Food
As the locals in Shanghai put it, 'Blessed are those born in Shanghai as they have the most chances to taste delicious food'. Dishes from this area are lightly and delicately seasoned. Shanghai's people have a 'sweet tooth', and more sugar is used in Shanghai than in any other part of China.
Shanghai Cuisine, also known as Hu Cai, includes two styles - Benbang Cuisine and Haipai Cuisine.,
Benbang Cuisine, literally meaning 'local cuisine', is the traditional family style cuisine that appeared in Shanghai over 100 years ago. Using fresh fish, chicken, pork and various vegetables as the main ingredients, Benbang Cuisine always has a great flavor and a bright color derived from the oil and soybean sauce. Like the dishes of Suzhou and Wuxi cuisines, Shanghai Benbang dishes taste fresh, mellow and sweet.
Haipai Cuisine, literally meaning 'all-embracing cuisine' is derived from the cosmopolitan culture formed in Shanghai in the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). It absorbs the advantages of many cuisines from other regions of China and even western cuisines, and then adapts them to suit local tastes. Fresh fish, shrimps and crabs are the main ingredients of Haipai Cuisine. The appearance, flavors and cooking techniques of the Haipai dishes have many variations.
Features of Shanghai Cuisine
Benbang Cuisine and Haipai Cuisine have many things in common: First, they make great use of fresh meat, chicken, vegetables and especially various marine ingredients such as fish, shrimps and crabs. Secondly, Shanghai Cuisine has a great number of signature dishes made from various seasonal ingredients. Thirdly, a wide range of cooking techniques have been adopted and include steaming, braising, stewing, stir-frying, quick-frying, deep-frying, boiling, marinating, smoking and roasting. Fourthly, strongly hot food hardly ever forms part of Shanghai Cuisine. Most of the dishes taste fresh, clear, mellow, sweet or subtly spicy.
Xia Zi Da Wu Shen is noted as the most famous seafood dish in Shanghai cuisine. Dried sea cucumber is immersed in water to restore its original size and then stewed with oil, yellow wine, soybean sauce, broth, sugar, shallot, starch sauce and shrimp roe. This dish is nutritious with rich protein and minerals and is said to effectively control cancer.
Ba Bao La Jiang is typical among the few spicy dishes in Shanghai Cuisine. It is a Benbang dish featuring great flavor and bright color. Bean sauce and chili sauce are blended and stir-fried with shelled shrimps, chicken, chicken stock, pork, pig offal, dried small shrimps, bamboo shoots and various kinds of seasoning.
Local snacks
Refreshments and snacks from all over China and the world are available in Shanghai. Local snacks in Shanghai have their specialties and should not be missed.
This snack is a famous and popular one originating from Nanxiang Town in the northern Jiading District of Shanghai. Dating back over 100 years, Nanxiang Steamed Stuffed Bun features the typical Shanghai flavor. It is famous for its thin wrap, big stuffing, strong flavor and tender meat.
Besides the use of refined flour and pork, Nanxiang Steamed Stuffed Bun has many special ingredients. Water, salt, sugar, soy, sesame, and ginger are added to make the stuffing. Even without MSG, shallot or garlic, the buns stay fresh with a delicious flavor. The main pork stuffing is mixed with various seasonal ingredients: bamboo shoot for spring, shrimp for summer and crab for autumn.
Crab-Yellow Pastry
This round yellow pastry looks like the shell of a cooked crab, therefore it is named Crab-Yellow Pastry. The main raw material for this snack is oil-mixed dough. The dough is split into small pieces, stuffed, and squashed to form a flat round cake. It is then wrapped with a layer of sesame, and finally baked in an oven.
The Crab-Yellow Pastry usually has a salty or sweet flavor. The salty pastries are stuffed with shallot oil, pork, crab, or shrimp; the sweet ones with sugar, roses, sweetened bean paste, or Chinese date paste.
The prepared pastries are crisp and tasty. As early as the beginning of 20th century, this snack prevailed in Shanghai's teahouses. Today the Crab-Yellow Pastry becomes increasingly popular with Shanghai locals.
Chop Rice Cake
Chop Rice Cake is an economic and distinctive snack in Shanghai. It is a fried snack mainly made of a big pork chop and rice cakes. There are two restaurants that are famous for Chop Rice Cake - Shuguang Restaurant (formerly known as Xiao Chang Zhou) and Xian De Lai Restaurant. The two restaurants have been famous since the 1930s. Chop Rice Cakes offered by them are prepared in completely different ways therefore each has its own unique taste.