Soup Dumplings and XiaoLongBao

So I am at work now for the 7th day in a row...although I'm not really doing anything. I finished all of my grading and paperwork yesterday but I am still supposed to be in the office...just in case?

It's not so bad. I'm using this time to burn some CDs that Ned lent me and to organize some of my pictures and videos. Besides, I get to enjoy the heat in the office (which finally got turned on) instead of wasting the electricity in my apartment.

After leaving work yesterday I met up with June to wander around old Shanghai. It was fun to do that again. We did some shopping. It was no where near as crowded as it was when we went in September. That was nice.

I like this picture because it's old Shanghai and new Shanghai together. You can see the financial tower in the background.After some shopping we decided to go to the restaurant (one of June's favorites) we didn't go to in September because the line was so long. This time the top floor was almost empty! We nibbled on raw ginger and sipped green tea until our food arrived. We each got a soup dumpling, along with some xiaolongbao (crab dumplings) and a kind of fried shrimp dumpling.

Here is June with her soup dumpling.
June took this silly picture of me enjoying my soup dumpling in the proper fashion. First you use your straw to get all the soupy goodness out of the dumpling. Then you tear it up and dip the pieces in vinegar. TASTY. That little red tag on the straw has a warning in both Chinese and English that the soup inside is BURN-YOUR-MOUTH-UP-HOT.
The soup dumplings at this place were AMAZING. We had them across the street last time and I thought THEY were amazing. But the amazingness of these far outstrips the amazingness of the other ones.

What are in these dumplings you ask? Well check out this sign I saw on the way out:
If you can't read that it says "Dumpling stuffed with the ovary and digestive glands of a crab". Don't let that deter you though. They really are delicious.

I was excited to find that they sell xiaolongbao and these fabulous fresh fried dumplings (that taste just like the ones I had in Nanjing) in the food court under Carrefour. The other night I ordered some to go and then wandered down the street back to my apartment eating them while checking out street vendors. For once all the street vendors spoke to me in Chinese first. I guess I looked more like a native eating my dumplings with my chopsticks.

MAN I am making myself hungry.

Here is just one more picture for all of you.
I went shopping for Harbin last night so I will probably post pictures of all my fancy new cold weather clothes. Also once I finish organizing videos I will hopefully post some from Suzhou and New Year's Eve.

That's all for now!

Love!
Stephanie