Rome, Italy

We arrived in Rome getting on pretty late.  Still Luca picked us up at the airport, (in the airport no less) and brought us to our hotel, then to this little plaza area for dinner.  Finding it and a parking spot were a significant part of the adventure, but Luca seemed un-phased the entire time, and determined to get us to this place.  It was rustic and the buildings and surroundings seemed a little tired, but many people were streaming in, and having a good time, which is contagious. 

What seemed like in the middle of the street and plaza were a number of these nice little ristorantes.

We ended up at Elettra, with traditional Italian cuisine.  The food, including my fish was delicious, and the salad with crispy onions, also delicious.  The pictures don't capture the fun-ness of the place.  Casual, yet elegant.  Not too expensive, yet so tasty.  Great waiter (I think), Luca talked with him in Italian.  Anyway, I felt a bit local here.  Really liked it.  Luca, thanks for such warm hospitality.

Nanjing to Shanghai on High Speed Rail

These trains are beautiful and plentiful.  Here in the station you see three ready to go.  Compared to the traditional train, this takes about 90 minutes from Nanjing to Shanghai.  The traditional train can take around 4 hours.  It's quite heavily used.  That said, the passenger levels are climbing as we get closer to Chinese New Year.  I've heard it's the largest migration of people on the planet as Chinese head home to be with family.  It's been described as like our Thanksgiving or maybe Christmas.

We are on the causeway headed to our train on the far left.  This is over the standard train.  Tickets are less expensive for this, although the fast train is not that expensive.  In the $30-40.00 range I think.  Even first class was only an additional $15.00, or 100 RMB.

One more of the train station.  In the foreground is the typical train, and the white trains in the back are the high speed, running at 300 km/hr.

The blurry picture is because I am carrying my overweight briefcase, coat, ticket, passport in hand, and rushing to catch my colleagues.  In a way, the blurry captures the essence of the minute.

This is the typical lunch for us.  So much food, so many different flavors, I don't know where to begin.  First, the Chinese aren't afraid to dive in.  In just about everything.  Yes, in the middle are the green beans, a favorite of mine, ordered for me.  The lazy susan center table is on every table.  Also typical is a huge number of private rooms where we sat here.  The common area is small, relative to the number of these private rooms.  It's helpful to tune out the sound of the restaurant, although I have to say, it's a little closed in for me.  That said, I ate well.  So well.  Way way well.  :-)

Another huge skyline, here in Nanjing.  We didn't have much time in town here, but saw many common themes here.  That huge building is the Intercontinental hotel where Tony stayed, viewed from my hotel, the Sofitel.  It was said the Intercontinental is the tallest building in Nanjing.  Tony said he had breakfast on floor 75.  I think the Intercon as they call it, was nicer.  That said, Sofitel was nice!

 This is the Sofitel pool in Nanjing on the 9th floor I think.  Pretty pool.  I would guess it's 25 meters.  One strange and unique thing about it was the tempurature, at 30 deg C, which I'm not doing the math, but I would guess it's in the 90's Fahrenheit.  So warm, darn near hot tub.  There was a sign stating the room temp and the pool temp, and next to it, compared to China pool averages, and then compared to international pools.  I thought this sign was a little strange,

1)  strange to have a flyer stating the pool room air temp and the pool water temp
2)  turn pool and room temp into a competition in the country
3)  turn the temperature competition into an international race

But that's what I saw.  The Chinese are going places.

He's riding an electric enhanced bike.  I think they get up to about 20 mph.  The mittens are built onto the handle bars.  In this part of town, the high tech area, you can not use gas powered.  It's a glimmer of including mother nature in decisions.  Not a moment too soon!

Jib Jab
This is a good point to mention a couple of thoughts from the trip.  The first is, WOW.  China is stunning, if not shocking in their acceleration to modernization.  In many respects, it's a government working for the people, and getting so much done.  Entire 20 million people high tech, pristine modern cities created in 20 years, if not 10.  Can you imagine the USA moving that fast?  We have a couple cities of that size that have grown over 100's of years.  It's just stunning.  The pace of economic growth is also absolutely jaw dropping, at about 10% per year growth every year over the last decade or more.  Rather than cities providing utility services, and business building, here, the government builds the roads, utilities, transportation and even huge beautiful office and manufacturing buildings, and leases or then sells to business.  It's so efficient and fast!

As good as this all sounds, there are challenges.  Pollution.  The massive growth does cost, and what I've seen, it has been charged to Mother Nature.  The smog wasn't as visible in Shanghai, thankfully, but I think everywhere else.  It's oppressive.  I constantly felt a burning in my lungs.  It's like a scary movie, surreal.  The model also lends itself to corruption, which apparently is typical here.

Nanjing, China

Dinner in Nanjing was incredible.  It's apparently a famous old restaurant from maybe 100 years ago.  I wish I got better pictures of the food.  I think my focus was off because of the steam getting to my camera.  Top left is the stinky tofu.  Yes.  Stinky tofu is what it's called, and yes, it's stinky.  Think stinky cheese and you have it.  Top right is in dark, I forget how it's prepared, fish.  Really tasty.  On the same plate is exceptional duck.  In front is arguably the best chicken I've ever had.  The broth is so rich and delicious.  It's spicy hot, but not too hot.  The chicken falls off the bone.  It has an interesting effect on your tongue I asked my local guides.  It makes your tongue tingle, like numb feeling.  Very interesting.

Nanjing stinky tofu.  Think stinky cheese.  Stong flavor, strong garlic-like feeling in your mouth.  Delicious.  Enough said.

This is where we walked to from the hotel for dinner.  Really bustling happening town altogether.  The yellow and red vertical sign is where we ate.

I've seen so much, and still, so little here.  Unfortunately, my battery died just as we were getting in the beautiful bullet train from Shanghai to Nanjing.  State of the art, modern facilities here, for sure.  Not the China we remember from 20 or even 10 years ago.

On the bullet train.  The pinnacle of traveling.

Some fashionable kids walking around in Shanghai.  Made me think of my girls.  Today is Moira's birthday.  Happy 19th Moira!  I love you!

Hong Kong dining at Bo Innovation

Bo Innovation is a trendy place in Hong Kong, with 'Molecular Gastronomy' cooking taking from traditional Chinese style, and doing a molecular spin on it.  I love this photo, it says so much.  Our waiter explaining the course in front of us, all three tomato items.  Both Tony and I thinking, um, okay.  The first, an incredibly delicious tomato, I think it was super low temperature cooked.  Behind it, our egg waffle 'bread'.  The middle item was also tomato, but I am forgetting the details.  It's a wan ton skin deep fried, I think, with a fancy sauce, something tomato... I wish I could remember.  On the far left exemplifies the food for the night.  it's a tomato marshmallow.  Yes, it has a tomato flavor, oh, and the dried green onion leaf on top.  The wine was paired with the dishes, also quite unique.  A fascinating experience all in all.  The bottle on the left there is a sort of vinegar used, I forget where.

This is the best soup dumpling I've ever had.  Okay, fine.  It's the only soup dumpling I've ever had.  This is a special dish, we were told.  Again, it's a traditional chinese dish (apparently) gone molecular.  The dumpling itself is 'stuffed' with soup.  Across the top is a special ginger.  It was good, and so surprising.  Virtually everything we ate were tastes I was not expecting, and amazingly delicious once I got over the surprise.

This is a nice seared scallop.  What's unique, and our instructions were to divide the scallop into 4 bites, then eat with the four surrounding flavors, the tall was a foamy spicy something, then salty,  then bitter and finally the sweet cherry gelatin in dark red there.  Delicious.

This is two kinds of cod, with seaweed, a really light seaweed like it was baked or something.  Note the little flowers, called something like sisal?  This was delicious too.  As you can see, the bites are small, but both of us were satisfied after we finished.  Really fun!