Update to the Dagu Lu DVD situation: Apparently, it'll all get better in May. According to City Weekend, the Dagu Lu DVD sellers said that thanks to stringent pre-Expo checks, they will only seel legitimate DVDs until the end of April. "The authority is currently doing the pre-EXPO checking. It is very tight. Things will probably loosen up after the EXPO actually begins," the seller said. Wait a minute - they actually had legitimate DVDs? more ›

After getting the tip that Dagu Lu's DVD stores have shut down, we headed there to check it out, expecting to see nothing but empty shelves through locked doors. We shouldn't have underestimated this street - while DVD trade has indeed quieted down due to increased inspections, some of the stores are not quite gone. more ›

A friend has just informed us that our favorite DVD strip may be no more. She was at Dagu Lu around 4 p.m. yesterday, only to find all the DVD stores locked and shut. An opportunistic street DVD vendor told her they had all closed down, before trying to hawk his own wares. Just a Wednesday evening siesta, or has Dagu Lu become the latest victim of Expo clean-up? more ›

One recent Saturday evening, we and a few friends enjoyed a happy hour at Just Grapes on Dagu Lu, admiring the hodgepodge of expat DVD hunters and pajama-clad locals passing by each us and each other on an unbelievably gorgeous day. Little did we know that Masala Art, the fantastic purveyor of some of Shanghai's best northern Indian cuisine, would soon be put out of commission by a smoky kitchen fire. Last night we rode past and noticed the storefront covered in canvas and plastic. Dear Masala Art, proud Dagu Lu stalwart, we wish you the best and hope you come back soon. If not, there's always your little cousin on Yandang Lu. more ›

Face it, Shanghai is a dirty city. Toss in the humidity and high-quality Shanghai smog, and by the end of a long day, your skin feels so grimy you could have just had a nice little romp in the heart of a metro construction site. Understandably then, we were pretty stoked to check out Skin City 5.5, a new spa opened just last month by a young entrepreneur from New York. The name comes from the spa's goal to return skin to its natural pH balance of 5.5. more ›

Let the “Good Times” roll! Yes, Shanghai *finally has dosa (at least 10 types) and idli served with coconut and tomato chutney. With Vedas, Bukhara, Indian Kitchen, Masala Art and other Indian establishments here for years, you would expect these South Indian delights to have landed in Shanghai long ago, but to our knowledge this is a first. more ›

We root for any joint that is ballsy enough to open up on Dagu Lu, the strip where many a restaurant has gone to die a lonely, customer-less death. So it was with a considerable measure of hope that we entered Kitchen 88, the few-months-old Chinese restaurant right next to everyone's favorite DVD stores. Maybe the proprietors here would be able to break from the pack and show a little more lasting power. more ›

Someone told us recently that there was a new Mexican burrito place called Cal Kitchen that opened up not that long ago on Dagu Lu, and being long-time residents of California, we decided to see if it lived up to its billing as place for authentic Californian/Mexican food. Long story short, it doesn't. We ordered a big chicken burrito that in better days, might have been a contender—but as it was, it was a soggy... more ›

Thanks Robb!
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A summary of what's in Shanghai's magazines more ›

Although, Shanghai’s No. 1 fruit fly is usually up for a night of loud music and cheek-to-cheek dancing with a crowd of gay men, lately work has been grueling and we lack the energy required to compete for space on a podium at Club Deep (trust me … as one of the only women in the club we still have to elbow our way through a bunch of other shameless exhibitionists). These days, we have been in search of a quiet oasis where we can hear our friends talk and are not entertained distracted by the meat market going on around us. more ›

It's only Tuesday, but it already hasn't been a good PR week for the Apple Snail. The Amazonian creatures, popular in fish tanks in the West and restaurants in the East, have been blamed for sending at least 50 Beijingers to the hospital with parasite-caused meningitis (but it's not really the snails' fault people decided to eat them raw or half-cooked). As if that wasn't enough, the mollusks (which can get as big as 6 inches in diameter) have also been credited with the destruction of nearly 400,000 acres of cropland in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Farmers are using pesticides to kill the snails. Sounds like the beginning of some kind of tragic domino effect to us. more ›

Mediterranean Sandwich and Coffee Bar on Da Gu Lu more ›