My Breakfast with Mel

Meals are particularly good times for discovery and traveling, domestically or internationally. It is an event that affords many opportunities to learn about food, culture, and ourselves. Melanie and I embarked on a tour of food places in the old neighborhood near the Xintiandi subway stop the morning after my flight from Newark to Shanghai. She proposed that we have a breakfast of street food in the traditional places, where there are no menus and very few people speak English. It was a particularly sweltering morning, with high humidity and 90 degrees (F) at 9AM. Combined, our knowledge of Mandarin was limited, with my vocabulary primarily limited to two words (“hello” and “thank you”). Nevertheless, we a good attitude we ventured to the street.

Our first stop was a popular place on Jiang Road where there was an assortment of fried dough with various fillings and toppings. The fillings remained a mystery until we started eating, and sometimes remained a mystery even after that. The food, already prepared, remained surprisingly hot atop what appeared to be homemade stoves constructed of barrels. Our methodology in ordering food was to point to items that looked good and indicate, with hand gestures, how many we wanted. We picked out enough that, under normal circumstances, would have been enough for A big breakfast. The woman serving us named a price, and I was both surprised and impressed when Melanie correctly understood that the cost was 13¥ (about $1.91).

We took our fried bounty to the second adjacent storefront where there are about four or five small tables with stools. Mel wondered, given the handbook we ordered, if we were supposed to sit in the seating area. All the other people sitting there were eating congee (rice porridge). Nevertheless, it was unlikely that anyone would ask us to leave. I surmised that they thought I didn’t know what I was doing, which is completely correct.

One of the fried dumplings was filled with pork (I think) and was delicious; another I enjoyed was a fried bread, not dissimilar from naan, but not as sweet. There was not anything to drink, so after we finished we went down the street for bottle of water at a tobacco and drink shop.

Our second destination was a narrow storefront on Hefei Road, where a woman made a pancake that was like a crepe. Using a round flattop grill, similar to one used in a crêperie, the woman took batter and spread it thin across the skillet with a wooden wedge tool that appeared to be homemade. It was about the size of her fist with a handle and a thin blade. As the pancake cooked, she cracked an egg on top, spread it across, added some assorted greens and a little bit of chili sauce for heat. Before folding it over, she took some prices of, what appeared to be, fried dough, place carefully across the crepe. This gave the pancake a texture, without adding any discernible flavor.

We walked along more of the streets, exploring shops, grocery stores, and a traditional medicine shop. On some of the more remote streets, there were communal washing machines and people playing cards. Old women swept the sidewalks with long straw brooms. Most of us have this image of a quickly modernizing China, which is completely true. Yet, many would be surprised that the several lilongs continue to have communal toilets. 

Our final stop, for breakfast anyway, was a small pastry shop on Huaihai Road that served a tasty curry turnover. By this time, however, we were both full. The heat of the day was beginning to have an effect and we retired to a coffee shop for drinks and air conditioning.