Mad About Shanghai

Shanghai Restaurant Week (March 5-11)

DiningCity.com presents the return of Shanghai Restaurant Week this March 5-11

Online bookings go live at 10am on February 15
 

More great restaurants, more special menus, and more great deals await Shanghai food lovers this March with the city’s 5th edition of Shanghai Restaurant Week. Bookings through the online reservation system start at 10am on February 15, and – as always – tables are expected to go quickly. 

This year’s selection of restaurants is set to include Mr & Mrs Bund, el Willy, Otto e Mezzo, Madison, Moon Steakhouse, T8, Sir Elly's, Pelham’s, Grand Brassiere at the Waldorf Astoria, Table No. 1, Restaurant Martin, along with many others to be announced when bookings go live on February 15. 

Each dining experience features a 3-course dinner at 168 RMB or 248 RMB, and a 3-course lunch at 78 RMB or 118 RMB (check shanghairestaurantweek.com for menus and pricing, open February).  

“Chefs go out of their way to create special menus for Restaurant Week,” said Onno Schreurs, Managing Director for China and Hong Kong of Diningcity.com, the organizer of Restaurant Week. “The element of surprise is something that our diners appreciate – it gives the restaurants a chance to really show off.” 

 A special emphasis for this edition is food safety via traceable products. Selected restaurants of leading Shanghai Chefs such as GoGa, The Purple Onion, el Willy, Madison and 5-star Hotel Radisson Hongquan will feature traceable ingredients that can be traced back “from farm to fork”. With the "Eat Safely. Eat Traceable." program initiated by METRO China using Star Farm Products, restaurant goers can fully trust the quality of the food they are eating. Eric Gagnon, Key Account & Star Farm Manager, says "Star Farm is a unique concept, providing full transparency in the food supply chain hence providing higher food quality to the Shanghai Chefs”.

The cooperation between Shanghai Restaurantweek and METRO China will show that fine dining and traceable food go hand in hand perfectly and will set the highest standard in 2012.  

The last edition of Shanghai Restaurant Week, September 2011, featured over 80 restaurants and 12,000 reservations. Dining powerhouse T8 took the top prize as “Restaurant of the Week” as selected by diners, followed by Nougatine by Jean Georges and Grand Brasserie of the Waldorf Astoria. A successful Restaurant Week in Hong Kong and upcoming in Beijing this March have helped create an astonishing amount of dining buzz around China. 

Book early to avoid disappointment!

Date: March 5-11, 2012

Bookings Open: February 15, 10am

Reservations: shanghairestaurantweek.com

About DiningCity.com China
DiningCity started in 1998 and is the leading worldwide dining guide. Currently operating in 35 cities around the globe, DiningCity cities include Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Berlin, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Dubai, Madrid, Geneva, Rome, Vienna, New York and Singapore. In cooperation with DiningCity the event Restaurant Week was born. 
 
Visitors of the website can search for a restaurant via the following criteria: price, cuisine, location and extras. Every restaurant has its own unique profile and high quality photos, so visitors can have a good impression of the interior and the atmosphere. Menu information, a virtual tour, and online reservations make it easy for diners to choose a restaurant to fit their mood and taste. 
 
Don’t know where to go? Via the “Dining Suggestions” section the DiningCity team will help you select the perfect restaurant for your dinner, your event or your meeting. The DiningCity website distinguishes itself by the interactive opportunities and clear information, and no distracting advertisement. Hungry or just curious? Go to: www.diningcity.com/shanghai 

Chilli Crabs vs Hairy Crabs

Being a Singaporean, from the land of chilli crabs, I think I know a fair bit about these crustaceans.

In Singapore, we like them cooked in a hot and spicy manner, either in chilli sauce or black peppers. If you are a first time visitor to Singapore, it is almost a must to try out chilli or black pepper crabs. We even have a version cooked in butter and oatmeal.

These crabs, which are usually imported from Sri Lanka or Indonesia, have claws much bigger than the hairy crabs we see in Shanghai, and they are usually the best part too. Often, the outer shell is broken with a nutcracker and the crab meat is dipped with chlli sauce for an extraordinary culinary experience. All with bare hands ! Strictly no cutleries! The roe in these crabs usually come thick and hard and though these are still delicious, they are often an after thought after someone have finished off the most delicious part of the crab, the pinchers.

In Shanghai, the definition of good crabs are alot more different. The prized assets in hairy crabs are their roe, not their meat. This is because the hairy crabs are a lot smaller than those found other countries.

An average hairy crab in a reasonable restaurant in Shanghai costs about 200 RMB upwards. The best time to feast on a hairy crab is in autummn where their roes are the richest. Only those from Yang Cheng lake are considered the best and their command a big premium over those sourced from elsewhere. So much so that these crabs from Yang Cheng lake carried an RFID tag to authenticate them from less prized ones.

Autummn being almost over, quickly try one if you are in Shanghai and you have not tried one yet!

The preparation and the culinary experience is very dfferent from the Singapore version. Hairy crabs are just steamed plainly and presented straight to the table from the steamer.

Once this is presented on front of you, you are suppose to pry open the shell (delicately of course), and if you do that right, you should be able to see the roe presented in front of you. Use a small tea spoon, scoop and eat. The roe would probably last 4 scoops of the tea spoon...but it is worth every bit for the 200RMB or so.

So where is a good place to try the hairy crab?

Let me give you a random suggestion:

Fu 1088

375 Zhening Road, near Yuyuan Road,

Operating hours : 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 5:30 p.m.-11 p.m.

Tel :+86 21 5239 7878,

(Minimum spend RMB 300 per person)

Oh, by the way, do you know there vending machines in China selling hairy crabs too - guaranteed to alive when dispensed.

Japanese Food in Shanghai

I have always like Japanese food. One of my favorite is the dish below. Salmon, roe, rice and a bit of soy sauce. Simple, healthy and a good mix of carbo and protein.

Oh, on the subject of Japanese food, if you are into Yakitori (Japanese BBQ)  try this on near ZhongShan Park Metro:

鸟安日本料理 (Toriyasu)

890 Changning Road

ZhongShan Park Metro, Exit 3

Tel : +86 21 5241 1677

Opening hours : 11.00 am to 2.45 pm and 6 pm to midnight.

I did not take any pics from there but I went there twice on the recommendations from Candy (her favorite lunch spot). The food served is pretty authenic and valuable for money. Not a lot of frills but cosy enough.

Bello'co

Bello' Co is a mixture of cocktail bar, cafe, lunch bistro, fine dining establishment, club and lounge. If you like Spanish and Japanese Tapas and cocktails, this is the place to go !

Great place to go if your friends and you are decided on whether to go to a bar, cafe or restaurant!

Address: 848-850 XinZha Rd 

Tel: 3256-1119

Operating Hours:Daily 10:00am -01:00 pm

Website: www.belloco.com

Tian Zi Fang Center @ Tai Kang Road (Part 2)

And so we walk through the maze and found a cosy cafe we like:

 

 

Pictures of Shanghai Tang

 

  

The First Shanghai Tang Cafe in Shanghai Xin Tian Di

JTstation.info - Your New Shanghai Info Portal

A new free events listing classifieds service has started up in Shanghai called JTstation.info (funnily enough - thats the website too).

On JTstation.info you can interact in 1 of 2 ways:

1. You can post listings for events or promoions,
2. You can view listings of events and promotions.

It is free to join, free use and free to list!

I just found that we can have dim sum at Radisson New World (the UFO building) on Nanjing Rd for 88RMB per person from 8am - 2.30pm.

Some of the things you can do on the site to make it pretty user friendly include:

• Find special offers for wining and dining.
• Setup reservations to accept ticket/seat registration, collect user data and generate printable (downloadable) reports.
• Set reminders for themselves about a specific event which they are interested in.
• Subscribe to our email list to receive the latest/newest events.
• Download events in different formats of your choice.
• No matter which industries you are in, you can find a calendar and category.

So have a look and give it a go - good work boys and girls.

Shanghai - A Restaurateur's Dream

Owning a restaurant in Shanghai (at least the right part of Shanghai) must be a dream come true, cheap food, cheap labour and 17 million customers.

Virtually every night we go out to a decent restaurant (not high end and definately not street food) there is a queue for a table.

Last night we ventured into Lippo Plaza on Huaihai Rd, this is a great location as its packed with restaurants. We went to the top floor where Hot Pot King and Planet Shanghai are. Both restaurants have a seating capacity of over 100, both restaurants had a queue of over 20 people at 8pm (well past the Chinese 6pm peak).

We took our number and sat and waited for 15 minutes before we could go and enjoy our Hot Pot King feast!

So if you are looking for a good business in Shanghai - look at opening a restaurant - people queue up to spend their money.

Image: Queue at Planet Shanghai last night.

Hot Pot on Brad's Birthday

Sabrina just took me out for dinner for my Birthday (yes, today) to our favorite hot place - Hot Pot King in Lippo Plaza on Huaihai Rd. As usually the food was fantastic.

As we don't eat pork, we had a problem there on our first visit where they topped up our fish stock soup with pork. After we caused a scene, a nice young waitress sorted it all out for us. Everytime we have been there since, maybe 4 or 5 times, she comes running over to us and snatches the menu off whichever waiter or waitress that is serving us, she has a chat with us and tells all the other staff around that we are regular customers and that we don't eat pork, so don't use any pork stock.

It makes a nice change to recieve this thoughtful and considerate service.  If you like hotpot, its a great place to head to. Its on the third floor of Lippo Plaza, 222 Huaihai Road.

I am full of hotpot, dragon prawns and beer right now and am ready for a good night sleep.