The New XiangYang Market Shanghai

The infamous XiangYang Market on HuaiHai Rd. in Shanghai closed last year. It was a spot heavily traversed by foreigners looking for good deals on some pirated goods. For those of us that have been living here, it was a bit of a nuisance because everyone knows that when you pass by that area, you're likely to be harassed by sales people trying to make a buck off of a gullible foreigner.

It's been mostly moved over to a new area called TaoBao market which is on NanJing Rd. This move has been a huge improvement as the salespeople are mostly confined to a mall area and are not free to harass the innocent passersby. The shops are all neatly contained in glass cubicles instead of the makeshift tent-stalls that they used to be in. I walked through the area without anything more than the usual cries of "watch, DVD, bag" as I moved along the halls.

I passed on one store where I decided to take a look. I didn't have any intention to buy anything and nor did I really want or need anything that anyone is selling. I did however, leave with a pair of sunglasses, a pair of polarized Oakley rip-offs, that were actually quite nice in comparison with the usual load of crap that they were selling.

I started out looking at another pair of rip-offs that started at $220, but even a cursory look showed that the imitation was of very low quality. The lenses were scratched and the paint was uneven. I pointed this out to the sales person and they kept lowering the price. I then told him I wasn't really interested and attempted to move on. I guess he decided to pull out the big guns when he reached into the drawer for his best pair of glasses.

He demonstrated that they were polarized lenses, which I was skeptical about, but I don't see how he could have faked it. There was this little cube which looked like it was stamped with a circuit board. Looking at it through the "polarized" lenses, I could see what looked like two circular magnets. I tested it myself with the polarized and non-polarized lenses and it passed. So I inquired as to the price. This pair was $360 kuai.

That was just way too much to even consider and I really didn't want to spend money. To make a long story short, I got the pair for $60 kuai. I guess there are three major things to keep in mind while bargaining with these guys and those would be:

1. Don't go in there wanting anything at all, and don't show any real interest; if anything, show a reluctance to spend your money
2. The markup on any first price is at a minimum of 400% and that might be a low estimate
3. When you're walking away the price shoots downward so definitely walk away once or twice; there are plenty of other shops selling the same stuff
   

Best margarita ever!

When drinking with a tequilla, you must be willing to go all out. There's nothing you must not be willing to do to. We went out to grab a tequilla the other night and had to decide on something. We wanted something smooth that would be agreeable, and there were three choices, silver, aged, and anejo. I decided on the silver. It's barely aged, almost immature like ourselves in metallic casks. It's a smooth drink, perfect for our perfect margaritas.

For this Margarita, we used a Milagro, which was on special for US25 a bottle. We went for silver specifically for the smooth taste. This particular tequllia was 100% agave.

We decided that for our meal (lemon pepper garlic tilapia with a greek salad) a superior slight rasberry margarita would go perfectly and we were correct.

We bought about a dozen fresh limes, freshly squeezed orange juice, and several sprigs of fresh mint.
As all good Americans should have, we had a freezer full of ice.
The process was confusing at first, but we recommend, actually demand that you go about it in the finest barman tradition by chilling the glass first by adding at least three cubes of ice.

We made several errors in process, but we soon found that it was best to prepare a garnish first while the glass was cooling. To prep the garnish use a long cocktail stirrer. Do not use a toothpick, as we found that to be entirely inadequate. The cocktail stirrer should have two rasberries on it plus one or two sprigs of mint. For us, the mint was necessary. We had to make Mojitos later. Throw these garnishes side as you make one of the greatest drinks known.

First we make our own margarita mix. Do NOT USE A STORE BOUGHT. The mix is simply freshly squeezed lime, orange juice, and simple syrup. You'll find that if you use the store bought mix, it is basically sugar with a little bit of sugar. The entire idea of the our margherita is to cut down some of this sweetness and add something to the traditional margarita. We wanted something other than the popular sugar water mostly known to your regular fuckface all around.

Take the ice in the chilled glass and throw it into a shaker (or grab new ice if you're an ice barron). Add tequilla healthily, and a splash of Chambord, depending. We wanted the rasberry effect, but we could have easily gone with an orange like grand marinier. Both Grand Marinier (I'll cap it here) and Chambord are expensive, don't try to substitute with a brandy whatever you do.

We actually tried a blackberry brandy and tried to mix it with various variations having no luck, but it was emphatically awful. You might be able to go with a rasberry juice, but not puree. We also tried the puree but it was too thick. Obviously, you can see that we took every single precaution. Just drop your drink into the glass, coat them with lime and confectionary sugar avoiding the nasty saltiness you would normally get from a magherita at the end of your drink, and enjoy!