Comfort eats from A Taste of Shanghai

How does it feel to be “the other Shanghainese place” a street corner away from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao? A Taste of Shanghai (上海小吃) might know. Situated at 39-07 #1A Prince Street, this restaurant has been here for over seven years.  

Though A Taste of Shanghai spans two floors, it gives off that textbook hole-in-the-wall vibe. Well-loved (read: wobbly) furniture and tables line the narrow seating areas.

After catching up a bit with Manager Shao, we began with the $13.95 sautéed pea shoots (qīng chǎo dòu miáo, or 清炒豆苗). These are a bit like spinach's less-astringent cousin:

One of us balked that the cooks didn’t use garlic. But they didn’t have to. The dòu miáo leaves and stems were as fresh and tender as hoped—with just enough added sodium to enhance the sweet flavor. 

After this healthy starter, our meal pretty much devolved into a comfort food feeding frenzy. Next up were the $6.50 Shanghai steamed crab Meat and pork buns (xièfěn xiǎo lóng bāo, or 蟹粉小籠包) and $5.50 Shanghai pan-fried pork dumpling (xiānròu guōtiē, or 鮮肉鍋貼). The winner was the guōtiē, mainly because it was fried just shy of perfection: 

Mmm, crispy underbelly.

To cap off our our meal, we opted for the $13.95 meatball in brown sauce (literally, “braised lion head,” hóngshāo shīzitóu, or 紅燒獅子頭). A Taste of Shanghai’s shīzitóu is a local favorite even among those from Shanghai.* Our savory oversized reddish-brown treats were a bit saltier than I’d remembered, but that was easily remedied with bok choy and rice:

Savory enough?

Speaking of rice? Dessert was Shanghai’s take on rice pudding: the $3.50 sticky rice with red bean paste and mix(ed) dried fruit (literally, “eight treasures rice", bābǎofàn, or 八寶飯):  

Warm, glutinous goodness.

May Flushing Food suggest: eating the steamed XLB as soon as it arrives.

* Local Shanghainese claim that A Taste of Shanghai's shīzitóu is not authentic, yet will be the first to order and finish the dish. Dunno.