GRUEL: 1) A thin porridge. 2) Chiefly British: Punishment [from to get one's gruel, to accept punishment]. 3) Something that lacks substance or significance ["The argument was thin gruel"]. -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary

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Near Zhongshan Park today I happened upon this lovely little food stand offering steaming hot bowls of Delicious Gruel. This was my first time ever seeing the words "delicious" and "gruel" used together, the latter being something English-speakers would generally associate with some dank, dark, Dickensian setting such as an orphanage or workhouse of the Victorian era. In such a context one might expect to see "loathsome, watery gruel" or "foul, oily gruel" or "horrid gruel full of worms and maggots"; never "delicious gruel."

Delicious Gruel it is, however, that the two young Shanghainese ladies pictured above are about to enjoy. Bon appetit, ladies! 

(Mmmm.... Gruel....) 

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...And here at the Bud Music Kingdom in Xujiahui is a rock & roll band made entirely of Budweiser cans. 'Cuz after a steaming hot bowl of Delicious Gruel there's nothing like an ice-cold Bud and some good old, down-home Shanghai rock & roll.