China 2013 - It begins... March 2013

It starts here! Six weeks of travelling China, starting in Shanghai. I'm planning on experiencing (and eating) as much of it as I can in the time I have.

Like almost any international city these days, it doesn't have to be a challenge. You can safely closet yourself in one of the five star fun palaces on the Bund, foraying out only to the Disneyfied, repainted lanes of Xintandi and Old Shanghai, eating sanitised (if occasionally stunning) colonially influenced food from big name chefs in other hotels. You totally miss the point if you do.

I'm lucky enough to have a man (fellow food obsessive Dr Science) on the ground, I've been able to jump right in. Hopefully, two weeks here in Shanghai, including a week of intensive Mandarin lessons, will give me a decent jumping off point. I won't bother trying to rehash the historical context, unless it's really relevant, instead I'll assume you have access to Wikipedia or Lonely Planet. If I find better, I'll let you know.

There's a few museums, but as much as anything, Shanghai is food, shopping and food. Pause for a drink and then grab some more food. Fine. By. Me. If New York is represented as the Big Apple, then Shanghai to the newbie is a plate of chilli covered Fish Maw; spicy, boney, resolutely and viscerally real, uncompromisingly challenging the first time you approach and yet utterly addictive with nuggets of absurdly good taste and flavour just waiting to be wheedled out.
 

While I'm looking forward to sampling a fair amount of delicious Shanghainese grub (including the near legendary street food scene), it's an immigrant city, with food from the furthest outposts of the Chinese empire found here. Going for a Chinese is as insane a concept as going for a European, a concept that London at least is close to getting. Depending who you listen to, the 'big four' or 'big eight' regional Chinese cuisines are all represented in the melting pot that is Shanghai and while some, particularly Cantonese, are well understood by the British, there are many that are not.

I had a few people ask slightly bemusedly whether Dr Science and I would be eating absolutely anything (implying dog, stinking tofu, snake, insect, turtle, shark and other contentious eats). While I'm not going out of my way to find it, if it's locally available, not endangered and not just a 'prestige' or 'medicinal' food then I'll give it a try. Stinky tofu is definitely on the list, as are odd body parts, insects and, possibly other things. For the record though, I've ruled out sharks fin and tiger penis (even if I could afford the latter...)

It's going to be an interesting few weeks. Shanghai to Beijing, to Xi'an in the West, then Chengdu and Chongqing in the South West and Guilin further South before heading back to mamma Shanghai. Wish me luck!