Shanghai

I was in Shanghai for work last April. It was so cold - about 10 Degrees, with rain and wind blowing. Luckily, I was mostly indoors for the tradeshow, so only feel the cold while waiting for our driver to bring us around.


Shanghai is a metropolitan city. It's not the same with Beijing which is more cultural and more chistorical. I didn't see much of Shanghai due to hectic schedule. But the thing I remebered most about Shanghai is the food. Hmmm...it seems that my entries lately is centred more around food...anyway. I managed to sample lovely Xinjiang musim cuisine which is easy to find in Shanghai. Just look for the food signage with Mosque logo and "Halal" and InsyaAllah you'll be greeted with Chinese men wearing ketayap.


The food is cheap and delicious, and most importantly, fresh. They favour beef and lamb in their dishes, and lots of spices. Its very hearty and fullfilling. We went to three different types of Xinjiang restaurant - posh steamboat restaurant, roadside shop and another posh restaurant.


Eatery 1: Xinjiang steamboat restaurant



Enjoying steamboat on a rainy night - hot soup with thinly sliced beef, a garden of vegetables - including lotus root, green veggies, mushrooms, potato, etc


Eatery 2: Roadside shop

We ordered stir fry beef with a type of long beans, then beef with potates - taste similiar like padprik but more spicy


My menu: freshly made noodles which tasted like pasta al dente with beef and with a type of long beans - whihc tasted sweet and something like asparagus. Due to language limitation, we'll never know what it is!

The propreitor of the shop with his family

Me and Siti whose living in Shanghai and spoke basic Mandarin but enough to get by with ordering food! She told me once she had tried to ask for a an extra plate from the shop and pointed to the plate in the menu and the waiter brought her a plate of dish! Talk about miscommunication...

Eatery 3: Posh restaurant

Stir fry chicken with lots of spices, one of it looks like ketumbar but has a very stinging and numbing effect to the tongue...not really pleasant but the chicken was good!

Lamb with long beans - another spicy dish but this one was overtly salty. At first we thought that the dish was intentionally salty but Siti confirmed that normally it wasn't so...

And my verdict? Eatry 2: Roadside shop - even though very humble looking but it was unpretentious with food for real people. My favourite dish of all was the freshly made noodles with toppings of beef and type of long beans/asparagus like. I think I can try to make the dish out of pasta noodles but it won't be the same as the freshly made noodles.....