As much as I love Cantonese food, Shanghainese food is one of my top weaknesses. I grew up eating my grandmother's cooking that she cooked when she was a young girl in Shanghai and everytime I go to Shanghai, I really cannot get enough.
Shanghainese cuisine is very different from Cantonese. Shanghainese food refines food from its surrounding provinces like Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Its flavors are heavier (it is in Northern China so has to keep you warm). They feature a lot of preserved vegetables, fish and meats. A lot of its meat dishes feature pork (marinated pork belly, steamed pork dumpling, pork meatballs) but also chicken, e.g. "Beggar's Chicken" which is wrapped in lotus leaves, covered in clay and oven-fired.
The cuisine also bases a lot on sauces, sugar, and alcohol (rice wine) for seafood (like eel and crab) but also chicken that are "drunken" and are steamed.
Tonight, I had cravings for good, and hot Shanghainese food and I knew where to go: Wu Yueng Chun Shanghai Restaurant (滬揚川上海料理), a small, cheap and popular restaurant in the city centre - just what I needed.
Unfortunately, I couldn't order everything from the menu (as much as I was tempted to) but I think we ordered a good amount! Here's a brief glimpse of the food.
Sour Chili soup (with tofu, egg, mushrooms, pork skin, pork stomach)
Stir-fried rice cake with pork and cabbage (炒年糕)
Fried pork chop with spiced salt and sweet/sour sauce
Braised fish tails in dark soya sauce
Steamed pork dumpling - Xiaolong bao (小籠包)
This just makes me miss Shanghai even more! But good to know I can always grab a bite down the road.
Wu Yueng Chun Shanghai Restaurant (滬揚川上海料理 )
G/F, 18 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2575 4805
Subway station: Causeway Bay
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