five things

 Here's my list of loves for the month of July.

The summer season is blessed in Shanghai with lotus buds by the plentiful. Visit your local florist for a bouquet - but do make sure you pick the freshest set available. These will surely liven up your living space but are somewhat high maintenance because they require fresh water daily. Enjoy and spread the zen.

Though I got my masks from Taiwan, these should be available on Taobao or at your local beauty store. This works wonders after a stressful day or a late night out. Cool tip: refrigerate before using.

I just got the most amazing ear massage at Spring Massage, a local Shanghainese franchise. At a whopping 35RMB for twenty minutes of bliss, I'd say it's worth it. A professional ear masseuse will not only clean and massage your inner ear, they will also give you a quick scalp massage. A great treat for cheap.

Discovering this after receiving it as a birthday gift from a dear friend, Manuka Honey is not only known for it's delicate and delicious taste but also for health benefits - more specifically, it's used as an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial treatment, for cancer prevention/treatment, reduces high cholesterol, is a diabetes treatment, and a gastrointestinal treatment. Miracle in a jar if you ask me.

What's not to love about this? Be chic and sleek by keeping your nails short and clean this season with this color. It may not be the newest color out but it surely goes with everything, and is both refined yet sassy. Love it!

moschina: moschino + china

I'm not even going to pretend to be a girl who isn't crazy about fashion. I was lucky enough to have my gal pals invite me to the Moschino Fashion show here in Shanghai a few weeks ago. Here are some amazing photos from that night.

a getaway without getting away: 七寶

Now that the weather is nice - why not get out of the busier parts of the city and take a stroll down an old Shanghainese water village on a free day? If you have just a few hours to spare and your subway card handy (or 8 kuai round trip from People's Square station), hop on the subway on line 9 get off at "Qi Bao" and take the exit #2, to the Qibao Old Street. With beautiful views and tons of street eats, this is the cheaper and even quicker alternative to neighboring Suzhou, and "leaving Shanghai". 

Though it's not China's most beautiful water town -  its easy commute from the city center and affordability for almost all makes it most definitely a worthy trip.

a very yummy vegetarian chili

In the very stressful times of food safety scares in China (especially with many types of meats), I've tried extra hard to steer away from consuming them. To convince my boyfriend to follow my path on the other hand- has been a little more difficult. If you are like me in that you want to explore options of eating vegetarian without just eating salad after salad everyday (and to get those around you to join) here is a good recipe to try!

Ingredients:

• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup of kidney beans, dried (canned if you must)
• 3 tomatos
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 red onion
• 1 zucchini
• 1 cup of barley
• 2 carrots
• a few large stalks of celery
• 1 can of diced tomatoes with its juice
• 1 tsp of paprika
• 1 tsp of curry powder
• 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 heaping tsp of chili pepper
• a few splashes of worcestershire sauce
• olive oil
• 2 ears of fresh corn
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 cans of vegetable stock

Directions:

Soak kidney beans and barley for 30 minutes. Drain. Put in the rice cooker for about an hour, respectively.

Barley is shown above. Do the same with the kidney beans in another bowl.

No pressure cooker? No problem!

Dice all the vegetables, and use knife to shave corn kernels off the cob. 

Sauté garlic, onions, and peppers on a pan with olive oil in medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Pour the rest of the ingredients (the spices, sauces, veggies, beans, etc.) into a large pot, and combine the sautéd vegetables. Simmer for 2 hours and you should have a concoction that looks like this!

Wait 'til Albert finds out how many veggies were used to make this super delicious dish!

Garnish with chopped cilantro, a dollop of fat-free greek yogurt (in place of sour cream) and shredded cheese if you desire!

Though there wasn't cornbread to accompany this dish - we were still very satisfied. Feel free to substitute with whole wheat toast as I did for health's sake. And there you go.

pita pizza

Easy, pretty healthy, affordable and delicious. 

Whole wheat pitas can be found at Cityshop, my Shanghai friends. Instead of your conventional Middle Eastern way of eating them (by stuffing them), I find that they make a fine pizza crust. 

Try slicing them if you'd prefer a thin-crust pizza.

Preheat your oven to medium-high heat, and get the works ready. 

You can put whatever you'd like on it - I'm a huge fan of fresh basil...

Tomatos, garlic...

and of course, cheese!

Spread olive oil evenly on pita - follow with tomato sauce and garlic. Sprinkle with a little bit of Italian seasoning and garlic powder if desired.

 Boyfriend likes the meat so I put a few slabs of prosciutto on it

Bake until all the cheese melts and the veggies are soft  - and voila!