Ye Shanghai

I was lucky enough to make some new friends, at the hotel, on Sunday.  Bruce and Selena invited me out to dinner in Xintiandi.After a quick drink in the executive lounge, we took a taxi to dinner.

Xintiandi is a beautiful little development of old style houses that have been renovated and turned into bars, restaurants, and shops.  Although it is supper yuppie-ish and almost Disneyland-like, it really is a beautiful place to go, and unlike Xujiahui, there are people out past 10 pm.  As we wondered around, we saw a lot of happening clubs and bars.   It really made me wish I had some of my Mobile peeps to party with.  Oh well.

For dinner, we chose Ye Shanghai, as it is on the list of nominees for best Shanghainese restaurant.  The  food was traditional Shanghainese food, which tends to be very sweet.  It was very difficult to order because it was unclear how large the portions were.  In the end, I was able to eat well, but Selena was not as lucky.

First, I ordered a pork terrine.  I thought this was going to be more like pate, but it was more like head cheese.  There were big chunks of meat and big chunks of gelatin.  The sauce was a vinegar base with thinly shredded ginger.  For me the taste was a little simple.

Sorry that all the photos came out red, it was the only lighting in the room.

Pork Terrine

Selena ordered two crabs, thinking it was enough.  When they came to the table, we all laughed at how small they were.

Crabs so very tiny

I decided that I was going to have a pork fest.  So my next dish to arrive was a piece of Dapu pork belly.  This is a pretty standard dish.  It is a thick glaze pork belly.  The sauce is sweet and slightly salty.  It is almost like honey, probably thicker.

Famous pork belly

Here is a photo of my first rib. 

Pork rib numero 1



This rib was very sweet.  The sauce was like a glaze but it resembled more of a sweet and sour glaze from the United States.  My complaint about the ribs in China is that for my taste, they are not cooked long enough.  I really like the meat of my ribs to fall off the bone.  Here you have to fight with the bone to tear the meat off. 

Pork rib number 2

The second rib was also in a sweet souce but this one was more balanced.  I really enjoyed this rib, even though I still had to fight with the bone. 

Overall, I thought the food at Ye Shanghai was okay, but it was really difficult to get a proper meal.  From the menu, it was difficult to determine portion sizes and how much should be ordered.  They expect you to share everything, so when going out to eat with a person with dietary restrictions, it is very difficult to have a nice dinner where you all eat at the same time.