Month: June 2021

Things I Miss Back in the States

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I’ve been living in Shanghai for nearly 10 years now and for all this city has to offer, there are still a few important things it lacks that I miss back in the States. Food Specifically the Cultural Variety of Food. I constantly, and repeatedly, find it really strange that in a city of 25 million people, and growing, there is very little variety of food. It’s almost all Chinese. I know, you think that’s a stupid thing for me to say. After all, I’m living in China. But even in the mid-west of the US, you can find many Continue Reading →

100% Cacao – Welcome to the Dark Side

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You have to want it.I mean you REALLY have to WANT IT. This is not your daddy’s Hershey’s Chocolate bar. It’s the Dark Side, and I Love it! Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t just chuck a piece of 100% Unsweetened Cacao in my mouth and go ‘Oooh! Yummy!’ It was more like getting caned and then shouting “Thank you sir! Can I have another?!” But if you want to taste real Chocolate (Cacao) and not binders, fillers, sugars and artificial flavors, you must try 100% Cacao Chocolate. You’ll thank me later. It’s strong. It’s bitter. It BITES BACK. But, Continue Reading →

Trials and Tribulations of Buffalo Trace Whiskey In Shanghai

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Whisky or Whiskey? I don’t care. Just as long as I have it on hand. I was already well hooked on Buffalo Trace when we moved to Shanghai. Unfortunately its influence had not made it here back then. So what I had is what I could bring with each trip, 2 liters/person, and so I treated it like gold and drank very sparingly. Then a few years back, Buffalo Trace started showing up on various online stores, some reputable, others not so much. But it was nearly twice the price as sold in the US and it was different. Only Continue Reading →

The Price of Excellent Espresso in Shanghai

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Coffee, the kind you get in the break room at work, the fast-food joint, even decent restaurants – its crap. It’s an insult to our taste buds and to the bean itself. I hate coffee. I LOVE Expresso. I didn’t know ‘coffee’ could actually taste great until I tried espresso. In the states, I would drink Quick-Trip instant Cappuccino. OMG! WTF was I doing? That’s just pure raw sewage with sugar. Once I moved to Shanghai, I stopped all that and got off the Sugar-shit wagon almost completely. Soda was yuck. Fruit juice is nasty. Tea lost its appeal. My Continue Reading →

Donuts v. Doughnuts

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First off, let me set straight my take on the spelling of ‘Donut’: Donut /ˈdōˌnət/ : small fried cake of sweetened dough, typically in the shape of a ball or ring, pretending to be an actual Doughnut. Now that we have that out out of the way, Shanghai is a barren wasteland for Doughnuts. Sure, its got some places that sell ‘Donuts’: bread like product with butter or pork inside and topped with rock-hard a chocolate like substance, which causes untold gastronomic grief. Things best avoided. There used to be a Mister Donut (note the spelling) which is America’s take Continue Reading →