Shanghai Cuisine
Introduction
Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, but refines those of the surrounding provinces (mostly from adjacent Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces).
Shanghai food are usually served with -
Fish, eel, crab, and chicken (raw)
Salted meats, preserved vegetables (to spice up the dish)
Sugar is commonly used in Shanghai cuisine, especially used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. People always have difficulty in identifying the usage of sugar and are often surprised when they heard of the "secret ingredient."
Some of the famous dish of Shanghai cuisine are
- Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs
- Beggar's Chicken
- Stinky Tofu
- Braised Meat Ball
Shanghainese people are known to eat very little. Hence the servings are usually quite small. A famous snack in Shanghai is the " Xiao Long Bao" (In Shanghai, they call it "sho lonpotsi" or "sho lonmeudou"). This dish is cooked in a small bamboo steamer, and is now popularized throughout China as a Dim Sum. Xiao Long Bao, are sometimes referred as a soup dumpling. This small meat-filled steamed bun is unique because it contains soup stock, adding a sensual, surprising effect when eaten.