Sunday, April 13, 2014

Mmm on the Bund

This Sunday is a cold, rainy one, meaning it’s a good day to stay inside and sit in front of the TV, watching baseball games and HBO. The contrast could not have been greater with the previous Sunday, the day after we had returned from our weeklong trip to Guìlín 桂林 and Yángshuò 阳朔. Last Sunday was a beautiful day, warm but not hot, with clear blue skies. And for once, we timed things just right, having reserved a table for brunch just prior to leaving on our vacation at one of Shànghăi’s 上海 premier restaurants, M on the Bund 米氏餐厅.

Amber in front of M on the Bund…:


…and on the Bund 外滩:


M on the Bund was one of the first of the many upscale restaurants now populating the Bund. The food is surprisingly unpretentious considering the setting – I started things off with a mimosa, followed by a bowl of ribollita, an Italian bean soup. The main course was called a “Weekend Fry-up” – steak, lamb, sausage, bacon, a grilled tomato, sautéed onions, mashed potatoes and a fried egg. Dessert was chocolate mousse and Turkish coffee. It wasn’t cheap for the three of us, but it was certainly nice to get out and do something like this as a family. 

The best thing about M on the Bund wasn’t the food, as good as it was. It was the outdoor 7th-floor terrace giving great views of the Bund, the Huángpŭ River 黄浦江 and Pŭdōng 浦东:  






Following brunch, we took a short stroll to the start of the Bund, the 1916 McBain Building, the first in a long line of beautiful waterfront buildings:


Turning right, we took a different walk in time, going into the Shanghai Natural History Museum 上海自然博物馆. The museum will soon move into a modern building set to open sometime this year, but for now it remains housed in the 1923 Shanghai Cotton Exchange Building. Inside, it was still 1956:



Hopefully the new digs will better showcase the museum’s allegedly large collection, but the some of the dead things on display were pretty cool:



Shanghai... 



 
 

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