plane tickets from Expedia that somewhere tickets, real tickets, would be issued to me, a seat reserved and noted, etc. Unfortunately, everything seems to operate in batch-mode, where airlines give blocks of seats to online vendors who match them together in strange ways that allow the possibility that the tickets they’ve resold may not represent spots on a plane:
I’m not the only one complaining about this practice. See:
My bank account also looks quite cute, waiting for $3000 in refunds:
This isn’t to blame Expedia though. To their benefit, they are refunding the total amount over those two cancelled flights. Also, their customer service reps on the phone were extremely apologetic and kind. It’s more a flaw in the system of batch-time ticket booking. With a real-time synchronized process, this sort of thing could not happen.
One thing leads to another
I rarely write about my personal life on this blog, but this story is interesting enough to warrant the diversion.
This Christmas, I had carefully planned a trip home to Phoenix to visit my family. I was to fly out Friday evening, and return Wednesday morning. Then, I planned to spend a few days relaxing in NYC before going back to work. I have gifts for all my family members, and my grandparents who were in town for the warm Arizona winter season from icy Canada. A few of my friends from high school also wanted to see me.
Then something new, exciting, and amazing came up.
The girl I had started seriously dating offered to host me with her family in Shanghai. Wow. I was touched by the invitation, but at first I thought it was just a politeness. I checked it out anyway and found that I could buy a ticket from Phoenix to Shanghai on Tuesday, and returning to NYC the next Monday. I thought that if it were possible it would be the best week spent anywhere of my life–something I’d remember forever. When I came to understand that she really wanted me to come, I purchased those tickets and looked forward to the most lovely Christmas of my life!
Then, a minor mishap tumbled up all my plans.
I had to get a rush L tourist visa to visit China, so I went to the embassy in NYC, documents in hand, Friday. I was there when it opened, and they told me to come back at 2 PM. I didn’t realize that they closed there are 2:30 PM, because their website led me to believe something else, and because I was very tired at the time. When I came back they were closed. I couldn’t take the same flight home, and when I got back to Queens, I found by calling airlines and online that there were no tickets to Phoenix, and then back to NYC Monday night / Tuesday morning.
Calling Expedia I found that my Shanghai tickets were not actually issued yet, and that I could have them canceled and buy NYC to Shanghai tickets. So the new plan is to pick up my visa at 9 AM Tuesday, take a cab to JFK, and arrive in Shanghai later (much later, it’s a 16 hour flight) to spend the remainder of Christmas with my girlfriend and her family. I will visit my own family sometime later in February, since I still want to hand-deliver their presents. In spite of this trouble, I am determined to everything possible to make the trip to Wendy work.
At the end of it all, the experience is a jumbled mix of love, disappointment, excitement, my own incompetence, sacrifice, planning, fate, disruption, tranquility, and happiness. I lose the dollar amount of the flight to Phoenix, but I have a chance to see them soon to make it up. I lose the chance to spend Christmas with my family, but I gain the chance to have a wonderful time with Wendy.
