Hanging Out In Shanghai

Bff arbitrarily decided to grow some inches to my waistline. Shanghai doesn't shut down for Chinese New Year. Many restaurants and stores remain open. She cooks anyway. Her partner too. I brought washing gloves, detergent and cleaning supplies! Feeding the man and I, and to keep the kitchen clean wouldn't be a problem.

Anyway, the bff was going to feed us all sorts of Chinese cuisine till we turn green in the face. (Probably very soon.) She's made some determined calling and has lined up a whole host of makan venues and whatnots for cuisines of the provinces of China. Her list is so impressive that my stomach churns in protest before the meals. I'm already begging her for salads, juices and muesli bars. I simply cannot deal with so much food.

We like the ambience at the gorgeous The Waldorf Astoria, and have spent a few afternoons there for pre-dinner drinks. It's a luxury of time that we can ill afford on days at the office. This is a comfortable and convenient venue to catch up with the rest of the world. We were busy googling about random stuff at various points of the conversation, and decided to read up on the history of the hotel. We almost fell off our chairs at "The original bar was taken out, piece by piece, when the space was converted to into a KFC in the 1990s." Fried chicken. Fast food??!!! Oh blasphemy. Thank goodness they came to their senses and brought back heritage and history into the building.

Now, the Long Bar is beautifully restored. The oyster bar is always a welcomed sight at any good bar. The man is pleased with all the oysters available. The bar offers a decent range of single malts, pretty good beers and okay mojitos. They always refill the olives that the friends devour with pleasure. After these repeated visits, we probably drank their supply of London Porter dry. They ran out of it today. Darn. On a day when I really felt like a beer. Also, I wanted to strangle the pianist who 1) kept on missing notes in her pieces, 2) played half the repertoire of Richard Clayderman non-stop. If we weren't about to rush off for dinner, one of us at the table would have gladly gotten up to play something else.