2. Intermezzo 2
food adventure:shanghai
Purses
of Pleasure
Beyond the city’s internationally fashionable streets, the pursuit of
authentic local foods and flavors in “The Pearl of the Orient” is a
worthwhile undertaking.
Diving for Pearls in Shanghai
by elyse glickman
3. Intermezzo3
O
ne of the most popular
souvenirs from China is
a “Chinese Box,” a set of
decorated stacking boxes of graduated
sizes that can be enjoyed separately or
nested together. On many levels, it is an
excellent metaphor for Shanghai’s food
experience.
It is no surprise that the outermost
“box” is the first impression Shanghai
makes when you see it for the first time.
The skyline that dominates Pudong,
the city’s sprawling financial and
technological center, evokes Disney’s
“Tomorrowland.” The gravity-defying
skyscrapers and towers seem as far
away from old-world Chinese as one
can get.
That said, I’m as enthusiastic about
Chinese street food (especially dump-
lings) as I am about the garden of
East-meets-West delights at destina-
tions like Jean-Georges’ Three on the
Bund. Metaphorically speaking, I start
my exploration of Shanghai by actively
digging deep for the precious discover-
ies housed in the smaller “boxes,” hid-
den on its side streets, alleys and other
unexpected places.
Some Shanghai first-timers get their
bearings at five-star hotels outfitted
with expansive breakfast buffets. I, on
the other hand, settle into the Aroma
Garden Lanson Place, a stylish residen-
tial hotel tailor-made for longer stays
as well as people who love to cook and
entertain. I was particularly impressed
with the small but fully outfitted
kitchen with its top-tier appliances and
full arsenal of pots, pans and other
cooking accessories. Just a few blocks
away, around the tourist-packed perim-
eters of Shanghai Old Street’s Ming
and Qing Dynasty buildings, there are
numerous wet and dry markets and ad-
hoc outdoor fruit stands that pique my
curiosity.
As I feel I need a little more educa-
tion on the niceties of local cooking
and ingredients before exploring my
little kitchen, I follow the inspection of
Aroma Garden’s neighborhood with
a long (but astonishingly inexpensive)
taxi ride to an unassuming residential
quarter of the French Concession to
start a dumpling stall and restaurant
tour organized by Un Tour Shanghai.
The tour culminates with a cooking les-
son at the Chinese Cooking Workshop,
a gated bungalow with all the comforts
of home, plus a charming courtyard.
Un Tour Shanghai’s founders are so
passionate about the preservation of
the city’s old, unpretentious culinary
ways that they searched out the best
mom-and-pop establishments. The
itineraries celebrate those eateries,
which fearlessly thrive, even as 21st
century modernity and international-
ism encroaches. They are intent on
ensuring these increasingly endangered
species of Shanghai’s food scene get the
4. Intermezzo 4
attention and respect they deserve.
“The government is…enforcing food
safety laws in an attempt to clean up
their tattered image,” says Long.“This
means many of Shanghai’s roving street
vendors are getting the heave-ho, and
many food streets are being shuttered
and revamped, or turned into mixed-
use commercial districts free of grease
splatters and delicious bites. However,
there are still plenty of good street
foods left to try, and several food streets
are still thriving. Our goal is to give
visitors the confidence to return to the
places we’ve taken them and seek out
new spots. It’s so rewarding when we
have a guest tell us he felt empowered
to try out these little hole-in-the-wall
shops after our tour, and discovered a
delicious dish on their own.”
My first Shanghai breakfast unfolds
in scavenger hunt fashion during the
dumpling tour. It not only includes
those namesake purses of pleasure, but
also pot stickers and breakfast crêpes
made street-side. The crêpes melt in
your mouth until you get to a layer of
hidden fried wonton sheets and hits
of chili sauce. I poke in and out of
closet-sized eateries like Nanjing Soup
Dumplings and Harbin Dumpling
House, which not only introduce us to
the surprising variations in even the
simplest dumpling preparations, but
also to side dishes of refreshing tofu
and vegetable salads.
After the progressive breakfast, we
assume aprons and cooking tools at
the Chinese Cooking Workshop and
intently follow the lead of the teacher.
We hang on his every word as we pre-
pare and roll the dough, fill the flat-
tened semi-circles and then precision-
pleat the dumplings closed as best we
can before taking them to the stoves for
steaming and frying.
Over subsequent days, I visit the
Shanghai Museum in People’s Park,
where there are four meticulously orga-
nized floors of coins, ancient artifacts,
decorative arts, dioramas and fine art
exhibitions, as well as the City God
Temple and Yu Yan Garden (an exqui-
site botanic garden winding through
the former home of a royal family). I
also explored the Jade Buddha Temple,
known for its vegetarian restaurant.
Here, the kitchen manages to transform
tofu and other meat substitutes into
extremely palatable Cantonese roast
duck, ribs, chicken feet and stir-fried
kidneys.
The lines for the Oriental Pearl
Tower, a ten-minute walk from the
Mandarin Oriental Pudong, are so
daunting that I originally considered
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6. Intermezzo 6
avoiding it. Luckily I did visit the
Shanghai Municipal History Museum
at the base of the tower. Five dollars
buys an extraordinary journey through
time that integrates traditional life-size
dioramas, short films, holograms and
live performers to witness the history
of the city. It turns out the food culture
is an integral part of the experience. I
encounter highly detailed recreations
of herbalist shops, food stalls, saloons
and restaurants for the elite as they
existed through the ages. Starting at the
Victorian era, we find “street vendors”
preparing and selling real dumplings
and snacks, as well as live musicians
gracing one of the formal dining room
installations.
The old ways also wind sneakily into
the domain of expats and the Second
Generation within The Bund and The
French Concession. Spare restaurants
intermingle with Parisian-inspired
coffee joints, artisanal ice cream spots
operated by New Yorkers, and dis-
tinctive boutiques like Zen Lifestyle
(intricately hand-painted ceramics in
alluring colors) and Brocade Country,
(fashions and home accessories crafted
by the Miao tribe of Southern China).
There are numerous, modest hot pot
restaurants, serving the amalgam of
fondue, soup and stew.
Just a few blocks from main thor-
oughfare Nanjing Road’s expanse of
flashy malls, Shouning Lu (“road”)
Seafood Street seems to appear like
magic. At first glance, the neon-sign
heavy street looks like a mini-Las
Vegas, although it’s new food experi-
ences you’re taking a gamble on. The
guide manages to convince us to try
(and love) things we could not imagine
eating, like deep fried snake, as well as
crawfish, taro pudding, roasted garlic
eggplant spread on grilled bread and
lamb kebabs with tribal Weigur spices
served street-side with black beer.
We ultimately explore the glitzy
“outer boxes” of Shanghai’s fine din-
ing. Even with all the 21st century flash,
we learn that chefs known for their
penchant for innovation and experi-
mentation have a reverence for the old
ways and indigenous ingredients. At
internationally-acclaimed Mr. & Mrs.
Bund, French-born owner-chef Paul
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7. Intermezzo7
Pairet dedicates a page in his menu to
his exhaustive list of Shanghai-area and
nearby farms, fisheries, markets and
purveyors.
The Mandarin Oriental Pudong,
Shanghai’s Yong Yi Ting, under the
auspices of Chef Consultant Tony Lu,
includes Jiang Nan dishes (the overall
region encompasses Shanghai metro).
While Long informed us earlier that
Shanghaiese gravitate towards sweeter
flavor profiles (in contrast to the
Szechuan and Hunan penchants for
earthy, spicy flavors), we are surprised
that Lu’s Jiang Nan dishes are so deli-
cate and subtle, allowing the natural
flavors of the individual ingredients to
shine through.
During my stay at The Peninsula
Shanghai, Executive Chef Terrence
Crandall took me through the prop-
erty’s Chinese kitchen serving the Yi
Long Court restaurant. Its culinary
team comes from a long line of restau-
rateurs and chefs that do things “the
traditional way,” and runs with the pre-
cision of a fine Swiss watch.
“In Western style cooking, you have
sauces made in advance,” Crandall says.
“In Chinese cooking, sauces are made
dish by dish, so it takes an enormous
amount of skill to craft different sauces
and ensure to make sure they taste the
same from table to table. Consistency
is important, so they wash the woks
frequently and quickly, sometime four
to five times for one dish.”
I notice that each chef in the line
places their respective ingredient on
the plate, in contrast to a Western
kitchen where everything is plated at
the end of the line. Crandall points
out that chickens are brought in fresh
every day, and live fish are particularly
important to Chinese guests. “Fish are
on consignment, so when a customer
orders it, we write the invoice and
buy that fish after we’ve weighed it,”
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8. Intermezzo 8
he continues. “It’s important because
some of our fish are the most expen-
sive breeds of fish in the world, includ-
ing the red spotted grouper, as red is
lucky in China.”
In Shanghai, every color is lucky, and
if you want to taste the full spectrum,
now is the most auspicious time to
experience it—when the past man-
ages to coexist with present restaurant
trends and futuristic techniques.
If You Go
LODGING
The Peninsula Shanghai
shanghai.peninsula.com
The Mandarin Oriental
Pudong-Shanghai
mandarinoriental.com/shanghai
Lanson Place
aromagarden.lansonplace.com
ESSENTIAL CULTURAL
HIGHLIGHTS
Shanghai Municipal History
Museum at the Oriental Pearl
Tower
historymuseum.sh.cn
Shanghai Museum
shanghaimuseum.net/en
Yu Yuan Garden/Old Shanghai
Street
yugarden.com.cn
Jade Buddha Temple & Vegetarian
Restaurant
yufotemple.com
AUTHENTIC DINING
UnTour Shanghai
untourshanghai.com/
Chinese Cooking Workshop
chinesecookingworkshop.com/
Shouning Lu Seafood Street
culinarybackstreets.com
gluttonguides.com
BBQ & Crawfish
48 Shouning Lu at Xizang Lu
Fruit Puddings
42 Shouning Lu, near Xizang Lu
Aizi Pastries
33 Shouning Lu
Hand-Pulled Noodles
Fangbang Lu, near Yiqing Lu
Guangtou Pan-Fried Dumplings
279 Xizang Lu, near Shouning Lu
Street Hawker Pot Stickers
Gao’an Lu between Jianguo Xi Lu
and Zhaojiabang Lu
Nanjing Soup Dumplings
641 Jianguo Xi Lu near Gao’an Lu
Harbin Dumpling House
645 Jianguo Xi Lu near Gao’an Lu
Quibao Tangyuan Place
2 Donping Lu
CONTEMPORARY FINE
DINING & COCKTAILING
Mr. & Mrs. Bund
mmbund.com
Three on The Bund
threeonthebund.com
FOR MORE TRAVEL
INFORMATION
Meet-In-Shanghai:
The Official Shanghai Travel Site
meet-in-shanghai.net
Shanghai China Tourist
Information and Travel Guide
shanghaichina.ca
China Eastern Airlines
(Direct flights to Shanghai from New
York, Los Angeles) us.ceair.com
10. Intermezzo 10
STREET EATS
boiled pork and cabbage
dumplings
Dongbei Baicai Shuijiao
Inspired by Harbin Dumpling House,
courtesy of UnTour Shanghai
MAKES 50 TO 60 DUMPLINGS
For dumpling wrappers
3 cups flour
1 cup cold water
1 teaspoon salt
For dumpling stuffing
1 cup 30% fatty pork
11/2 cups minced cabbage
1/2 cup green onion, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger root
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1. Make dumpling wrappers. On a table or
cutting board, mix salt into flour with a cir-
cular motion until you have a hole in the
center.
2. Pour water into hole you created; keep
mixing with finger and add water as
necessary until the dough no longer sticks
to your hand.
3. Knead the dough into a ball. Cover and
let rest for 30 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 50 to 60 small pieces;
roll each piece into a ball.
5. Flatten the ball; use a rolling pin to roll
out edges while constantly turning the
dumpling.
6. Make dumpling stuffing. Sprinkle cab-
bage with salt and let sit for ten minutes to
draw out water. Wrap the cabbage in a dish
towel and squeeze out the excess water.
7. In a large bowl, add green onion, ginger,
garlic, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, white
pepper, salt and sugar to minced pork; mix
thoroughly. Add cabbage.
8. Make dumplings. Add 1 tablespoon
of mixture to middle of each dumpling
wrapper. Pull bottom half of wrapper up to
meet top half and pinch middle, then crimp
one side about 1/3-inch and attach it to the
other side. Repeat two times on each side of
the initial middle pinch, then pinch closed
any remaining openings. Alternatively, dip
your finger in water, drawing a line of water
across top edge of the dumpling wrapper
before pulling up bottom half and squeez-
ing them together.
9. Flour a bowl or plate to place dumplings
on; make sure they don’t touch.
10. Boil a large pot of water. Add in some
of the dumplings and let cook for five
minutes, or until the dumplings are fully
cooked. Repeat with remaining dumplings
and serve hot, with a light soy sauce and
chopped garlic, or with rice vinegar and
crushed red peppers, or both.
steamed soup dumplings
Xiaolongbao
Inspired by Nanjing Soup Dumplings,
courtesy UnTour Shanghai and the Chinese
Cooking Workshop.
MAKES 24 DUMPLINGS
For pork skin jelly
tk Pork skin, without fat
tk Water
tk Scallion
tk Ginger
tk Rice wine
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11. Intermezzo11
For dumpling skin
51/2 ounces wheat flour
3 ounces cold water
For filling
7 oz minced pork
3 teaspoon water
3 teaspoon shaoxing rice wine
2 teaspoons finely diced ginger
1 teaspoon finely diced scallon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
pinch white pepper
2 teaspoons sesame oil
6 ounces pork skin jelly
1. Make pork jelly. Remove any remaining
fat of the pork skin. Clean the skin care-
fully and boil it in water for 3 minutes.
2. Put pork skin and 2 cups water with
green onion, ginger and rice wine into a
wok or sauté pan on high heat. When it
comes to a boil, reduce heat.
3. When pork skin gets soft, chop it; return
to wok, then bring to boil again.
4. When liquid becomes sticky, remove all
ingredients. Chill the mixture, which will
solidify from a soup to a jelly. Use within
two days, or freeze for up to a few weeks
(boil and re-chill to create the original jelly
texture).
5. Make dumpling skins. Combine the
flour and water into a dough. Knead for
ten minutes, until elastic.
6. Divide dough into two equal pieces. Roll
each piece into a 12-inch long cylinder.
Divide each piece into 12 equal pieces. Roll
each individual piece into a ball, then flat-
ten into a 21/2-inch disk.
7. Make filling. Combine all the filling
ingredients except the jelly. Stir mixture
fifty times in one direction, to eliminate
any lumps.
8. Add pork jelly and mix. Refrigerate until
ready to fill dumplings.
9. Make dumplings. Hold a wrapper flat on
palm of your left hand.
10. Place a heaping teaspoon of the pork
mixture into center of wrapper.
11. Using both thumbs and both index
fingers, stretch and pleat the edges of the
dumpling wrapper, working counter-
clockwise. Both thumbs remain inside the
dumplings at all times, with both fingers
on the outside.
12. Continue working all the way around
the edge of the wrapper, gently turning the
bun in the palm of your left hand as you
go. Press pleated edges lightly together to
seal.
13. Cook dumplings. Line a steamer bas-
ket with a paper towel cut to size. This
will stop dumplings from sticking to the
steamer bottom when you lift them out.
14. Place dumplings into steamer. They
should not touch each other. Steam for ten
minutes.
15. Serve immediately, with a side of brown
rice vinegar and sliced ginger.
lamb kebab
Yangrou Chuanr
Inspired by BBQ & Crawfish at 48
Shouning Lu, compliments of UnTour
Shanghai
Vary quantities of all ingredients to suit your
taste and the number of people you wish to
serve. Soak bamboo skewers in water before
making kebabs, to avoid them catching on fire
during grilling.
tk Lamb leg and fat
tk Salt
tk Vegetable oil
tk Ground cumin
tk Chili flakes
tk Freshly ground pepper
tk Sichuan peppercorn powder
1. Mix together all ingredients in a zipper
lock bag. Refrigerate and allow to marinate
for 2 hours.
2. Skewer lamb on bamboo skewers, lay-
ering chunks of fat between the strips of
meat.
3. Heat grill or broiler to 425°F; brush oil
12. Intermezzo 12
on kebabs. Place kebabs on grill and rotate
every three minutes until done to your
taste.
4. Sprinkle with additional cumin and chili
to taste; serve immediately.
HOTEL EATS
braised boneless beef short
rib with hickory
Chef Consultant Tony Lu, Yong Yi Ting,
Mandarin Oriental Pudong
SERVES 4
21/2 pounds beef rib meat
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 ounce sugar
Orange peel, to taste
Water
1/2 oz hickory seasoning
1. Cut beef into cubes; add enough water
to cover beef in a wok or large skillet.
2. Add soy sauce, sugar and orange peel;
simmer on medium-low heat for 11/2 hours,
or until the beef softens.
3. Raise heat to high to reduce sauce
slightly; add hickory seasoning and serve.
stir-fried sliced duck
breast with asparagus and
chives
Yi Long Court, The Peninsula Hotel
Shanghai
SERVES 2 TO 4
Chicken powder, a common Asian condi-
ment, can be found at most Asian food stores,
or online.
For the seasoning sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon chicken powder
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon potato starch or corn
starch Pinch salt
For the duck
4 tablespoon sesame or vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
5 stalks asparagus, sliced into two-inch
diagonal pieces
5 ounces sliced duck breast meat
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
5 scallions, julienned
1/2 cup finely-chopped chives
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
1. Make seasoning sauce. Combine all
ingredients; set aside.
2. Make duck. Heat wok or large skillet
until a drop of water sizzles; then add 2
tablespoons oil, water, salt and sugar.
3. Add asparagus. When asparagus is bright
green, remove and set aside.
4. Add seasoning sauce to duck slices, mix,
then toss in wok. When duck is nearly but
not completely cooked, remove it from wok.
5. Add 2 tablespoons oil to wok. Sauté gar-
lic, scallions, chives, and peppers until you
can smell their fragrance.
6. Add duck and asparagus; stir-fry for
about one minute. Add seasoning mix-
ture and stir-fry until the duck meat is well
done, about 1 minute.
7. Serve with rice or rice noodles.
