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A 3-Night Shanghai Ramble — tentus Staff Trip Report: Food Edition

2019.12.23

This article reflects information as of 2019. For the latest details, please contact us.

Written by: Qian Yunwen, tentus inc.

"Now that we've got a Shanghai native on the team, let's make this year's company trip Shanghai!" — tentus President Koizumi

That one remark meant that our Shanghai-native staffer, just four months after coming to Japan, unexpectedly ended up going home. (haha) And so, as we head into 2020, I'd like to split this trip into the following parts and introduce them one by one.

Lodging Edition

Food Edition

Activities Edition

Click here to read the Lodging Edition

＼Stick with us to the end, everyone!／ Now, off to Shanghai's food scene we GO! 🦀

Following on from the last Lodging Edition: in Japan, if you get hungry in the middle of the night, about the only place to go is a convenience store — but in Shanghai you have all sorts of options: hotpot, grilled meat, street-stall food, xiaolongbao, ramen, congee, and more! (And most of them are open until the small hours.)

First up, skewers! On the very first night, exhausted from travel, we headed to a nearby skewer place. Sichuan-style and northeastern-style grilled skewers, mainly spicy seasoning. (China is huge, so there are many styles — Sichuan, the Northeast, Inner Mongolia, and so on.)

📍 18 Yuyuan East Road 💸 about ¥1,500/person 🗓 11:30–02:00

At this place — of all things — you order by QR code! Scan it and you're taken straight to the shop's official WeChat account. From there they can keep sending info to customers going forward. It still works if you scan it now. Anyone with a WeChat account, give it a try. lol

＜Wakakuwa, going straight for a 1L beer!＞

And now, the drinking snacks! They might look almost the same, but since this was mainly Sichuan cuisine, they were packed with heat and seasoning!

Hongyou tuding (rabbit meat)

Xiaowan mao yaxue (duck blood)

Xiangla sunsi (menma / pickled bamboo shoots)

Xiangla shaokao wei yumi (corn)

Hongyou chaoshou (Sichuan-style wonton)

Tieban shuangdan kao qiezi (five-spice egg omelet with eggplant — a hugely popular dish)

Lastly — hairy crab! In Japan we don't really eat hairy crab, but in Shanghai it's a winter staple. We bought ours at Hema Fresh (Freshippo).

This being my first time too, I was honestly just amazed! Personally, though, I wouldn't go myself — I'd definitely just order delivery. (It's a modern-China affliction: young people always relying on food delivery.)

For more on Hema Fresh, please see this person's note.

We got six each of the most expensive males and females in the store — about ¥1,500 apiece. The hairy crab on the left, with the coarse hairs, is male; the one on the right is female! The cooking method was really simple, but what matters is that the crab is still alive — and the dipping sauce! For the details, you'll just have to go eat hairy crab with the tentus crew!

＜Our Shanghai-born staffer working hard on the crabs in the kitchen, with expats Mori and Takahashi — three girls＞

＜And at the same time — get to work, you guys! The inner cry of our Shanghai-born staffer! In Shanghai, the image is that it's the men who are always in the kitchen＞

Besides hairy crab, we ordered all sorts of things by delivery too. Among the famous Shanghai home-cooking restaurants, Bao Luo (保羅酒樓) is hugely popular even with locals!

Liangban hei mu'er (black fungus in black vinegar)

Fuqi feipian (Sichuan-style cold sliced offal)

Bao Luo niupai (Bao Luo steak)

Wuxiang qiezi (five-spice eggplant)

Jiaoyan paitiao (boneless spare ribs fried with salt and pepper — no photo)

Malantou (malantou greens — a vegetable not found in Japan; no photo) Honestly, all of these are our Shanghai staffer's favorites, eaten since childhood.

We had to have xiaolongbao and Shanghai pan-fried dumplings too! We ordered delivery from the closest shop, and it was pretty tasty!

＼So hungry!／

At last, the final day — the evening of day three! 3. Lao Jishi (老吉士). Authentic Shanghai cuisine, so popular we booked a month in advance! That said, we knew someone, so we managed to get a reservation! The signature dish? Every dish here is a signature dish!