The hidden Shu Fu

I had read about a good Szechuan restaurant on Timeout.com, but every time I had gone to find it, I couldn't figure out where it was.  Finally, this day, I set out with more resolve than ever to find the place. 

One thing to know about Shanghai, is that each building gets a address, and every store uses that same address but without any addition information like suite or store number.  So when you get an address for a place, it might be in an outdoor mall, like Shu fu, and you may have to search high and low. 

I set out from my hotel, and walked a couple of blocks to the address.  It was at an outdoor shopping center.  I looked at the list of restaurants, and there were three with no pinyin names.  It obviously had to be one of those three.  So I started wandering around to see if I could look in the places without the pinyin translation, to find the one I wanted. 

Looking around, I found a couple other places that seemed to be great.  All of the places were jamming and full of people, even on a Monday night.  There were two bars that were packed with Westerners.  I finally figured out where they all are!

Anyway, you know how they say, you find something in the last place you look.  Well, third resto without pinyin is the charm.  I was able to explain I wanted a table for one, and I headed up in the elevator.

Okay, I am going to digress for a second.  The picture below serves two purposes.  First, that is how you can find Shu Fu, should you chose to.  Second, it introduces the concept of the Chinese wet wipe.  You may ask, why are you telling me this?  Well I am telling you, because it costs 2 RMB.  Everywhere, any restaurant, 2 RMB.  SO, when I first when out to eat, all my checks had these 2 RMB charges on them.  It turns out, you can chose to not use the wipe and save some money.

Notice how in the second character there is a chili pepper. Cute huh?

Moving on past the trivial aspects of eating out, to the food and drinks. 

Tsing Tao you my only friend.

I ordered some octopus because it looked awesome in the photo.  It turns out, it was awesome to eat too!

Octopus from the spicy depths

There was not very much numbing to the octopus dish, but there was tons of heat from both dry and fresh peppers.  I was sweating a lot.  Since I was the only westerner, the Chinese people were laughing at me.  I went through a lot of rice and many many napkins.

 

Other than the heat, there was a lot of flavor.  There is garlic, onion, cilantro, scallion.  It was awesome.  The flavor was so strong it just lingered and burn one.

Next, I got my scallop.  Luckily, I had held off  on the octopus, so I could eat this first.

Garlic punch in the mouth

As you can see, the scallop was served in its cleaned shell.  It was resting on a bed of straw mushrooms.  The scallop was a little more cooked than I have them in the U.S.  I appreciated that they cooked it a little long, because I would have been upset had I eaten some raw seafood.  Honestly, I wouldn't order this again.  The sauce was a pure garlic oil.  And although, I really liked the flavor, I found it too overpowering for scallop.

lil' dan dan

Last came the dan dan noodles.  Miles first introduced me to the awesomeness of the dan dan.  Now every time I eat at a Szechuan restaurant, I want the dan dan.  After, eating these, I can still say that Miles' dan dan noodles are still the best I have ever had.  These had really good sauce.  There was a lot of flavor, and that numbing spice I love so much.  My only issue was the noodles.  They were totally stuck together.  They were very difficult to eat, and very sticky.

One more note about my dinner.  I almost pitched a no-hitter!  I made it almost the whole way through the meal without having to use my translation app.  I even answered that I want cold beer, and I was able to ask for rice.  I know it sounds trivial, but it really made my day to be progressing and getting more comfortable.