It’s serendipitous when you stumble upon some place good to eat in Shanghai. It’ s extra special when it’s a place you don’t worry about ordering the wrong thing (because it doesn’t live up to your expectations or because you’re not quite sure what you are ordering) or be anxious about breaking the bank. That’s exactly what happened when I discovered Goody’s Sandwich Shop in a hidden nook in Pudong near Century Park. I wouldn’t even have discovered it if I hadn’t skipped lunch to try and make it on time to my appointment with Douglas King. He had treated me to a sandwich and his favorite Pomelo tea. The salsa beef on ciabatta bread and pomelo tea not only hit the spot that winter afternoon, it got me curious about making a visit to the shop when I came back for a treatment with Douglas the following week.

The only time I’ve got out of bed before 5.30am before is to catch a flight.  So the idea of this being a regular thing and to go and exercise was really beyond my comprehension.  The day just does not start that early!  I originally signed up for the EVENING Fitness Challenge but then the location switched (how could you!!?) so here I am, part of the MORNING JingAn team!  And actually, the getting up at the crack of dawn is the easy part.

WEEK ONE, SESSION ONE (Big Brother stylee voice, please)

5.45am, Jing’An Park, it’s a bit rainy, it’s hot and very humid.

First up – running.  Ok, I can do this!  I used to go running, well that was about 18 months ago now.  Next - push-ups.  These I can’t do.  I have jelly instead of muscles.  Skipping – I’ve not done this since I was a kid!  Oh, not like a schoolgirl, feet together you say …I hate skipping.

Downstairs is David Laris' new restaurant, and I felt compelled to go check it out because he's Australian. They're all about "smart and sustainable living", with wall made of recycled boat planks, and eco-friendly furniture, etc. The ambience is very Melbourne-style, and I felt like I wasn't in China. It was raining so unfortunately we couldn't sit outside in their lovely bamboo-surrounded patio, but at least we were cool, comfortable and dry indoors and the large floor-to-ceiling glass panels letting in natural light made us still feel like we were outdoors. The menu is limited, but all the dishes looked interesting. We were surprised that the prices were pretty reasonable. However, we soon realised why - the portions are tiny. I would say they're appetizer size, no where near filling enough to be a normal meal. A bit disappointing, as the food was excellent. If the portions were double the size, this place would easily have scored a full 5 star rating.

Save for my previous TAEBO exercise tapes, Physical Education Arnis classes back in college, I have never tried or taken a boxing class. When I told my husband back in Manila about wanting to get back into shape and exercise out (more like annihilate!) the annoying pressure point in my shoulder trap, he suggested martial arts. I thought to myself? Me? Martial arts? Never. I mean the thought of “kicking ass” like Scarlette Johannson as BlackWidow in Iron Man 2 so rocked but my pain tolerance wasn't exactly up to par. Even just threading my eyebrows could be such an accomplishment at times.

(Sissy alert!) But after listening to my dear hubby go on about how my background in dancing would really give me an edge with coordination and it would definitely get me fit quicker and also stronger. An added bonus it would allow me to release any pent up anger or frustration. (Come on, we all have them whether from our childhood, a tyrant boss or even sometimes a rude stranger bumping you on the back with her grocery cart!)

So I finally decided to give it a go. I tried a free trial with Ramsey Dewey at Tiger Muay Thai Kung Fu Club and then did a 100 RMB trial at Oz Body Fit gym. The first one was a semi-private class with two great Dolls Selvi and Karlijn (who are always ready to spar and kick ass and are very forgiving when my arms were not strong enough to hold up the brick-like pads at Muai Thai) and the second one with a group class at Oz Bodyf Fit. Both I would have to say got me sweating and aching (in a good way)!

I've been to Cristal only once before, and clearly they have massively improved this time round in terms of service and quality of food. It's more of a "nice-dining" restaurant. As in, it's not as exorbitantly priced as fine-dining, but certainly not a cheap cafe. It sits nicely in between and is actually really close to where we live, but we hadn't yet found an occasion to go again. Located on the 4th floor of a shopping mall at Nanjing West station, it's easy to miss and relatively unknown unless you've heard about the restaurant and are specifically going there for a meal. What a hidden treasure :) Last weekend 8 of us decided to try out Cristal's Brunch set menu, which at 178 RMB (3-course) or 198 RMB (4-course) turned out to be ONE AMAZING DEAL that had all of us surprised and delighted. The quality of the ingredients was superb, the presentation was fine-dining style, the service was polite and attentive, and the menu actually underplayed the variety and quantity of food that we would be served. It was flat-out impressive and all of us were raving about the value of the brunch. I am most definitely going back and recommending visitors to go there for a relaxed, sunlit weekend brunch.

In my quest to get a bikini body before summer actually hits (if it ever does with all this rain!) I started going to a woman’s only boxing class.  At first I had reservations about doing boxing as a sport for a few reasons.

1.         Isn’t Boxing is a boys sport? 2.         Do I really want to do a sport that is based on punching people? 3.         Will I be any good at it? 4.         Isn’t boxing just an arm and shoulder workout and not much fitness? 5.         Is boxing similar to Kick-Boxing, which I had tried and always felt really uncoordinated at?

I decided to give it a go, because I can’t really answer any of those questions without actually going to a class!  I was quite nervous the first time I decided to venture down to the class, because I was worried that I would look stupid and not know what I was doing, but that is what the trainers are for.

Lynn Modern Shanghai Cuisine (whew, what a mouthful!) is a chic restaurant boasting a fabulous location in the middle of the ritzy part of Jingan. The Art Deco decor boasts a modern interior, dark wood tables, and charming private rooms for large groups. We were here specifically for the all-you-can-eat dim sum brunch, though were quite disappointed when we found out that it was now 88元 (up from 78元). Still, the clean and neat restaurant and delicious food made up for it. The dishes were all excellent. You'd expect sub-par quality for all-you-can-eat, but the quality was fantastic. Most of the dishes were delicious, with only a few 'misses'. In particular, I adored the smoked egg, which sounded plain on the menu but we immediately fell in love upon first bite - it's basically a soft-boiled egg, the yolk all creamy and slightly runny. Another winner was the dan dan noodles, slippery smooth noodles resting in a delicious creamy spicy soup. The egg tarts, deep-fried red bean pancake and black sesame sticky rice balls for dessert were also stunners. 

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It's not particularly easy to get a good 'ol steak in China. You pretty much can only find it in fine-dining restaurants.. very very few casual/cheap places have steak, and if they do, you best stay away from it ;) And so we decided to treat ourselves at Moon's Steakhouse. Moon's Steakhouse is a lovely, luxe restaurant with fantastic service (the manager was a total dream) and beautifully plush sofas to relax on. The menu's fairly limited, but it's not a problem because you're on there for one thing - their steaks!

We appreciated the bread basket at the start, though it would have been great served with a soft herb butter, instead of (or accompanied with) the salsa and yoghurt dips. We decided to start off with the Seafood Chowder soup and Minestrone soup, which was a very good idea because we had to wait ONE HOUR for our steaks to arrive. It was unbelievable, and had me quite irate. I would have expected the waitress to warn us or at least apologise, but nada. The soups came out really quickly and so left us with a long and prolonged 1 hour wait. Both soups were nice, but nothing spectacular. They, strangely, came out in small cheap-bistro-style cups... not in a large wide bowl or served with some garlic bread. Tres odd, especially since they were not cheap!