Shanghaiist

Dish of the Day: Fish head @ Xiang Quan Xiangcun

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-25T18:37:00+07:00

Where we grew up in the US, fish head was a dish traditionally served to the ocean's bottom feeders after a fisherman had finished cleaning his/her catch. So upon arriving in Shanghai, we were surprised to find one eye-balling us every time we opened a menu, and yearned to discover what we'd been missing all those years. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Dish of the Day: Mantis shrimp @ Yunzhong Restaurant

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-23T16:00:00+07:00

Amidst too many Shanghai dives offering an overpriced array of dismal seafood - flaccid geoduck clams, that grouper that's been captive so long it's sprouting a beard - there stands a beacon of hope: the Tongchuan Road Seafood Market. Journey here and save cash on squirtingly-fresh bivalves, rainbow-hued lobsters, and perhaps the best bang for your buck, mantis shrimp. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Off the Beaten Palate: Century eggs

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-20T14:25:00+07:00

You wouldn't think something as ordinary as an egg would repel so many expat eaters. However, in China, egg options can be far from ordinary with eggs stewed in schoolboy urine, eggs that bounce like squash balls, and of course, century eggs. Though probably the least odd of China's odd egg roster, the century egg gained notoriety last year when a CNNGo reporter dubbed it "the most revolting food he'd ever had," enraging century egg producers and fanatics alike. We hoped to discover whether the century egg was a rightfully-deemed "bad egg" or conversely, a love we just hadn't hatched yet. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Brioche Dorée opens its oven doors in the Former French Concession

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-16T21:30:00+07:00

Global bakery chain and Group Le Duff's most successful venture, Brioche Dorée, has touched down in the French Concession, promising baguettes and pastries freshly-crafted on-site from top-shelf French and Chinese ingredients. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Dish of the Day: Mangosteen @ any fruit stand

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-15T16:05:00+07:00

Mangosteen season is upon us, and for those of you who aren't familiar with mangosteens, your deprivation of one of the world's greatest eats ends here. A tangerine-sized reddish-purple fruit resembling a small eggplant, the mangosteen grows on an evergreen tree native to Indonesia and Malaysia but can be found throughout Southeast Asia. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Dish of the Day: Drunken pigeon @ Ye Shanghai

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-12T08:00:00+07:00

Every so often, as a voracious meat-eater in Shanghai, you run into what we call the "poultry dilemma": when chicken has become too tame for your daredevil taste buds but you don't want to deal with the grease geyser inherent to duck or goose. Luckily for our kind, there's pigeon, a bird that's gamey enough to keep things interesting, and succulent enough to satisfy without making your stomach feel like it ingested a wrecking ball. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

The Funky Chicken: Laris' rotisserie joint hits Pudong

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-10T22:11:00+07:00

Now with the newly opened Pudong branch of The Funky Chicken, homesick expats on both sides of the Huangpu can sate their longing for rotisserie chicken. The chickens themselves are actually raised in China, but these are no gangly Chinese cluckers, but rather the busty, double-wide, sumo wrestlers of the poultry kingdom that used to grace our Western family tables. So with the urge to rekindle the childhood joy of tearing into that crackling skin of our Sunday roast welling up, we hailed a cab to Pudong. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

The Geisha: Spring menu fails to "spring" fusion scene forward

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-09T22:05:00+07:00

Spring is in the air, and since we're suckers for seasonal tasting menus, we raided almost every establishment for any spring offerings we could get our jaws around, including the Geisha. We'll admit, being curmudgeons when it comes to fusion concepts, we were a bit skeptical of the Geisha's Japanese-Western theme. Past East-meets-West dining experiences had convinced us that fusion concepts' sole purpose is to suck out all elements that make either cuisine great and replace them with bland and/or discordant flavor pairings. Hopefully, Geisha's spring menu would prove itself that token outlier. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Dish of the Day: Braised pork belly @ Lu Bo Lang

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-04T17:25:00+07:00

The presentation is simply arousing, with a hulking brown headquarters of pork roofed with fat and encircled by bok choy, which almost appear to be suckling it as if even vegetables can't resist its lusciousness. The waitress sliced through the pork as easily as cheese cake, and we dug in, upon which our stomachs basically came. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Sabatini Ristorante Italiano: Transcends Shanghai's Western dining sphere

Benjamin Cost — 2012-05-03T23:40:00+07:00

Sabatini Ristorante Italiano opened this past November to an overwhelmingly positive reception, with many dubbing it their new favorite Italian restaurant, and not just in Shanghai. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Government officials: Lipton not to blame for pesticides, it's the wind stupid!

Kenneth Tan — 2012-04-30T16:15:25+07:00

In response to the recent announcement by Greenpeace that banned pesticides have been found in Lipton as well as domestic tea brands in China, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health have come out to say that residues of illegal pesticides found on the tea was due to wind blowing it over from other crops. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Off the Beaten Palate: Jellyfish

Shanghaiist — 2012-04-27T22:04:00+07:00

Our curious cravings had towed us back out to sea, this time in search of jellyfish, yet another textural anomaly in the realm of bird's nest, shark's fin, and sea cucumber. Though many might deem jellyfish a relatively tame exotic eat as it's so widely available, we feel obligated to mention any creature that when washed up on the beach, looks like the gloppy remains of a blown-up alien. And in light of the recent Shanghai ban on pickled foodstuffs, we wanted to try this delicacy before it becomes increasingly "off the beaten menu." [ more › ]

Dish of the Day: Pork bone @ Hei Tu Di

Shanghaiist — 2012-04-24T18:08:00+07:00

We had originally come to Hei Tu Di in search of dumplings (of which the menu offers a wide selection) but our inner-caveman tossed that plan aside upon spying "pork bone" on the menu (only 12RMB per bone!). [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Centipedes, scorpions, and tarantulas! Oh my!

Shanghaiist — 2012-04-23T11:19:00+07:00

Upon hitting a certain section of the street, our nostrils were accosted by the familiar scent of fried must, and we turned to the stand responsible: a cart of tarantulas, big black scorpions, green centipedes with red heads, and other exterminator's night terrors, all speared on sticks. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist

Dish of the Day: Chicken soup @ Kung Fu

Shanghaiist — 2012-04-18T08:00:00+07:00

Many sites have already provided the skinny on Kung Fu's offerings, but we'd like to revisit arguably their tastiest item, the chicken soup; listed as #3 on the menu (24.50RMB, add 5.50 for broccoli). Sure, with its assortment of bones and gnarled foot jutting up from the brothy mire, the chicken soup looks like the watery grave of a ship of poultry. But, after ripping into the fleshy drumstick bobbing in the middle, we were immediately won over, and proceeded to ravenously dissect each morsel. [ more › ] ]]> Follow @shanghaiist