Shanghai Senses: Tastes & Smells
More on Shanghai Cuisine
By Barbara Koh
Food as an Occasion
It’s difficult to walk more than two blocks in Shanghai and not run into a source of food, and it’s difficult to get bored with it. China’s famously cosmopolitan metropolis is a smorgasbord with the quantity and the variety to keep a foodie stuffed with local and not-so-local delights. There’s food from every region in the country, plus foreign cuisines such as Turkish, Vietnamese, Japanese and German. One can choose meatloaf and a swivelling red stool in an American ‘50s-style diner with jukebox rock ‘n roll, or a hotter-than-hell Hunan dinner with plenty of Tsingdao and flush-faced businessmen. Croissants and borscht, introduced by the French and the White Russians during the foreign-concession years, are still popular. Savour foie gras seared, moussed, baked, sautéed, and stuffed in ravioli; get your truffle fix with truffle pizza followed by truffle ice cream. International chains are here in force, including Starbucks, Delifrance, Manabe Coffee, Papa John’s Pizza, Hooters, and of course McDonalds.
Starbucks in Yu Yuan. Photo by SF 10.
This is a city that doesn’t take food or mealtimes lightly. Meals are not just for eating; rather, they’re occasions to reunite and reciprocate. Hosting a banquet of delicacies is also an opportunity to boost one’s status and build face.
An International Twist
Beginning with the whirlwind 1990s, the dining scene has gone upscale as people have become richer and more private entrepreneurs have launched restaurants. Dining in Shanghai is fancier and pricier each year. Michelin star chefs from Europe serve the filet mignon with braised oxtail and the lobster terrine that earned them the stars back home, and without reservations, you might be turned away on the Bund, even on weeknights. Chaine des Rotisseurs’ invitation-only dinners are a hot item. Old concession-era villas and historic landmarks are transformed into plush eateries that play up the architecture and nostalgia. In 2004, Zagat Survey published its first restaurant guide to Shanghai— its first in Asia other than Japan. The shift upmarket is making its biggest waves in Chinese cuisine, with chic, pricey Chinese restaurants rushing onstage and stagnant state-run eateries on the outs. Chefs who have been overseas and back are whipping up ‘reinterpretations’ of traditional Chinese dishes that are spiked with foreign accents.
The Land of Fish and Rice
Shanghai is a paradise of Chinese food, particularly its own. Although not as widely known overseas as Cantonese cuisine is, Shanghainese fare holds more substance and interest for many foodies. Shanghai is fortunate to be sitting in ‘the land of fish and rice,’ a region so dubbed because of its fertile ground and major rivers.
With its countryside origins, the local cuisine is homey, stick-to-your-ribs stuff that’s oilier and sweeter than other Chinese varieties. Its rich sauces make liberal use of ginger, rice wine, soy sauce and sugar. They’re the kind of sauces that people can’t resist sopping up to the last drop, with plain, hot rice. Food is usually stir-fried, ‘red-cooked’ (hong shao) in rock-sugar and soy sauce, braised in clay pots or ‘drunken’ (marinated in Shaoxing rice wine).
From the very beginning of a meal, Shanghai cuisine shows its style and abundance. Hors d’oeuvres, meticulously laid out in geometric and flowery patterns, include pickled vegetables, drunken chicken, al dente edamame, marinated mushrooms, mashed beans and minced greens and dried, pressed bean curd. Cooks use the best local produce of each season; in the spring, for instance, Shanghai house specials include pudgy bamboo shoots that are red-cooked.
Tang Yuan (sweet sticky rice balls), a popular dessert. Photo by bittermelon
On the heartier side, there are lion’s head meatballs, ground pork pounded until velvety and shaped into rounds the size of softballs. One of the best-loved Shanghainese dishes is tipang, pork rump that is left to simmer for hours in a dark, rich sauce. By the time it reaches the table, the meat is so tender that applying a knife to it or even chewing seems excessive. And any remaining sauce begs to be soaked up with rice.
What’s for dessert? Usually fresh fruit, like oranges or watermelon. There’s also tang yuan, dumplings made of rice flour and commonly stuffed with sesame seeds, ground peanuts and sugar, or red bean paste. Eight-jewel rice, a sort of sweet, sticky-pudding version of the conventional fried rice, is studded with jewels such as maraschino cherries, lotus seeds, chopped candied fruit and walnuts.
Desserts that are look more Western are also easy to find. Bakeries throughout Shanghai make airy sponge and chiffon layer cakes, blanketed in clouds of whipped icing and adorned with fruit.
Given Shanghai’s geographical location, bounty from both ocean and river waters features prominently on the menu: stir-fried river eel, red-cooked yellow croaker, crystal prawns (marinated in egg whites and then lightly sautéed), and smoked cod are just a few of the classics. The most famous and prized of all of Shanghai’s water-foods is dazha crab, a creature only a few inches wide with black hairy legs. The Shanghai hairy crab’s very hairy legs are not the prettiest sight, but the roe is exquisitely creamy (rapture-inducing, some connoisseurs say) and the meat is fragrant and succulent.
The hairy crab’s “hair” and roe. Photo by kobakou.
Although the crab craze has spawned crab farms across the region, purists say the best crabs still come from the depths of Yangcheng Lake in neighbouring Jiangsu Province. Hairy crabs make an all-too-brief annual appearance in the fall, when gourmets across Asia scurry to Shanghai to indulge in the specialty.
Snack Heaven
Between or after meals, you needn’t go hungry. Shanghai is a city that snacks. Roving peddlers, little storefronts, and sidewalk stands offer fast-food that’s not necessarily junk food. In the wintertime, street vendors sell hot roasted chestnuts from carts and baked sweet potatoes from big metal drums. During the spring and summer, they hawk melon slices, ice cream and caramelized strawberries on skewers.
Green onion pancakes are a popular street snack, cheap and delicious. Photo by bittermelon
Year-round, there are bao zi, steamed buns stuffed with sweet bean paste, vegetables or meat, luobo sibing, a flaky pastry with shredded turnip inside, and you tiao, a deep-fried, long dough twist that locals like for breakfast. Shengjian mantou is another favourite: pork-filled buns that are steamed and then pan-fried.
If there’s one food item that all Shanghainese crave, it’s xiao long bao (literally, “little steamer-basket buns”). Shanghai’s answer to Hong Kong’s dim sum was actually invented in Nanxiang village, to the north of Shanghai. The delicate steamed dumplings consist of a pork mixture encased in thin wrappers of dough. They are brought to the table still in the steamer basket, and it takes some patience and agility to extract one, dip it in a mixture of soy sauce, vinegar and shredded ginger, and transfer it to your mouth intact. Once you do so, however, you’ll know why xiao long bao are close to Shanghainese people’s hearts.
Xiao long bao. Photo by bittermelon
Barbara Koh was a freelance journalist in Shanghai, where she wrote Shanghai Chic and produced articles for Bloomberg, the New York Times, Artzinechina.com, Newsweek and other media. After five years in Shanghai, she returned to San Francisco in 2009 and has been working on the Asian Art Museum-led Shanghai Celebration and hunting for the best luo bo si bing in town. Being half-Shanghainese, she can't imagine living anywhere in China but Shanghai. This excerpt was taken from Shanghai Chic (Editions Didier Millet, 2006)
