[Nonstop to Shanghai] Part 4: Food, Glorious Food

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have A LOT to say about the food in Shanghai. But first let me qualify this post by admitting that I am not very adventurous when it comes to food. I’ll taste new things if they’re offered but I’m not the sort of person who will look over a menu and naturally gravitate toward the oddest thing on it. If that sounds like you, then you will love the food scene in Shanghai because there are tons of odd things to eat. Just look at some of the typical snacks you’ll find in a Chinese convenience store:

Having been to Hong Kong a few times, I already knew that Chinese food in China tastes nothing like Chinese food as we know it in the west. So, in Shanghai I wasn’t expecting to be served orange chicken or whatever the special at Panda Express happens to be. Instead I ate things like

dry bean curd

braised pork joint/feet (a Fengjing delicacy)

eel

and snails. Delicious, btw.

Some of the things I ate looked familiar but tasted new.

Some things were deliciously familiar and sometimes that’s exactly what you want. Especially if it’s at a Din Tai Fung.

There is a Din Tai Fung in Shanghai!

Any city that has a Din Tai Fung is alright with me.

While I’ll never profess to be an epicure, my experience with Shanghai cuisine has better prepared me – rather, my palate – for future plates of the unrecognizable. You might even say Shanghai cuisine has made me a better traveler.

Thanks, Shanghai.