Which way, what's that?

This is the 'little' street on which I reside. "Wumuluqi Xi Lu" that's 'oomooloochi she loo' said really quickly with the inflections in all the wrong places. I actually said thank you a few times, today, so I have graduated form just "hello" in Chinese. Tomorrow I will hopefully be able to say "Stop" to the taxi driver. Ooops, I digress.

Anyway, this is my little street. It's a new version of traffic management - a one way street for cars, buses, trucks and two way for push bikes and scooters. Yep, that means one of the bike lanes goes against the traffic. And given that 2/3 of all trips in SH are by bike, you soon realise, the lanes are wrong. The cars should be on the outside and the bikes should have all the space. No, that would be logical. Instead, we have bikes in all lanes and cars in between wherever they can fit. Confused? Well you should walk it in peak hour and try to hail a cab without having your arm ripped off by a passing cyclist coming the 'wrong' way. It's all part of the daily commute (3.2 Kms and 15-20 minutes depending on the time of day).

I just got back from dinner. It finally happened. I found myself in a restaurant that didn't have any English on their menu and no one really spoke English. So what does one do to order? Before I get to that bit, let me describe the restaurant.

It's on the 4th Floor of an average building and it's called "Fashion Show." Names are often misleading, so I was not sure what to expect. Anyway, it was a hip Chinese restaurant (I thought it was Japanese, but that was just my bad guess). Anyway, the decor was polished concrete, white padded chairs, dark timber table and a projection of the Fashion TV station on a wall (so I had something to watch!). It was trying to be chic and almost was. It was quiet and I had a choice of table. The girl that met me at the door seated me and asked if I wanted a drink. She showed me the beers on the menu (all in Chinese,) I picked one at random - it was a Heineken! Not a bad start.

Then to the dinner choice. In a city were they eat the weirdest food every day, there is a sizable risk in not being able to read the menu... I was nervous now.

The young girl who tried so hard to speak English was showing me the menu. I was looking at her and smiling with a suitable dumb look on my face, as the menu was irrelevant. She said, fish, pork ,beef. I stopped her at pork (thinking that was safe). Then what?

She found the pork section on the menu but couldn't translate it. She offered to pick for me ("I pick nee"). Nervously I agreed. This will be interesting I think.

It was pork ribs, in an awesome sauce with chili and some weird veggies. It was yummy and tasted like nothing else I have had.

The moral of the story. Be nice to people on the way in. Smile a lot and cross your fingers.

On leaving, I offered to tip the girl that helped me. All she wanted to do was apologise her English was so mad. We ended up chatting a while (in bits and pieces) about our names she was "Di" pronounced 'Dee' and where we are from etc. It was a joy.

I just had the riskiest and one of the best meals I have had in Shanghai. Sometimes risk is rewarding. Note; I say that now, I haven't had a bad experience yet.