Shanghai Cuisine
Shanghai cuisine, known as Hu Cai among the Chinese, is a popular and celebrated cuisine in China with a history of more than 400 years. In fact, Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, after combining the traditional Benbang cuisine originating in Ming and Qing years with certain merits of other cuisines of the surrounding provinces, Shanghai cuisine has formed a complex flavor structure, cooking style and technique norms which stresses using condiments such as alcohol, sugar, salted meat, etc. and keeping the original flavors of the materials with features of being fresh, smooth and crispy.
Facing the East China Sea, seafood like crabs, oysters, and seaweed in Shanghai is very popular. Shanghai people eat in delicate portions (which makes them a target of mockery from other Chinese), and hence the servings are usually quite small.
The Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis), also known as big binding crab and Shanghai hairy crab, is a famous delicacy in Shanghai cuisine and is prized for the female crab's ovaries. Late autumn is the best time for eating crabs in Shanghai when the best quality Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs with green shells and white bottoms, rich in fat and ovary, are shipped to restaurants. The crab meat is believed by the Chinese to have a "cooling" (yin) effect on the body. When the crabs are properly cooked, the fragrance appeals to diners' palate. The most popular way of cooking crabs is to steam them to maintain the original flavor of the crabs, thus the meat is tender, juicy and delicious.
Beggar's Chicken is a legendary dish wrapped in lotus leaves, covered in clay and oven baked to steamy, tasty perfection (the hardened clay can be chipped away from the tender chicken), in olden times, it was baked in the ground.
Lion's Head is a casserole dish of huge steamed pork balls stewed with vegetables. The dish is named after the shape of the cabbage, which together with the meatball resembles a lion's head. There are two kinds of Lion's Head: the white (or plain), and the red (cooked with soy sauce). The plain one is usually stewed or steamed with napa cabbage, while the red one can be stewed with cabbage or cooked with bamboo shoots and certain kind of tofu. The dish originated from the region of Yangzhou and Zhenjiang in Jiangsu province. The dish became a part of Shanghai cuisine with the influx of migrants in the 19th and early 20th Century
The Xiaolongbao (literally "little basket bun"), also known as soup dumpling, is a steamed, meat-filled bun with unleavened skin from Eastern China. These buns are traditionally steamed in bamboo baskets, hence the name.
Yangzhou Fried Rice is rice stir-fried with a rich mixture of ingredients. In Yangzhou Fried Rice, Chinese barbecued pork is an essential ingredient that gives it its special sweetish flavour.
This dish does not originate from Yangzhou; instead, the recipe was invented by the Qing dynasty's Yi Bingshou (1754-1815) who was once the regional magistrate of Yangzhou, and the dish was named Yeung Chow fried rice by then.