My Love for Shanghai Cuisine

Inspired by the Dumpling entry on Stuff Asian People Like.

If there's ever one cuisine of food I'd have to eat for the rest of my life, it would be Shanghai cuisine. I'm not making this up just because I'm blogging, one of the most interesting food question I think about is my last meal; if I got a death sentence for some crime I've committed and I can request anything I want for my last meal, what would my last meal be? And yes, I already have an answer.

Hong Kong has quite a few nicknames and one of them is the Gourmet Paradise, probably because a lot of talented people from Mainland China fled to Hong Kong during the Chinese revolution before the communist repossess everything they owned, and also Hong Kong acted as the gateway between western world and China, so we have exposure to all kind of cultures and food. During the Chinese revolution, a large amount of Shanghainese fled to Hong Kong, most of them are bankers, merchants and tailors, which contributed to a lot of greatness in Hong Kong. I grew up watching a lot of Hong Kong films about these people, I also grew up eating a lot of Shanghainese food.

My grandma used to bring me to a small neighborhood Shanghainese place for breakfast. It was really a hole in the wall, but the food is completely amazing. The ingredients are simple, but the flavor melds in such harmony, it's very homey and to a certain extend, soulful. Shanghai cuisine is famous for utilizing vinegars in their food, it makes them salty and sweet and sour and spicy, all in perfect proportions.

When we go to the Shanghainese breakfast place, we would usually order soy milk, there are two different kind of soy milk; sweet or salty. The sweet one is quite accessible in the States now, go to any Asian market and you'll find them bottled in the fridge, if not you can always find those juice box Vitasoys. When you go to an authentic Shanghainese place, they would usually come in a bowl and you can have them either cold or hot. The salty ones are a;ways hot and it's more like a soup, it has a much thicker consistency with some grounded tofu, scallions and dried chili flakes, which my grandma like to have with some fried doughs.

My favorite dish of the place is this giant rice balls called Chi Fan which is sticky rice on the outside wrapped around a crispy fried dough inside, dried fluffy and flavorful pork "flosses" and crunchy pickled vegetables. I usually love to pair it with a bowl of fried tofu and vermicelli noodle soup with some dried shrimp and pickled vegetables. That, my friends, would be my last meal.

When we have more time to really enjoy food, we'll go to a traditional Shanghainese restaurant for a lavish meal. Of course they are famous for their spring rolls, scallion pancakes, cold dishes like braised sliced beef, drunken chicken and spiced braised duck. But what I crave for is the little steamed pork dumplings called XiaoLungBao, chewy skin wrap around those melt in your mouth meatballs, and when you bite into them, the juices squirt. They come in a steam cage and they are perfect when they are dipped in a ginger-infused vinegar soy sauce mixtures. The best ones have orange-colored crab eggs in them and on top as a decoration. Crab egg is a true delicacy, and quite expensive too. A special hairy crab produces the most eggs and people go crazy for them during the fall and have to be preordered in many occasions and often there are banquets design around them.

One dish that I absolutely had to have is the Shredded Chicken atop Mung Bean Noodles. It's a cold dish and I wouldn't mind to be buried with them. The mung bean noodles are a little like lasagna sheets but cool and delicate, they are accompanied but shredded carrot, cucumber, chicken and cilantro. The sauce though, is complied with vinegar, sesame paste and a little bit of chili oil. The taste is so delicate and harmonized and the whole dish is so light, I once ordered my own in front of my whole family and refused to share.

The perfect ending to a Shanghainese meal would be Red Bean Pancakes, a crispy chewy pancake with red bean paste inside. I also love those round dumplings, usually served in a sweet gingery soup. The dumplings themselves usually have fillings inside. My favorite stuffing would be grounded sugar sesame paste. When you bite into them and the army of sesame sweet burst in your mouth, forget about it. The dumplings are also good rolled around ground peanuts. Too bad it's so hard to find good Shanghainese restaurants in the States. Sometimes when I chat with other friends far from home, we imagine what we could be eating if we were back home and it's all the harder knowing that those great things are so out of reach.

Oh, while we're on the topic, I'm not wishing anything bad ever happen to you folks but what would you want your last meal to be?


Top Row: Salted Soy Milk, Chi Fan, Fried Tofu and Vermicelli Soup, Xiao Lung Bao.
Bottom Row: Hairy Crab, Shredded Chicken on Mung Bean Noodles, Red Bean Pancakes, Sweet Sesame Dumplings with Ground Peanuts.