[My Weekender] with Kenneth Tan

Long-time Shanghai resident Kenneth Tan, 32, is editor-at-large of Shanghaiist.com, and one of the founding members of ShanghaiPRIDE, China's only gay and lesbian pride festival.

It's been eight years since that fateful day when I arrived in Shanghai on a backpack and a one-way ticket and checked myself into Captain Hostel on Fuzhou Lu where I stuck out for the next two months until it drove me absolutely berserk.

These days, the longer I stay in this city, the less likely I am to go out on weekends, and the shorter the distance I'm likely to venture away from my immediate neighborhood. This is probably more a function of getting old than anything else, but we'll save that discussion for another day.

Thankfully though, I live right in the heart of the gaybourhood, where it all happens. I am literally one minute away from Eddy's, Shanghai's oldest gay bar (good any day of the week), and from Shanghai Studio (where once upon a time I hung out literally every day). Transit Lounge is a non-descript little bar that completes the 'Bermuda Triangle' of the gaybourhood. It's a nice hangout that really deserves more attention than it does.

If I so choose, I could walk further westwards up to Rice Bar and Cloud Nine, or eastwards in the direction of Hengshan Lu to The Box, which attracts a steady crowd on Saturdays these days, thanks to party organiser Laurent of ENJOY fame.

Whenever I have visitors in town, there are three Shanghai restaurants that I bring them to, two of which are just a stone's throw away from where I live (I *know*, my location is just unbeatable!). There's Yuan Yuan, just up on Xingguo Lu, and then there's Jesse's on Tianping Lu (where I never seem to be able to get a table these days and have to make my way down to their Xintiandi outlet instead). Make sure you try out their cod fish head 葱烤鱼头 when you're here -- it's only available by reservation and it is *oralgasmic*. 1931 on Maoming Lu is also one of my top favourites for Shanghainese cuisine. I used to live a few minutes walk from here back in the day when Maoming Lu used to be THE place (anybody remember Buddha Bar? Ahhh! The memories!).

In recent weekends, I've been frequently seen at Noodle Bull on the corner of Fumin Lu and Changle Lu. I keep telling myself I have to try out Tsui Wah just next door, but I find myself drawn back to the yummy Taiwanese beef noodles here and their amazing tapas again and again. The food here is very healthy, very affordable and it most certainly helps that they're relatively quieter here over the weekends without the office crowds that you'll find here most days.

This weekend is gonna be a very special one for me. ShanghaiPRIDE 2010, which a group of volunteers including myself, have been preparing for more than half a year, opens on Saturday at Lounge18. Make sure you're there with a friend to celebrate what will be a historic moment with us. We're expecting DJ M from Thailand, Shanghai's reigning drag queen Bai Xue, and the woman of your dreams "Ivanna Sukalongkok" from Bangkok! Entry is FREE and we expect to rock the Bund all night, so make plans to come partaaay with us!