Fancy a Rugula?

I have been getting home really late. Mostly it's because I have been going to Yoga class in the evenings, and by the time I bike home, sweaty and exhausted, I am really not up for much cooking or much heavy eating for that matter.

Getting creative with salads can help, since they make for light, healthy and quick late-night meals!

Spicy arugula, creamy mozarrella, flavourful tomatoes and the crunch of walnuts! Yum!

The ingredients for this salad included arugula, fresh mozzarella cheese, sundried tomatos and walnuts! These ingredients go so well together, and the gourmet feel of the salad makes the meal and indulgence even though it's very light.

I seasoned mine with salt, ground black pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Yum!

A Light Dinner for the Rained In: Caprese Salad

I rushed home from work last night due to the imminent threat of Typhoon Anemone, which was zoning in on Shanghai last night... Found myself at home with little to eat since I have not been to the market yet this week (sheer laziness, and also I had some leftover fresh produce from last week), and I wasn't really feeling the urge to cook anyways.

A light summer salad seemed like the meal of choice, and the fresh mozzarella cheese I had bought at the Avocado Lady's stand a few days ago beckoned to me from the fridge. Summer is the season of succulent, vine-ripe tomatos, and my basil plant has been yielding some fresh, fragrant leaves recently that I just have to make use of! A caprese salad seemed like a no-brainer!

Caprese Salad: fast, easy, light and delicious!

Caprese Salad Recipe:

• Fresh, ripe tomatos, sliced
• Fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
• Fresh basil leaves
• Olive oil (the good kind!)
• Salt
• Cracked black pepper

How to:

1. Slice the tomatos onto a plate
2. Slice the mozzarella and place the slices over the tomato slices
3. Place basil leaves over the mozzarella
4. Add salt and pepper to taste
5. Drizzle liberally with good olive oil

Enjoy!

Prep Time: 2min

The Avocado Lady

The Avocado Lady is a creature of legend among Shanghai expats, and a not so secret secret that everyone should know. If you live in Shanghai and you don't know the Avocado Lady it can be said that you do not really live in Shanghai, you merely exist here.

From the outside, the Avocado Lady's little produce shop looks like the myriads of other little local businesses!

The Avocado Lady is your one-stop shop for all sorts of produce that is hard to come by here in Shanghai, and China in general. While an increasing number of fancy foreign supermarkets have started supplying a lot of what this magical being has provided for years from her humble little shop, no-one can beat her prices!

It is a mystery to me to this day how and where she manages to source her imported products for so cheap (small, family-owned businesses usually find it hard to compete with the likes of Carrefour and Walmart when it comes to price!), or where this entrepreneurial woman got this wonderful idea in the first place.

She stocks hard to come by produce such as beets, radishes, arugula, nuts, fresh spices and cheeses and, of course, avocados, which she sells at the cheapest price I have ever seen in China.

On top of the produce, she also stocks an ever increasing array of imported goods such as wine, olive oil, jams and marmelades, breakfast cereals, canned goods... and on and on!

Inside the store, the shelves are laden with foreign goodies and fresh produce!

I came home on my bike the other day, my little basket heavy with the delicious things I picked up. I generally buy my regular veggies closer to my house, but for special things I simply cannot find at my regular produce stand, the wonderful Avocado Lady saves my day!

Beets, avocados, almonds, walnuts, arugula, radishes, olive oil, fresh mozzarella, coconut milk, cream and canned tomatos were some of the spoils from my latest visit to the Avocado Lady!

The Avocado Lady's shop is in Shanghai's French Concession at 274 Wulumuqi Rd, near Wuyuan Rd. The closest metro is the Changshu Rd. stop on lines 1 and 7.

In Chinese: 乌鲁木齐中路274号，靠近五原路。