Category: Exploring

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Day 162: Stray Asia

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a good food find in Suzhou, so let me introduce you to Stray Asia!

This hidden gem is located within an underground passageway that leads from the Xinghai Square subway station (星海广场站) to what is now called Global 188; it used to be called Frasier Suites.

Stray Asia specializes in what I would call Vietnamese-Thai fusion. So far everything I’ve had is delicious but would definitely suggest getting rice dishes with any of their Thai curries instead of noodles. When it comes to spice levels, what they call spicy I call wimpy, so don’t worry too much if you’re spice adverse. (I might also be getting the “white man” spice consideration, even after confirming in Chinese that I like it spicy! 辛辣!)

Ordering is easy as you just mark what you want on a dry-erase menu, hand the menu to one of the cashier’s, and then wait for it to be prepared. Eating “in” (they have tables in the underground passage way, not inside a store) or taking your meal home is perfectly acceptable. You can even order from Sherpa (the Seamless of Suzhou & Shanghai for English speakers) if you’re feeling lazy.

Best of all, Stray Asia is located about 100 metres away from another hidden gem of this underground passage way: the cheap beer, wine, and liquor store! Cherry Story Store is the name, but why they have welcoming Americana print tables with chairs outside the shop I have no idea! 

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Day 16 – Water Alley / Ligongdi Road neighborhood

Last night I was asked by one of my future coworkers to join her for dinner and then a poker match in a part of Suzhou that is new to me: Water Alley Neighborhood, also known as Ligongdi Road.

This part of Suzhou is very expat friendly with lots of international style restaurants and pubs and tons of English spoken. The place where we played poker, Ollie’s, is a restaurant/bar that sometimes has live music, a pool table, a few different beers on tap that come in the customary 1L glass, and a semi-private area in the back for the poker league. I did not sample the food at Ollies — maybe next time — but I did have a litre of beer. 

While I didn’t do too much exploring of the various restaurants and bars in this area, Google Maps seems to detail them pretty well as you can see in the picture below.

Water Alley - Ligongdi Road

But where is this neighborhood in relation to everything else? Yeah, I heard you ask that question. Ligongdi Rd is on the southwestern corner of Jinji Lake (金鸡湖), seemingly in the middle of everything yet not really that easy to get to via public transit. A 30 minute cab ride from this neighborhood to where I’m staying in Moon Bay was 30 yuan (元), or less than $5 USD. (Considering the bus would cost only 2元, it’s could be pretty expensive if you’re on a budget … )  Anyway, I decided a visual representation of the various expat friendly neighborhoods or areas is needed:

SIP Map Annotated

Currently I’m living in Moon Bay, which is a short 20 minute walk to work. There’s a few things in this area for those who only speak English, but not much: Coconut Bar (expat type restaurant and bar, a bit on the pricey side), Papa John’s Pizza, Four Points Sheraton Hotel, three different Starbucks, and a Subway restaurant. Do not expect to do much shopping in this area nor expect the Chinese restaurants to have picture menus. On a post another day, I’ll detail the neighborhood a bit more, same with Times Square.

How did poker night turn out? It was my first time playing in a real game in 3 or 4 years, so I was happy that I was not the first one “out” for the night. I ended in the lower third, but that’s ok as it was fun and was good to meet some new people! It would’ve been nice, though, if my best hand of the night didn’t wasn’t a suited King-10. (No pairs! No Aces! No suited connectors. Ugggh. Maybe next time…)

Suzhou Poker Club Chips

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Day 13 – Lingering Garden and Shantang Street

The rain held off for most of today, but gosh was it humid! I spent about an hour on the treadmill this morning and my shirt weighed three times as much by the time I was done. Eeek!  After a morning of studying Mandarin, SharePoint, and catching up on the latest episode of Rachel Maddow, I spent a good chunk of the afternoon exploring two sections of old town Suzhou: The Lingering Garden (留园) and Shantang Street (山塘街).

The Lingering Garden is one old gardens that help give Suzhou its mystique as a beautiful city. In fact, this garden dates back to 1593 when China was ruled by the Ming dynasty. It is known for its collection of bonsai trees (about 200 of them) and interestingly shaped rocks. In fact, in the bonsai section of the garden, there was this rock collection that reminded me of a combination of a dog and an Egyptian Sphinx!

Lingering Garden Sphinx-16

While the Wikipedia article on Shantang Street is rather … skinny … I’m pleased to report there’s a lot more going on in this area than that article would lead onto, provided I was on the right street! (Directions in China are still confusing to me…) As I walked north along Guangji Road (广济路), from the Lingering Garden, I crossed a stone bridge that went over a canal (pictured below) and on the other side of the bridge was a narrow street (maybe 4-5 meters wide). To the west, the street had a number of shops selling anything from prepared and fresh food, fruits & veg, baked goods, and textile good. To the east, the street was a bit more upscale and housed a number of other shops including a number of jewelery and art shops.

 

Canal near Shantang Street (left) and looking down Shantang Street (right).

If tomorrow remains mostly dry, another garden and perhaps a trip to an expat bookshop, library, bar, restaurant and events space all rolled into one might be had!

Today’s word of the day is 花园 (Huāyuán), meaning garden.