that's right: fat, lardy, paunchy, pudgy, rotund, decorated with flesh rolls (like frawley).
otherwise, they wouldn't taunt you with soup bowls of fresh hand-pulled noodles for 6 rmb (1 rmb extra for the egg)...
[fresh pulled noodle soup late night in some random part of town]
or racks of xiao long bao fit for a queen for under $3 cad each?
[the quintessential shanghai xiao long bao. i can eat a dozen right now.]
[oh look! my xiao long bao is swimming in the vinegar and ginger without its water wings!]
[crabmeat xiao long bao (ver. 2.0) from the most famous xiao long bao shop in shanghai, jia jia tang. they ran out of version 1.0 (pork buns).]
[hi, teenage dumpling makers!]
or piping hot, delectably delicious po-tat and cheese tarts for an hour's worth of parking in vieux montreal?
[portuguese egg tarts and cheese egg tarts (it sounds weird, but tastes almost like cheesecake) from a lillian cake shop.]
or greasy hangover-soothing nighttime street food so cheap and inviting, even if you weren't drunk, you'd want to be:
[night owl gao-tze for 5 RMB!]
[one of the many street food carts]
or even regular daytime street food for 11 rmb!
[shanghai noodles and fried rice]
or giant servings of deliciously fatty catfish swimming in fragrant chili oil for $5 cad?
[spicy joint's giant bowls of catfish in chili oil and broth]
[more spicy joint: shrimp in chili oil]
[spicy joint's pork belly with green chilis]
(btw, spicy joint wasn't that spicy.)
or these steamingly fresh big buns for a pittance:
[shanghai big chicken buns]
the city wants you fattened up. that's the conspiracy.
why? for the annual chinese new year sacrifice (already done and gone at this point). what do you think they make the red envelopes out of? might not be not paper after all...
恭喜發財!! happy year of the rabbit!