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Shanghai Food
Shanghai offers a dazzling array of food and provides an opportunity for cuisine exploration that should be seized firmly with both chopsticks. Stylish dining is one area where Shanghai leaves Beijing in the dust.
The eastern region of China has long been known as a land of' plenty (the 'land of fish and rice') and the quality and variety of fresh produce are reflected in the emphasis put on food. The region is also the source of China's best soy sauces and rice wines.
Eating out in Shanghai is about more than just the food. It is a social lubricant, an opportunity for families to get together, and a chance for the nouveau riche to flaunt their wealth and the nouveau chic to prove their cool. While friends in the West go out for a beer, the Shanghainese will opt for a 'hot and noisy' meal punctuated with increasingly vociferous shots of rice wine. One method of saying 'How are you translates literally as 'Have you eaten yet?
Even if you are a regular at your local Chinese restaurant in London or Sydney you won't necessarily find yourself at home with Chinese cuisine in China. You'll find no fortune cookies or chop suey in Shanghai and only the occasional prawn cracker.
Must top-end Chinese restaurants have some kind of English menu but even these don't include the more interesting dishes. Try out the menu decoder in this chapter or, even better, go with Chinese friends and let them order. In general, it is always better to eat Chinese food in a group as you'll get a better variety of dishes. The Shanghainese habitually over order when eating together. Restaurants often have set meals for a table of 10, which is especially useful if you have to hold a banquet for some bigwig.
Shanghai Cuisines 
The cuisine of Shanghai is influenced by neighbouring Zhejiang and Jiangsu styles, and is defined, along with Suzhou and Hangzhou cuisines, as Yangzhou or Huaiyang cuisine. It is generally sweeter and oilier than China's other cuisines.
Unsurprisingly, due to its position as a major port and the head of the Yangzi delta Shanghai cuisine features a lot of fish and seafood, especially and, river eel and shrimp. The word for fish is a homonym for 'plenty' or 'surplus'; fish is a mandatory dish lot most banquets and celebrations.
Common Shanghainese fish dishes include song ren yu mi (fish with corn and pine nuts), gui yu (steamed mandarin fish), lu yu (Songjiang perch), chang yu (pomfret) and huang yu (yellow croakers). Fish is usually qing zheng (steamed) but can be stir-fried, pan-fried or grilled. Both fish and seafood are usually priced by weight, either 50g or 500g.
Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish is a famous dish from Suzhou. The dish dates from a political assassination during the Warring States period, when a dagger was hidden in the thick sauce until the assassin struck.
Several restaurants specializes in xian ji (cold salty chicken), which tastes better than it sounds. Zui ji (drunken chicken) is so called because it is marinated in Shaoxing rice wine. Shi zi tou (lion's head) is actually steamed pork meatballs. A variation on the theme is xie fen shi tou zi, which mixes crab meat with the meatballs. Crab roe dumplings are another Shanghainese luxury. Bao (claypot) dishes are braised for a long time in their own casserole dish.
Vegetarian dishes include shredded pressed bean curd, cabbage in cream sauce, men (braised) bean curd and various types of mushroom including xiang gu bai cai (mushrooms surrounded by baby bok choy). Hu pi jian jiao (tiger skin chillies) is a delicious dish of stir fried green peppers seared in a wok and served in a sweet chilli sauce. Fried pine nuts and sweet com is another common Shanghainese dish.
Dazha hairy crabs are a Shanghai speciality between October and December. They are eaten with Soy, ginger and vinegar and downed with warm Shaoxing wine. The crab is thought to increase the body's Yin, or coldness, and so rice wine is taken lukewarm to add Yang Aficionados say that the best crabs come from Yangcheng Lake and are black with hairy feet. Male and female crabs are supposed to be eaten together. They are delicious but can be fiddly to eat. The body opens via a little tab on the underside. Don't eat the gills or the stomach.
Shanghai Food Streets
For all kinds of restaurants at all kinds of budgets, Shanghai has several streets devoted almost exclusively to the art of feeding your face.
Zhapu Lu (bus 55) Close to the Pujiang Hotel, with dozens of restaurants. Even if you don't eat here,
Huanghe Lu Behind the park hotel and just off Nanjing Donglu, this is another busy street, though restaurant touts can be pushy here.
Yunnan Lu Houses stone interesting speciality restaurants. Gigantic Xiao Shaoxing, at No 118, specialises in cold boiled chicken, while Xiao Jinling, at No 28, specialises in salted duck. You can also get Beijing duck, Moslem noodles and Uyghur kebabs here.
Wujiang Lu Snack Food Street A less famous collection of cheap restaurants off Nanjing Xilu. There's nothing special here but there are lots of cheap (Chinese menu only) places.
Grand Gateway A food street of sorts, it includes branches of Wujing Tang, Ajisen Ramen, Gino Cafe, Pizza Hut and the demonically tasty Kyros Kebab. Next door is a huge collection of restaurants called the Hongji Free Plaza.
Uyghur & Muslim Food
Most of Shanghais Muslim restaurants are run by Uyghurs- Central Asians from the Xinjiang region of western China. A tasty alternative to the seafood and sweetness of Shanghainese cuisine, Xinjiang dishes consist of lots of mutton (though chicken and beef dishes are available), peppers, potatoes, spices, and delicious nan (flat bread). Shanghai's other main Muslim food is that of the Hui, represented in Shanghai by Lanzhou-style noodles. Uyghurs have largely cornered the lucrative sheet comer mutton kebab trade.
One good mason to try a Uyghur restaurant is to savour the conspicuously non-Han Chinese atmosphere. Recordings of swirling Central Asian lute music complement the Arabic calligraphy on the walls and meals are washed down with a piala (bowl) of Central Asian green tea (kok chai).
Try shashlyk (shish kebabs), suoman (delicious fried noodle squares) or laghman (long noodles). Vegetarians should ask for goshtsiz (without meat). To avoid mutton overdose, by the generally excellent chon tashlick tokhor (Chinese: da pan ji- fried chicken, peppers and potatoes). Fancier places sell fruity Xinjiang wines like Loulan (named after a ruined Silk Road city).
The main Uyghur restaurant ghetto (Xinjiang restaurants) has traditionally been Zhejiang Zhonglu, between Guangdong Lu and Yan'an Donglu, though recent deconstruction has reduced the quarter to a fraction of its former self and what remains is still under threat. Most call themselves the ‘Xinjiang Restaurant’, or Xinjiang Mussulman Ashkanas in Uyghur.
Some of favourite Uyghur restaurants in town are:
Pamir Restaurant (Pami er Canting; Fumin Lu) Below sheet level, recognisable by shouts from Uygur kebabmeisters, the Pamir does decent kebabs, nan and more, washed down by a Xinjiang beer.
Taklamakan Restaurant Authentic but sometimes glum place with good barbecued lamb (RMB22) and dapanji(RMB45), with a German and English menu. It's near the Ocean Hotel.
GrandHyatt
Italian/Japanese/International
Tel 5830 3338; Jinmao Tower, Zhongyang Dadao
If it's a special night out with a view you're after, the restaurants at the Grand Hyatt really can't be beaten. 'On 56' is a collection of four restaurants and a wine bar on the 56th floor. Cucina (mains RMB100) has wonderful Italian dishes from Campania, breads and pizzas fresh from the oven, and the open-plan kitchen lets you keep an eye on preparation. Grill (steaks RMB230-300) offers fine imported meats and seafood. The Japanese Kobachi features sushi, sashimi and yakimori. Canton, the stylish Cantonese restaurant, is the flagship and features afternoon dim sum. The breathtaking atrium is a great place to meet. Highest views come from the 86th floor Shanghainese restaurant.
The Grand Cafe (buffet RMB198-228) offers stunning views through its glass walls, and a good value buffet, which allows you to choose a main course and have it prepared fresh in the show kitchen. If you're going to spend RMB40 on a coffee in some crummy Shanghai cafe, you might as well make an afternoon of it here for the all-you-can-manage weekend high tea for RMB100.
Weekends bring a minimum charge of between RMB90 to RMBI00 to all the Hyatt's restaurants. To reserve a table by the window in any of these restaurants, book well in advance.
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