It’s hard to enjoy a city when you’re suffering from swine flu. In Beijing I had come down with a cold, and it worsened in Shanghai to the point where I couldn’t leave my hotel room for several days.I barely left my bed, my head killed, and my temperature soared. I didn’t want to go to a clinic for fear the government would have me quarantined (as happened to two Brits I met with much less severe flu symptoms). The headache and achy body were debilitating.
I think I’ll forever associated Shanghai with feeling sick, delirious, and generally awful. Merely riding the city’s famous subway made me nauseous. One day I managed to get out in the morning for three hours, only to return to the hotel exhausted, collapsing for a three-hour nap.
Maybe the sickness also affected my tastebuds, but all of the food in Shanghai and in Beijing was disappointing. The restaurant options were either fast food (McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen) or super greasy and somewhat unsanitary Chinese dives. And it was all overpriced (at least compared to Cambodia).
While street dumplings were a cheap yet still tasty food option, after eating some bad ones in Beijing the mere site of dumplings now makes me queasy.
I have only one positive memory of food from Shanghai. I was wandering around the downtown looking for a restaurant when, after what seemed like hours, a small sandwich shop called New York Deli appeared. I ordered a honey roast beef sandwich. It was amazing.
