A friend just emailed to remind me that I once promised my readers that I would never again post three consecutive Expo-related items to this blog. Here at Shanghai Scrap, we keep our word! And though the next Expo-related post isn’t yet ready to be pushed out the door, I thought I’d better offer my…
All posts in Eating
The Dark, Totalitarian Hand of Häägen Däzs [UPDATED! With photo! Even more totalitarian!]
If you follow my tweets, you already know about this. But if not, well, here’s the deal. Yesterday, for reasons that I’ll explain in coming days, I stopped into a local Häägen Däzs. While there, I decided to take a photo of the store’s large Christmas tree. As I did so, I was gang-rushed by…
Seoul
For the next day or so I’m lost in a sea of acronyms, terrific street food, and unexpected good fortune. Posting resumes on the weekend, I believe.
Happy Thanksgiving (on hiatus ’til November 30)
In observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday, Shanghai Scrap will be on hiatus until November 30. Except that, on Thursday, we’ll make a point of posting an image of what our Shanghainese Thanksgiving dinner looked like (though it won’t be Shanghainese food). And since it’s Thanksgiving … sincere thanks to the ever-growing number of people…
“Want some chocolate, handsome?”
On October 28 the Shanghai Daily ran what now stands as my favorite headline in the history of journalism: The headline isn’t the best part, though. That honor is reserved for the story itself, which goes something like this: last year, the five individuals in the above photo began working as prostitutes in Shanghai. One…
New trend in Shanghai restaurant marketing: Extreme Honesty
Say you’ve been running an Italian restaurant on a busy, crowded street in a busy, crowded part of Shanghai where Italian restaurants aren’t likely to do well. You think to yourself: “I need a change. I need a gimmick … I need a Hong Kong Gimmick.” And, just to make sure that any foreigners passing…
New lows in expat advertising: no ugly ladies in the sud de France.
Of the many journalistic beats that Shanghai Scrap really wishes it could cover more fully, none is more tantalizing than the sometimes – nay, often – ridiculous state of expat-oriented advertising in China. It’s a marvelous arena, both in its own right, but also for the insights that it offers into how poorly Chinese companies…
“Who likes Chinese art?”
There’s this Cantonese restaurant out in Shanghai’s Putuo District where my friend G., a Shanghai school teacher, and I used to go for dinner on a semi-regular basis. It’s one of those massive places you only find in China – maybe 200 – 300 tables spread out over the entire third floor of an office…
Shanghai to Mexican passport holders: tortillas are for losers.
[UPDATE: Jim Fallows on PR, nationalism and public health. Highly recommended. By the Fallows analysis, a better title for this post would be “Shanghai to Shanghainese: tortillas are for losers.” A point for which I think there would be widespread agreement. I stand corrected.] In my travels, I’ve learned that nothing stokes the patriotic vanities…
Notes on the State of California (and other American places)
Last night I returned to Shanghai after my longest sojourn away from China in six years (for reasons professional and personal). I haven’t had a look around town yet, but if fresh eyes see anything worthwhile, I’ll post the news. In the meantime, a couple of random observations gleaned during my extended visit to the…