Where have all the dumplings gone?

Anyone who asked me what I was looking forward to back in China while I was home got pretty much one of two responses - my girlfriend and the food. I've blogged here numerous times about my love of meals - noodles, dumplings, Peking Duck. Which is why the reverse-reverse-culture shock is so terrible now - I cannot find good food!

Over the holidays at home restaurants close, some might even be closed for a week, heaven forbid! It's a fact of life we can all accept. But what happens in China is both shocking and terrifying - restaurants close for a month!

Since I arrived the week before the Spring Festival, all my favorite little dodgy restaurants - the ones I was looking forward to most, have been closed. That means were going on 3 weeks now of no greasy kung-pow chicken, no authentic sweet-n-sour pork, even Noodles is still closed (on an unrelated note, I've moved back into the neighborhood where Noodles the restaurant is located, so joy and delectable noodles will soon rain upon me eventually, just not yet). How torturous is it to look forward to something so simple, so ubiquitous as food from cheap dodgy restaurants in China, only to have it snatched away by the great Spring Festival?

I understand they're family restaurants, and that everyone has returned to the countryside to be with their families. I understand that this long trip can only be taken once a year, so why not make it count. I understand all this, but as a sad little westerner in Shanghai, I miss the food!