Shanghai Surprise Pt. 5

Some cities are definitely food cities. New York. Los Angeles. San Francisco. Some cities...well...aren't: Boston. Indianapolis. Washington D.C.

Shanghai is a food city.

In fact, from a tourist perspective, I can understand how easy it must be for people to think of Shanghai as all shopping and food since in many of the commercial districts (and even the not-so-commercial districts), there is a preponderance of shops and restaurants on every block, in every alley.

Personally, I like food but I've never considered myself much of a "food person" but this trip might have changed that. I've eaten incredibly well on this whole trip which isn't to say I've eaten glamorous, expensive food. It just means that almost everything I've had to eat has been kick ass good. It's helped that I've had folks like Dana and Gary to take me around to local spots and Gary in particular knows what to order. I haven't had this much fun eating in ages, especially because Shanghai cuisine is really heavy on buns - steamed, baked, fried, etc., all of which are sold on the street or in little hole in the wall spots. Mmmmmm...

The best part, at least from a visitor's perspective, is that food here is unfathomably cheap, probably about 30-40% of what you'd pay for in the States. For example, on one of my first nights here, we ordered enough food to easily feed 9-10 people all for the sum of Y260. Which, at a Y8=$1 rate means that it costs us a little over $30. Of course, there are expensive restaurants here, but even the nicer meals I've had haven't cost more than $15 for two.

Shanghai cuisine is distinctly different from the Chinese food most Americans are used to. U.S. Chinese eateries tend to be dominated by Cantonese cuisine, followed by Szechuan and Hunan. Oddly, Shanghai has never been particularly big in the States with the exception of those small steamed dumplings that have become a ubiquitous staple in many Chinese restaurants regardless of region. The main difference with Shanghai food is that it's very oily. Even the soups are coated with a layer of oil and this can be a little off-putting to those trying to cut down on their oil and fat intake. At the same time though, one thing you notice about Chinese in Shanghai - there's almost no visibly overweight people...that's not to say they're necessarily healthier than Americans, but they also consume less butter and sugar despite the increased use of oil. After a while, you sort of just roll with the fact that Shanghai cuisine tends to be oily and salty because, well, oily and salty tastes good :)

What I appreciate about Shanghai (like I do in all cities) is how many kinds of food you can buy off the street. The big thing is small grills with people cooking up pork and squid on skewers - you can find these folks everywhere. In Pudong, a long city block from the subway station, there's a makeshift noodle stand that has baskets of ingredients laid out. You choose what you want and then they cook up whatever you want. When I started raining one night, they set up the same operation under a big tarp while costumers dropped by in the freezing cold to get a late night noodle fix.