Out and about – Shanghai

High-speed train

After Hong Kong and Beijing, the next stop on my Asia adventure was Shanghai…via bullet train, which traveled at oh about 300 km/hour (~186 miles/hour). It was a smooth, but long ride as it still took about five hours. 

Shrimp wonton soup, Din Tai Fung

I know you’ll probably be shocked to hear that my first meal in Shanghai was not Chinese food! It was fairly late by the time we arrived in Shanghai and checked in to our hotel, so we ended up at M on the Bund, which is “modern European”. It is commonly written up in travel guide books. We sat outside and had a great view of the Shanghai skyline. It was also nice to drink some decent wine…I’m no wine snob but the Chinese are not known for their wine. We really confused the server with our order as I ordered three small plates (for sharing) instead of an entree. 

The next day, after a very interesting visit to EMC^2, we went to Din Tai Fung for lunch. I was excited to go back and eat more delicious soup dumplings. Our table did a very good job with the dumplings. My favorite was the pork, the fish came in second, and surprisingly, the vegetable was my least favorite. I also really enjoyed the shrimp wonton soup. In addition to all that, we started the meal with cucumbers, a noodle-thing with tofu (I’m pretty sure that’s not what it’s called on the menu), cabbage with bacon, pea greens (or maybe spinach), and shrimp fried rice. Full belly!

Soup dumplings, Din Tai Fung

That evening we went to dinner at Lost Heaven, which specializes in Yunnan food. The restaurant was dark, and the food was spicy. We had a vegetable cake with tomatoes, noodles with cilantro (we were calling it cilantro spaghetti), kung pao chicken, beef, cauliflower, vegetable fried rice, and shrimp with a spicy tomato sauce. I think the most amusing part of this meal was the chili pepper eating contest that happened, which was subsequently followed by a lot of sweating, drinking, and cursing. Also, peanuts are difficult to eat with chopsticks…you heard it here first. After dinner we had drinks on the roofdeck of Mr. and Mrs. Bund (another fantastic view of the skyline).

Kung pao chicken, Lost Heaven

Saturday afternoon was the start of our “DIY”, choose your own adventure time. Apparently for me, DIY = street food! Lucky for me I was with someone who knew where to go, otherwise I probably would have avoided the street food. We ate at a place that actually had some seating inside, but the dumplings were made outside. Shrimp and pork soup dumplings, and again, the pork were my favorite. Apparently it is acceptable to slurp the soup when you eat street soup dumplings. I was glad that I got to walk around some of the very local neighborhoods, which are slowly disappearing and being replaced by high-rises. After walking and shopping, we stopped for an afternoon spritz (aperol > campari) and snack at Uva Cafe. 

Shrimp with tomato sauce, Lost Heaven

Shanghai skyline, Mr. and Mrs. Bund

For dinner that evening we found ourselves at Sichuan Citizen, and ordered wayyy too much food. We had pea greens, cold noodles, spicy tofu, eggs and tomato, DIY pork dumplings, and a whole fried fish with pine nuts. Most of it ended up packed up in takeaway containers, though we did do a good job with the fish which was delicious. I also really loved the spicy tofu, the eggs and tomato, and…well who am I kidding, I liked it all! Toward the end of the meal I just happened to notice that pretty much everyone in the restaurant was drinking green drinks in martini glasses. And somehow I remembered that “basil drop drinks” was on a list of places to go that I had saved on my phone (someone I met randomly had given me some recommendations before I left). Turns out, this was the place with the basil drop drinks, and I’m so glad that we decided to try them. We even went back the next night to have them again.

Local neighborhood

My last meal in Shanghai was at Xibo, which is Xinjiang food. Apparently a lot of Muslims eat this type of food, and this restaurant was also on the list of places on my phone. We ordered a bottle of wine and watched the serve struggle to open it…she had no clue how to use the wine opener. It was amusing and terrible at the same time. We did a better job with ordering this time, as in we didn’t overorder. We had homemade bread, spicy meatball soup, shrimp with tomato and basil, and lamb shank. The lamb shank was not as tender and fall-off-the-bone as we wanted it to be, but the shrimp was delish.

Street soup dumplings

The service in Shanghai is definitely not what I am used to in this country. Getting someone’s attention to place an order or request the bill takes a lot of eye contact, hand waving, and gesturing. And most of the time this happened when there was plenty of staff and the restaurant wasn’t busy.

While I didn’t do a very good job of taking photos during my DIY time, I was very glad that I got to try some different regional cuisines while in Shanghai. I was also lucky to have my very own personal tour guide. And this is where I said au revoir to China…next stop Korea!

The rundown
M on the Bund
Bund 5, 7/F (corner of Guangdong Lu)

Din Tai Fung
Several locations

China Art Museum

Lost Heaven
Several locations

Mr. and Mrs. Bund
Bund 18, 6/F, 18 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Nanjing Dong Lu

Uva Cafe
1187 Beijing Xi Lu, near Shanghai Bei Lu

Sichuan Citizen
30(D) Donghu Lu, near Huaihai Lu

Xibo
83 Changshu Lu, 3/F