Grand Shanghai: Exotic alongside Familiar

On a sunny weekday not long after 1:30 P.M., Flushing Food eased into seats at Grand Shanghai, located at 36-50 Main Street (just near the Northern Boulevard intersection). After opening its doors in the summer of 2014, Grand Shanghai has been an under-the-radar haunt mainly for locals. 

Strange, because whoever helped with the interior décor certainly had a thing for gold themes and ornate textures!

A golden wall commanded center attention with its dizzying spirals. Similar patterns adorned the bottom portions of Grand Shanghai’s rich menu covers. Perhaps the attention to interior details had something to do with this restaurant’s recent arrival to the over-saturated Flushing food scene?  

Flushing Food started with some traditional Shanghai dishes. We gobbled up a $10.50 square plate of sautéed loofah (qīng chǎo sīguā, or 清炒絲瓜). Never tried loofah? Grand Shanghai is a decent starting point for acquiring this taste. The recipe is no-frills, with just familiar chicken bouillon as the standalone spice for this sticky vegetable.* Even without garlic, we found the recipe divine, due mainly to the freshness of that day’s veggies:

Prettyyy.

Next up was a $6.50 steamer of six pork and crab soup dumplings (xièfěn xiǎo lóng tāng bāo, or 蟹粉小籠湯包).** Grand Shanghai's version of crab XLB may not be the best in the area, but remains comparable to those at world-famous Nan Xiang Dumpling House. 

Though not the tastiest XLB in Flushing, will still be gone pretty fast!

Third was the most adventurous dish of our lunch. For $22.50, we received a Xihu-style whole fish (xīhú cù yú, or 西湖醋魚).

This fatty fish kicked with a far more exotic (read: earthy and oily) taste than any other whole fish dish in recent memory. This dish is not for the faint of heart, so consider your other options accordingly. Most local patrons stick with more familiar-tasting seafood choices, including $17.50 salt and pepper prawns and $14.50 shrimp with cashew nut.

May Flushing Food suggest: visiting on a weekday.*** And skip the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday mad dash for parking and table seats-- get your Shanghai fix right here. 

* Well, maybe also a dash of sugar to help the bright greens pop.

** Called “steamed bun” on the menu.

*** http://www.yelp.com/biz/grand-shanghai-restaurant-flushing

Media credits: Helen Y.

Gadget: Apple® iPhone™ 5S  (yup, forgot to recharge the good ol' Nikon® battery)