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After many months of letting shanghai taste slip into internet oblivion I have renewed myself once again to bring it back to life. I regret the time I spent not writing on here as I find it interesting and it allows oneself to express ideas and share opinions.
So.... we left off at one of my favourite restaurants which is "My Kitchen" in Shanghai. Since then I have tasted many anew dishes, especially after a trip to Wu Yi Shan (Wu Yi Mountain) in Fujian province. Let me tell you.....I regret one thing: NO PHOTOS!!! My camera was not working when I was at a local eatery in this small mountain town but I must give you my vague recollection of the type of restaurant you might find open at midnight near the resort area.
Bamboo rafting in Wu Yi Shan
I arrived in Wu Yi Shan late Sunday night, I remembered the name of my hotel in Chinese so there was no problem getting there... after arriving at my destination the taxi driver offers me his card to call him in case I need a driver, I accept. Although the plane ride was short (only one hour) I have not eaten a proper dinner and I call the same driver to come back and pick me up after discovering the one small restaurant at my hotel is closed. I try my best to tell him to take me anywhere to eat and we are on our way. Only five minutes later we are in what you might call a "town" of some sort. Nothing is open...the only thing the driver shows me are a few restaurants that have abundant seating outside, so I take a gander....
If you have a problem with seeing parts of animals as if they were only killed a few hours before then I do not suggest that you eat at one of these places. I had the opportunity of selecting the meat I wanted to eat from a large fridge outside that had many different pieces of many different animals on display, including fur on some parts. MMMMMMmmmmmm.....
You must have a translator if you wish to visit one of these restaurants because you must tell the owner how you would like your food prepared, a great idea, but these restaurants are not for the weak of stomach. I suggest you go to Yue Hua Hotel for the "Western" buffet. For the more adventurous, just try anything. Just point and say "Wo yao" and see what happens.
Now I will leave you with a humourous photo from the urinal stall at the entrance of the national park:
Take a step closer....
Well, it seems that it is quite difficult to gather a group of people together to eat at my favourite Cantonese restaurant, but that is okay because tonight I have finally gathered the right people together. If I am going to do a dinner right, I must have more than me, myself, and I because I want to order as many dishes as possible and I am not known to eat for two.
Until then I have another place for you. I put the title as "Settled for 'My Kitchen'" but it was not because it was in my kitchen or that it is not a quality place, but it is because I could not go for Cantonese. This little restaurant is owned by a man from Taiwan who has already spent fifteen years living in Long Island, New York...strange since his restaurant supposedly serves Sichaun food.
Welcome to "My Kitchen"
My first recommendation is: If you want to eat good Sichaun cuisine, do not come to this restaurant. My second recommendation is: If you want good food, come to this restaurant. There are many places you might see around the world outside of China that claim they serve a certain cuisine from China, but this is, in many cases, false. Surprisingly, the same thing even happens in China, even though the locals will know that it may not be authentic but they will at least know whether it tastes good or not.
"Lemon Chicken"
The first dish that arrived is a very light and non greasy chicken which is known as "lemon chicken" even though, as you can see from the photo, the lemon is served as a sauce seperately. The chicken itself it quite crispy and light on the stomach so the option of dipping it into sauce is always nice, just incase you might not like it. Sometimes when you are ordering in a restaurant that you have never eaten at before or any place in China, it is always a good idea to order something simple like this. You never know what might come out of that kitchen if you are looking for more of an "experience," even though in my experience sometimes it is just better to keep it simple. That is why for my next choice I decided to go for one of the staples of Chinese food abroad.
General Tao's Chicken!!
Yes! I did it! It is strange, let me share this with you. To feel as if I am more at home than in China, to remind myself of times in University on late nights out going to Chinatown for some great food to relieve my drunken state of mind, and to just reminisce of being home, I eat Chinese food! General Tao's Chicken has always been a food that everyone knows and everyone eats at many different Chinese restaurants, it seems to be one of those choices that everyone knows is "safe." Chicken in the shape of a ball more or less with thick batter and nice greasy sauce, nothing wrong with that.
One great thing about most restaurants here is that the food is prepared in a timely manner; just incase you are hungry and want to eat right away do not fret, there will be food! Also, if you noticed in that picture the restaurant offers free peanuts so you can snack on something while your food is being prepared. Most restaurants also include tea as well, neatly placed in a French press, usually for coffee...but who cares?
View from above...incense anyone?
The decoration is very simple, but I suggest taking the table that has the view from above facing towards the door. A good location to watch who is coming in the door and to appreciate some moments of Zen with the smell of incense in the air. Do not worry, the smell is not strong, it will not bother you while eating. This restaurant is located at the corner of Huai Hai Lu and Wanping Lu, make sure you over pronounce the "ng" in Wanping or else you will be taken on a joy ride.
I will add more photos of some of the dishes as I accidentally deleted some...woops. But always beware of what you choose, you never know what you might get!
Well, so far my cantonese food experience that was scheduled for two days ago has been put on delay because someone decided to make home cooked Brazilian food, so I could not resist.
Since my Cantonese dinner has been put on hold until Sunday night I wanted to share a few things about dining out in Shanghai. First of all, just because you are in Shanghai or any large city in China does not mean you must always eat Chinese cuisine, it is obviously the most convenient, and cheapest, food you can buy here but eating anything continuously can find its' way into monotony. Shanghai has grown into an international city and there are many foreigners making a living for themselves here, many come only for a short while to work and others settle down and have kids, buy houses, and make a home in China.
Just like many large cities across the globe there are different cuisines easily available, but since Shanghai has a large mix of foreigners from everywhere imaginable on earth it is easy to find food from the Middle East, Spain, America, Brazil, France, Morocco, Britain, Italian, India....and the list goes on. There is a great place located on a street named Taikang Lu that is known for its' Australian barbecue and obviously because of the close proximity to other Asian countries there are fantastic restaurants for Korean, Japanese (a place aptly named "Haiku" was voted best Japanese restaurant in the city; and let me tell it deserves it), Thai, Vietnamese and so on. So do not fret!
If Shanghainese food such as chicken feet does not satisfy your appetite take a look on the web or take a walk in "Xintiandi" or down Taikang Lu for a different side of China. Many foreigners have opened up their own places here as well, one American has a chain of bars that offer affordable food and even "more affordable" drinks (CHEAP DRINKS! YAY!).
Whatever guide you might have bought I will give you some advice: "USE IT!"
The only way you will get to know any city and the food that city might have to offer is by using the resources available to you. In the rare situation that you do possess any of these resources then just........walk around! A sure way to find something different is to take a stroll and hopefully you will stumble across an area, a place, a park, a restaurant that no guide book has written about.
I just wanted to let you know that food in China is not only limited to local cuisine, in fact I find that Shanghai especially offers much more variety than other cities I have been to or lived in. The abundance of foreign cuisine might be lower than a country in the west, but I think you might find yourself being a little surprised.
Or if you feel like something quick.......go to McDonalds or KFC (Chinese people LOVE KFC).
Tonight I shall head to a place in Shanghai that is a great place to enjoy a delicious Cantonese meal. The region of Canton is actually known as Guangdong, the southern province that borders with Hong Kong, Canton is simply the old English name that still applies to the region today. Cantonese translated is "Guangdong hua" (Guangdong language) so you can see where the language comes from and also the food. Cantonese is also spoken in Hong Kong as well and similar food is also eaten there as in Guangdong.
This restaurant "Heng Shan" that I shall be dining at tonight offers a wide range of Cantonese food, from "char siu" (a delicious barbecued pork) to tongues and other insides of animals that you might not usually eat. You would be surprised of the amount of dishes that are available on menus here in China, sometimes it takes ten minutes just to look through each page; some menus have more than fifteen or twenty pages. In China, the communal eating spirit still exists so there must be a reasonable amount of options so everyone can choose something they will enjoy. If you have a party of ten people there might be twenty diffferent items ordered....or MORE! I have never eaten so many different dishes at one dinner before I moved to China, now I can enjoy ten or twenty or maybe even more meals at once
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Well, excuse me for the delay but I have had some trouble logging on to the site recently...
...let's get back to business
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Good afternoon in China.
After a different sort of eating experience last night I am ready to plan dinner for this evening. I have a friend's mother visiting China for a few weeks and naturally we want to give her a fair share of Chinese cuisine. Tonight, we have decided to venture down to Huai Hai Zhong Lu for some hot pot in the "jungle", a restaurant that has built fake trees inside to make you feel right at home (if you are from the amazon
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Nihao!
I am writing to you from Shanghai in the People's Republic of China. Everyone in every country around the world has tasted Chinese food at some point in their life. I am here to let you in on the secrets and not so secret indredients to some famous and not so famous Chinese dishes
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