Excessive amounts of salt are used to make the smoked pork shown above which means this is a great dish to order with some beer. This isn’t a healthy dish by any means, it is packed with salt, it’s mostly meat, and it’s cooked in ample amounts of oil, but it’s one of those delightfully sinful dishes. Think of it as the savory version of warm apple pie with ice cream, so enjoy it, just don’t over-indulge in it.

Here’s how to make it:

500 grams of smoked bamboo shoots (sliced)
200 grams of smoked bacon (sliced)
5 cloves of garlic (sliced)
2 red peppers (sliced)
2 scallions (sliced)
3 slices of ginger
2 tsps salt
1-2 tbsp sugar
cooking oil

Add the cooking oil to a heated wok. Drop in the garlic, red peppers, ginger, salt, and sugar. Stir for a few seconds and add the bacon. Stir for several minutes until the bacon is hot, add in the bamboo shoots and stir. Cook for 3-5 minutes, the bamboo shoots should be hot. Add the scallions and serve.

The bitter melon and pork stir fry was simply flavored with salt and garlic letting the pork and vegetables flavors mingle without restraint. The pork slices were mildly flavored with the bitter melon and the bitter melon was tolerable in small pieces. Every year I try some bitter melon at least once just to see how it’s treating me, I feel I really should like this bizarre vegetable, and one day I hope I will.

This dish is so easy to make, it can hardly be called cooking, but the dish can still be good. It’s simply pork loin that’s been cooked, sliced thin and served cold. The sauce is sesame oil, minced garlic and loads of salt. With this dish you are able to get a hefty dose of meat before the real meal even arrives. I think it’s best when the meat is very cold, then i drench it in the sauce and enjoy, I recommend you do the same.

Water chestnuts aren’t really nuts they are more like underwater potatoes. They are packed with starches and can even be milled into flour. Generally found in small cans in supermarkets everywhere, they are found fresh and packed with flavor all around Asia.

The water chestnuts in the dish above were mind-bogglingly sweet and crunchy, water chestnuts being one of the rare vegetables that don’t get mushy when overcooked). The slices of meat were salty sweet but far too small. Even though this dish lacks a little execution I’ll be back for more just for the water chestnuts.

Stinky tofu is simply tofu that has been soaked in a marinade and fermented for several days to several months. I was clueless as to how stinky tofu was made but wanted to give this dish a try. This dish took ages to arrive, but even before the waitress put it on my table I could smell the pungent manure like odors rising up from the steam.

Learning about stinky tofu nearly caused me to lose my dinner, as I was to learn the recipe for stinky tofu hasn’t been standardized so the taste varies from region to region and vendor to vendor. The brine mostly made from soy milk, vegetables and meat that has been aged together for weeks, then tofu is added and the mixture is aged for another few weeks.

The steamed stinky tofu can best be described as similar in taste to sharp cheese, but much softer. The black mold on the outside was a little disconcerting, but tasted fine. Generally the whole dish was a little salty on occasion of the soy sauce. The pieces of ham were a little dried out and as one might expect they were very salty.

This proved to be an excellent choice, though next time I’ll be sure to have a beer to temper the salt. Ignore the rumors surround stinky tofu that maggots are used in the fermentation process or that the whole process is unsanitary, or that some manufacturer’s cut corners by using kitchen waste and human feces to speed the ripening process. When you’re in Shanghai stinky tofu is one of those things you’ve just got to try. It’s something different for sure.

Today’s dish of tea tree mushrooms, garlic stems, smoked pork, and other ingredients is coated in oil. It’s an unfortunate reality throughout China that the local food is oily. Some dishes are literally served in a bowl of oil, while dishes such as this one simply come served with a thick oily film. I’ve talked about cured meats and mushrooms before, both of which I eagerly devour, so it’s only natural that I would like this dish too. The flavors and textures meld nicely, the dish is tinged with spiciness, but the real flavor comes from the meat.

This is a nice solid Sichuan dish that includes a lot of great ingredients, but it’s hard to overlook the oil in this incantation. Give this one a try, but be sure to specify that the cook goes light on the oil and I you will have an enjoyable meal.

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.

Something a bit different today. A little Dim Sum. Dim Sum as Americans know it, is more of a Cantonese style food. Dim Sum is essentially the Chinese equivalent to finger food and it’s usually eaten while drinking tea. Lots of time the dishes are sweet and dessert like in nature, although that’s obviously not always the case.

These steamed dumplings are filled with a mixture of pork and crab meat (which means they are salty/savory rather than sweet). I’m not usually one for liking crab, but I do like Dim Sum. Since I don’t much care for crab I couldn’t say I loved the taste of these little dumplings. The crab flavor was quite strong, the outer noodle shell was nice, not too chewy, yet it didn’t just fall apart. And the little orange red things on top were just for looks essentially.

I’d definitely recommend trying some Dim Sum while your in China, there are tons of options available. For me I won’t be getting these crab dumplings again, but hey if you enjoy crab, more power to you.

A dish fit for a man. Meat and bones greasy and fried, not much in the way of spices or strange flavors, just meat and grease.

I’ve never had braised pork spine before, it seems as though it’s a lot like pork ribs, but more difficult to eat. Trying to dig in to the corners and crevices while keeping the cheeks clean was basically impossible. After the fact I’m not really sure that you could give the bones to a dog but I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

The only real complaint I had was that it was a bit greasy, overall the dish was just OK, nothing to rave about.

I saw this dish on a table next to mine when I walked in to this restaurant and it looked great. I’m a fan of peanuts, and I saw it had carrots and cucumbers, tofu, meat, and more. I had to have it. Come to find out this dish is actually called the Eight Treasures Dish. It has everything mentioned above as well as mushrooms, peppers, and peas.

It really reminded me a lot of Kung Pao Chicken, of which I am a huge fan, but with more variety. My hopes were dashed though upon the first bite. The dish was quite oily and the sauce was very dark and heavy feeling. It was a bit saltier than I would have liked even though the overall flavor was good.

I had such high hopes and like so many things in China those hopes were dashed. I still think that this dish has great potential if it was done right. Given the right restaurant I’d try this one again, though I think most of the cheap local places would abuse this by over oiling it, so be warned.

The first smell and first bite of this dish were quite amazing. The cabbage was cooked but still crunchy and best of all it was coated in lovely tasty bacon grease. The pieces of bacon were a nice touch and gave me something to look forward to. In fact this dish was a surprising treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing to remember about this dish however is that once it becomes cold it just ain’t as good.

Startling in its appearance I was surprised that this dish actually tasted not bad. Warning bells usually go off in my head when people start talking about eating internal organs, but I’ll give most things a try. The meat was actually served chilled, not just room temperature and soy sauce was provided for dipping. The meat was tender albeit the texture was a bit odd, but it tasted clean, a little like ham but definitely not overwhelming. I kept going back for more throughout the meal as it provided some nice contrast to the other dishes. I can’t say I’d recommend it, but I wouldn’t avoid it either.

This dish is practically made for fresh-off-the-boat Westerners. It’s sweet and has a nice juicy sauce, the meat is just meat and isn’t from strange parts of the pig’s body, and the meat is sitting atop some pretty benign shallots.

However, on a regular basis, or even irregular basis I can’t be eating this dish too often. It really is too sweet for my Chinese adjusted palate. I ended up eating most of the shallots and just a little of the meat.

To get an idea of what this dish tastes like, think Beijing Duck, just the poor man’s version, pork no duck. That’s basically what this amounts to, the taste is almost identical to Beijing Duck, without the duck, and without the funny little tortilla shells to wrap everything in.

Meat, my oh my what a tasty site. I have to be thankful for the little pleasures a dish like this brings to me in Shanghai. For you see, this meat is exquisitely flavored, it only has a small bit of fat attached, the garlic, peanuts and cilantro are balanced nicely, and the clincher for me is that this dish is completely bone free.

After so many meals spent chewing around, through and over bones it is refreshing to just simply eat a piece of meat with total disregard.

I highly recommend this dish, not just for the lack of bones, but because of the taste. Served as an appetizer it seemed to set the tone for the entire meal, which turned out to be tasty.

Who doesn’t love ribs! Granted they aren’t barbecued baby back ribs, but beggars can’t be choosers. The way I see it, actually getting a full rib is a small miracle.

This is a tantalizing dish. Normally only chicken is deep fried. Deep fried ribs are a bit out of the ordinary, but what really makes these shine, and makes the grease dripping from them worthwhile is the fact that they must have been coated/marinated in garlic before being fried, and my oh my what a wonderfully garlicky delight.