排骨炖豆角 Beef and Green Bean Stew

Pinyin: Pái Gǔ Dùn Dòu Jiāo

A nice and hearty dish for dinner. Like so many of the hearty Chinese
dishes this one also comes from the north.

Extremely basic really, a bit of beef or pork and a few bones are okay
too and then add some salt and boil the hell our of it. IRS aboutike
one could expect, a. It salty

With hints of meat, a nice strong string bean flavor and that's it. I
wasn't enamored with the dish, it was nothing special, but it's
something I could definitely make at home.

法式蛋卷 Chocolate Covered Meat Floss Sushi

Pinyin: fǎ shì dàn juàn


This dish was a calculated risk and I gotta say we came out on the losing side. My interest was piqued and then the waitress told me that the brown sauce was chocolate I couldn't resist. I wanted to know how scrambled egg, meat flosh, cucumber, and chocolate combined to make a sushi like appetizer. The answer unsurprisingly was not very well at all. Meat floss in any dish is always a bit awkward, it's a bit sweet, but also a bit savory, it's meat but doesn't feel like meat, very strange stuff indeed. It wasn't helped at all by the chocolate.

No worries though for the average diner, I'm guessing that only this one tucked away restaurant in Jing'An District in Shanghai serves this dish. The real moral of this story is that you should try new and interesting things, including food, even when they might not seem all that great. There's always a chance you'll be pleasantly surprised. This wasn't one of them, but maybe I'll have better luck next time.

马桥香干吊锅 Spicy Smoked Tofu

Pinyin: mǎ qiáo xiāng gān diào guō


I've raved and raved about tofu before, so it should be obvious that I dig it. I know lots of people say they don't like tofu but seriously there are hundreds of kinds of tofu out there, something for everyone so to speak.

The smoked tofu in this dish has a unique flavor, earthy and wooden, it reminds me of a deep dark dank forest which is a pretty unique flavor. A fair number of spicy peppers were added that give it a bit of bite, and like all good Chinese dishes a fair variety of vegetables and a few mushrooms were added for good measure.

I believe this is a Hunan style dish and is common throughout those Chinese restaurants here in Shanghai. Smoked tofu can be found in a number of dishes, again primarily coming from Hunan province or nearby areas. It's a unique flavor and might not be for everyone, but it's different and worth trying at least once.

苔蘑真菌烩豆花 Mixed Mushrooms and Tofu

Pinyin: tāi mó zhēn jūn huì dòu huā

Two of the most widely used and staple ingredients of Chinese cooking come together in this dish to form a savory dish great for a cold and blustery night.

Everyone knows about the relationship between Chinese and tofu, it's a huge thing here and comes in all shapes and sizes. In this case it's a very very soft almost pudding like substance that has a very mild flavor. The other major ingredient used here are mushrooms. The Chinese, no doubt through trial and error have discovered hundreds of kinds of edible mushrooms and this dishes uses at least three varieties, all of which you aren't likely to see at your average American grocery store.

This dish comes together nicely, it's fairly mild in taste, neither the mushrooms or tofu come on too strong and a bit of salt/MSG was added for flavor. The sauce/broth was thickened up quite a lot and really holds the heat nicely so it's sure to keep you warm throughout your meal. It's vegetarian but your carnivorous friends are likely to enjoy it equally well.

香辣八爪鱼 Sweet and Spicy Octopus

Pinyin: xiāng là bā zhuǎ yú


I love octopus and this was a surprisingly great dish. It was sweet but not startling sweet like your average sweet and sour dish, and it wasn't sour it was spicy and balanced nicely against the sweetness.

The chef added sauteed onions which I always love and add great flavor. Also added were mushrooms of varying varieties that are another one of my favorites. Me and my dining partner were both sort of surprised that the octopus in the dish were absolutley huge and you can see that in the picture here to some extent. Normally baby octopus are used and generally fit in your mouth in just a single bite, not the case here each piece was several bites.

As a fan of octopus I had to give this dish a try and I wasn't disappointed. The flavours were unique and fit my palate quite well. I think most people would like this dish once they get past the slightly odd sight of seeing tentacles in their food, which if you've been in China for any amount of time shouldn't be too hard.