For you Dad!

This one's for you dad - China's very own Home Depot: B&Q

I found this amongst other "big box stores" when I went out to find the Carrefour out near the highway to Shanghai. Strangely enough it looks as though this is a British company but has made its way to China. 

Chinese handy-men can now rejoice and build a shed or install a wood floor just as any would around the world!

Even the signs are similar to those of Home Depot!

I wonder if the prices compare?

Here's the website: http://www.diy.com/

Love xx!

The Shanghai Museum

Went to the Shanghai Museum last week with Marie during her stay in Shanghai. The 4-story museum houses ancient Chinese art and is situated on the People's Square. It also has free entrance which is a nice draw.

I'm not a huge fan of Chinese art, but there were many beautiful jade peices and some interesting old money as well. Definitely worth a look if you have a few hours to spend.

Old coins - some thousands of years...!

Stamps mean it's official money.

 

A few examples of carved Jade.  Most of the peices were smaller than the palm of my hand.

An old stamp. You can see how the red ink completely saturated the rock.

A great lion-shaped stamp - probably weighs 10 pounds.

An example of an imprint from a stamp.

A fantastic porcelain dragon

Love xx!

In case you were wondering: They do BBQ in China.

And it is outdoors over hot coals... but slabs of steak or chicken won't be anywhere in sight.

I was invited out to Zhujiajiao again over the weekend, but before we headed to the quaint canal town, they surprised me by telling me we were headed to a BBQ. Now I've been to plenty of BBQs in china - mostly in the form of a Korean BBQ restaurant. So imagine my surprise when we pulled up to an outdoor park with dozens of public stone BBQs coupled with stone picnic setups? And in December no less!

Of course I had a few chuckles once they started pulling the selection of meats out of the cooler. And this wasn't before the entire table was covered in a thin plastic sheet, turning it into a giant plastic wrapped cutting board. I didn't really see why they'd need to do this until they started preparing the meats right there on the table. Everything from itty-bitty sausages to luncheon meats were pulled out and stuck on skewers. And yes I did say luncheon meats - the thin chicken kind you stick inside a sandwhich. It almost reminded me of a certain frat house-esq cuisine I was exposed to back in university. hmmm.

They did get some things right; There was pepsi and chips and some kind of bbq/fish sauce to dip everything in.  Seems that there are a universal BBQ must haves for any true international barbeque. Unfortunately no one ate with their hands; we were all given plastic gloves and toothpicks to pick the meat from the plates, which is probably why they only bring lunch meats and sausages... You just can't pick up a thick juicy slap of steak with a toothpick now can you.

Here are a few shots:

Scallops on the left, fondue beef (the closest things to steak!) bottom right, mini sausages on top along

with pre-cooked corn, lunch meats in bag...

Preparing the table

Tables and Barbeques (And yes they do

leave all their garbage behind like this)

The Barbie!

See the raw chicken on the bottom there? My dear friend here was dipping her sausage into the sauce she had put into the frozen chicken wing tray.  Clearly no worries of Salmonella here. eep.

No tray needed to bring the cooked meat back to the table, no siree when you have a plastic cup you're all set!

Clearly pepsi and lays are must haves for any international BBQ... even if those are blueberry and cucumber chips.

Hope you enjoy as much as I did!

xx!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is definitely not a holiday the Chinese celebrate, but you can bet the Canadian and American expats will!  I was lucky enough to get an invite from an expat who was kind enough to host Thanksgiving at his place this year (Thanks Annie's Brother!) While there wasn't any turkey at the table, there was delicious Chicken, two kinds of mashed potatoes, gravy and all the fixin's !

mmm xx!