Shanghai Senses: Tastes & Smells
Shanghai “Small Eats”
By Gary Soup
“Small eats” (xiaochi in Chinese) are an integral part of daily life for the people of Shanghai and a source of joy for visitors. A broad canvas of characteristic small eats unfolds daily in the streets, storefront stalls, at corner mom-and-pop eateries and even in fancy restaurants devoted to maintaining Shanghai’s dumpling legacy. Some are so uncommon they can only be found at specialized restaurants; others can seemingly be found at every turn—once one’s eyes and nose are trained.
Shanghai’s signature xiaochi is unquestionably the dumpling known as xiaolongbao (“small steamed dumpling”), or “soup dumpling”. Perhaps the most revered of dumplings in all China, they come in quantities of six to 16 per bamboo steamer. Impossibly delicate wrappers, carefully pleated at the top, enclose a savory minced pork filling and a Shanghai surprise—a rich, brothy “soup” which explodes into the mouth on the first bite.
Second to xiaolongbao in the hearts of Shanghainese are shengjianbao (pan-fried dumplings). Round dumplings with dome-shaped tops studded with chives or sesame seeds, they are cooked like potstickers in huge, shallow iron pots with wooden lids until brown and crunchy on the bottom and soft on top. When bitten into they yield a savory minced pork stuffing with drizzle-down-the-chin juiciness.
At breakfast time one sees fist-sized steamed baozi (buns) stuffed with vegetable greens and/or ground meat, often accompanied by clear plastic cups of sweetened soy milk (doujiang) as grab-and-go fare on nearly every street corner for busy Shanghainese. For those with time for a sit-down breakfast, a hot, savory soy milk soup (xian doujiang) may be enjoyed accompanied by a long stick of fried bread dough, (youtiao, or “Chinese cruller”). Other popular traditional breakfast foods are sesame-studded flat breads known as dabing (‘big pancake’) and cifangao, a rectangular cake of “smashed” rice, fried until golden brown, and resembling nothing so much as a hash brown patty.
Such is the importance of dabing, youtiao, doujiang and cifangao as breakfast fare that older Shanghainese know them collectively as "Buddha’s four warrior attendants."
Gary Soup is a retired transportation planner with an abiding interest in Shanghai and its food stemming from his first visit and a xiaolongbao epiphany there in 1992. He keeps a blog at http://eatingchinese.blogspot.com and has contributed articles and photos to a number of on-line and print publications.
