We watched on a kitchen cam as the handler lopped off the head with a pair of jumbo scissors, sparking its writhing death throes, before it lay still. Shortly thereafter, a beaming Mr. Hu emerged from the kitchen bearing a glass with the cobra head and another containing its crimson blood. He stated that the blood would need to age in liquor for five days before it was ready to be drunk. Our pre-dinner show had concluded. more ›

Master of Wine Jeannie Cho Lee gives us her take on what wines will best complement traditional Chinese fare during the upcoming holidays. more ›

Conan O'Brien salutes the Yankees-hatted Chinese food delivery men of New York City for a comedy bit, by experiencing a hectic day of running around with hot orders of sweet and sour soup and chicken fried rice. Along the way, he deals with rude customers, spilled drinks, and other assorted hi-jinx. more ›

The diet of one a 16-year-old performer at Shanghai Circus World is photographed and listed out in the new book What I Eat, a tome chronicling interesting people and... what they happen to eat. more ›

Want to suck on some succulent xiaolongbao, but don't know where to go besides the tourist trap of Yu Yuan or Din Tai Fung (which really isn't actually Shanghainese)? All through this week, Shanghaiist has got your back. We've checked out as many xiaolongbao places as our stomachs can bear, from the highest rated locations on Dianping to places we've heard of through word-of-mouth, and now we're giving you the down low on what to expect. Track all the places we try here, and feel free to give suggestions of other great XLB destinations in comments! more ›

It's November, so the season of Da Zha Xie is almost over. It's too bad we didn't catch this video, which may be the most expensive production of a guide to Hairy Crab I've ever seen. They get into the history of its name, the best types of crab to eat, and - most importantly - how to eat it. All with numerous shots of noble fishermen casting nets and pretty girls expertly taking their specimens apart. With English subtitles. more ›

Recent pictures on the MOP forums have shown images of sharks, mouths gaping open, butchered and put on sale at undisclosed Wal-Mart locations here in China. Nobody says what city they're in, but a disproportionate amount of the posts are found in Shanghai forums. Does that mean this Wal-Mart is somewhere in Shanghai? Yao Ming would not approve. more ›

Restaurant proprietor Cotton Ding has done such a good job with her establishments that people were inspired to document her life and offer her awards for having the best personality in F&B. So when she announced she would be opening a restaurant, showcasing authentic versions of her local cuisine (Hunan), I had to check it out. more ›

One of the Shanghaiist staff's favorite hang outs, Yunnan restaurant Southern Barbarian, is opening its second location in Lujiazui this week and we went there to check out the menu. In short: same great food, same insane beer menu, fancier digs. more ›

Anyone who's spent any long amount of time doing Chinese cooking has probably realized that a good portion of recipes really involve doing the two following things: 1) getting a bunch of ingredients, 2) throwing them into a wok. Since it's such a simple process, several student engineers decided to automate it. more ›

The Shanghai Tang Cafe opened a few weeks ago and, curious about the thought of a store opening their own restaurant (though, yes, I know, lots of "lifestyle pimping" stores do it), I went to check it out. Turns out the eatery is exactly like Shanghai Tang proper: expensive traditional Chinese dishes with twists(!) that ranged from nicely thought out to confusingly off. more ›

Whether you were a Westerner living in the International Settlement or the French Concession or a well-heeled local, if you went out for a big Chinese dinner in the 1930's, you probably headed for Sun Ya. Sun Ya, now known as Xinya, is a mammoth four-floor establishment which served the best in Cantonese cuisine. Although the quality of the food has suffered in the intervening years, Xinya remains a popular establishment for large gatherings, especially wedding parties. The seafood "hot pot" meals and the "dim sum" are still worth a visit, as is the fact that Sun Ya/Xinya is somewhat of a culinary shrine. Because Shanghai had for so long been the primary point of contact with China for resident and visiting Westerners, and because Sun Ya was the restaurant they were most likely to know, it played a large part in establishing expectations for Cantonese food throughout the Western world. more ›

I have a lot of friends back in New York who've never been to China, but if they were coming here and I gave them any one of the food recommendations Global Times has so (un)helpfully listed for "foreign visitors," they'd cock an eyebrow, mutter something impolite and go ask someone else. Honestly, kung pao chicken? Wontons? DUMPLINGS?! The whole point of recommending something is to give someone the chance to try something they haven't before. Rather than just rip to shreds this laughable article, however, I've had a quick brainstorming session with other China hands and come up with eight better recommendations. more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here). more ›

Shanghai has the definitive brunch culture, with a plethora of Sunday brunch deals at a variety of price ranges and always one taxi ride away. Hankering for some all-you-can-eat dim sum this past Sunday, we headed to EEST. Situated on the fifth floor inside the Westin Hotel, EEST Crystal Garden has their three kitchens -- Chinese, Japanese, and Thai -- intermix and intermingle to create a five-star feast in your mouth. Over three hundred dishes to choose from, for 98RMB (plus 15% service fee). more ›

China spends up to 200 billion yuan a year on public wining and dining, a fat cat feast that may soon see its end if one Chinese legislator gets his way. National People's Congress delegate Zhao Linzhong wants to make lavish banquets a crime, calling them a "squandering of public funds" and "a waste of social assets." Not only that, it's incredibly unhealthy for the poor officials who have to drink and eat themselves to near bursting every time something important happens. We say huzzah and hurray to any attempt to pass this new law. If Zhongnanhai thinks that four dishes and a soup are good enough for President Obama, there's no reason why any underlings should feel differently. more ›

In our ongoing Threesday feature, Shanghaiist takes the time to count out three of well... whatever catches their fancy that week. And this week there happens to be two! We already gave you some recommendations for Shanghai-themed costumes and now we're taking a break from all the Halloweeny stuff to talk about FOOD! more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here). more ›

More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here). more ›

Welcome to the inaugural episode of Chinese Soundbites, a podcast series brought to you by ChinesePod and Shanghaiist. Every week we'll be bringing you topics and words pulled straight from the headlines, in Mandarin Chinese. more ›

Looks like Jennifer 8. Lee of the New York Times is up to her old tricks again, highlighting the ostensibly huge gulf between what goes for Chinese food in the States and the kind that Chinese people actually eat. This time around, it's the fortune cookie that gets the attention. Check out this clip of folks here in China getting introduced to fortune cookies for the first time; read Lee's article here. more ›

It wasn't until we read this interview in Salon with Jennifer 8. Lee (and that's not a typo, folks), New York Times journalist and author of the book The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, that we suddenly realized that it has been forever since we've had beef with broccoli or General Tso's chicken. We think it's because we haven't made room in our ordering agenda given the unbelievable amount of variety and selection in Shanghai in terms of Chinese food. The interview definitely wants to make us read the book as a way to cross-check and validate our experiences as a Chinese-American raised on American-Chinese food (go Panda Express!). more ›

Closing Dish: Cafe Transat fought the good fight with its relaxing terrace and inviting happy hours. Unfortunately, it appears that not even a Shanghaiist endorsement was enough for it to sustain the business that this high-rent district demands. We were taking a break at Bellagio on Taicang Lu over the weekend when we noticed that Cafe Transat across the street had closed shop (picture of the storefront on the left). According to the Bellagio staff, the restaurant stopped operating around two weeks ago. more ›

Five reasons we won't be rushing back to Yeeha Texas BBQ & Sports Bar more ›

Last week, the always entertaining People's Daily website ran a series of photographs under the headline "Yao Restaurant opens in Shanghai." The first Yao Restaurant opened in Houston, Texas, in 2005 -- Yao Ming's parents are part owners. The People's Daily headline surprised us. We hadn't heard anything about Yao opening up a place in Shanghai. more ›