Expo Three Ways

World Expo is coming to a close at the end of October. As the end approaches people are scrambling to see it numbers that are truly mind blowing. During the recent holiday the peak days have topped 1 million people. The Expo site itself is huge and this whole lot will soon be torn down with the exception of a few pavilions that will be kept for tourist purposes mostly. Some countries are trying to “rehome” their pavilions to keep with the theme of 'Better City, Better Life' to encourage recycling, but many will likely end up in the trash.

I had the chance to experience Expo three ways in the past two months and each way had its positives and negatives.

Pub Crawl Expo
Jeff and I decided to join one of our friends who organized a small pub crawl through the Expo. She had previously sent out a powerpoint map which included all the bar stops along Expo, so we knew this was going to be serious. I was eager to go since I had yet to experience Expo, but was a little nervous as I was recovering from a bout of Salmonella. I decided to throw caution to the wind and on a Saturday afternoon we decided to head up a little early to hit up a great BBQ place for lunch.
1.5 hours later we were still searching for our lunch spot and 10+ volunteers had still not been able to point us in the right direction. One recommended we get on a bus and take it to the other end and maybe someone there could point us in the right direction. Mind you we had the address of this location in Chinese but no one could tell us where this elusive Expo village was located (apparently not inside Expo). We soon gave up and decided on some fast food African style before meeting up for the crawl.
Lunch was not a disappointment but after the earlier frustration we were ready for a beer. We made our way to the Belgium pavilion for some waffles and ice cream for desert and a Hoegarden to wash it down. Here we met up with our pub crawl group and about 7 of us started at a hidden cafe inside Belgium. Here's the short of it . . .
Belgium: Chimnay beer . . . tasty and a good way to start
Germany:1/2 liters of light and dark beer . . . we were smart enough to split the beer with a partner as this was only stop 2
Netherlands: unscheduled pit stop as our plans to cross the street were foiled by a parade. Cheap Heinekens were a bonus but mine was skunked. I handed it over to Jeff to finish.
Lithuania: Had to talk our way in since the bar was within the pavilion. This was pretty easy since most of us did not carry a Chinese passport, don’t look Chinese and were looking to spend money on beers. They served Svyturys which did not disappoint. Another 1/2 liter, but not smart enough to share this time.
Mexico: Dinner stop and time for some margaritas. This pavilion treated us well, hooking us up with some free guac and churros. Our group of now 11 probably helped our cause.
Cuba: I wanted a mojito and Jeff wanted a cigar, but at 9pm it was already closed. Guess I will still never make it to Cuba.
Malta: Last stop for us, drinking 1/2 liters is a little much. Cisk beer was decent. Good deal on two bottles of wine. We were suckered in and brought them home for later use.
Verdict: Fun time with good people. Avoided most of the crowds as Chinese people prefer standing in line to seeing countries the way they should be….through the bottom of an empty beer stein. Still felt functional the next day. Not a cheap way to see Expo . . . beers ranged from 20rmb-45rmb. Probably spent around 600rmb p/p . . . oh well :)

Visitor Expo
My dad was visiting in the beginning of October so we decided to head over to Expo on a Thursday morning hoping it wouldn't be too crowded. At first things were promising as we walked right into the Australia pavilion. After a strange video we left hoping for something better but most of the day ended up as a disappointment. Most Expo lines were a minimum of 1 hour wait. We went with the strategy of going only where we could walk into and ended up seeing many unimpressive pavilions. Hungary, Czech, Africa . . . I lost count. We didn't make it too long in the day as jet lag and walking around with crowds of people don't mesh well.
Verdict: Much cheaper than bar crawl but definitely not as much fun. 190rmb ticket to get in plus lunch only set us back around 250rmb. We did not have the fake passports that people run around getting stamped because they will never in fact be allowed to travel to those countries. I might have been impressed if I was 8 . . . otherwise I will just travel there myself.

The After Party Expo
Nick was in town visiting and wanted to check out Expo. I got an invite to go the USA pavilion staff party so I thought it might be a good opportunity for us to go. Nick headed up early to walk through with his mom and Pat. I skipped this part as I had enough of walking through Expo. I met up with a friend and we met Nick who was already starting his night drinking with a large beer at the Canada bar. We quickly decided we needed to do a quick mini pub crawl to start our night so we headed to the Czech pavilion to each try a light and dark beer. Next stop was Malta and we were talked into trying their 9% beer. This was in hindsight a mistake, things may have started to get fuzzy due to this stop. We next head over to the party which was originally scheduled to be outside between two pavilions, but due to weather was inside. Since we were definitely not Expo staff we left it to our friends to talk our way in and were soon enjoying 10rmb beers and the dreaded jungle juice for 35rmb. The night is a blur of music, people, drinking, dancing and dance-offs. Around 2:30am the group decides to call it quits as most of them have to work the next day since it was a Tuesday. Nick adamantly wanted to stay and disappeared back into the crowd. After warning him his taxi card probably won't lead him to the right place, I gave up and headed to McDoanlds. Nick calls over an hour later confused how to get into his parents place but thankfully made it to the right apartment complex. Downside is he is dropped off at the first building and had to spend the next 30 minutes going in and out of buildings and elevators until he stumbled his way to his parents (about 1 km away from the first).
Verdict: This night was a blast but not good for our health. I woke up with the spins after 4 hours of sleep and it was a rough ride to the airport to send my dad home. I rallied and still made it to bowling at least. Rumor has it Nick did not move the entire next day! His mom says he can't go out with me anymore :)

Chili Cookoff.... only steers and queers

Jeff and I recently got to put our BBQ judge skills to the test when we were invited to judge Bubba's annual chili cook-off. BBQ . . . chili . . . it's all meat. We showed up with our appetites at 11 am on a Saturday at the secondary location. The first location was called off due to the fact that if fell on the anniversary of Japan’s invasion of China and the Japanese consulate is around the corner from Bubba’s. Organized protests and large groups of people do not mesh well with China, so keeping 1,000 drunk people was deemed essential by the Chinese government.

Upon arrival we were given free entry to the event and lead upstairs so we could not fraternize with the teams. There were 23 chili entries so it was previously decided that the first round judges would be divided into two teams and the top six from each group would advance to a new round of final judges. Since this was a Texas chili cook-off, we relegated to the first round of judging. A pre-requisite for judging the finals is that you had to hail from Texas. I don’t think my quote from Full Metal Jacket of “only steers and queers come from Texas” helped either.

Chili was to be judged on aroma, appearance and taste on a 1-10 scale. This is an officially sanctioned event, so Texas chili rules applied. This meant that no “fillers” are allowed in Texas chili. So beans, fruit and whatever else you can think of were out. The chili had to be comprised of your choice of meat, onions, peppers and whatever seasoning preferred. Beer and crackers were provided to cleanse the palate between tastes. Now we are not connoisseurs of chili, but we can taste the difference between good chili and bad chili. One judge described about 25% of the chilies as something that “he would never order again if it was on a restaurant menu”. I would second that and say there was only about 25% of the chilies that I would order every time I went to the restaurant that served them. The other 50% were average at best. I guess you can’t complain when it is free and includes beer to wash it down.

After we had completed our responsibilities for tasting we were released to enjoy the event with the only other task of rating which teams had the best theme. The pictures here are from the second place “theme” of prison chili. The clear winner was “Heart Attack Chili”, which the team hired some local Chinese women to wear tiny nurses outfits and “inject” you with free booze. Jeff and I spent the next hour tasting all the chili's and deciding which one of us tasted it in our separate groups. It was pretty easy to distinguish the best one from my group and eventual winner of the contest. The Tabasco team made a simple tasty chili that also won the previous year. Jeff was adamant that a green chicken chili from his group might take home the prize, but he seemed to forget that this was a Texas chili competition. Texans don't want chicken in their chili and they don’t want it green. I am sure we will attend and next year and are hopefully invited back to judge. Spending a Saturday in Shanghai listening to live music, drinking and eating chili with a large group of expats is definitely a good way to feel close to home.