House of Flour (Shanghai) - Tech Park Foods

The House of Flour eating entry is part of the Food Court by the Technology Park series of entries.  Bob and I have discovered we very much enjoy this place because they have the best croque madame and monsieur sandwiches.  That's right, a restaurant/cafe in Shanghai has the best French sandwich I've ever had.  It's likely because the sandwiches are smothered in cheese.  As our friend Jay would say, "They taste like childhood obesity."  And damn if it isn't delicious!

The restaurant cafe has a selection of sandwiches, pastas, salads and soups.  There's always a (fill in the blank) of the day.  This last time we went they had a broccoli and spinach soup, which I thought sounded pretty good so I started my meal with that.  It was good, and would have been even better with a little garlic and some pepper.  It just needed a little kick, but it was fine.

Bob ordered the croque madame sandwich, and I had the croque monsieur sandwich.  What's the difference you ask?  Well they both have ham and cheese, but the croque madame has a fried egg on top.  Now you're probably saying to yourself, "but that's just a grilled ham and cheese sandwich."  And you would be right except that there's little fried/melted cheese over the top of the sandwich as well which finishes the whole thing off and makes you want to eat the whole thing even though it's gigantic!  Every sandwich also comes with a small side salad with a tart vinaigrette dressing.  I eat the tomatoes out of the salad but my main focus is always the sandwich.

The place is more pricey than a regular lunch because of the "western" food.  It was about $15 USD for each of us to eat lunch, but let me tell you, when you want the best grilled ham and cheese, you go to The House of Flour.

Korean Lunch - Tech Park Food Court

So the Mochi China office is across the street from an outdoor foodcourt area that has a lot of different places to eat, and we've typically eaten at the same places because, we like familiar things and don't like to be disappointed at lunch.  I decided that while I do like to know what I'm getting for lunch, we should also be trying out new things, and so has begun our adventure of the Tech Park Food Court.  The Tech Park is on the East side of the river in PuDong, where our office is also located.

The Tech Food Court:

The Korean Lunch Place:

We had Korean for lunch on Wednesday, November 10th, to be honest I have no idea what the name of the place is, because they didn't have anything in English.  Nothing on the menu was in English and the after ordering food I'm pretty sure no one who works there speaks English.  That's okay, because they have excellent pictures and Bob and I are familiar enough with Korean food that we were able to order something yummy.

DIY bibimbop:

We both had beef bibimbop for lunch.  The idea of the place is DIY (do it yourself), so they bring a giant stone bowl that's burn your face off hot and throw in all the ingredients in front of you at the table.  For those of you who have not had bibimbop, first, go find the closest korean place to your home and go try it, now!  It's delicious.  We had carrots, onions, sprouts, zucchini, and other veggies mixed in with rice and beef slices.  We each had a side of kimichi which we threw into our bibimbop, which made it even more delish.

Top view of my awesome food:

I will definitely be going back to this place, it was spicy but not too spicy and while the language barrier was there we had no problem ordering our food.  Plus, as usual the food was super cheap.  The meal was the bibimbop, side of kimichi and a miso soup for $4USD.  And it's a huge bowl.   Next time I'm going to get the bibimbop with egg, I love when they throw the egg on top and stir it around, but my favorite part is really when the rice has gotten a little burnt because then it's crispy.  Go have Korean now!

:)Margaret