expensive eats

6 June, Sunday
It was one of those weekend that Daddy Elvis had to work on both days (sob sob)...but we still managed catch up with friends over lunch. Chris was in town (again) and the group met up for dimsum (again), except that this time round, it's at The Peninsula Shanghai. My friend, Hannah, was also in town and i invited her to join us since she knew Annie (Chris' wife) too. There were 16 of us, and we were given a huge VIP room with a "living room". Kaitlyn & Joel played there most of the time. We were worried they'll break the crystal vases and our bill will have many more zeros. Keke... FYI, the Chinese tea (leaves) we had cost ¥700+/S$150 a pot. The total bill was even more expensive than a 5* hotel wedding dinner. It was the most expensive dimsum i've eaten. ;p

Joel & Mommy Jo went home to rest while Daddy Elvis went to the office. Later at night, we met Ann, 毛虫 & Pick for the YuanShiZu Mongolian steamboat! Sooo yummy! ;)

P.S. Joel surprised us today by calling Uncle Pick & Aunty Ann. Usually, he just calls them by their names. He has also been saying a lot of new words this week. ;)

joel and eats

17 April, Saturday
4 of our friends came over in the afternoon - supposedly to help us move 1 wardrobe and 1 bookshelf - but the task proved too difficult for Raymond & Pick...and we had to call the illegal Ikea movers to come over. So we ate tidbits and chatted till our shabu-shabu buffet dinner.



18 April, Sunday
We stayed home to move/pack/unpack...

Decided to try the Yu Ling Gang 鱼林港 fishball steamboat place. Basically, you pick the fish and they will slaughter it and make it into fishballs for the steamboat. Then they will use the fish head to make into a sour-spicy fish head dish. The fishballs were very very soft. Yummy! We wanted to order other items on the menu (ticked on the list) but when Daddy Elvis went downstairs to pick the fish, the staff told him dont need to order anything else and crossed out ALL our "ticks"!!! That was quite funny. As it turns out, there were simply too many fishballs for the 3 of us but i wished we had more variety. Halfway through the meal, we wanted to order prawns and the waitress also told us not to order!!! Haha! It was very weird! But it saved us money lah since we couldnt finish the food anyway.



24 April, Saturday
It was our first weekend sleeping over at the new apartment (while still moving more things over from the old apartment).

We "discovered" this Taiwanese beef noodles place Yolota (on the way to the bank). They have delivery service w/o any minimum order, so Mommy Jo has been ordering it quite often. Keke... ;p

After running errands and a little unpacking for the day, we proceeded to our usual weekend affairs - to Gymboree, eat & shop.



25 April, Sunday
More packing followed by dinner at Sushi Tei.


After this, our friends Becky & Alynn arrived in Shanghai and we've been busy... More updates next time...

pretzels

Have you tried this pretzels? Snyder's of Hanover They're sooo good you cannot stop munching once you open the little pack. Even Joel loves them - any flavour. They're selling in Singapore at about $3/pack (during promo). My sis Sandra & i always buys them even though they're expensive tidbits.

Recently, i found FreshMart/Sogo selling the little packs at ¥8 (about S$2). When i went to CityShop a week later, i saw this huge box selling at ¥32 (about S$6-7). Of course i couldnt resist buying. That's all of 283.5gms! Finally...something from imported supermarkets that arent that expensive! ;)

Sandra, you must be so jealous of me now! Haha! ;p

on sunny weekends

We were glad Daddy Elvis came back to Shanghai on Saturday night. That means we could go out on Sunday! YEAH! (Mommy Jo is quite useless becoz i cannot manage Joel alone outside - both his weight & his tantrums.)

The weather was good (in the day) and we went to People's Square Garden. We took a stroll to MOCA. It was a "mini exhibition" called Desserts. The artist basically had many many small works - hung in a row, at eye level. There wasnt any specific theme although some of them were of, well, desserts.


Joel & his friends painting on a big piece of paper...

After that, we had dinner at GuBei with our friends at an authentic Japanese restaurant. I forgot the name but it was very yummy! (On the same street as DaJi)

The start of the QingMing holiday (Sat - Mon) and the weather was great! We had lunch at Rendezvous (Singapore food!) becoz Mommy Jo was craving for their sambal kangkong (which we also had on Thursday night). Daddy Elvis ordered the rest of the local delights which he LOVE - bak ku teh & chicken curry.


Joel made this rocket at Gymboree art class. Actually, we helped him lah. ;p

Daddy Elvis went to check out cameras at the photography mall opposite our house. Joel was so happy when he saw this penguin. He even kissed it! So cute, right?

Dinner we went to AhMao becoz Daddy Elvis said that this glutinous rice with crab is very yummy. It was good but too oily (as usual).


It was freezing again on Sunday. We brought Joel to his MiKids class then back home to rest. In the end, we stayed in till dinner time. Didnt know what to eat...so we went to Rendezvous AGAIN for the sambal kangkong!!! I know it sounds rather crazy! Hahaha...

It was a lovely Monday morning - sunny and not freezing. So on this last day of the QingMing holiday, we decided to go to the botanic gardens to see the cherry blossoms! We headed for lunch at XTD first and decided to try Steam (dimsum) since the weather was great for sitting under the sun.

Here's Joel with a sexy pout after his nap... So cute! ;)

At the Shanghai Botanical Garden


Finally, we had dinner with our friends at Yuan Yue (Shanghainese cuisine). Joel performed for everyone by singing his best ABC song - a few times! I'm so proud of him! ;)

2 weeks of eats

I've been slow in uploading these pictures and my sisters are complaining already! Haha! Here's the pictures from the 2 weekends... The weather is still quite cold although it's supposed to be Spring already...

Last Saturday
Dimsum with friends...

We went to a pet fair... (boring) The highlight was the Grass-Mud Horse ("cao ni ma" 草泥马) and a short-legged pony but there were TOO many people crowding around them and we couldnt even get a good look. Tickets cost ¥40/adult and we were inside for only 30 mins - looking at the dogs that people brought along with them. Haha! ;p

Tea-break!

Finally dinner at Crystal Jade coz we wanted to eat the crab!


Last Sunday night
It rained the whole day and we stayed in till dinner time. We were just too bored at home. Had steamboat at 阿久 with Ann, Sosuke & wife...then we went to Raymond & Carol's house till after midnight. *yawn* Here's Joel fussing over his raincoat... Everyone says it's very nice and cool! ;)


This week...
Saturday
We went to XTD Crystal Jade while Joel slept through lunch...

Joel woke up...and we thought how come this baby is so beautiful! Haha! ;p

Joel eating the Crystal Jade charsiew bao we dabao for him (on the chairs outside DinTaiFung). ;p

At Gymboree... (after skipping classes for 2 weeks coz of lunches with friends)

Tea-break at Afternoon Tea...

BBQ dinner again! YUM!


Sunday
We went to Joel's MiKids class (after skipping classes for 2 weeks again coz of the heavy rain). Today, it was a bright sunny day! We sat down and enjoyed the sun and the chilly breeze after class. After that, we had lunch at Sushi Tei before Daddy went to the office in the afternoon...

One of the waitress at Sushi Tei likes Joel soooo much she gave us 2 plates of free sushi! (She's always very happy whenever we go) It was quite weird this time coz she told us that she will buy us the meal! But of course, we didnt let her. It would have cost her her 3-5 days salary. But Joel works his charm wherever he goes! HAHA! ;p


To our dear friends who already knew what we've been up to *wink* i guess updating late is "expected". We're also moving to another (bigger) place from next month. So now, i've got to get busy busy...

eat & shop a lot

Saturday, after Joel's MiKids class we had breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts and headed straight to Gymboree's Art Class. What an early start to the weekends! Class-after-class... -.-lll
(Joel moved up one level at Gymboree and we changed his Sunday class to Saturday 4pm. Then, we wont have to rush to classes on both days. IF there's a vacancy for the 11.15am class, we'll change to the earlier class. This first week, we were LUCKY! The timing was just right and we could go home to rest too!)

Joel likes painting on the wall (on the paper) more than most of the other activities at Art Class. It's obvious that his strokes are small and careful. The other kids' paintings were in much bigger strokes...all over the place. He's saying "WOWO" (yellow) below.

Here's another project - The Circus - which was done mostly by the parents. It was a little difficult...coz the animal stamps were too big and the ice-cream sticks were too close.


We went to XTD Afternoon Tea for lunch and tried their new pastas. My all-time-fav Flying Roe pasta no more... :_( Elvis had the duck pasta while i had the (seasonal) creamy chicken/potato pasta. Both was pretty good...but i still missed my fav pasta!

We went home to rest... Daddy Elvis slept, Joel played with his toys and Mommy Jo baked some muffins using paper drinking cups.

...using Betty Crocker's instant mix. It was too slipshod on my part coz i estimated the "cups" of water, oil and eggs. Hahaha... The muffins came out in different shapes and sizes...but they taste alright. Not yummy considering it has Hershey's choco bits inside, but they're edible. Really. ;)

We went to XJH Sushi Tei for dinner and here's Joel playing with the wet tissue. Quite funny. And as usual, the waitresses there came to chat Joel up. He's very popular here! Keke... ;p


Pretty lanterns hanging above our heads at Grand Gateway Mall.


Sunday, we decided to go to Pudong! (We live in Puxi) The very huge Super Brand Mall. We shopped till it was time to go home to watch the Australian Open Mens Final (which made us late for our dinner appointment).

We had Japanese BBQ dinner with a big group of friends somewhere in Gubei (not as nice as 食特美 and double the price). After that, we went to Raymond/Carol's house and Joel tortured their 2 cats HeiHei & HuaHua. Joel wanted to pet the cats (but he was very rough lah)...and he also insisted the poor cats sat down beside him on the floor. Both cats were so scared of Joel that they ran and hid. Haha! ;p

Here is poor HuaHua - the very chubby cat. ;)

eat & shop x 1.5

Saturday, we were too lazy to get up we decided to skip Joel's MiKids class. But we woke up for brunch with Pick at Sogo for dimsum. After that, both of them went to the office to work while Mommy Jo tried to do a little shopping with Joel in tow. It was difficult coz (lately) Joel wants to be carried all the time. We went home in time for Joel's afternoon nap. He had already dozed off on the cab...

Here's the sleepy but happy boy who loves galloping his way home. Joel always walk/run on this path willing - in his baby steps...



Sunday, we went to watch Disney on Ice! When we reached the stadium, Joel was quite sleepy already but the show started shortly and he was totally captivated by the LIVE! Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy. Our seats were pretty near the stage, but becoz Joel was too short (even on the elevated seating), he sat on our laps throughout the show...and rocked his buttocks! (See video above this post here) At times, he would also stand and sway from side to side. 30 minutes before the show ended, Joel had fallen asleep. We were glad Joel seemed to enjoy the show. I enjoyed the parts where the Incredibles heros saved the day! ;)

(As you can see above, Daddy Elvis brought his Canon camera out...and when he was busy deleting files, he realized that he's running out of battery!!! That's why i have these blurred & wide-angled photos from my very-stylo-but-silly-not-meant-for-zooming-and-wide-angled-Ricoh. So much for functions! Haha!)
The people ice-skating ZOOMED OFF as i clicked on my camera! Haha! :/





After the show, we had lunch at Tang Dynasty followed by Gymboree Art Class...and shopping! (Upon asking the recep to check how many sessions we have left, they realized that we had taken 5 extra classes!!! Hence, we had to sign another package on the spot so that Joel could pay off the classes in lieu. We only bought 24 sessions coz we thought that we might not come that often once Joel starts schooling.)

The day ended with a nice dinner at Mr Willis with our very nice friends. ;)

The open-concept kitchen/dining of Mr Willis - a very angmoh restaurant. (Reservations & orders were all taken in English)