Lockdown Day 58: Walking a lap around central Shanghai!

Today I had a big agenda ahead of me!

So after lazing around in bed for a good while, I ate up the last of my tortilla de patatas and whole wheat toast, which I topped with grated tomato.

Putting all three together is such comfort food!

Then I spent a good hour-and-a-half to two hours looking up recipes and chopping and slicing and preparing all of the components of my mise en place for two dishes. (By now it’s 1:40pm)

And during cooking, I even added some precious scallion, which I cut deeper this time, but there’s still enough of the white part left over to put into water, so I think I’m okay?

First up, I boiled the potatoes for a while.

After draining, I tossed the potatoes with sweet potato starch. I also had salted the eggplant earlier, and poured off excess winter, and also tossed it with starch.

Then I poured in the remainder of my small bottle of sunflower oil given by the subdistrict government, and heated it to 175 Celcisus.

First up was frying the green beans.

I think only through deep frying, does one get the wrinkly skin like one sees in the restaurant!

This later became a dish with TVP and salted olive vegetable. Very delicious (and great for pairing with rice.)

Next up in the frying oil were the pieces of eggplant.

Then the potatoes.

And finally, the peppers. Mine were the long skinny, pointy type. These go in the oil only briefly.

After the frying is over, the rest is pretty simple. Stir-fry the garlic and scallion mixture, then add in a sauce of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and rice wine, a bit of salt and sugar, and then a slurry of water.

Now, I went the deep-fry route, together with salting the eggplant beforehand, because I thought the skin would be a bright purple. But maybe the eggplant was kind of dark to begin with, so it’s not so bright? Oh well. I poured the oil back into the bottle after letting the oil cool down, and seeing how much oil was left made me think that maybe little oil was absorbed by the food.

This was a very yummy, comforting meal that went great with rice. I would definitely do green beans, even without the frying, again. It was great to learn about another usage of salted olive vegetable. It was a lot of work, though; I was able to sit down finally at 3pm.

Some time this afternoon, entryway lady came by to distribute 5 masks and 4 pairs of gloves. I wonder what led to these numbers?

I also did my afternoon antigen a bit earlier, because I was thinking I’d be walking around outside when it came time for entryway lady’s reporting deadlines.

Then at 4:20, I came out of the compound. First time going outside in daylight, since two months ago.

The area that was so lively 热闹 last night was blockaded today. I knew the police would take action somehow! But I wonder why they didn’t disperse the crowd right then and there. They just stood around with their flashing lights last night.

I then continued down Changle Road 长乐路. I was going to turn left at this intersection, but the guy in the blue gown with red vest asked me if I lived in that direction. I said no, and he said, “这里不好走“ It's not good to go down this way. Was it a lockdown area? You can also see the police checkpoint, where one officer is checking the green taxi, and another is with the two guys on the motorbike. It’s like we’re living in some kind of occupation zone!

I eventually made it to the intersection where Ruijin Yi Lu 瑞金一路 becomes Shimen Yi Lu 石门一路 when it crosses Yan’an Middle Road 延安中路. I remembered there being overpasses, and I wanted to take in the view from there.

It’s quite amazing how empty everything was.

The 71 bus is operating again, but probably on a reduced frequency, so I didn’t see to much of it.

Bicycles (for us “tourists” in town) and motorbikes (for delivery people) were the main ways of getting around.

Continuing down the big thoroughfare Yan’an Middle Road, there was a section on the south side that was blooming with ajisai, hydrangeas.

These always remind me of Japan. And also remind me that we’ve spent all of spring in lockdown and now it’s summer.

I then turned south to hit Huaihai Middle Road 淮海中路. Popeyes seemed to be a thriving delivery business, and they seemed very well stocked with Coca-Colas! I remember when everyone was clamoring to group buy Cokes at the beginning of lockdown (and maybe they still do?)

I continued east towards Chongqing Road 重庆路. In the distance you can see Shanghai Tower, with its top covered in clouds.

Here’s the view back west. The delivery people are certainly very busy.

Everywhere I went, the stores that were open said that delivery people need to show 48-hour PCR results. That means that they need to test every day, in order to always have a 48-hour result (given a turnaround on results in 12 hours).

Walking back west, coming to IAPM I came upon another police check point, where I saw the car approaching show some papers to the officer in yellow.

At IAPM, I passed by the Apple Store.

No one’s been inside for two months, so of course the tree leaves have naturally fallen to the ground. It’s cool to see the trees leaving their natural traces behind, rather than be so neat and tidy as they usually are in Apple Stores.

Crossing the river, I saw the pedestrian crosswalk lights which catch and shame jaywalkers.

Seeing as how it was only 6:15pm or so, and I still had another hour in my 3-hour allotment, I went down Wuyuan Road 五原路 to Wulumuqi Road 乌鲁木齐路. There I saw the now often-seen sight of impromptu street hair salons, giving people in desperate need of haircuts.

On social media, I had seen that Anfu Road 安福路 last night was just as hopping as the triangle around Fumin Road 富民路 and Changle Road 长乐路. o here, too, the police set up a fence, probably allowing only residents through the gate.

Another gate was set up where Anfu Road meets Changshu Road 常熟路. The shared bikes are all so neatly lined up!

There were really were a lot of pedestrians on the road. If it weren’t for the occasional speeding car, Shanghai now is kind of a walker’s paradise.

Coming back into the compound, I supposedly had to scan my health code in this machine (I also had to scan it on the way out). This confirms that you have a valid 48-hour result.

Today was the first time since mid-March when I made over 10,000 steps!

For dinner, I steamed up some mantou (to make room in the freezer!).

And then prepared the ingredients to make kind of falafel sliders.

The falafel I made from a Trader Joe’s mix, only I made them into flat patties and pan-fried them, instead of making them into balls and deep-frying them (too much deep frying for one day!).

I took out my fried eggplant from earlier in the day.

And then I made hummus with sun-dried tomatoes, and the chickpeas I had made last week and froze I didn’t want to use up my single lemon, so I used the Chinkiang vinegar for acidity (and the tomatoes help too). Instead of olive oil, I used the oil the sun-dried tomatoes were sitting in. I added in a tiny bit of sesame oil for that touch of nuttiness. And I put in a few cloves of garlic and water. This came out quite well. I was impressed by the acidity I could get with the vinegar!

And as a side, I made a simple cucumber salad, with oil and salt. Half of a cucumber was starting to go slimy, so I cut that half off and used another whole cucumber to be sure I could eat up my cucumbers before they went bad.

And here is the finished falafel slider! I think the toasting of the mantou on the skillet wasn’t so necessary this time (as compared to when I made blackened cod mantou sliders), and the eggplant kind of got lost. But I loved the crunchiness of the falafel and the tang of the hummus. I can’t wait to have this again!