豆浆火锅 Seafood Soy Milk Hotpot

Pinyin: dòu jiāng huǒ guō

God how I used to hate seafood. Crab would just about make me sick and clams, muscles, oysters were all too disgusting to actually eat. Fish was only OK as long as it wasn't too "fishy" tasting. But my oh my how things have changed since living in Shanghai. Seafood is amazing. All those little hardshell things like the clams and muscles and oysters are great. Shrimp are to die for, lobster is incredible, and just about every fish imaginable is excellent, cooked or not.

This seafood soy milk hotpot mixture was pretty tasty. Lots of good seafood, though not enough shrimp in my opinion, though one can never really have enough shrimp. The clams were a little chewy though so that was a real drawback, they obviously used cheap seafood as opposed to good seafood. But there was also tofu to be had aplenty and tofu is another one of those things that I've come to love in Shanghai.

There wasn't anything over the top about this soup it just worked out to be a good combination of seafood and tofu. Interestingly the soup was made from soy milk though that didn't affect the taste one way or the other, it just made the soup look a bit cloudy. I'd really like to see how another restaurant pulls off this dish. I won't be so inclined to order it again from this place, but I think the idea has potential.

西湖牛肉羹 Egg Flower Soup with Beef

Pinyin: Xī Hú Niú Ròu Gēng

This is pretty much a classic dish that you'll find on both sides of the pacific. It's a pretty common dish in China and nearly every American Chinese restaurant in the USA has a similar dish. And by similar I mean pretty damn close to the exact same.

You know the dish, tofu, egg, pieces of beef, etc. I won't go into much more detail than that.

I've been on a hiatus lately but I'm gonna try to be a bit more regular, and not just in my posts. Gotta eat that fiber. Chinese New Year was a bit disruptive and then that damn job thing got in the way.

私房煮干丝 House Special Julienned Tofu Stew

Pinyin: Sī Fáng Zhǔ Gàn Sī

A soup that isn't a soup. Shrimp, tofu, and veggies in this soupy broth. As it turns out the soupy broth is quite good and worth drinking, even though it technically isn't a soup.

The food in and of itself is good. The tofu and shrimp are nice, a little salty, but extremely tasty. The big green leaves were spinach like in nature which automatically make it good.

I've never had this dish before, but I'd gladly have it again. The shrimp were a bit small and seldom discovered, but the tofu was plentiful and ever so tasty.

什锦菌菇汤 Mushroom Soup Medly

Pinyin: Shí Jǐn Mó Gū Tāng

Mushrooms galore! I do love mushrooms and consequently this soup is mighty tasty. There are at least three types of mushrooms in here, I think there might even be four or five and that broth is phenomenal, I don't know what it was made out of but WOW.

The one drawback is those little white MSG laden balls of fish, crab, and other. I'm just not a huge fan of MSG so anytime I can avoid it I try, if you feel the same way, you best be avoiding those little white balls. Think of them as round hot dogs made from fish or crab or something else. And remember in China feet, heads, gizzards, and the like are all delicacies so I'm curious exactly what is left over to make these little balls.