This is what Shanghai foodies crave

A The China Project guide to the hottest items on the menu in Shanghai.


China is a food-crazed country, and the metropolis of Shanghai is a great place to dine out. The cityโ€™s most fashionable foods are often, like its architecture, a cosmopolitan blend of tradition and modernity, East and West, including everything from street food vendors in alleyways to Michelin-starred restaurants lining the Bund.

Below is a list weโ€™ve curated of the cityโ€™s latest food fads that our foodie friends in Shanghai have told us about:

Cheese tea (่Šๅฃซๆ‹ผ่Œถ zhฤซshรฌ pฤซn chรก)

Drinking pure tea may still appeal to the older generations in China, but itโ€™s becoming increasingly unattractive to many millennials who now comprise the major force in the countryโ€™s beverageย consumption. For a time,ย bubble milk teaย โ€” with its mellow, sweet, and milky flavorย โ€” was seen as the contemporary tea drink of choice, but weโ€™ve now entered the era of cheese tea.

As you may infer from its name, cheese tea is a fusion of two completely incongruous ingredients and cultures. Traditionally, Chinese people donโ€™t take well to cheese. (Most Chineseย have been found to be lactose intolerant.) But Shanghainese seem to have found a taste for fragrant teas with a cheese-based foam topping.

One brand leading the trend is HEEKCAAย ๅ–œ่Œถ. Expanding from its original tiny venue in Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, HEEKCAA now owns more than 50 chain stores across the country. In early February, it finally arrived in Shanghai, and its name instantly entered into every conversation of the cityโ€™s foodie circles. It doesnโ€™t matter whatย time of day orย how poorย the weather, you can find lines of Shanghainese waiting, sometimes for as much as three hours,ย to sip the drink that everyoneโ€™s talking about.

Crayfish (ๅฐ้พ™่™พ xiวŽo lรณngxiฤ)

As the weather warms, there is no better way to cool downย on a fierce summer night than by drinking an icy beer while savoringย someย bright red crayfish โ€” arguably the most popular seafood during the Shanghai summer.

People areย dividedย on the exact English translationย of xiao longxia. But whether itโ€™sย called crayfish, crawfish, or โ€œbaby lobster,โ€ the popularity of theย dish is undeniable. In summer, vendors appear across the city with stacks ofย crayfish. Even withย widely circulated rumors that the creaturesย only live in polluted waters and are exposed toย garbage as they grow up, Shanghai still reportedly consumes a staggeringย 15,000 tons of crayfish every year.

Overย theย years, many restaurants have developed their own special techniques toย cook crayfish. Among dozensย of distinctive flavors, two stand out: crayfish cooked with spicy Sichuan peppercorns and chilies (้ฆ™่พฃๅฐ้พ™่™พ xiฤnglร  xiวŽo lรณngxiฤ) and crayfish cooked with 13 different kinds of spices and herbs (ๅไธ‰้ฆ™ๅฐ้พ™่™พ shรญsฤn xiฤng xiวŽo lรณngxiฤ).

Bullfrog noodles (็‰›่›™้ข niรบwฤ miร n)

These are noodles with a sauce that contains meat from bullfrogs, and a bowl of them costs about 30 yuan ($4.36). The best place in Shanghai to have this dish is Haling Noodle Houseย ๅ“ˆ็ต้ข้ฆ†. In the Shanghai dialect, halingย literally means โ€œso good.โ€ This small noodle restaurant opened more than 30 years ago and has endeared itself to generations of Shanghainese. Though a wide variety of noodle soups are offered in Haling, the main attractionย is, undoubtedly, bullfrog noodles. Made from two or three entire bullfrogs, wheat noodles, and some green peppers, the soup is mildlyย spicy.

Qingtuan with salty meat floss inside (่‚‰ๆพ้’ๅ›ข rรฒusลng qฤซng tuรกn)

This yearโ€™s Qingming Festivalย concluded a coupleย of weeks ago, but the craze for qingtuanย (้’ๅ›ข qฤซng tuรกn)ย โ€” a traditional green snack exclusive to the festival season โ€” has yetย toย fade.

The tradition of eating qingtuanย during the Qingming Festival can be tracedย back toย the Zhou dynasty (1046โ€“256 B.C.E.), but the recipe has notย evolvedย very much until recently. By strict definition, qingtuanย is made of glutinous rice mixed with mugwort or barley grass, and filled with sweet red or black bean paste. These days, various kinds of qingtuanย featuring diverse flavors are available. Last year, Xinghualou ๆ่Šฑๆฅผ, a Shanghai local food brand, reintroducedย the snack by filling the inside withย meat flossย โ€” a kind of finely shredded pork jerky โ€” instead ofย theย traditional sweet filling. The new variationย became so popular that patrons scheduledย their entire day around the queueย to get some. This year, though the craze has diminished slightly, the wait can still be two or three hours on a weekday.

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Ada Scallion Pancake (้˜ฟๅคง่‘ฑๆฒน้ฅผ ฤ€h dร  cลng yรณubวng)

If you want to have a bite of a scallion pancake, a common breakfast itemย in Shanghai, you can find anyย random street vendor toย quickly make one for you. But if you wonโ€™t settle for anything but theย cityโ€™sย best, be prepared to arrive atย Ah Da Scallion Pancake before 6 a.m.,ย and youโ€™ll still likely face a 45-minuteย wait.

Wu Gencun ๅดๆ นๅญ˜, the storeโ€™s owner (hisย nickname is Ah Da ้˜ฟๅคง), has been making scallion pancakes for more than three decades. Despite his physical stature โ€” his back is bowed over in a severe hunch โ€” Wu wakes up atย 5 a.m. every morningย to serve his hungry customers (originally through the back door of his house). While his competitors have triedย to attract patrons with new toppingsย or their special houseย sauces, Wu keeps his products as simple and original as he can.

Ah Da was featured in the BBCย documentary Taste of Shanghaiย last year, in which the British celebrity chef Rick Stein praises the pancakesโ€™ โ€œwonderfulโ€ smell and โ€œfabulousโ€ taste. ย However, last September, shortly after the film was shot, Wu was asked to temporarily suspend his business for lacking a proper license. Local foodiesย were upset for a month, but to their great joy, Ah Da returnedย with a new license and a โ€œrealโ€ shop as opposed to hisย old stall.