Adventures in Shanghai - Part 1
This was our first breakfast in Shanghai, savoury tau fu fa accompanied by a yu tiao and milky coffee, followed by a spicy noodle dish. Enjoyed the tau fu fa but I stuck to the hot weet version for the rest of the trip. The noodles looked great but were a little bland. The rest of the crowd were ordering yu tiao and siao long bao so this may not have been a speciality of theirs.
Going for a walk later on that day down Nan Jing Lu, we stumbled across an extremely busy little alley that had the most heavenly smell of food cooking. A detour was in order here and we came across some unusual and delicious foods.
We managed th snag the last of this batch of fried beef dumplings (not sure about name). Really delicious and the line of people waiting to get their hands on one was justified.
Steamboat-style meals are also available. Great if you want to pick and choose.
We saw these siao long bao stalls everywhere and the great thing you could always see a small huddle of workers, with disposable face masks on, moulding these. The dumplings then went straight into the frying pan. How much fresher can you get? Sold in portions of four, the trick to eating these was to make a small bite into the skin and allowing the very hot steam to escape then slurping some of the juice out before eating the meaty part. HUGE queues everywhere for these! I think the Shanghainese must literally live on these dumplings. (Warning: Don’t get the ones on the streets immediately outside the ‘Old Town’ area though as you pay tourist prices for inferior food).
Lots of smoke coming from these portable barbeques:
…more soon…
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 2
Adventures in Shanghai - Part 3
Images of Shanghai









March 10th, 2007 at 8:45 am
Great photos. Looks like an excellent experience.
March 11th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I love those Shanghai dumplings, the soup that burst out when you bite into it is fantastic.
March 14th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
So jealous of your China travels. Good xiao long bao are one of the world’s great food experiences.
March 21st, 2007 at 9:04 am
Amelita: All travel is good!
Thanh: It pays to have some caution so that you don’t scald yourself though.
Stephanie: I’m looking forward to exploring more of Asia and, of course, all the food. There are many great food experiences to be had around the world. The problem is finding the times and means to reach them all
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
MMMmmmMMMmmmhh…. yummy and makes me homesick…
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:31 pm
technozoom: Welcome! That was my first trip to China and I’m definitely hoping to explore more of it in the future. Have you been in Toronto long?