final brunch of xlb and sjb and we're off!
i hope we can do many more such trips, HOM says. yes, i agree. but lovely too to have had this one. we are thankful.
if we are ever in shanghai around, say, our anniversary date, and resources permit, i tell HOM, i want to stay at 和平饭店. HOM says ok.
our final nite before we decamp. we choose laozhengxing, our old favorite on fuzhou road, all quiet with wide apart tables for gentle conversation and the familiar great cooking.
it's been an altogether lovely interlude before re-entering the old grind and facing HOM's upcoming re-scope.
so call me shallow, but i'll take shanghai any day over urumqi.
to attend to needs. to anticipate the needs.
to attend to the predicted. to attend to the unexpected.
we leave the pub. room elevators this way, the fellow at the door says.
we exit the elevator. breakfast to your right, murmurs the guy at the lobby.
i balance my bowl and my plate. let me help you with the bowl, ma'am, the waiter says, and suits his action to his words.
where's the trash bin? i ask the concierge. let me take it for you, he replies, and my trash disappears.
there is being courteous and helpful, and there is quietly and smoothly anticipating my needs which is a whole different level of hospitality. 和平饭店 gets the gold amidst a host of great service contenders this trip.
we should do this more often, i tell HOM. live music has a specialness that youtube doesn't.
special lunch treat in that elevated restaurant* with friends celebrating their wedding anniversary so we get the love treatment and rose petals. the food is gorgeously umami and (plebe that i am) i enjoy it tremendously and forget to enjoy the view.
*at the top of the shanghai tower
