Food & Cuisine in Shanghai
Shanghai cuisine, also known as Hu cuisine, originated in the Ming and Qing Dynasty.
Shanghai cuisines are quite popular in China. The cuisine specializes in using alcohol. Fish, crab, chicken and some other meat dishes are “drunken” with the spirit while briskly cooked, steamed, or served raw. The other characteristic of Shanghai cuisine is the application of sugar, especially when used with the combination of soy sauce. Hence, Shanghai cuisine features a mellow and slightly sweet and sour in taste. The most typical and notable dish of this type is "sweet and sour spare ribs". Another highlight is the wide variety of seafood as Shanghai faces the East China Sea. Due to its location among the rivers, lakes, and canals of the Yangtze Delta, most of its local sea products are crabs, oysters, and seaweed. Shanghai hairy crab is the most notable one.
Shanghai cuisine stresses on using condimentsandretaining the original taste and flavor of the materials. Shanghai dishes aim at lightness in flavor and beautifulness in decoration. The colors of Shanghai cuisine are harmoniously arranged, and the cuisine characters red and shiny because they are often pickled in wine. The cooking methods are in variety, baking, deep-frying, stewing, teaming, etc.
The lion’s head and Shanghai-style niangao are unique dishes to Shanghai. Other food items such as Lime-and–ginger-flavored century egg and stinky tofu are also very popular in Shanghai.
Breakfast
Breakfast in Shanghai is pretty simple for Shanghainese do not spend much time on that. What shanghai people usually have for breakfast are xiaolongbao, shengjian mantou, guotie, pancake stuffed with radish strips and youtiao with soy milk, which can be easily brought from the corner stalls. Besides, the other typical food for breakfast is Ci Fan Tuan, made of warm steamed sticky rice with the fillings of sugar, youtiao, salty duck egg yolk. The combination of dabing, youtiao, ci fan tuan and soy milk are known as the Four Heavenly Kings for the breakfast.
For main courses, the most notable are as follows:
Chinese mitten crab
Yangcheng Lake is the best origin of the best hairy crabs. The dish is one of the autumn delicacies in Shanghai cuisines and eastern China. The crabs are tied with ropes/strings, placed in bamboo containers, steamed and served.The crab meat is believed to have the “Cooling” effect on the body. Shaoxing rice wine or plum wine is a perfect combination with this steamed delicacy to warm the body.
Crispy chicken
The chicken is first boiled in the water until its flesh become tender, and then roasted for a long period of time until the skin gets dry and crispy.
Congshao crucian carp
This dish requires long hours for preparation since the fish firstly needs to be soaked in the vinegar, then deep-fried, and stewed for a long period of time. After finished, the dish needs to be cooled so as to make the fish tender enough.
Snacks
There are various kinds as for snacks in Shanghai, including steamed, boiled, fried, baked and many other varieties. Snacks in Shanghai are generally not expensive. The three most famous are Soup dumpling, Baiye and You mian jing.
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