Eating in Shanghai

What you can speak concerning eating Delicious དৗ “Hao Chi” Spicy 䕷ⱘ “La De” not spicy ϡ䕷 “bu la” I do not get used to this kind of food. ৗϡᛃ “chi bu guan” I do not eat this kind of food. ϡৗ “bu chi” Can u recommend me some other kind of food? Դ㛑᥼㤤៥݊Ҫ亳⠽? “ni neng tui jian wo qi ta shi wu?” Xiao Long Bao Pronounced “show” (rhymes with cow) “long” “bow” (rhymes with cow), these little babies are the quintessential Shanghai cuisine. They originated here and they’ve been copied throughout China and Asia but Shanghai remains THE place to experience them. The Chinese name means “little basket dumplings” and they arrive at your table in a little bamboo steamer in groups of four to eight. What Are They? Simply, xiao long bao are little balls of minced pork combined with jellified pork or chicken stock wrapped in a thin flour skin. During the steaming process, the stock liquefies creating soup within the dumpling. This is key, the pièce de résistance. The combination of flavors and textures makes this “snack” worth traveling for. Why Are They So Good? It’s bite-sized comfort food. Picture this: You await your order of xiao long bao. The steamer arrives. A waiter holds the tray and another removes the lid letting a cloud of steam escape from its bamboo confinement. He then sets the steamer in front of you. You’re so hungry, you want to scoop a dumpling onto your plate before the last of the steam cloud dissipates but that little voice inside your head says “Wait! They can hurt you!” And you know it, you’ve been burned before. Literally. Inside each of these little angels hides the hot soup that cradles the ball of minced pork. You sip your tea idly as the minutes tick by, waiting for the dumplings to cool. Eventually, you can wait no longer. You delicately take a dumpling between two chopsticks, being careful not to puncture the thin flour wrapper. You gingerly dip it into a little Chinese vinegar and then pop the dumpling into your mouth savoring the sensation that bursts forth. You carefully bite, letting the broth escape and fill your mouth. Then you chew, relishing the delicateness of the flour wrapper and the juiciness of the pork. You swallow. It was over too quickly. You open your eyes, look at the basket of diminished xiao long bao, look around at your dining partners and quickly snatch another one. The basket isn’t even finished and you’re already flagging down a waitress to order more. Where Can You Get Them? 1. Nanxiang Restaurant फ㖨佁ᑫ Famous as the inventor of xiao long bao, Nanxiang at the heart of the Yu Garden area (look for the line outside waiting for take-away xiao long bao) is the most famous. You can go inside and sit, but the tourist thing to do is wait in line for your 8rmb box of 16 xiao long bao. 2. Ding Tai Feng 哢⋄Є Originally from Taiwan, these guys have mastered the creation of the Shanghai dumplings. They follow strict guidelines actually weighing each ball of dough before wrapping the meat to ensure that the wrapper is consistently paper thin. For most our locals, we do not often to choose eat at Ding Tai Feng. Sheng Jian Mantou In Chinese, a filled bun is usually called "baozi" or "bao", while an unfilled (plain) bun is usually called a "mantou". However, in Shanghai, the older word "mantou" refers to both filled and unfilled buns. Hence, the shengjian mantou is called a "mantou" despite being a filled bun. The same is true of the xiaolong mantou, which is called "xiaolongbao" elsewhere. Shengjian is made from semi-leavened dough, wrapped around pork and gelatin fillings. The "knot" of the bun, where the dough is folded together, faces downwards when cooling to prevent the crispy bottom from getting soggy. Chopped green onions and sesame are sprinkled on the buns during the cooking process. The name of the bun comes from its method of cooking. The buns are lined up in an oiled, shallow, flat pan. Typical commercial pans are more than a metre in diameter. Water is sprayed on the buns during cooking to ensure the top (which is not in contact with the pan or the oil) is properly cooked. After frying, the bottom of the bun becomes crunchy, and the gelatin melts into soup. This combination gives the shengjian its unique flavour. Because the buns are tightly lined up in the pan, they become somewhat cube-shaped after cooking. The traditional shengjian has pork fillings. Common variations include chicken, pork mixed with prawns, and pork mixed with crab meat. Where you can eat Sheng Jian Mantou? Xiaoyang Sheng Jian Mantou ᇣᴼ⫳✢ࣙᑫ This is probably the best in Shanghai. Prices are really cheap! Hope it stays that way. Xiao Yang Sheng Jian restaurant is located in a mall; clean hygienic eating place. Don't expect romantic restaurant setting though. This is your eat-and-go place. If I come back to Shanghai, I will definitely eat here again. There are many Xiaoyang shops in Shanghai. You can check the detailed address of the shop in website. Cong you bing A cong you bing (Chinese: 㩅⊍佐; Mandarin pronunciation [tsȸƓ ǵżjoǿƓpìż]) or scallion pancake is a savoury, non-leavened flatbread folded with oil and minced scallions (green onions). It originates in Chinese culture. Unlike a true pancake, it is made from dough instead of batter. Variations exist on the basic method of preparation that incorporate other flavors and fillings (see below). Scallion pancakes are available in China, Taiwan, and other areas of the world with ethnic Chinese populations, in restaurants and as a street food item, and are also commercially available packaged fresh or frozen solid in plastic packages (often in Asian supermarkets). Wonton A wonton (also spelled wantan, wanton, or wuntun in transcription from Cantonese; Mandarin: húntún [xwԥ ǿn.tȸwԥǿn]) is a type of dumpling commonly found in a number of Chinese cuisines. Wontons are made by spreading a square wrapper (a dough skin made of flour, egg, water, and salt) flat in the palm of one's hand, placing a small amount of filling in the center, and sealing the wonton into the desired shape by compressing the wrapper's edges together with the fingers. Adhesion may be improved by moistening the wrapper's inner edges, typically by dipping a fingertip into water and running it across the dry dough to dissolve the extra flour. As part of the sealing process, air is pressed out of the interior to avoid rupturing the wonton from internal pressure when cooked. In Shanghai and its surrounding area (Jiangnan), Wonton filling is most often made with minced meat and bok choy served in chicken soup; however, Shanghai cuisine makes a clear distinction between small wontons and large wontons. The former are casually wrapped by closing the palm on a wrapper with a dab of pork filling as if crumpling a sheet of paper. These are popular accompaniments to breakfast or brunch fare. The "large" wontons are carefully wrapped (often resembling large tortellini) and a single bowl can serve as lunch or a light dinner. They are available with a large variety of fillings; a popular Shanghai fast food chain offers more than 50 varieties. One popular variety in Shanghai which is said to have originated in Suzhou is "three delicacies wonton" (san xian hun tun)which contains pork, shrimp and fish as primary ingredients. Wontons in Jiangnan are also made with Shepherd's purse if the recipe does not use Bok choy . Reference Reading Shanghai cuisine If you got time, you can choose to sit at Restaurant to Shanghai cuisine (Ϟ⍋㦰), also known as Hu cai (≾㦰, pinyin: hù cài) is a popular style of Chinese cuisine. The city of Shanghai itself does not have a separate and unique cuisine of its own, but modifies those of the surrounding provinces, is Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces. What can be called Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, crab, chicken are "drunken" with spirits and are briskly cooked/steamed or served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to adjuntify the dish. The use of sugar is common in Shanghainese cuisine, especially when used in combination with soy sauce. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the "secret ingredient". The most notable dish of this type of cooking is "sweet and sour spare ribs" ("tangcu xiaopai" (㊪䝟ᇣᥦ) in Shanghainese). "Red cooking" ˄㑶 ⚻˅ is a popular style of stewing meats and vegetables associated with Shanghai. "Beggar's Chicken" is a legendary dish of a southern origin, called "jiaohua ji" ˄ি㢅叵˅ in Mandarin, wrapped in lotus leaves and covered in clay. Though usually prepared in ovens, the original and historic preparation involved cooking in the ground. The lion's head meatball ˄⣂ ᄤ༈˅ and Shanghai-style nian gao ˄㉬㊩˅ are also uniquely Shanghainese, as are Shanghai fried noodles, a regional variant of chow mein that is made with Shanghai-style thick noodle. Lime-and-ginger-flavoured thousand-year eggs ˄Ⲃ㲟˅ and stinky tofu ˄㟁䈚㜤˅ are other popular Shanghainese food items. Facing the East China Sea, seafood in Shanghai is very popular. However, due to its location among the rivers, lakes, and canals of the Yangtze Delta, locals favor freshwater produce just as much as saltwater products like crabs, oysters, and seaweed. The most notable local delicacy is Shanghai hairy crab ˄Ϟ⍋↯㷍˅. Chinese mitten crab (Da Zha Xie (໻䯌㷍) is a hairy crab found in the Yangcheng Lake. It is normally consumed during Winter (September to November every year). The crabs are tied with ropes/strings, placed in bamboo containers, steamed and served. Crispy chicken is made by first boiling the body of a chicken until its flesh is tender, then roasting it for long periods of time or until the skin goes dry and crispy. This is rather involved and complex preparation for the common crucian carp. The dish, congshao jiyu (㫹➦凑儮, lit. scallion stewed crucian carp), requires long hours for preparation since the fish needs to be soaked in vinegar, and then deep-fried, stewed for a long prolonged period, and cooled to make the fish tender enough to consume together with all its bones. Due to the complexity of its preparation and the difficulty in perfecting it, the dish was sometimes used by families as a test when recruiting a cook. BreakfastSee also: Dim Sum Shanghainese people do not usually spend too much time on having breakfast, so breakfast in Shanghai is pretty simple. Shanghainese people are used to grabbing some food in small snack stores or having a bowl of pao fan (⊵佁 | rice in soup or water) with pickled cucumbers, pickled vegetables or a salty duck egg at home. Sheng Jian Bao ("Sangjibo" - in Shanghainese) Breakfast is commonly bought from corner stalls which sells pork buns, for the best xiaolongbao (small steamer bun). These stalls also sell other types of buns, such as Shengjian mantou (⫳✢ 伙丁, literally "fried bun") and Guo Tie ˄䫙䌈˅ (fried jiaozi ˄低ᄤ˅), all eaten dipped in black vinegar. And "luo bo si bing" (㧱रϱ佐ˈradish-strips-stuffing pancake) is also delicious. A typical breakfast combination is youtiao ˄⊍ᴵ˅, a dough-like food that is deep fried in oil until crisp and is eaten in all parts of China, wrapped in thick pancake, accompanied by soy milk. One can also tear a loaf of youtiao into pieces and put them into soy milk to eat. "Four Heavenly Kings" The most well-known foods for breakfast are the “Four Heavenly Kings” (ಯ໻䞥߮), which include da bing (໻佐) (Chinese pancake), youtiao (deep-fried dough stick), ci fan tuan ˄㊡佁 ಶ˅ (steamed sticky rice ball) and soy milk. Among “Four Heavenly Kings”, ci fan tuan belongs to typical Shanghai food.[citation needed] Ci fan tuan is made of warm steamed sticky rice. Shanghainese people like putting sugar and youtiao inside steamed sticky rice. People also put salty duck egg yolk, rousong ˄㙝ᵒ˅ (crushed dried pork) or other stuffings in ci fan tuan.