Shanghai '24 - Concluding Dinner: Chicken and Shanghai Crab

[Google_Gourmet]

Our final Shanghai dinner at the flagship store of Xiao Shao Xing, the famous chicken specialist that we had loved at the “Hawker Center” in Raffles Place (Shanghai). Contact info as follows.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g308272-d3449946-Reviews-Xiao_Shao_Xing_Yunnan-Shanghai.html

The first & second floor of the restaurant was the informal format, order and pickup at the counter, seat yourself. We splurged and took the elevator up to the 3rd floor for a more elevated experience.

This was the evening of the Moon Festival, a time for most Shanghainese to feast with family at home. The restaurant was uncharacteristically quiet, with only a few larger parties celebrating.

The 3rd floor offered a variety of Shanghainese classics. The large well worn menu had pictures and amusing menu descriptions, I will post a few of the interesting items in a follow up post.

Listed on the Menu as Hairy Crab Cakes . This was actually Shanghai BLUE Crab (not Mitten) deep fried, then sauteed in a light sweet sauce, served with Rice Cake Tubes. We normally avoid ordering crab in shell at restaurants, too messy.

The ROE and meat was totally delectable, the shells were fragile and brittle. We plowed through the dish with only our chopsticks, did not bother to use the provided gloves or the fancy crab implements.

The target of our visit was THE CHICKEN, of course. Listed on the menu as Select Chipped Cold Chicken. The bar for the chicken had been set very high and this version almost reached the heights set by the first effort.

We started with a couple of cold appetizers.

Three Treasures of XiaoShaoXing, house special appetizer. Chicken Paws, Gizzards and Chunks in a Shaoxing Wine marinade.

Crucian Carp in Fragrant…? Wife says we’d had this times before, but smaller fish. This larger fish showed better, but not as…tasty.

A wonderful Eggplant dish. Yu Xang Eggplant (Pot?)

The Green Peppahs were Killah spicy. Fantastic balance and flavah.

Fried Rice with Egg. Keeping it simple.

• Dinner total was RMB 324 = USD $45.90
• Wife is mildly complaining this restaurant is pricey. duh.
• Divide listed menu prices by 7.06 for US Dollar. Ridiculous value!!!.
• We just bought a live Black Cod out of the tank for dinner tonight back in SF, $37. Sticker shock.

We definitely need to return with more folks so we can order MORE. So much other delectables on the menu, so affordable. Want to try MUCH more!!!

[Saregama]

Wow!

[GretchenS]

I love when you and your wife travel! Thanks so much for taking the time to write up such fabulous reports!

[damiano]

Just revisiting your Shanghai posts, as I’m considering a new trip. If you could do one week in a city, no travel outside of the city, would you pick Shanghai over Tokyo? Was initially considering Tokyo, but hotel value for money seems much better in Shanghai, plus your posts triggered my interest to revisit Shanghai. And maybe Japan is better for a longer multi city trip. Thanks for any thoughts!

[Google_Gourmet]

@damiano

If you could do one week in a city, no travel outside of the city, would you pick Shanghai over Tokyo?

A tough call.

We’ve been to Tokyo a few times, and have loved every single time. My wife and I have been to Shanghai a few times independently of each other, together a few weeks ago for the very first time.

At this time, we have to give the edge to Shanghai.

• Shanghai room rates < 50% of Tokyo
• Tokyo has some great food, and with a bit of due diligence can be sourced quite reasonable priced. We were pleasantly pleased with the Shanghai food scene. Many of the major Asian restaurant names are well presented. Prices are also about 50% for same items on similiar menus outside China. Most of our meals were inevitably well prepared, with quality ingredients. Myriad options from food halls, 50+ yo local restaurants, street stalls, food carts, etc…
• Transportation costs are ridiculously low. (our word for this trip was ridiculous!!) We Didi’d (Uber of China) EVERYWHERE. Even from city to city. We mostly chose the upper level service, clean new cars, polite respectful competent drivers. A 4 hour drive from Hangzhou to Nanjin was USD$180, door to door. A half hour get around Didi ride was around USD$4~6.

Caveats:

• try to avoid the HOT months. Average temps for our 3 weeks were well into the 90*'s F. We still averaged 15k+ steps per day, but Didi’d back to the hotel regularly when the heat and humidity became oppresive.
• customer service has come a looooong way since my first China trip 30 years ago. That said, we still had some quibbles about service, especially in a couple of 5* hotels. We just overlook some of the lesser annoyances and move on.
• Use Alipay and WeChat pay, foreigners now have access. Yes, it is illegal not to accept cash in China. There will always be the old Asia Hand who insist that a SUICA card is not neccessary in Japan.

Get the IC cards for transit and Payment cards for everyday transactions, why fight the system?

EVERYONE gets paid by QR. Lady selling flower bracelets:

[Saregama]

I haven’t been to either place but I’m lobbying for Shanghai!