A Guide to 14 of the Most Iconic Foods in Shanghai
One of my finest memories of Shanghai was the rush I felt the moment evening classes were dismissed. My friend and I would run downstairs, outside, down the concrete steps, and into the city streets, where lights poured out and the lingering smell of roasted yam from a nearby street vendor tempted us to break our dinner plans.To get more
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One of us would fling an arm up, and eventually we'd be in a cab, hurtling past our sleepy district, up highly elevated roads that seemed to graze the side of skyscrapers and made Shanghai seem exactly like the hyper-futuristic metropolis its city planners designed it to be.
Shanghai Laolao is a corner restaurant right next to the Bund. It sits on the intersection of Fuzhou Lu and Sichuan Lu —two streets whose names I have not forgotten, even as the names of my classmates and the material we learned have long faded from memory.
We'd make the last seating of the night and would always order the same thing: red-braised fatty pork made so sweet and tender by whatever sorcery goes on in that kitchen; a delicate, creamy tomato and egg stir-fry that changed the way I thought about egg; and oil-cooked eggplant that made the vegetable taste like succulent pieces of meat. If we were particularly hungry that evening, we'd get stir-fried rice cakes folded with pieces of cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. Home-style Shanghainese food, the way grandmother made it, is the motto of the restaurant.Despite all the international eateries that our study abroad group frequented and all the wonderful higher-end joints we could have afforded, it was Shanghai Laolao that won our hearts over. Four years since then, I'm happymo to report that it's still open.
Shanghai is an ever-changing city, where skyscrapers seem to pop up overnight. Because eateries have such a high turnover rate, you're never really sure if your favorite restaurant has folded or if you're just at the wrong place. Heavy immigration and international influences add to the confusion over what Shanghai cuisine really is.Ask a long-term expat what quintessential Shanghai food is and she'll spin out a list of Italian, Cantonese, French, Spanish, and New American preferences—all with a fantastic cocktail menu. Ask a local who was born and raised in Shanghai and he'll respond without blinking: "Xiaolongbao, shengjianbao , red-braised dishes , crayfish , and hairy crab , when it's the right season." For the sake of nostalgia, I like the local's take on things.
What I perceive as "old-school" Shanghainese cuisine is fundamentally sweet in flavor. It's not inundated with spices; preservatives are used sparingly; and while soy sauce is a common ingredient, dishes tend to veer to the softer side. Shanghai used to be an old fishing village and its proximity to the Yangtze River means a lot of freshwater fish and crustaceans.
In reality, what is iconic is all a matter of perspective. And so this is my list of what I perceive to be iconic—and, of course, the most delicious:Xiaolongbao was reportedly invented in Shanghai, and these "little caged buns" (that's the literal translation) can be found in nearly every district in town. At a restaurant, 18 folds is the standard. These are decadent soup dumplings, made soupy by pieces of congealed pork broth that are mixed in with ground pork, Shaoxing wine, green onion, ginger, light soy sauce, and a drizzle of sesame oil. The dough composition is rather simple. It's identical to your standard boiled dumpling: just water and flour. The difference lies in how the dumpling is folded. "You have to make xiaolongbao until the thought of xiaolongbao makes you puke," says Mike Huang, a local Shanghainese cooking teacher. The touristy go-to place is Nanxiang in Yuyuan Garden. With over a century's worth of history, Nanxiang's crab and pork xiaolong is legendary. The shop is a descendant of the original store in the Nanxiang District of Shanghai, which claimed to have invented the xiaolongbao. I personally enjoy De Xing Guan , a chain that has been around since the Qing Dynasty. The insides are succulent and sweet. And if you're looking for something a bit more modern, The Dining Room does xiaolongbao stuffed with a generous amount of truffle.
