Breakfast was at the hotel. The hotel is rated by a Chinese tourism bureau as five-stars. This what the buffet area looked like.
Buffet Area
Different Angle
I kind of felt I was in Las Vegas. The breakfast selections were a mix of Chinese and western foods. Here are the plates we made.
Sample of The Cat's Breakfast Selections
Sample of The Mouse's Selections
More of the Mouse's Selections
I’m not sure it’s visible, but on my first plate, under the food, is fried rice. I was so happy to get rice for breakfast to go with the fried egg. Also on my second plate, at the three o’clock position, is fried SPAM. It was dipped in egg and pan fried. Just had to share that bit of information. 
We were feeling the effects of too much travel and decided to take it easy today. Plus, it was too cold for tropical cat and mouse to go out to play. We did want to stretch our legs after breakfast though.
We did a quick walk around the hotel. Next to the hotel is an old Catholic church which seems to be popular for wedding pictures.
Catholic Church
After that, we went back to the hotel and took a long nap. Zzzzz.
Our friends Old L and Small M (that’s what they call themselves) invited us to dinner. We wanted something simple. Again, Chinese hospitality kicked in and they wanted to take us to someplace fancier. They and The Cat had a long discussion about it.
We finally convinced them we wanted noodles. Not just any noodles but the handmade type (which they did not consider a big deal). The compromise was that we went to an upscale noodle restaurant.
The Noodle Loft
The restaurant has an open kitchen so I was able to take all the pictures I wanted. The chefs were making three different types of noodles, hand pulled, knife cut, and hand pinched.
Preparing the Dough
Water Pots
The restaurant had several large vats of boiling water to cook the noodles to order, awesome.
The chefs hands were moving too fast for the camera to catch them, still I think the pictures show how fast they were moving and their skill.
Hand Pulled Noodles
Knife Cut Noodles
Pinched Dough Noodles
In the last picture, one of the chefs had a roll of dough in which he was pinching little knobs off and throwing it in the boiling water.
Tonight, the temperature was freezing. After Old L dropped us off at the restaurant and parked the car, he bought one roasted sweet potato from a street vendor. Both The Cat and Small M took turns holding the potato to warm up their hands.
Roasted Sweet Potato
On to the dinner. Both Old L and Small M ordered the spicy pork and eggplant noodle. The noodle and "sauce" came separately for them to mix.Spicy Pork and Eggplant Noodle
I got the pork soup with spinach noodles. The noodles were similar to the noodles we ordered after arriving in Shanghai.
Spinach Noodles in Pork Soup
The Cat ordered vegetable noodles.
Vegetable Noodles
Old L, Small M, and myself had pulled noodles, The Cat’s noodles were knife cut.
We also ordered:
Pork Stomach with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Doufu with Chili Sauce
Stir-Fried Vegetables
Everything tasted good. The noodles were firm and chewy. It’s going to be hard to go back to frozen or dried noodles at home.
One last picture. As we were leaving, a large bowl of noodles came out for the staff’s dinner. It’s first come first take to get the choicest morsels.
Staff Dinner
Except for the cold weather, it was a good day. Dinner and show, and SPAM, can it get any better?
As always, good company, good food, priceless. Thanks Old L and Small M.
Update: While surfing the web, came across another blogger’s experience with the Noodle Loft here.
The journey continues.
The Mouse
