Shanghai Hotel Quarantine Diary: Day 13
5:00am - woke up
7:06am - nice morning view. The Shanghai Tower is gleaming in the back.
Did my Centr workout. I switched from a gym weights-based workout to Ashley Joi’s workout, a 20-some minute one where I can use my 1.5L Evian water bottles as weights. The bed is actually where I did a lot of the workouts. Basically, anything where anything but my slipper-covered feet needed to touch the floor, I used the big bed instead. So, planks, situps, even burpees - I did on the bed! With my phone showing the workout somewhere on the bed.
7:46am - they placed the breakfasts out. I think the system is, they come by with a cart, and one person reads from a list, the room number, and “中“ or “西,” and if there is more than one meal per room (this hotel allows couples to stay together), and the other one places the meal on the blue stool. They haven’t made any mistakes with my meals.
Peek my head out the furthest ever, to look down the hallway!
Today’s breakfast had a couple exciting items.
One was the steamed bun filled with (brownish) red bean paste (豆沙包). Yes, it looks like the bread to filling ratio was way off, but there was more filling as I kept eating to the other side.
I also loved the mixed grain congee (杂粮粥 za2liang2zhou1), and was looking forward to having it again this week. I saved this for last.
There was also the shrimp har gow (港式虾饺), hard boiled egg (白煮鸡蛋), and yogurt (酸奶), which I ate the first, because I think it’s maybe the component I least enjoy. It’s just a bit thin and sweet.
8:10am - breakfast call
8:35am - temperature check
8:57am - they call up to 1) tell me my quarantine ends tomorrow, 2) explain that they will call me about 6-6:30am to go downstairs, and 3) we arrange for prepayment. They asked me if I ordered anything from the extra-paid menu items (the pizza, hamburger, etc.!), and I said no. So at first they told me my balance was 7,000 RMB, which equals 14 days x (400/night + 100/day’s food), but then I pointed out that I only had 13 days food, because I arrived late at night my first day and didn’t eat that day. And obviously I wouldn’t eat tomorrow either. So they automatically said, ok, 6,900 RMB. And I paid by Alipay on the phone, after they sent me the QR code.
12:13pm - pick up lunch. It’s surf-and-turf day!
Once again, three salt water prawns (盐水基围虾 yan2shui3ji1wei2xia1). I ate these first to get the shell-peeling and subsequent hand-washing out of the way first.
There was the red-braised pork belly (红烧大肉) as well. This was a bit more tough than I remember last week’s being.
The red-braised eggplant (红烧茄子) was delicious, and very tender.
And I liked the stir-fried cabbage (清炒卷心菜) too.
The curry fried tofu vermicelli soup (咖喱油豆腐粉丝汤) was still strong in turmeric flavor, but maybe a tad less so than last time?
5:48pm - dinner out. So this was actually one of my least favorite dinners of the menu. First of all, the portion size somehow appears smaller for each dish than any other meal.
Then there was the homestyle daikon (家烧白萝卜). Now, I like the flavor that daikon imparts to soups, but I actually don’t like eating daikon itself. It’s that which I always hope to be potato in braised beef, and when I bite down on daikon and get its fibrous texture and strong flavor, I’m disappointed.
The drumstick (豉油皇鸡腿 chi3you2huang2ji1tui3) was kind of small and not very tender, but was okay.
The ketchup ribs dish (茄汁排骨) wasn’t as sweet as some of the other ribs dishes, and maybe I’ve grown accustomed to the soggy coating, but I didn’t mind these.
And there was the smallish (like last week’s) portion of red and green bell peppers, preserved mustard tuber, and bean sprouts (青红椒榨菜银牙yin2ya1 ) dish. This was quite savory and crisp, and was probably my favorite component of this meal.
Closing off was the seaweed and tiny shrimp egg drop soup (紫菜虾皮蛋花汤). The distinctive seaweed flavor was quite dominant.
8:00pm - a guy calls and tells me I can go downstairs tomorrow at 6am. I’m confused now - do I wait for a call before going down, or can I just head down at 6am? He said I could get a call, or go down… Hmmm… Maybe tomorrow I’ll call just in case? I’ve heard of cases where in some hotels, if you inadvertently cross paths with an incoming quarantinee (the red lines underneath that word tells me it’s not a word!), you have to quarantine for 3 more days. Yikes!
9:19pm - I eat a piece of my peppermint bark cookie, a bit in celebration of the end of a big work day. And there might be other things to celebrate today, too.
