And The Winners Are....!

Congratulations to all ten winners in the zinio.com magazine subscription give away!

The Tibetan Sorting Hat has spoken, thanks to my youngest daughter who picked out these ten names:

1. Deb Armstrong - Feast

2. Kristy - Saveur or Bon Appetit

3. Mela 

4. Carlotta 

5. Robyn Smith - Delicious, Saveur or Digital Photography

6. Michael Czyzewski

7. Kylie - Lonely Planet Traveller or Delicious

8. Kris Flint - Lonely Planet Traveller, Feast, or Delicious

9. Christian and Tian Melby

10. Casyn from Malaysia - Cuisine

Note: The ten winners need to email me at fiona.nanchanglu@gmail.com by this Friday May 28 with 

- your full name 

- your final magazine choice from the magazines on offer at zinio.com (feel free to change your mind from your original choice if you wish!)

so that your subscription can be activated.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Congratulations to the winners and happy reading!

Ten Free Magazine Subscriptions to Give Away to Ten Readers!

I'm a magazine junkie. One of the things I most missed while living in China were my favourite magazines and despite subscribing to two before I left home, Australia Post and China Post somehow conspired to lose most of my issues of Delicious and Feast. I could just imagine the China Post guys smoking heavily and discussing how that recipe for pear upside down cake turned out.

What I wish I'd discovered long ago is that almost all magazines now offer digital subscriptions through magazine sites like zinio that can be read on any device. Ha! Fancy being able to get an overseas magazine at the same time it's published, rather than waiting six weeks for the thing and then paying $25 for it? Genius.

Zinio decided - dearest food-loving readers - or reading-loving foodies - that because you are all smart, funny and well-read you should have a FREE magazine subscription of your choice, and have given me TEN subscriptions to give away to you, each for a half- or full-year subscription (depending on the magazine title chosen - they have loads of other titles in addition to Food and Travel....like Sport  and Science). 

Wonderful! What are you waiting for? Enter!! (see below)

Here's How to Enter:

Entry is free of charge.

1. In the comments section below tell me your name (an alias or blog name is fine, although you will need to email me your full name if chosen as a winner) and your favourite magazine title from zinio

2. Entries close this Friday May 17, 8pm Shanghai time (10pm Australian EST, 5am Saturday May 18 Pacific Daylight Time)  

3. I will randomly choose ten winners using an old fashioned hat filled with your names. I bought the hat in Tibetan Gansu, it's very cool and I can't wait for the weather to get cold enough to start wearing it again.

4. Winners will be announced Monday May 20 

5. The ten winners have until Friday May 24 to email me their full name and preferred magazine title - this information will be used only for the purposes of activating the subscription.

Disclaimer: I have received no financial compensation from zinio for holding this competition. 

www.zinio.com

Zinio's Mother's Day promotion ends tomorrow, May 15 - see here for details

Dr Fiona's Street Food Survival Guide: How To Eat Street Food and Stay Healthy

I watch with uneasiness as my friend, on his first visit to China, bites into a crunchy crisp-coated chicken drumstick bought on the street near my house in Shanghai.

"You might want to reconsider that chicken..." I'm about to say, when I think to myself that no-one likes a naysayer, or a know-it-all. So I don't say anything. He's enjoying himself, and his joy is infectious.

"I LOVE Shanghai!" he exclaims, licking his lips. "This is delicious!"

He spends the next two days no more than 3 steps from our bathroom, and never eats street food again.

Damn.

Many people feel a very natural trepidation towards street food, some avoid it altogether, still others relish that tiny frisson of risk, the Russian roulette excitement that perhaps this will be the morsel that does you in, anxiously waiting for the sweats, the cramps, and the heaves to follow.

But the reality is that 2.5 billion people around the world eat street food every single day, many of them for everyday sustenance, and most of it is perfectly safe.

Most. But for those of us who have a choice about where we eat, and eat street food for the enjoyment and taste rather than for necessary nutrition, just how do you tell the difference between the safe and the harmful?

Well, read through this guide and you'll have a much better idea, and stick to the Five Street Food Rules at the bottom of the page.

The rules are not designed to be a 100% guarantee against what the Chinese delightfully call la duzi (拉肚子 a 'pulled stomach'), but can help you make sensible choices about what to eat and reduce your risk of becoming ill from eating street food.

Why trust me? I'm a doctor addicted to street food.  What people regard as my 'sixth sense' for street food is actually nothing more than years spent studying microbiology and pathology and treating thousands of cases of food poisoning over the years. When my patients tell me what they've eaten in the days before getting sick, I alway listen.

And now I'm passing the knowledge onto you - how food poisoning happens, what causes it, and how to avoid it.

How Do You Get Food Poisoning?

Food-borne illnesses come from germs (bacteria and viruses) arising from two sources: contaminated food, or contaminated people preparing food.

Foods can become contaminated by germs in water or soil, or from germs present in an animal's gut while it is still alive. Once slaughtered, the germs contaminate the animal's meat or eggs and once in food, these germs continue to multiply until you eat the food and get sick.

When a food-borne germ enters your system - usually through your mouth - you become potentially infectious to others. This can happen even before you become ill, as well as during the actual illness, and sometimes for weeks afterwards.

The most common way you can infect another person is by 'faecal-oral transmission'. In short, this means the germ is in your gut and your faeces, so when you go to the bathroom the bug can contaminate your hands. If you then prepare food the bug transfers from your hands to food or to objects like eating utensils and cups, which go into someone's mouth and then infect them.

The other factors peculiar to street food are a lack of sanitation, and a lack of refrigeration. Sanitation can be improved by handwashing with household soap and water, but many street food vendors lack a source of running water. Refrigeration kills some germs and slows other germs from multiplying, but in the absence of refrigeration in the outdoor environment where most street food is found, the rate at which food spoils and bacteria multiply will depend on the ambient temperature - warm days will cause food to spoil faster and germs to multiply faster.

The final factor increasing the risk of street food is you - you're travelling, you're in crowded places, you're touching railings, door knobs, and money that have all been handled by many, many other pairs of hands. The number of germs on your hands accumulates, and you then touch your mouth, or touch utensils you put in your mouth, and as my mum used to say "You might as well have licked the toilet door handle". Eww.

Do you think he washed his hands with soap and water before he picked up that hunk of meat??

Foodborne Illness - The Top 8 Culprits

Most food poisoning is caused by just a handful of nasties, and it's worth knowing a little about their habits and what foods they like to hangout in so you can avoid them.

These eight organisms, one virus and seven bacteria, cause the vast majority of food-borne illness around the world. As you read through you'll begin to see some trends developing: undercooked chicken, minced meat, seafood, unpasteurised milk, uncooked vegetables. Take note.

1. Norovirus

Otherwise known as the 'cruise ship virus',  this highly contagious virus is the cause of more cases of foodborne illness than all other germs combined, accounting for more than 20 million illnesses and about 800 deaths annually in the USA.

Those 63 unlucky diners at Noma in Copenhagen? Norovirus. The food handler responsible showed no symptoms.

276 travellers on board the Ruby Princess? Norovirus.

Part of the problem is that you can become infectious several days before you get sick and up to 2 weeks after you're completely recovered. Norovirus can also survive relatively cold temperatures - down to zero degrees.

Sources: Human to human (faecal-oral transmission), touching contaminated surfaces, leafy greens, fruit, shellfish. 

Incubation period: 12-48 hours
Symptoms: Abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever
Duration: 1-3 days

Vaccine: nil
Treatment: no specific treatment available, treat dehydration

2. Campylobacter
The second most common cause of food borne illness, campylobacter infections are still outnumbered by norovirus infections twenty cases to one.

Sources: Undercooked/raw chicken (campylobacter can infect chickens without making them sick), raw milk, contaminated water
Incubation period: 2-5 days

Symptoms: Diarrhoea (sometimes bloody), fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps

Duration: 2-10 days

Vaccine: nil
Treatment: some cases will require antibiotics

3. Salmonella

Most infections are caused by two strains, one of which is salmonella typhi, otherwise known as typhoid fever. It's a very common cause of traveller's diarrhoea.

The name has nothing to do with fish - the bacteria was named after scientist Daniel Elmer Salmon.

Sources:  Undercooked/raw chicken, undercooked egg whites and yolks, minced meat, raw milk, unpasteurised fruit juice, contaminated water, contaminated raw fruits and vegetables, spices, nuts. Salmonella outbreaks are most often linked to poultry but have occurred in sources as diverse as peanut butter, mangoes, alfalfa, pine nuts and cucumber.  

Small animals including well-looking chicks, ducklings and turtles can also harbour salmonella and spread it to humans.

Incubation period: 12-72 hours

Symptoms: fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal cramps

Duration: 4-7 days

Vaccine: Typhoid vaccine provides protection against salmonella typhi but not other salmonella strains. Given two weeks before travel, with a booster every two years. There is also an oral live vaccine, four doses (capsules) commenced two weeks before travel.

Treatment: some cases will require antibiotics, treat dehydration

4. Clostridum

More accurately known as clostrdium perfringens, clostridium lives in the soil as well as the intestines of humans and animals. The bacteria produces a toxin that causes illness, and is most commonly found in foods that have been sitting at low temperatures after cooking, allowing the bacteria to multiply.

Sources: Chicken, beef, gravy, stews 

Incubation period: 6-24 hours

Symptoms: abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, fever

Duration: less than 24 hours

Vaccine: nil

Treatment: treatment is not normally required, other than to treat dehydration

5. Listeria

Anyone who has ever been pregnant will be very familiar with the sources of listeria infection - pregnant women are at particular risk.

Sources: Uncooked chicken and other meats, vegetables, processed foods inlcuding soft cheese, processed meats, smoked seafood, raw sprouts

Incubation period: 3-70 days (that's not a typo - listeria can make you ill long after you've returned home from your travels)

Symptoms: vomiting, fever, headaches, some diarrhoea

Duration: days to weeks

Vaccine: nil

Treatment: antibiotics 

6. E Coli

E coli is a bacteria found in every human being's intestines, and the intestines of many animals. Some varieties of E coli (O157:H7) produce a severe toxin that rarely can damage the kidneys and blood - a serious illness known as haemolytic-uraemic syndrome or HUS.

Sources: undercooked ground beef, undercooked poultry, raw milk, soft cheeses, raw fruits and vegetables, sprouts

Incubation period: 1-10 days

Symptoms: Severe diarrhoea (often bloody) abdominal pain, vomiting. Fever may be absent.

Duration: 5-10 days

Vaccine: nil

Treatment: treatment of uncomplicated E coli infection is simply treatment of dehydration. HUS is fortunately rare but requires specific specialist treatment in hospital.

7. Vibrio
There are several types of vibrio: two species occur naturally in warm waters and cause illness in people consuming raw oysters. In Asia, Africa and parts of South America another type, vibrio cholerae, is instantly recognisable as the cause of cholera.

Sources: oysters, other shellfish, shrimp, faeces-contaminated water. WHO's motto is 'Boil it, Cook it, Peel it, or Leave it'.

Incubation period: from several hours to several days

Symptoms: severe watery diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, vomiting

Duration: 2-8 days

Vaccine: the cholera vaccine, an oral vaccine, currently offers only limited protection for a short period of time and is not recommended for travellers. It is not available in the USA.

Treatment: treatment of dehydration is extremely important. Antibiotics can help but are less important than rehydration.

8. Staph Aureus
That same old bug that causes skin infections and boils can also fester away in foods, causing a food poisoning of uncommon speed and severity.

Sources: contaminated persons preparing uncooked foods such as sandwiches and salads, meat, poultry, eggs

Incubation period: 1-6 hours

Symptoms: diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, mild fever

Duration: 24-48 hours

Vaccine: nil

Treatment: treatment of dehydration

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Eating Street Food

Is this a high risk food?

You have a better idea now of the foods on this list: chicken, raw or undercooked eggs, minced meat, oysters, other shellfish, salads. I rarely eat any of these on the street, and always feel nervous if I do.

Is this a local food?

It's worth asking yourself whether the food on offer is local, and commonly eaten by locals. Long transport and storage times are all chances to allow bacteria to multiply, particularly in places where refrigeration is a rarity, so the further a food is from where it was grown or caught the more likely it is to be contaminated. For example, eating seafood far inland is high risk - you can't be confident it remained refrigerated as it moved from boat to processing factory to truck to train to truck to shop to vendor.

If the food is not commonly eaten by locals, the turnover of food may be slower, with a consequently higher chance of spoilage. For example, in China beef is less commonly eaten and more expensive than pork or chicken - so if a street food vendor has paid a higher price for a piece of beef he is less likely to discard it at the earliest sign of spoilage.

How was this cooked?

Cooking temperatures are crucial to the killing of bacteria and viruses. The temperature 'danger zone' for bacterial growth in food is 5-60C (40-140F). Most cooking methods have higher temperatures than this:

Poaching 70-85C (160-185F)

Simmering 80-90C (175-195F)
Steaming 100C (212F)

Boiling 100C (212F)

Stir frying/pan frying 150-165C (300-330F)

Deep-frying 175-190C (350-375F)

Grilling up to 260C (500F)

Larger cuts of meat and large whole fish are more risky because they need to reach a core temp of 74C (165F) for safety - the outside of the meat may be well cooked, but the inside may not. If meat is pink or raw looking, it's at risk. For this reason, smaller pieces of meat are less risky because they're more likely to be cooked all the way through.

How long has it been sitting here?
Food begins to spoil the moment it ceases being alive. Refrigeration will slow this process, but not prevent it.
Foods spoil in the following order (from shortest to longest spoilage times): shellfish, fish, chicken, turkey, duck, pork, beef/lamb.

In addition, once food is cooked it needs to be kept hot - well above 60C, or cooled down rapidly and refrigerated. Hence the risk associated with pre-cooked foods like stews, sauces and braises that are inadequately reheated.

Who is preparing my food?

Do they look healthy? Are their hands clean? 

Is the food environment clean?

Because germs can live on other surfaces like tabletops, poorly washed eating utensils, and chairs, street food restaurants with filthy table tops and dirty dishes are best avoided. Look for a place that has some pride in its appearance. 

Problem: Beef mince wrapped in tofu skin. Steamer barely simmering, so low cooking heat. Beef was only partly cooked when I took a bite: I discarded the rest.

Problem: Handling of raw pork mince, no access to water or handwashing. However: long queue (popular with locals) and pork pancake was then cooked on a very hot griddle, and eaten straight away wrapped in paper to keep it clean from my dirty hands. I ate it - no problems.

Problem: cold noodles (usually safe) mixed with raw vegetables (potentially unsafe). However: the vendor's set up is clean and tidy, her hands are clean and don't touch the food as she mixes it. I ate it - no problems.

Problem: skewers of raw chicken, marinated chicken, and squid approx 2000km inland, waiting to be grilled. No refrigeration, and a very warm night after a hot day. I gave it a miss.

The Five Street Food Rules
Based on all of this information, here are five simple street food rules that will stand you in good stead anywhere in the world.

Please once again note: They apply to healthy adults, not high risk groups such as very young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and those with chronic illness.


1. Always wash your hands before eating. If you cannot, use chopsticks or a fork.

2. Avoid chicken, seafood and salads

3. Eat what's locally popular

4. Eat what's hot

5. Eat with an adventurous spirit, but be prepared just in case.

Happy eating!

The Island of Small Delights: San Shan Dao 三山岛

As island hamlets go, San Shan Dao is at the humbler end of the remote-island-getaway spectrum. It's not like Mustique, say, where you might have once seen Princess Margaret walking along the beach in a silk caftan with a gin and tonic in hand. Because there isn't a beach on San Shan Dao, or any gin and tonics either. And as far as I can tell it's not a favoured hideaway of the British royal family.

But you know, it is really pretty and everyone living on the tiny island seems to be in ridiculously rude good health and having a lovely time, spending all day outdoors in the blossoms of spring, tinkering about with boats through the summer, harvesting the tart orange fruits of the pipa trees in early autumn then hunkering down for winter with the sole task of catching enough fish to make dried fish snacks. 

We had a wonderful low key vacation there a few weeks ago - the girls and I flew in to Shanghai to join my husband and some old Shanghai friends for the annual Tomb Sweeping Festival (Qing Ming 清明). We were fast threatening to become one of those long-distance families so often seen in China, with parents working in different cities or even countries. I was in China, my husband in Australia, then we did a tag-team switch and he came to China to work like a maniac on projects to keep his public art business running smoothly, then we all finally re-united in Shanghai. It's not exactly what we had in mind when we went back to Australia, but it is the reality of running a business in more than one country. 

San Shan Dao (rather ambitiously named Three Mountain Island) is one of ninety nine islands - all small - in the middle of vast Tai Lake in Jiangsu Province. It's a few hours' drive west of Shanghai and a perfect place for winding-down. There's bugger all to do except drink tea, play mahjong, and eat dried fish snacks. I've heard they're truly delicious.

When I asked a Chinese friend what he knew about San Shan Dao he immediately rattled off its 'Three Whites', that is, the three famous foods the lake and islands are known for - bai yu (white fish), yin yu (whitebait), and bai xia (white shrimp). 

I never cease to be amazed by this secret skill of every Chinese person I know. Mention a place, any place in China, and they can tell you its most famous foods. 

"Huangshan?"

"Huangshan Maofeng Tea. Dried mountain bamboo shoots."

"Pixian?"

"Pixian bean paste. Too easy. Give me something harder."

"Shaxian then."

"Shaxian? Well, there are 240 Shaxian snacks of which 39 are designated national delicacies: salted pressed duck, willow leaf steamed dumplings, Shaxian noodles with sesame paste..."

"Stop! OK! I give up. Here's one for you: name three famous people buried in Père Lachaise cemetery? Ha! Got you!"

It's like a local-specialty-foods DNA sequence built into the Chinese genome, which the rest of us disappointingly lack.

But back to San Shan Dao - arriving at the ferry terminal on the shores of Lake Tai we ditched the slower ferry (half an hour) in favour of a faster speedboat (ten minutes) that could hold all eight of us. By the time I'd figured out how to fasten the complicated orange life jacket we'd arrived, right on sunset. From a distance San Shan Dao's three small hills were visible along with a protected wetland area near the shore, and hundreds of pink-blossoming cherry trees.

We were collected from the jetty by Farmer Xue in his electric tricycle, who piled our bags and children into the tricycle's tray and asked us to follow him to his guesthouse. We immediately settled into the slow rhythm of the island - there are no cars on San Shan Dao so everything is conveyed by bicycle or tricycle via one small road running around the island's perimeter. Nothing happens fast.

The view from our simple, clean room in Farmer Xue's house was delightful, looking over the black-tiled rooftops of the village towards one of San Shan Dao's three 'mountains'.

Before dinner we took a walk around the village, golden in the setting sun. Narrow paths led between old trees to stone farmhouses and walled gardens full of cherry and pipa trees. The broad green leaves of the pipa trees hid clusters of soft velvety brown pipa flowers, which would turn into small tart juicy orange fruit by late summer. There was a tiny harbour for fishing boats with steps leading down to the lake's edge for washing or collecting water. The children rescued a baby hedgehog they found trapped in a dicarded fishing net. 

Hunger called us back to Farmer Xue's house, where his wife, mother and mother-in-law were in charge of cooking. 

"Come into the kitchen and choose what you'd like to eat!" called Mrs Xue. The kitchen made me faint with pleasure, housed in a low stone building to the side of the guesthouse and reached through a moss-covered open air courtyard with a slab table for chopping and preparing. Baskets of fresh greens from the garden were waiting to be washed and trimmed alongside a deep water-filled dish holding two plump fish. 

The kitchen itself was dominated by an old wood-fired three wok cooker manned by Farmer Xue's mother, wearing a Burberry-checked hat I never saw her remove, indoors or out. There was a mesh-fronted cupboard full of freshly-cooked food - poached chicken, roast duck, crispy fried small fish, bowls of peanuts, a basket of eggs, a bunch of trimmed scallions.

Everything on offer had come from the garden or the lake just hours before and was spanking fresh. I loved this kind of nong jia cai 农家菜 - farm-style food, freshly picked, simply cooked, and eaten immediately with an appetite made sharper by fresh air and long walks.

We chose lacquered mahogony roast duck, a poached fish with vinegar and soy, lake snails braised with chili and garlic, fresh bamboo shoots cooked with rice and local ham, stir-fried baby celery, strips of dried tofu braised with sweet green peppers, and most delicious of all, eggs fried with whitebait. 

We drank glasses of the local green tea, biluo chun, the dark jade spirals of the dried leaves unfurling in hot water. As the dishes arrived at our table one by one, intoxicating smells filling the dining room. Not a scrap was left at the end of the meal, after which we sighed, patted our bellies, and went to bed.

We spent the next two days exploring every corner of the island, between trips back to Mrs Xue's kitchen for our next meal. The tiny fishing harbour, the cherry orchards, the Niang Niang Temple, the ancient stone well - we visited all the island's attractions on foot or by bicycle (singles, tandems, or four-person bicycles can be rented near the jetty). The children roamed in a tight gang of four, having a Swallows and Amazons adventure in the small wild woods between the farms.

Everywhere we walked were trees in blossom, wildflowers blooming, and hardy wild spring onions growing between the rocks, lending a pungent smell to every step. We collected a basketful for our dinner that night, and the children spent an hour trimming and peeling them squatted on their heels like a clutch of old Chinese ladies. Mrs Xue fried them until they were caramelised and sweet, then tossed them with whisked egg that puffed in the heat of the wok. 

We even, eventually, found an old couple selling dried fish snacks, dried whitebait and dried pipa flowers (a remedy for cough, steeped in hot water and drunk as a tea). The fish snacks, flattened and cut into circles or squares, had a curiously sweet taste and a chewy texture. I bought some for Chinese friends but was, curiously, never tempted to keep them for myself.

Island specialties: dried white fish, dried white bait, dried fish snacks. Not as tasty as they look. Below: freshly picked spring onions from the hill behind Farmer Xue's home.

On our last day, having filled ourselves with the simple and all too rarely enjoyed pleasures of fresh air, farm food, too much sleep and laughter, and time with our children just rambling and roaming, we took the slow ferry back to what I now thought of us 'the mainland'. 

What a wonderful place! I thought, finding a space for my feet on the ferry between a basket of spring onions and a bag of dried pipa flowers. 

Getting to San Shan Dao

The island is reached by boat from the eastern shores of Lake Tai.

Island admission: 60rmb per person (adults) 30rmb (children over 1.2m), free for children under 1.2m.

By private vehicle:
We hired a minibus and driver from Shanghai who took us directly to the Shatan Shan Wharf (approx three hours' drive) and collected us again three days later - 1780 rmb total fee.

By public transport:
From Shanghai: Take the fast train to Suzhou station
From Suzhou Station: Take Bus 69 to Dongshan Area Gongshan Wharf. Take the kuaiting (motor boat) to San Shan Dao or take Bus 502 to Dongshan, then Bus 627 to Shatan Shan Wharf, then take the kuaiting(motor boat) or the duchuan (ferry boat) to San Shan Dao

Motorboat: 180 rmb one way for up to 8 people
Ferry: 15rmb one way per person

See Farmer Xue's instructions below (with a list of famous foods and specialty food products!)

Staying on San Shan Dao

The island more than a dozen small farm stay guest houses. You could quite reasonably just turn up and find a bed without any problem, weekends included.

We stayed at Farmer Xue's place, The Nan Feng Shan Zhuang 南峰山庄 (South Peak Mountain Villa)

Rooms sleeping 2-3 with private bathroom and shower are 150 rmb/night. 

All meals are cooked on the premises from fresh ingredients grown on the island. Our total food bill for six meals for a family of four came to around 400 rmb ($60).

www.ssdnf.com

+86 13861303825

Uncharacteristic Pessimism: The Kind of Personal Post I Never Write

I'm waiting for my daughter to wake up from her anaesthetic, sitting in the kind of parents' waiting room I walk through every single day in my work as a childrens' emergency doctor, but not often as a parent looking in from the other side. There's a television playing Sesame Street on loop and a bunch of other parents pretending not to be anxious by reading gossip magazines, but I see them looking at the clock every three minutes as we wait to hear it's our turn to go to the recovery room. It's an uncomfortable place to be.

I don't normally write intensely personal posts like this one, because it has never seemed the right fit for me. I like to write about the things that make life so very enjoyable - great food, interesting places, fascinating people - and I write best from a happy place, feeling optimistic about life and the world around me.

But I've struggled with one of my regular posts for the last three weeks, trying to recreate the happy memories of an island we visited earlier this month on our family trip to Shanghai, and wondering why I just can't seem to get the darn thing finished.

I write, and erase, and re-write, then find myself changing the topic, fiddling with the photos, deciding on yet another topic with better photos. I keep procrastinating, finding other tasks to do, putting it off.

'It's writer's block' I think to myself, 'It will pass.'

Then the answer eventually came to me today as I sat in that waiting room - it's not writer's block, it's mental exhaustion. It's been building for months. 

The thing is, as a blogger it can be very easy to have everyone believe your life consists of nothing but eating good food, visiting exciting and adventurous locations, and feasting on street food. And sometimes it is, but only a bit of the time.

You can conveniently leave out the boring bits - paying bills, juggling childcare arrangements, working in an actual money-paying job that pays actual bills. I don't often write about the bad stuff in life, perhaps from a misplaced belief that many people read blogs as an escape from all of that...drudgery.

But I should let you know that just like everyone I also have days of drudgery where I seem to do nothing but repeated loads of washing and emptying the cat litter tray. I have black days, messy days, chaotic days and days when it just seems too much. And although some people can tap into that deep, dark river and write wonderfully about it, usually I can't.

Lately there haven't been too many shiny, happy days though.

Combined with tragic events unfolding this week around the world, my own world is now also often filled with sad and tragic events - parents who harm their children, children who harm themselves, families who deal daily with a seriously ill or disabled child. It didn't seem to bother me as much before I went to China - I thought I coped with the stress of it all quite well - but it bothers me a great deal now. I appear to have lost my immunity to that kind of heartache and I'm no longer a hardened ER doctor (actually, in all truthfulness I never was - only ever so slightly toughened). I've gone soft.

It can be inspiring too - children who overcome illness against the odds, happy faces after a broken arm is fixed, a look of incredulity when I extract a bright pink bead from a small boy's nose. It's a fine balance between ups and downs when you work with sick children, but lately the downs have been out-scoring the ups by a long way.

To add to the burden we're all still, in our own way, homesick for China and the relatively carefree life we had there. 

I can't identify completely what made it so carefree (well, yes, six months in a campervan), but I can say it had a lot to do with not owning a house or car, and not having to think about insurance, school meetings or mobile phone plans. Life back in Australia has been surprisingly complicated and difficult and we don't seem to be having much fun. The writing isn't coming as easily as it did.

As I write this I'm called into the recovery room. My daughter is lying flushed and asleep, an oxygen mask on her swollen little face. It's nothing major or life-threatening, just the draining of a big ugly tooth abscess that reared up overnight last night, and the removal of the guilty molar that caused it all. She'll be fine in a few days.

She frowns and struggles wildly as she emerges from the anaesthetic, distressed and crying, disoriented. Yet I'm so glad it's safely over. I can deal with the night ahead knowing the worst is past.

She drifts back into a restless sleep and I think about all the reasons my brain is too full to write. A sick child. The emotionally draining encounters with stressed parents I think about for days afterwards. The complicated schedules of four family members that takes up more brain space than it should. The increasing difficulty of squeezing freelance writing into the existing list of tasks. The parking tickets and speeding fines I keep getting because I still drive and park like I live in China.

The poor old think-box is just too exhausted. Too used up. I need to stop thinking for a while, stop cogitating, stop struggling, and give it a rest. 

Then I think about how very lucky I am to have two happy and (usually) healthy children, and to live in a place where safe healthcare is readily available. Lucky to have children and a husband who I love as hugely and passionately as they love me. Lucky to have the chance to write with complete freedom about whatever I want. 

I resolve to be less hard on myself. The writing will come when it comes, sometimes at surprising times like this, in an operating theatre recovery room. 

I look forward to a return to normal optimistic functioning very soon, and in the meanwhile my heart is with my American friends and readers - as many of you are. Sending the few good thoughts left in this poor tired head your way.

Shanghai Soup Dumplings: Xiaolongbao, The Complete Guide

For foodies, Shanghai is synonymous with xiaolongbao, savory and delicious soup-filled dumplings that seem to defy culinary possibility. With this guide you'll become an overnight expert and discover where Shanghai's best, oldest, and most secret xiaolongbao spots can be found, and how to order and eat xiaolongbao. Ready?

1. How do you say xiaolongbao?
2. What are xiaolongbao?
3. How to eat xiaolongbao
4. How to order xiaolongbao
5. Five Shanghai xiaolongbao eateries to try
6. Where to find more information - recipes, xiaolongbao classes, more restaurant suggestions

1. How do you say xiaolongbao?
First things first. This impossible looking word is quite easy to say. 
It's shao(rhymes with cow)-long-bao(rhymes with cow). 

Shao-long-bao.

For those studying Chinese, the tones are: xiăolóngbāo.


2. What are xiaolongbao?

Xiaolongbao 小笼包, the soup-filled dumplings Shanghai is famous for, are a miracle of creation and construction - seemingly delicate, semi-transparent dumpling skins are wrapped and neatly pleated around an aromatic filling of pork and a mouthful of hot savory broth. 

The pork filling, seasoned with a little ginger and shaoxing wine, is mixed with gelatinized pork stock that melts on cooking, transforming into a delicious soup. The addition of crab meat and crab roe from the famous Shanghai hairy crab makes for a rich but equally traditional xiaolongbao.

Many wonder how liquid soup manages to get inside a hand-wrapped dumpling. Is it somehow scooped inside as the dumpling is wrapped? Or is it injected using a syringe? The secret, of course, is that the soup is actually a solid at room temperature, melting into a liquid only when the dumplings are steamed at high heat. The soup is essentially a flavoured pork stock or aspic, made with pork skin, chicken bones, ginger, scallions and shaoxing wine, simmered for hours and hours then cooled at room temperature until it sets. Every kitchen has their own secret recipe because the quality of the soup is paramount in a good xiaolongbao.

The word xiăolóngbāo 小笼包 literally means 'small steamer basket buns' and is the most commonly used name for these dumplings. More traditional restaurants may also use the term tāngbāo 汤包, meaning soup dumpling. The only accompaniment needed for xiaolongbao is dark Zhejiang vinegar, although a bowl of clear soup is often eaten alongside.

When you taste a xiaolongbao, the skin or wrapper should be fine and translucent yet strong enough not to break when lifted out of the basket. The meat should be fresh tasting, smooth and savory. Lastly, the all-important soup should be hot, clear, and fragrant of pork. Enjoy!

3. How to eat xiaolongbao: A step-by-step guide

Soup-filled dumplings should be handled with care - the contents are HOT.

You will be given a small circular dish to fill with vinegar form the bottle or teapot on your table, a pair of chopsticks, and a soup spoon. You may also be given a dish of finely shredded ginger to add to the vinegar as desired.

To eat a xiaolongbao, first lift it out of the steamer basket by its strongest part, the topknot (use your spoon for support if needed), and dip it gently into the dish of vinegar.

Resting it back on your spoon, nibble a small hole to let out the steam. Slurp a little soup.

Once it's cooled slightly, eat from the spoon using your chopsticks or throw caution to the wind and put the whole spoonful in your mouth in one go. The savory soup will be scalding hot as you eat.

4. How to order xiaolongbao
Xiaolongbao can be ordered by the basket (long 笼) or serving (fen 份) in practical terms, everyone uses 'serving' or fen.

The number of xiaolongbao in each serving varies with the restaurant and the size of the steamer basket, but is usually between six and twelve.

Although there are countless variations in xiaolongbao fillings, the most popular are pork (zhu rou 猪肉) or a mixture of pork with the meat and roe from Shanghai's famed hairy crab (xiefen 蟹粉). Small street eateries may only serve pork, traditional restaurants usually have both pork and pork/crab/roe, and fancier restaurants may offer novel and non-traditional fillings like chicken, foie gras, or mushroom.

How many servings will you need? That depends entirely on your appetite, but as a guide, four to six xiaolongbao per person is plenty for a snack, and eight to ten per person makes a meal.

Here's an easy ordering guide in English, pinyin and Chinese:

English: pork xiaolongbao
Chinese: zhūròu xiăolóngbāo 猪肉小笼包
Pronunciation: joo-ROW shao-(rhymes with cow)-long-bao (rhymes with cow)

English: crab meat xiaolongbao

Chinese: xièfĕn xiăolóngbāo  蟹粉小笼包

Pronunciation: shee-EH-fun shao-long-bao

English: One serve of xiaolongbao

Chinese: xiăolóngbāo yī fēn 猪肉小笼包一份 

Pronunciation: shao-long-bao EE-fun

English: chopsticks

Chinese: kuàizi 筷子

Pronunciation: KWHY-zuh

English: spoon

Chinese: sháozi 勺子

Pronunciation: SHAO-zuh

English: vinegar

Chinese:  cù 醋

Pronunciation: TSOOh

5. Where to eat xiaolongbao
1. Jia Jia Tang Bao 佳家汤包

Having been in the soup dumpling business for years, Jia Jia Tang Bao is hands down the sentimental favorite of young and old Shanghainese alike. Expect to queue at all hours of the day, but once inside on your small orange stool you can experience what life is like in a goldfish bowl as those waiting outside intermittently press their faces to the glass to see whether you're eating fast enough. Don't rush! Savor the homely ambience and the excellent dumplings.

Jia Jia Tang Bao offer two main types of xiaolongbao, regular pork xiaolongbao, and hairy crab meat xiaolongbao. The former are similar to those found elsewhere, but the crab xiaolongbao are exquisite, stuffed full of tiny shreds of sweet crabmeat, they explode with the flavour of the crab roe.

Price: Crabmeat xiaolongbao 25.5 rmb per serve (12 pieces)

Details:

Jia Jia Tang Bao  佳家汤包

90 Huanghe Lu, near Fengyang Lu

黄河路90号, 近凤阳路

+86 21 6327 6878

Open 7 days, 6.30am - 10pm

English occasionally spoken, English menu (no pictures)

Cash only

2. Loushi Tangbao Guan 陋室汤包馆 The Humble Room Soup Dumpling Eatery 

Tucked away on the working end of one of the French Concession's most beautiful streets (that would be Nanchang Lu of course!), you could well walk past The Humble Room without noticing it amongst a slew of other noodle and dumpling shops. But this place is special - it's where local workers come to tuck into a full steamer basket of xiaolongbao for breakfast, lunch or dinner at one of only six tiny tables.

The proprietor, surly on his best days, may need to be prodded awake to serve you but the xiaolongbao are top-notch. They also serve several noodle dishes.

The Humble Room's xiaolongbao belie the restaurant's name - they're sophisticated little dumplings with strong thin skins, smooth pork filling and a satisfyingly rich broth. And at 6 rmb for a basket of eight, they represent incredible value.

Price: 6 rmb per serve (8 pieces)

Details:

Loushi Tangbao Guan 陋室汤包馆

601 Nanchang Lu, near Xiangyang Lu

南昌路601号
(靠近襄阳路)

Open 7 days, 6.30am - 8pm

No English spoken, no English menu

Cash only

3. Din Tai Fung Xintiandi 鼎泰震新天地店 

It's impossible to write about Shanghai's xiaolongbao without mentioning Din Tai Fung, where the humble xiaolongbao is elevated to a culinary art form. Don't be put off by the fact that this chain comes from Taiwan - they have an impeccable pedigree and two of their Hong Kong restaurants were this year awarded a Michelin star. If the Michelin Guide ever makes it to China's mainland, this branch will likely end up with one too.

For some diehard gourmands it's sacrilege to admit you like Din Tai Fung's xiaolongbao, as they pout "too expensive!" "too touristy!" "not Shanghainese!" but for me Din Tai Fung's biggest drawcard has to be its consistency - consistently great xiaolongbao, consistently good service and spotlessly clean, it's also the only place on this list where English is consistently spoken.

Din Tai Fung's dumplings boast the finest wrappers, all rolled individually by hand so that they're thinner at the edges and stronger in the middle, the smoothest pork filling and the most refined of all the soups. In addition, Din Tai Fung offers that rarity, a totally vegetarian xiaolongbao filled with assorted mushrooms, and some very non-traditional fillings like goose liver and chicken.

Din Tai Fung also offers a wide selection of more substantial hot and cold dishes, wine and beer, and desserts.

Price: 29 rmb for five, 58 rmb for ten pork xiaolongbao

Details:
Din Tai Fung Xintiandi  鼎泰震新天地店

2F, House 6, South Block Xintiandi,

Lane 123 Xinye Lu, Shanghai

上海市兴业路123弄新天地广场南里6号楼2楼-11A单元

+8621 6385 8378

Open 7 days from 10am - 12mn

English spoken, English menu with pictures

Cash, credit cards accepted

4. Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant 南翔馒頭店

With a history of over a hundred years in the xiaolongbao business, Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant now has multiple locations in multiple countries.  This restaurant is one of their nicest and its location, just a stone's throw from the bright lights of Nanjing Xi Lu, makes it a perfect pitstop after a heavy morning of shopping.

Nanxiang is solid, clean and well-run, exactly the sort of place you might take your work colleagues or your parents-in-law for lunch.

Their crab xiaolongbao are exceptional, with the rich yellow roe clearly visible through the semi-transparent skins, and droplets of oily melted roe visible in the soup.

They also offer a full menu of non-dumpling dishes, including many Shanghainese specialties like fried glutinous rice slices with pork and ji cai vegetable - a chewy, delicious home-style dish.

Details:

Nanxiang Mantou Dian 南翔馒頭店

Branches all over Shanghai including:

2nd Floor, 269 Wujiang Lu, Jing'an District

静安区吴江路269号2楼

+8621 6136 1428

Open 7 days from 11am - 8.30pm

English sometimes spoken, picture menu

Cash only

5. Song Ji Nanxiang Xiaolongbao 南翔小笼馆

Those small and miraculous soup-filled dumplings Shanghai is famous for probably didn't originate in Shanghai. They came from a place called Nanxiang, considered by many to be the ancestral home, even the spiritual home of xiaolongbao. Once, long ago, Nanxiang was a happily separate little town south-west of Shanghai, but as the city sent out tentacles of roads, factories and apartment blocks in every direction it choked and then digested many smaller towns in its wake. Nanxiang was completely subsumed into modern-day Shanghai, and is now relegated to the status of an outer suburb. It even has its own stop on the Shanghai subway system (Nanxiang, Line 11).

But Nanxiang doesn't feel like the outer something of somewhere, in fact it feels like the centre of somewhere. This is because Nanxiang holds tight to one important quality that sets it apart from all the other grey and gritty outer suburbs. It is still a major mecca for xiaolongbao lovers, who make the pilgrimage from all over China to get to the source. Whole streets are lined with dumpling shops rolling, stuffing and twisting xialongbao into shape. 

Outside Song Ji restaurant, stacks of steamer baskets full of plump xialongbao wait to be cooked in the giant outdoor steamer. Inside, round wooden tables are filled with people dipping their xiaolongbao in dark vinegar then slurping up the filling. The menu runs to two choices of xiaolongbao - pork, or pork and crab, and five extras, all soups.

These xiaolongbao are justifiably famous, but they have a simple, homemade quality. The skins are thicker than those at say, Din Tai Fung, because they're hand pressed rather than rolled, and the filling is simpler and more rustic with less seasoning and more meat. The soup, particularly of the pork and crab xiaolongbao, is delicious and dangerously hot.

Take-away packs of pre-cooked xioalongbao are available too, packed inside two bamboo shells to protect them, like a giant clam. They re-heat pretty well in a steamer at home, but have less soup inside as it tends to absorb into the skin after the first cooking.

Details:

Song Ji Nanxiang Xiaolongbao 南翔小笼馆

210 Guyiyuan Lu, Jiading District

嘉定区古猗园路210号

Approx 30 minutes by car from downtown Shanghai, or easily reached by subway Line 11 (stop: Nanxiang). The restaurants are less than five minutes' walk from the subway.

+8621 5917 4019

Open 7 days from 8am - 8pm

No English spoken, no English menu

Cash only

6. More Information

For more Shanghai xiaolongbao eateries, or to find a xiaolongbao restaurant in other Chinese cities, try Dianping. In Shanghai, all Shanghainese restaurants serve xiaolongbao - try Old Jesse, New Jesse, or Fu Chun.

If you'd like to learn how to make your own xiaolongbao while visiting Shanghai, the Chinese Cooking Workshop runs a xiaolongbao class once a month, next on April 17th, 2013.

Xiaolongbao recipes can be found here and here and here if you'd like to try making them at home. My recipe for the pork aspic can be found here.

Got a favorite of your own? Share it in the comments below!