Next Stop: China (Part 2: Shanghai)
Shanghai cuisine, also known as Hu cai, is a style of Chinese cuisine that is popular and celebrated the Chinese in China. Although Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, it has refined those of the surrounding provinces (mostly from adjacent Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces). What can be called Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, eel, crab, and chicken are “drunken” with spirits and usually served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to spice up the dish.
The use of sugar is common in “Shanghainese” cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the “secret ingredient.” The most notable dish of this type of cooking is “sweet and sour spare ribs” (tangcu xiaopai).
Shanghainese people are known to eat very little (which makes them a target of mockery from other Chinese), and hence the servings are usually quite small. A famous snack in Shanghai, Xiao Long Bao (literally: “small steamer buns”) is cooked in a small bamboo steamer, is now popularized throughout China as a Dim Sum. Xiao Long Bao, sometimes referred to as a soup dumpling, is a small meat-filled steamed bun unique because it contains soup stock, adding a sensual, surprising effect when eaten.
“Red cooking” is a popular style of stewing meats and vegetables associated with Shanghai and the eastern Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is a slow-cooking technique characterized by the use of its key ingredients of both dark and light soy sauce, star anise or five-spice powder, cooking sherry, and sugar. Red-cooked stews, may be meat-heavy or contain a variety of meat and vegetables. Such dishes may be served hot or cold and the sauce or stock is often re-used.
Other popular Shanghai dishes include:
“Beggar's Chicken” (jiaohu ji), a legendary dish wrapped in lotus leaves, covered in clay and oven baked to steamy, tasty perfection - in olden times, it was baked in the ground.
Lime-and-ginger-flavoured “1,000-year-old” eggs.
Braised meat balls
Stinky Tofu (form of fermented tofu).
Shanghai cuisine, also known as Hu cai, is a style of Chinese cuisine that is popular and celebrated the Chinese in China. Although Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, it has refined those of the surrounding provinces (mostly from adjacent Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces). What can be called Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, eel, crab, and chicken are “drunken” with spirits and usually served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to spice up the dish.
The use of sugar is common in “Shanghainese” cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the “secret ingredient.” The most notable dish of this type of cooking is “sweet and sour spare ribs” (tangcu xiaopai).
Shanghainese people are known to eat very little (which makes them a target of mockery from other Chinese), and hence the servings are usually quite small. A famous snack in Shanghai, Xiao Long Bao (literally: “small steamer buns”) is cooked in a small bamboo steamer, is now popularized throughout China as a Dim Sum. Xiao Long Bao, sometimes referred to as a soup dumpling, is a small meat-filled steamed bun unique because it contains soup stock, adding a sensual, surprising effect when eaten.
“Red cooking” is a popular style of stewing meats and vegetables associated with Shanghai and the eastern Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. It is a slow-cooking technique characterized by the use of its key ingredients of both dark and light soy sauce, star anise or five-spice powder, cooking sherry, and sugar. Red-cooked stews, may be meat-heavy or contain a variety of meat and vegetables. Such dishes may be served hot or cold and the sauce or stock is often re-used.
Other popular Shanghai dishes include:
“Beggar's Chicken” (jiaohu ji), a legendary dish wrapped in lotus leaves, covered in clay and oven baked to steamy, tasty perfection - in olden times, it was baked in the ground.
Lime-and-ginger-flavoured “1,000-year-old” eggs.
Braised meat balls
Stinky Tofu (form of fermented tofu).
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