The Last of Shanghai

Back in Seattleland from Shanghai and Manila and realized how extremely un-updated I am (partly because Manila was a whirlwind of dinners/lunches/meriendas with friends, family and family friends) on this blog! So, here you go--this is my post about my last day in Shanghai.

For about a month, I was interning in a hotel in Shanghai as part of the HR department, where I hung out with front desk trainees, listened to orientations, made tests, and helped them practice their English...among other things. Normally, my day started at around 6:50 where I woke up, left at 7:40 to take the subway, started work at 9, and finished at around 5:30 (getting back home at 7). This schedule wasn't too bad, but left me little time for foodventuring. On my last day of work however, I got out at exactly 12 noon and went on a little adventure--the last of Shanghai and walked/took the subway for around 5 hours. Exploring--it is fun. :)

East to West Nanjing Road: convenient and right at a subway stop! Walked around at the hottest part of the day for a while, and ate some food (plum juice, and something that I THINK was takoyaki but with no octopus or something--still not sure) off the side streets that were on the periphery of the main streets. This road has a lot of shops, malls, food stalls, and best of all--no cars on the main part of it, because it was a walking street.

There were a LOT of food stores like this on the road, where there would be random stalls inside that sold specialty food and snacks--dried meat, candy, dried fish, duck tongue, Japanese snacks, gelatin...etc. It was fun to go into the stores with the crowds of people and look at what the rest of China was eating.

Yu Yuan: Imperial garden in the past that has been made nicer (and turned into a tourist attraction) by the Chinese government. It's pretty though, and there are a lot of small shops (selling things like paper cuttings, shoes, belts, cellphone charms, caricatures, etc.) around, which I'm guessing were old residences or something like that. It's a very touristy area, with A LOT of tourists (evidenced by the Starbucks and McDonalds that was in there), but it was still worth going to I thought.

THE BEST (original) XIAOLONGBAO: Perfect ending to my Shanghai trip--xiaolongbao, as Shanghai is known for this delicious and delectable delicacy. Yu Yuan is also known for this xiaolongbao place, located somewhere along its winding alleyways. This place, which is called Nanxiang (I think...) was awarded many awards for traditionalism and being a cultural landmark, or something like that. Well yes, Din Tai Fung is good. But that is Taiwanese--this place that I went to (as did Bourdain on his show according to my mom) is probably truer to the Chinese xiaolongbao experience.

Here is the front of the store--they have a restaurant upstairs, but I waited in line with the rest of the Chinese people (another piece of evidence that proves its authenticity)! By the way--they only sell one kind of xiaolongbao in the line.

Front of the line: note the baskets upon baskets of freshly steamed xialongbao (although I'm sure some are empty). Look at the full basket beside the lady--THEY GIVE YOU THE WHOLE THING (all dumplings in basket).

The line and my reward: My 20RMB (about $3) serving of 16 delicious xiaolongbao, as a reward for around 20 minutes in line. SO WORTH IT. Dumplings had pretty thick skin, but the meat on the inside was so extremely juicy and delicious. It's very different from Din Tai Fung, where you had very thin skin, soup on the inside and relatively dry meat, because these xiaolongbao had no juice on the inside at all--in retrospect, the "soup" was not needed anymore, because the meat part was just sooo hot and juicy when you bit into it. With just a bit of black vinegar on top, YUM.

...Honestly I wish I had someone come with me to help me eat and take pictures, because I could not finish these delicious dumplings. After eating 10 xiaolongbao, I felt really full (and slightly guilty) and ended up just eating all the meat parts. Still, so good though. If you go to Shanghai please come here, and skip all the small vendors with the giant xiaolongbao where you slurp up the soup from a straw (my mom tried and said it was not worth it--I trust her judgment).