Jake Hushka- Post 7- Shanghai Cuisine

Considering that most of us will be stepping outside our usual dining boundaries, I figured I would do a summary of the regional foods in Shanghai. I first recommend watching the below video’s, which includes clips from the T.V. Show No Reservations. “Anthony Bourdain’s Guide to Shanghai”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BTW5nJs_nU&sns=em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3PTVSBpP5c&sns=em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0IPNWxkQU0&sns=em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wUBCYEZpXE&sns=em
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADD1O-CG3Xg&sns=em

All other research was conducted through Food Network, Travel Channel, Wikipedia, traveguide.com and About.com

Shanghai cuisine, like most Chinese cuisine, is characterized by a greater use of soy sauce, sugar, rice wine, and rice vinegar. Shanghai residents like to cook their food slowly here. This region is known for “red-cooking”, where food is gently braised in a flavorful soy sauce-based liquid with sugar and spices, such as five-spice powder. Five-spice powder is a mixture of fives spices, which usually includes star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Szechwan pepper, and ground fennel seeds. Five spices is used in recipes for Cantonese roasted duck, a marinade for Vietnamese broiled chicken, and has been incorporated into various other national cuisines throughout Asia.

Shanghai Cuisine can be described as a melting pot of eastern Chinese cuisine, which specifically reflects the cooking styles of the provinces of Jiansu, Anhui, Zhejian, Fujian, and Jiangxi. Shanghai Cuisine is specifically known as Hu Cai, which includes two cuisine styles: Benbang cuisine and Haipai cuisine. Benbang cuisine translations mean “local cuisines.” This is a traditional family style cuisine that appeared in Shanghai over 100 years ago. The cuisine uses fresh fish, chicken, pork, and various vegetables as the main ingredients. Benbang is supposed to have a great flavor and bright color derived from the oil ands soybean sauce. Critics state that Shanghai Benbang dishes taste fresh, mellow, and sweet. Haipai Cuisine translation is “the all embracing cuisine.” This cuisine absorbs the advantages of many cuisines from other regions of China and even western cuisines, and then adapts them to suit local tastes. Fresh fish, shrimp, and crabs are the main indgredients.

Benbang cuisine and Haipai cuisine have many things in common: First, they make great use of fresh meat, chicken, vegetables, and especially various marine ingredients such as: fish, shrimp, and crab. Secondly, Shanghai cuisine has a great number of signature dishes made from various seasonal ingredients. Thirdly, a wide range of cooking techniques have been adopted and include steaming, braising, stewing, stir-frying, quick-frying, deep-frying, boiling, marinating, smoking, and roasting. Fourthly, strongly hot food hardly ever forms part of Shanghai Cuisine. Most of the dishes taste fresh, clear, mellow, sweet or subtly spicy.

Seafood in Shanghai is very popular because the city faces the East China Sea and its location among the rivers, lakes, and canals of the Yangtze Delta. Locals favor freshwater produce just as much as saltwater products like crab, oysters, and seaweed. Shanghai cuisine can also be characterized by the use of alcohol in many of its dishes, specifically in fish, eel, crab, and chicken. One example of this type of preparation can be seen through the dish Drunken shrimp. Drunken shrimp are live shrimp marinated in an alcohol based marinade and consumed alive. So be careful what you order off the menu.

Some less risky signature dishes that the region offers are as follows:

1. Xia Zi Da Wu Shen is noted as the most famous seafood dish in Shanghai cuisine. Dried sea cucumber is immersed in water to restore its original size and then stewed with oil, yellow wine, soybean sauce, broth, sugar, shallot, starch sauce, and shrimp roe. This dish is nutritious with rich protein and minerals, which is said to effectively control cancer.

2. Ba Bao La Jiang is typical among the few spicy dishes in Shanghai Cuisine. It is a Benbang dish featuring great flavor and bright color. Bean and chili sauce are blended and stir-fried with shelled shrimp, chicken, chicken stock, pork, pig offal, dried small shrimp, bamboo shoots, and various kinds of seasoning. This dish has such a great number of ingredients, which gives us some idea of how delicate Shanghai cuisine can be.

3. You Bao He Xia is a good choice if you like sea food. Live shrimp are deep-fried and then sir-fried with a special sauce made of yellow wine, soybean sauce, sugar, shallot sauce, and ginger sauce. The dish tastes fairly sweet and fresh.

4. Yan Du Xian is a delicious stew. Pork and ham are first steamed and then stewed in a soup with fresh bamboo shoots.

5. Qing Chao Shan Hu, also known as Xiang You Shan Hu, is an eel dish. Fresh eels are stir-fried with shredded bamboo shoots, yellow wine, soybean sauce, ginger, sugar, and starch sauce. After being put on a plate, chopped shallot is sprinkled on the dish and hot oil is poured onto it. Consequently, Qing Chao Shan Hu crackles when it is served at the table.

Besides the dishes mentioned above, Shanghai also provides diners with an extensive menu of many other delicious Shanghai dishes such as steamed crabs, sautéed shelled shrimps, braised fish, smoked fish, steamed shad, braised herring liver, braised eel, plain boiled chicken, and stewed chicken.