My introduction to Chinese food started early in life. My Mum used to work for a local bowling club in their Chinese restaurant when I was quite young, I think I can remember back to the age of about 4 or so eating beef in black bean with Mum's special fried rice. Mind you, it did have the Aussie twist on it, whether my Mum made it for her appreciative hubby & offspring. So as far back as I can remember, we've always had Chinese for dinner, whether it was at home or on certain occasions, we made it out to the local Chinese restaurant.
]]> Chinese was one of the most popular choices for family dining out when I was growing up through the 1980's. This was a time before coffee shops, footpath dining, a la carte cuisine, when families really only had a few options (well, at least in the areas that we lived for most of our lives). Firstly there was the local greasy spoon, where you could pick up hamburgers with the lot (explaining Australian's want for beetroot in their burgers), potato scallops, family serve of chips, heaps of salt and vinegar. This was usually the Friday night option.On very special occasions, and if you were lucky, there was the local French restaurant. Veal cordon bleu was my particular favourite, along with French Onion soup. French cuisine was the bomb. Very special.
But, perhaps the most common dining out experience was at the local Chinese restaurant. Dishes such as sweet and sour pork, honey chicken, combination chow mein, sizzling mongolian lamb and special fried rice were family staples. And don't forget the spring rolls, or the deep fried dim sim (or if you were adventurous, the steamed versions). The food was great - jam packed with oil, sugar, meat and packets and packets of MSG. We loved it. The food was (and still is) memorable.
But perhaps the standout feature of dining at the local Chinese restaurant was the decor. Close your eyes and imagine. The dim, dim soft lighting, ornate wooden blinds chaperoning the diners from the entrance to the eating hall. Red carpet, red and gold velvet wallpaper, 'traditional' chinese lanterns with red tassles, a fish tank seemingly too small to hold those fish and all the lobsters and crabs crawling around the bottom. The tables with their thick white or gold cotton tableclothes, the lazy susan dominating the table, on top of which was chopsticks in paper covers, salt and pepper and the small bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce. Wow. What an experience.
You can rarely find this decor these days, due to the shunning of the local Chinese restaurant during the early and mid-1990's, and no way would you be seen eating in such an establishment during the 'faux-hawk' fashion-plate period of the late 1990's and early 2000's (whatever that's called). Proper Chinese food (well, the Cantonese version) made a come back in the last couple of years in Brisbane, with hoards of people descending upon Sunnybank or the Fortitude Valley on the weekends to get their hit of yum cha, or maybe an authentic dish at one of the many specialty restaurants located around Brunswick St mall area. While the old-style Aussie-Chinese food was available, the Australian palette had broadened over the years, and we were more interested in the real thing. No more compromise. Perhaps one of the old style dishes would be ordered for nostalgia's sake. And there's no way you'd ever be caught dead in one of those 1980's styled restaurants. No way. Hence, this eating environment almost disappeared. I know of one place out in Bundamba in Ipswich that still holds onto this decor (The Golden Dragon Restaurant on Brisbane Road, Bundamba). One Australian I met here, Rob, told me of a place in the Asian eatery area in Darra that makes you feel like you're in a fishbowl, somewhat likened to what I have described above. I don't know of any others. I reckon they should be heritage listed, but lets face it, anything 1970's and 1980's (besides the fashion) is shunned these days.
But as a small child there was always one standout feature for me. I was transfixed by it. To me it was a sign of opulence, of a high-class eating experience (OK, I didn't have high standards back then). In these special restaurants, on a main wall, it dwelled. If it was tres superb, there might be 2 or 3 of them! It was the backlit glass painting of a beautiful scene, often featuring water. Water that moved! It was pretty special. I could look at these things for hours.
You might wonder why I'm writing about this. In all my walking and exploring around Shanghai, I haven't come across a restaurant I've described above. Searching for an apartment was our highest and most pressing priority when we first arrived. I did have in the back of my mind, a small voice asking, "Is there an 1980's Chinese style restaurant in Shanghai? Can you find it?" This voice was always there, I could hear it nagging at me.
Searching for an apartment was painful. I've written previously about how we found our apartment, advertised on the internet, and described in detail the process in which we moved in. The apartment was great and at the right price. The bargain hunter in me was thinking, 'maybe we can hold off for just a little while, maybe the perfect place is just the next one we look at - this one is a little far from the metro station...' etc etc.
But when we both saw this, we knew we had found our place.
(You will need the latest version of the Flash Media Player to view this file... Be patient.. the file is ~700K so it will take a while to download over a modem - my lack of Flash movie prowess caused the intolerable delay in all new posts. I just can't seem to get past certain events on occasions...).