Shanghai is known for its dumplings, especially its soup dumplings. Soup dumplings are filled with pork and a soupy liquid. If you’re not careful, the soup will burn your tongue and face when you bite into the dumpling. Everything I read told me that the best place for soup dumplings was Yang’s Fry-Dumpling. So that was the first place I headed to upon arriving in Shanghai. Using extremely limited Chinese and some pointing, I ordered 4 dumplings at the counter. I didn’t see any Diet Coke, just a cabinet with bottles of brightly colored beverages. Having limited linguistic tools at my disposal, I ordered “huang”. In other words, “Give me the yellow one.”
I went to the kitchen window to pick up my dumplings. Then I sat down and poked the dumplings with chopsticks so the soup wouldn’t spray my face. They were pretty good. I’m not even sure if they were the famous soup dumplings or some other dumplings, but I enjoyed them. I had a little trouble when it came to opening my bottle of yellow. A lot of trouble actually. A waiter saw me struggling with the bottle, and offered a hand. He pushed down the top of the bottle, breaking a seal and causing the yellow to fizz. I had no idea at that point that his helpfulness was a common trait of the Chinese people. I took a swig, but got a sip. There was a translucent ball inside the bottle that blocked the beverage when I leaned back to swig. Sipping only, please. This type of bottle was a Chinese characteristic I had not known about. I never actually had to deal with another bottle like this the rest of my trip. Probably because just about everywhere else served Diet Coke. Regardless, my experience at Yang’s lulled me into thinking that my Chinese dining experiences were going to be a piece of cake, so to speak.
Speaking of which, I ordered a can of Diet Coke in the lobby lounge of the Grand Hyatt high up in the Jin Mao Tower. It cost $9. Communism, right.
That is very interesting that they had a little ball inside the bottle to prevent you from swigging. I am used to seeing that apparatus used in hard liquor bottles at bars and night clubs as they are to prevent bartenders from pouring more than just a shot of whichever alcohol that they are pouring.
It was new to me. Fortunately it was the only time I saw it on my trip. Eating was challenge enough without drinking a beverage also being a challenge.