Apparently the Din Tai Fung in Hong Kong is not very good. I’ve got no idea if this is true or not because I’ve never been (what with it being on the dark side and everything) but my friend C.L. was quite vehement about this and also about the sorts of terrible action she would take if we didn’t make a detour to one of the Shanghai outlets of this Taiwanese chain while we were there. So, while in Xintiandi, the beautifully and tastefully restored shopping area comprising of traditional shikumen or stone gate houses, we indulged in some Shanghainese dumplings. The lengthy queue suggested that the dumplings were good and indeed, they were - both the pork ones, and the scallop and crab ones. As a personal aside, I am delighted to report that my Shanghainese dumpling eating technique has come on leaps and bounds since my first trip to Crystal Jade and I no longer squirt juice at my fellow diners or down my front.
In addition to the traditional dumplings which we ordered, the cold appetiser of deep-fried tofu with oyster sauce and black fungus was tasty - although it does give you a jekyll and hyde moment with one side of you recognising that with all that oil the dish is a cardiac arrest waiting to happen and the other being unable to help eating more of that sponge-like tofu filled with the sweet sauce, and unfortunately for my long-term health, the more gluttonous side of me won. By comparison the bland and boring steamed vegetable buns were a serious disappointment.
Shanghai appeared to be in the throws of hairy crab obsession and so we felt it only right to indulge in a bit of soft beancurd with hairy crab action. According to Wiki, hairy crab is thought by Chinese people to have a “a "cooling" (yin) effect on the body” but I can’t say I thought hairy crab that much to write home about. The dish was tasty but the crab not especially noticeable. Apparently hairy crabs famously come from Yangcheng Lake, a freshwater lake about 3km from the town of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province but Wiki suggests that in reality the Chinese hairy crabs in that lake died out in the 1990s and the only hairy crabs there now are the Japanese variant which were introduced in 2000. However, the original Chinese hairy crabs have had a bit of a migratory streak and have been seen by the River Thames and the River Hudson (where they are not popular because they destroy river banks and kill off other types of crab…).
After an afternoon of hardcore shopping, we were in need of another good meal by 7pm and chose to head to Fu 1088, a restored Spanish-style villa made up of lots of individual dining rooms. The décor is quirky, deliberately stylised to look old and slightly musty, but that is all rather cool in a city of crazy modern skyscrapers and uber-trendy bars. And, while the décor was simple, the food was anything but. The presentation was phenomenal. For example, the simple steamed egg white with hairy crab meat came presented in an egg shell with the hairy crab replacing the yolk. The deep-fried mandarin fish with orange sauce was also beautifully presented - the meat of the fish had been broken up before deep-frying and so it had the most amazing texture, almost hedgehog like. The orange sauce was really sweet but not too gloopy, and the accompanying winter melon balls countered any excessive sweetness. One of my favourites was the drunken chicken which was served cold with a mound of ice on top - stunning and effective. Wiki claims that drunken chicken is prepared using the following method: “the whole chicken is first steamed then chopped up into pieces appropriately sized for picking up by chopsticks. The steamed meat, along with its juice, is cooked with scallions, ginger and salt. After the chicken is cooked it is marinated in Chinese liquor, sherry or hard liquor, like whiskey, overnight in the refrigerator.” The slow baked beef rib with crispy garlic was also really flavoursome, as was the delightful minced pigeon with pine nuts served in pastry pockets.
Already full by this point, TT.L. persuaded us to share some puddings and I have to say that that was a very good call. I’m not normally a fan of Chinese deserts but these were vying for the best dish title. We started with the subtle Black Sesame Tiramisu - delicious but if being a bit pedantic about these things, a slightly misleading title in that it consisted only of mascapone combined with black sesame… Still, while it was smooth and flavoursome, it was outdone by the homemade raisin ice cream with rum. In turn, that was outdone by the piece de la résistance: oriental herb infused “Chuan Bei Pi Pa” pudding served with white chrysanthemum lime sorbet. It was visually stunning and absolutely delicious. My “I’ll only have a small spoonful to try it” turned into a food battle with C.L. and TT.L!
Having tested one too many of the mojitos available in the bars on the Bund, we needed a good brunch to aid the hangover recovery process. We decided on Jean-Georges on the Bund. I’d been to the one in Trump Towers in New York and had very high expectations.
To be honest, the Jean-Georges in Shanghai is really a restaurant to go to at night. The venue is massive and with the large bar area completely empty at brunch, the deliberately dark décor was a bit claustrophobic. Having said that, there were plenty of diners and so once you were in the actual restaurant it was fine. Most of the tables have a view across to Pudong which is an added bonus both at lunch and in the evening (although on the day we visited the haze was so bad that Pudong was barely visible). The brunch menu is good value (although for some reason the fruit juices were rather extortionate) and as an alternative you could have a set three course lunch menu. I opted for the three courses and started with an excellent dish of smoked salmon with potato-horseradish galletes and crème fraîche. The main course of sea bass with creamy parsnip and fragrant coconut juice was Thai-influenced and delightfully sweet (although some male diners may have felt a little aggrieved at the portion size). As the pudding, we were persuaded by the waitress to try the chocolate pudding on the grounds that was a “Jean-Georges speciality”. We were expecting great things. Too much build-up. Frankly, none of us were quite sure what made it special - it was a chocolate sponge cake that let out a flow of chocolate gunge when attacked with a fork - well, wow, how crazy! - both Delia and Nigella offer recipes that produce a similar pudding without that much effort… Anyway, the meal was pretty good for the cost and the smoked salmon was definite the best of the three. This rather confirms what my friend K.W. said about her visit which was that the starters were by far the best course and that the mains weren’t particularly inspired. However, it would be interesting to try it at night when the atmosphere might make up for any deficit in food quality...
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