Pond on Golden Street

Munich Beer Garden

On the Saturday of the May Day weekend Richard was having to work at home most of the day, so towards the end of the afternoon, when he had decided that enough was enough we went out of the apartment and walked the 5 minutes or so to Golden Street in search of some much deserved rest and recreation.  Down the centre of this pedestrianised road is a long thin pond and along side it you can find little pockets of Europe.  We hadn’t tried it before, but now in the late afternoon sun was a good time to try out the Munich Beer Garden, which sells beer in traditional German-sized litre glasses, so we sat and mellowed and watched the world go by.

I’m already rather mellow, I think

Richard’s got a little further to go

Now the German beer did such a good job at relaxing us that we decided that we would continue along our European theme and go and check out the Italian restaurant further

The Italian Kitchen, Golden Street

The Italian Kitchen’s Pizza Oven

down the street, called The Italian Kitchen.  I walk past it most days on my way to the metro station and had seen that it has its own Pizza oven, so I was intrigued to see whether the pizzas were any good. We found a table outside and the place was already busy, mainly with local Koreans and Japanese families with their children and we settled down to order.

Now I think he’s got there

We chose antipasti for two which came in a wooden box with typical Italian food such as Parma Ham, Mozzarella, melon and olives.  It was all very tasty and very authentic.  After that our pizzas came.  Now I

Antipasti in a wooden box

have generally been rather disappointed by the quality of western food available in Shanghai and our natural curiosity and our experience has tended to push us towards if not always Chinese food, then at least East Asian.  But here for the first time in China I had a really good pizza.  It was a standard order for me –  parma ham topped with rocket (arugula) a combination I first had at the Pizzeria San Domenico in Fiesole overlooking Florence with Richard’s sister-in-law’s sister who lives in the family home in the street below, the via delle Palazzine, and overlooking more or less, it turns out, Andrea Russo’s family home at the bottom of the hill. (He is now in charge of the Town Hall volunteers at Fordwich).  That is my standard for the best pizza and for the first time in

Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza

Shanghai I found a restaurant that could deliver a pizza that was a good approximation to the real deal.  The pizza tasted slightly smoking as it had been cooked in the pizza oven, and basil had been laid across the pizza base under the cheese and tomato topping.  In one mouthful I thought I got a taste of aniseed which made me think that some of the basil was in fact Thai Basil and not Neapolitan, but it was only one mouthful, so I’m not sure. We left mellowed, satisfied and sated.