Crad digestive glands for your snacking pleasurefulness

I was going through some old digital photos this morning and happened upon pics from our visit to Shanghai back in early 2005. Dad had lived in Shanghai for his consulting work, and Mom had traveled back and forth between U.S. and Shanghai at the time. K and I decided to join in on the fun and stayed with Dad for 10 days, and had an absolute blast. While we had previously visited China with a tour group, there’s nothing like traveling on your own with someone who has an intimate knowledge of the area. There were no set itineraries; we had the freedom to meander and explore different nooks and crannies of this incredible city.

Dad is one of the biggest foodies that I know, and we ate our way through Shanghai--we were busy  planning our next meal before the current one was complete. One of my favorite places to eat in Shanghai is a food court in the Old Town area, a sprawling cafeteria with hundreds of delectable, Chinese delicacies. Here are some pictures we took:

Since Shanghai caters to visitors and transplants, there are signs with English translations everywhere. Frequently though, some things get lost in translation:

While "ovary and digestive glands of a crad" may not sound appetizing, it's what we know as crab roe, and trust me, it was delicious.

It was a wonderful trip, and we hope to be back there again soon, this time with EB in tow.

Spelling Beast

A few years back, I was visiting my parents and was sitting around the living room when I noticed a video tape sitting on top of their television set. The homemade label said "THE BREAST," in big, bold, capital letters.

What the???...

I’d never heard of any movie called “The Breast.” I first thought that maybe it was a bad 1970's sci-fi/horror movie with marauding body parts. Or, could it be a medical documentary on the female part? Or could it be…Oh. My. God.…Could it possibly be that my parents had left a porno movie lying around in the living room? I told my brother, and the idea made us giggle like schoolgirls.

Day after day, it sat out on top of the TV, taunting us. It was fun speculating for awhile, but finally I could stand it no longer; it was time to confront Dad.

“Umm…Dad. What’s this video?”

“Oh, that. I recorded it a few months back. Thought you two may like to watch it.”

“Uhh..Okay…what’s it about?”

“Some movie about a giant squid. Lots of action.”

“Um. Dad. It says ‘The BREAST’ on it.”

“Oh...really? Ha..ha...I meant ‘The BEAST.’ Must’ve added an ‘r’ by accident.” Dad shrugged, chuckled to himself, and that was that. Mystery solved.

Just a few days ago, my brother was visiting them and found the same tape in their movie collection. Rather than change the tag, Dad decided to scribble out the "R" with a marker..but the way he did it, it just accentuates the "R" even more. See exhibit below.

The BREAST lives on.