Because I had a post-lunch train to catch to Suzhou, I chose to have an early lunch near my hotel in Jing’an, at the Ningbo food specialist Yong Fu Xiao Xian 甬府小鲜, so I could pick up my luggage after lunch and head straight to the train station.
Ningbo is a city in the nearby Zhejiang province. Their food is not as well known to folks outside of Zhejiang. Shanghainese food likes sugar. Ningbo focuses more on salt to bring out the flavor of the ingredients, with the flavors of the dishes relatively strong.
The meal was a genuinely pleasant surprise. The restaurant was a fine restaurant, so I expected refined food. But it turned out to be one of the highlight meals of the trip, with one of the most spectacular dishes ever, to me. Glad I ate early, since I had no reservation. By the time I was done, the restaurant was packed.
The dish was called ‘18 chops’ 十八斩, which literally just meant the mitten crab chopped into 18 pieces. And what absolutely spectacular 18 pieces that were. Crab flash frozen then thawed, with ginger and scallion added, then pepper, soy sauce, vinegar, rice wine which added together brought out a very unexplainably intense flavor. Gooey roe so dreamy. That was my dish of 2025, so far. The restaurant justifiably called this dish their highlight dish. 199 RMB.
Ningbo special- red sauce sauteed ‘rice fish’. The sauce was exquisite. The fish was very fresh. Heavy saucing isn’t usually my thing when it comes to live fresh, but this version was very very nicely done. 269 RMB.
I also ordered the veggie 42 RMB:
This tea was from Huangshan Maofeng 黄山毛峰, the Yellow Mountains a few hours away in Anhui Province that inspired a scene in the movie Avatar. The tea is one of the most famous tea in China. 118 RMB.
The whole meal? 636 RMB, which was about USD $90. I am still dreaming about that crab as I type now.
For those who care, the restaurant is a Michelin *.
Time to catch my train after the meal.
The meal concluded my almost two day trip in Shanghai, until I returned again a week later, after Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Yong Fu Xiao Xian
甬府小鲜(静安嘉里中心店)
上海市静安区延安中路1238号s4-01室甬府小鲜
