Shanghai Dining
Shanghai cuisine, collecting the traditional of old Shanghai and the fad of new Shanghai, is a place gatherign all kinds of snacks. Its taste is different from the pure sugary of Macao and Hongkong, and the peppery of Sichuan, but famous for lite, fresh and goluptious. There are various categories including steamed, boiled, fried, baked, etc. Take your time! Take a degustation carefully! Dainty is approaching from dribs and drabs...Local Cuisines
Nanxiang Xiaolongbao (Steamed Pork Dumplings)Nanxiang Xiaolongbao is a traditional snack of Nanxiang Town with a history of more than 100 years. It is deeply popular with the tourists both home and abroad for its thin skin, much stuffing, fresh flavour. Its stuffing are made with an minced pork, no shallot and garlic but a little ginger powder, salt, sauce, sugar and water. The stuffing is changeable along with the season's change, for example, there is shrimp kernel in summer, crab meat in autumn. After wrapped with a thin skin of dough, these dumplings are then steamed in a bamboo steamer. Note that you should take a bit to let the juices cool, otherwise, the juices could burn your tongue or spilt out on you. If you take it together with ginger shreded, vinegar, and a bowl of egg soup, the taste is more delicious. There are two famous places to get Nanxiang Xiaolongbao. One is around the Yuyuan marketplace, while the other is the snack restaurants at the intersection of Tibet Road and Yan'an Road near People's Square.
Xie Kehuang Pan Cake(Baked Scallion-stuffed Sesame Biscuit)
It is a kind of cake stained a layer of gingeli outside roasted on the baker. Because it looks like boiled crab shell, therefore it is named "Xie Kehuang". This pancake is crispy outside and delicious inside. There are two kinds of stuffings of the cake: briny and sugary. The briny stuffing is made from green onion, fresh pork, crab powder, shrimp kernel and the sugary stuffing is made from white sugar, rose, sweetened bean paste, Chinese date mud, etc.
Nian Cake with Spare-ribs
New Year Cake with Spare-ribs is an economy and flavor snack with a history of more than 50 years in Shanghai. The spare-rigs are swathed in the flour, egg together with other seasonings, then to fry them in the oil. In the dish, the meat is tender and crisp, the cake is soft and tasty, and the gravy is rich and flavoured, which is really appetizing. The Xiao Changzhou Snack House at Sichuan Road of Fuzhou Road, and the Xiangdelai Snack House at Tibet Road are the best known placed for its delicacy.
Chicken Fry Steamed Bread
Chicken fry steamed bread, a characteristic flavor snack of Shanghai, uses the zimotic flour as skin and cooked chicken, pork powder, meat skin congelation as stuffing. Sprinkle shallot flower and gingeli on the tine, brush oil on the surface layer, then fry in the pan. The upper half is soft and loose with yellow gingeli and green shallot flower, while the latter half is crisp and goluptious with succulent. You are mouthwatering, Yes?
Zao River-snail
The genuine cate is available in Shanghai Wuweizhai Snack Shop and Xialdelai Snack Shop. The material of the dish-River-snail is especially collected from Tunxi District, Anhui Province for its big and fat. After caught, the river-snail should be fed for two days until it spit out all of the mud and sand, then boil it together with fennel, cassia, and Xiangzao (a kind of seasoning). This kind of Zao River-snail has brown-grey color, tender meat, and full-bodied haloid extract. It is really very popular with the locals and tourists.
Xiao Shaoxing Chicken Porridge
The Chicken Porridge boiled in Xiao Shaoxing shop is the most genuine flavor. The porridge is boiled with the fumet of chicken soup, mixed with chicken and other seasonings. While taking it, the chicken is chopped in block, add powder of shallot and ginger as well as chicken oil into the porridge then it has the bright color-yellow, white and greean. The porridge is not only delicious, pleasing to the eye, but also has abundant alimentation.
Vegetable Stuffed Bun
The bun itself is a light white bread stuffed with finely chopped green vegetables, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and marinated bean curd together with sesame oil and sugar as the condiments. It is not only quite appetizing in color-white skin and green stuffing, but also in aroma and taste. You won't bored with it although you have taken many times. Enjoy!
Kaiyang Shallot Oil Mixed Noodle
It is the famous Shanghai Snack. Its method of process is daintily. Firstly, chop the shallot in sect then fry the shallot in the pan, after that compounded the Kaiyang fried by the oil, dipped by wine and sugar, then mix the cooked noodle, the Kaiyang Shallot Oil Mixed Noodle is completed. It is really attractive with its bright color, seductive aroma as well as the ample alimentation.
Chicken and Duck Blood Soup
This is a favorite soup in Shanghai that use solidified blood as the main ingredient. In 1973, the Chief of Cambodia Sihanouk Infante visited Chenghuang Temple highly praised its delicious. The blood rather resembles dark read Bean Curd (Toufu) and has little taste. The intestines of chicken and duck, heart, liver, blood of chicken and duck, vitellus as well as all kinds of seasonings such as salt, shallot, ginger, wine, pepper, chicken oil are the basic material. Do not be scared. If you are not totally disgusted by the idea to begin with, you may like it. It is said the soup is good for your health. It is available in places like the Chenghuang Temple and Yuyuan Area.
Leishayuan
It is one of the flavor snacks in Qiaojiazha Snack Shop with a history of more than 70 years. It is said the snack was produced in the late of Qing Dyansty by a old lady in order to schlep and store expediently. Stuffed with fresh meat, sweetened bean paste, or ginegli, the rice ball is boiled and drie the moisture, then rolled with sweetened bean paste powder. It is full of the aroma of red bean, and always enjoyed by the tourists.
Three Fresh Wonton
Three Fresh means egg shreded, dried small shrimps and Seaweed, which is the soup made of. The thin skin wraps fresh meat and the shape is different with dumplings. It tastes spicy and smooth.
Braised Ham in Honey Sauce
) It is the famed traditional dish in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. From Qing Dynasty, the dish has been popular in Shanghai. In the late of 50s, it was highly praised by Chairman Mao for its delicious flavor and nice design. It chooses the excellent part of Jinhua Ham as material and dip and steam with candy water straw with fresh lotus, greengage, cherry, sweet-scented osmanthus, etc. It is very popular for its thick soup and juice, flavorful taste.
Eyebrow-shaped Shortcake
With a crisp crust, the cake is shaped like an eyebrow. It has sweet and salty flavor, but taste crisp and spicy. Surging Waves Pavilion Restaurant at the Yu Garden Bazaar is the best place to offer the authentic sapor.
Pigeon-egg Dumpling
With the shape of a pigeon egg, this dumpling weights about one tenth of 5 grams. It is a kind of cool snack eaten in the summer. It uses glutinous-rice as skin and sugar, mint and sweet-scented osmanthus as stuffing. It tastes smooth, sweet and flavoured. This snack is served exclusively at the Osmanthus Hall at Yu Garden Bazaar.
Haitang Cake
Haitang Cake is a time-honored snack in Shanghai. It is baked in special tool whose shape looks like Haitang flower, so the cake gained its name. The color of the skin is coffee and tastes crisp. It is stuffed with sweetened bean paste and tastes fragrant and sweet.
Gaoqiao Muffin
Take extract whiting, .ripe lard, white sugar, red-bean, sweet-scented osmanthus as the material with elaborate process, Gaoqiao Muffin tastes sweet and crisp. It is one of the Gaoqiao Four famous snacks (Muffin, Sponge Cake, Crisp Fritter, Yiniesu).
Five-spiced Tea Egg
It is a very common snack in Shanghai. Its fresh and aroma always makes people mouthwatering. Here I can tell you how to make it. Material: eggs
Seasoning: Tea, Refined Salt, White Sugar, Zanthoxylum, Aniseed, Cassia, Wine Sauce, Fennel, cayenne, Shengchou Soy and Laochou Soy.
Process: First, Add water to the seasoning until seethe. Second, Boil the eggs until the egg white is curdled, fish out, dip in the cold water then scrap the skin, put eggs into the seasoning water and boil about 1 hour then stop boil, turn over the eggs and wait for about 2 hours then you can take it. Have a try if you are interested.
Babaofan (Eight-treasures rice pudding)
It is a traditional sweetmeat of Chinese meal, especially prevailing in the south of China. Use sticky rice and eight dry and fresh fruits including sweet-scented osmanthus, red Chinese date, lotus seed, longan, etc. as the main material, so it is called eight-treasures rice pudding. Braize the sticky rice mixed sugar, lard, sweet-scented osmanthus, then pour them into a ware which holds red Chinese date, lotus seed, longan and so on to braize again. After it is cooked, pour sugar halogen juice on it, then the delicious Babaofan is completed. It is cate to welcome the tourists and to celebrate festivals.
Shanghai Shaomai
Also called Sticky Rice Shaomai, Shanghai Shaomai is very popular on the street of Shanghai. It is translucence and each one is bulgy. The thin sticky rice skin is stuffed with fungus, shrimp kernel, etc. It is really appetizing to you eye and stomach.
Mashed Chinese Date Crisp Cake
It is a kind of fried pastry with short paste as skin and black mashed Chinese Date as stuffing. The yellow color, small and exquisite shape, crisp skin, fragrant and sweet stuffing are especially popular with the tourist from Japanese, Hongkong and Macao.
Five-kernel Clubs Crisp
With Pine nut, Olive Kernel, Peach Kenel, Almond, Melon Seeds as stuffing and short paste as skin, Five-kernel Clubs Crisp is also a deep fried food. It is cut three times by the scissors, then nip it into quincunx.
Bamboo shoot, Meat and Greengrocery Dumpling
This kind of dumpling is steamed in a shape of greengrocery with pork, bamboo shoot as stuffing and paste as the skin.
Hundred-fruit Stuffing Wine Dumpling
) Sticky rice skin is stuffed with some kinds of fruits, then boil together with certain wine. It features thick winy, sweet stuffing and smooth surface. It is the celebrated snack of Manyuanchun House in Chenghuang Temple.
Qick fried Steamed Bread
The steamed bread is equally stuffed with meat with bone soup, then quickly fry in the oil. The figure of the food is small and exquisite with golden yellow color. It features crisp, fresh, and cater to all the taste. There is really a long lasting aftertake.
Strip Cake and Mint Cake
As far as the cakes in Shanghai are concerned, it is really countless, however, the most favorable are strip cake and mint cake. Mint cake is made by sticky rice powder mixed with the mint powder sprinkled some red and green shreded. Rub up sticky rice powder and silver sand into strip, which is the strip cake. It is more delicious if deep fried.
Oiled Bean Curd and Shreded Soup
If you eat Nian Cake with Spare-ribs, the soup is a must drink. It is made of oiled bean curd, shredded, and Baiyebao. There is only one world to describe its taste: Fresh!
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