The guy who composed the original theme to such great NES Konami classics as Contra was tracked down, and his compositions reviewed with him after over 20 years. Unfortunately, the interview seems forced and the guy didn’t ask any of the questions I would have (like what were the limitations of programming sound for the NES, what tricks or techniques he used, what software or hardware tools he used), but it’s still cool to see the man behind such classic sounds.

Also interesting is this ad for the arcade version of the game with the seemingly random “Contra girl” that just happens to be posing in the middle of the jungle next to a Contra arcade cabinet… that I assume is solar powered…

Finding a new place to live is usually never fun, and doing so in China has its own share of issues.

In Shanghai, rents have jumped pretty dramatically over the last few years; it’s now almost on par with major Canadian cities (all 3 of them!!) . This alone is bad enough, but to make matters worse it’s standard to pay a one month deposit plus up to 3 months of rent down when moving in. Landlords do this so they don’t have to deal with the hassle of collecting rent from tenants every month, but it’s quite an initial blow to the wallet.

Finding a decent place is also a bit of a pain. Many English/foreigner targeted websites list ridiculously inflated apartment prices in US dollars. Fine if you’re an expat sent here with an expense account, not so fine if you’re not. Websites like SmartShanghai have listings that are a mixed bag of agency spam, overpriced French Concession area lane houses, and a few hidden gems. If you can read enough Chinese (or get some help) the local sites are better for finding actual prices for apartments all over the city.

Agents can be very helpful in helping you find an apartment that suits your needs and even negotiating with the landlord/owner, but for this service you’ll usually have to pay a fee of around 35% of one month’s rent.

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Not sure why, but China Merchants Bank seems to have adopted Sonic the Hedgehog’s sidekick Tails as its mascot on its ATM welcome screen. I could be wrong, but something tells me that SEGA is unaware of this.

We came across this little restaurant on a quiet side street that serves up remarkably good and inexpensive pseudo-Western dishes. I had the black pepper beef (comes with rice, potatoes, and an egg) for 12 RMB, and a great mango smoothie made with ice-cream for 10 RMB. The chicken curry, salad and pastas are also good, and there is a nice selection of smoothies and fresh fruit juices available from the attached juice stand/ice-cream parlor. I’ve easily paid 3 times as much for worse at many other places in town.

We went a day or so before it actually opened for business but the owners were still nice enough to serve us the limited items they had at the time. Today we went again and had to wait for a seat, so it looks like the secret is out. Hopefully this place won’t take its cue from other popular Shanghai establishments and destroy its atmosphere or double its prices to accommodate all the visitors.

Duanwujie or 端午节 is known in English as the “Dragonboat Festival” and occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar. It’s celebrated by eating zongzi or 粽子 (sticky rice with different filling wrapped in bamboo leaves), drinking wine and dragon boat racing. Since 2008 duanwujie is an official public holiday in mainland China, so most people here have a long weekend.

Note to users of mobile phones in China: if you leave for 6 months and don’t use your phone, China Mobile will cancel your phone number and you can’t get it back. I left for 3 months before and everything was fine, but I guess 6 months was pushing it. The worst thing is that it took me nearly a year to remember that damn phone number! Goodbye +8613816331807, we had some good times.

On the bright side, it’s fairly easy to set up cheap international long distance with China Mobile. Just dial 10086 and ask for the “12593 plan”. When they set this up, you can dial 12593+00+country code+number for 0.4 RMB/minute international long distance (to European and North American countries). The service costs 1 RMB a month.

Shanghai has an almost unlimited number of great restaurants, and there are nearly as many (paid) reviews on websites devoted to them. You can easily get top notch Chinese and international food here, but what about if you want good cheap Chinese food? I don’t see many English resources for this online, probably because the little hole in the wall noodle shop is not paying for an internet review. Here are some things I usually go for and where to find them:

BBQ kebabs (串)

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At night outside a lot of bars, at some busier intersections, or near apartment complexes you’ll often see vendors who’ve set up grills to cook up lamb, beef, chicken, vegetable or other various kebabs. You pick and choose what you want and they grill it up while you wait, adding spices and seasoning. At 1 RMB a kebab these make a great snack, and since they’re often set up in front of convenience stores, there’s no excuse not to grab a cold beer to go along with them.

The Chinese character for kebab is easy to remember because it looks like two pieces of meat on a skewer. 串

Price: 1 RMB / kebab

Location: If you’re walking around at night, you can’t miss these. There’s a fruit shop by day/kebab stand by night at Yongjia Road and Xiangyang Road (永嘉在襄阳) that sells them, and always one in front of LoGo bar.

Muslim noodle shops (lamian 拉面)

A longtime favorite of mine, Shanghai has a ton of these little Chinese Muslim run shops that serve the stretch-pulling noodles. A small bowl of beef noodles costs you 5 RMB (used to be 4), and you can add additional beef (4-5 RMB) or a fried egg (1 RMB). They also sell a huge assortment of fried rice and noodle dishes, but it’s the lamian soup noodles that keep me coming back.

Price: 5 RMB / small bowl of la mian (6 RMB for a large one), rice and other noodle dishes around 8 – 12 RMB

Location: Almost every side street in Shanghai has one. Look for the Muslim guys in the little hats and the blue sign with the characters 拉面 (lamian)

Hot pot (火锅)

Hot pot restaurants usually have big pots in the middle of each table with gas heaters. The pots usually have a divider that separates a spicy and non-spicy broth, and you pick and choose your vegetables and meat from a check list to cook yourself. You can also mix together a dipping sauce from an assortment of sauces and garnishings (peanut sauce is my favorite).

Going out for hot pot with a few people is great because you can just sit around for hours eating. Also, the more food you add and the longer it cooks the tastier the broth gets. Also of note here is Shanghai clay pot, similar but with smaller pots and specially pre-cooked chicken or beef. Both go hand and hand with beer.

Note: Beware the haunted fish… several times I’ve had hot pot and only noticed a few hours later that there was a fish hanging out in the broth. Sure it adds to the taste, but it’s still quite a shock to see an unexpected fish head pop up at you.

Price: Depends what you order, but should be no more than 20-30 RMB / person including beer. “Gourmet” hot pot at fancier places will cost you more.

Location: Lots all over the city; look for the characters 火锅 in a restaurant’s sign. A little one we always go to because the atmosphere is great and the boss and staff are cool is at Changle Road and Fumin Road (长乐路在富民路), near the skate shops. Look for the sign with the antlers and bald headed guy.

Noodle Bull (很牛面)

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Ok, the Taiwanese run Noodle Bull restaurant is not exactly budget, but the noodles are so damn good they are more than worth the price. The restaurant itself is very “industrial minimalist”, for lack of a better description, and comes off a bit swank; the mix of drum and bass and transvestite techno also makes it feel like you’re eating at a fashion show runway…

But the noodles… wow. Thick, hand made noodles, high quality generous cuts of beef, fresh vegetables and a broth that will keep you coming back for more. These guys would make a killing if they opened this up in the west.

Price: “Signature” beef noodles 25 RMB/bowl

Location: Right across the street from the hot pot place mentioned above at Changle Road and Fumin Road (长乐路在富民路). Apparently they’ve also opened up a couple of other locations.

Xiaolongbao (小笼包)

As I mentioned previously, xiaolongbao is delicious and addictive as hell. Probably my favorite Shanghai breakfast food that’s good any time.

Price: Around 4 RMB for a basket of 8 xiaolongbao, maybe more or less depending on where you go.

Location: The most famous/touristy one is at Yuyuan gardens, but my favorite is at Fahuazhen Road and Dingxi Road (法华镇在定西路). There are actually two here (one west and one east of Dingxi Road), different owners, but both great. Look for a bunch of stacked up bamboo baskets.

Since the friend we’ve been staying with lives across from Shanghai’s IKEA store – near Shanghai Stadium and Caoxi Road metro stations – we decided to go there for breakfast. The restaurant in IKEA is quite large and it was packed with people, as was the rest of the store. If you want to see China’s ‘new middle-class’ you keep hearing about all the time, IKEA is as good a place as any to find them.

I had a 4 RMB croissant and a 6 RMB coffee which came with unlimited refills. Considering how much a decent cup of coffee costs in Shanghai, this is not a bad deal at all.

Most interesting though is outside IKEA: many merchants are hanging out with carts, tables and laid out blankets full of IKEA-like goods for sale at discount prices to entice shoppers on their way in or out of the store. Genius!

Update: Went back to IKEA to get some bed stuff for the new apartment, and I noticed some other things:

- In Shanghai’s IKEA, the arrow directions on the floor are almost completely ignored.
- Many locals seem to go there just to chat on the couches and use the demo living rooms as hang-out spots.
- The cafe near the exit has hot dogs for 3 RMB and ice-cream cones for 1 RMB.

It’s no secret that in Asia there is a bit of an obsession with looking ‘white’. I should clarify that; by ‘white’ I don’t mean looking European, I mean having a lighter skin tone. Ironic, since in the west many spend quite a bit of time and money for the perfect tan.

Because of this, there are an insane amount of skin whitening creams and products in Asia, many of which would be considered pretty racist by western standards.

In China, sometimes it feels like every second TV commercial is advertising something to make your skin lighter, and ultimately your life better. One of the more bizarre ones I’ve noticed is 白大夫 or “Doctor White”. The ad shows amazing transformations in skin tone measuring its success with something akin to teeth whitening charts. This is followed by a bunch of young, smiling, pale Europeans hanging out in a park and loving life. As the camera zooms in on each foreign actor’s face, the Chinese man doing the voiceover gets increasingly excited: “白。。。白。。。白！！ 白大夫！！” (“White… white… white! Doctor White!!”), as if these Europeans were really much darker before they found Doctor White skin whitening cream, and now they’re celebrating their newly found whiteness together by frolicking in the suburbs. Unfortunately, it seems that many of the users of this cream have experienced some pretty adverse reactions so I’m not sure who’s smiling right now…

However, I think the saddest commercial I saw was in India, where skin whitening products sales are booming (even for men). This particular ad was by skin product giant Dove no less, and depicted a young, handsome male artist in some New York style studio apartment painting a portrait of a young lady posing for him. As he paints her, the look on his face is that of disappointment and concern. The commercial goes on to show him continuing the painting on Day 2, Day 3, etc. to coincide with the model’s use of Dove’s whitening cream. Each day, you see him adding more and more white paint to her portrait and looking more and more pleased. By Day 5, the painter finishes and is very proud of his work. The girl comes over to look at the finished result, and notices something: he painted an engagement ring on her finger. Awww! Now she’s white enough for him to want to marry her!

Here’s another dream come true thanks to whitening cream:

Went out to an interesting (and pretty tasty, but not spicy enough) communist themed Sichuan restaurant near Shanghai Stadium called 9车间 (“Workshop 9″). A big statue of Mao greets you at the entrance and the interior looks like a factory with tables set up all over the main factory floor and some cool private office type rooms you can reserve at the back.

There are several old communist era lathes and various other factory machines lining the exterior of the restaurant, and most walls are lined with party slogans or posters of farmers, scientists, factory workers and soldiers harmoniously looking towards the future together. The staff are dressed in communist worker clothes and even the cups and plates are styled of the era.

I’m not sure where the ‘minimum 400 RMB charge for table in private factory room’ falls into the workers paradise though…