夏1999 精緻本幫菜 (Xia (Summer) 1999) Shanghai local cuisine

It's time to get some family dishes.  Ordered a jelly fish but it was a bit too chewy and sweet.  The 2nd dish "smoked" fish made up for the first one.  It was still a bit crispy when it was served.  The 3rd one stir fried "grass roots" was pretty tough to chew, or I can say "high fiber".  On and off, the 4th one stewed pork was very nice and it was with quail eggs.  So I put aside the term "cholesterol".  The dumplings was quite Shanghai style.

谷色天香 (Yummy & Natural) Shanghai

It seems quite many restaurants in this shopping compound having some interesting English names.  The tofu salted pork chicken casserole was very aromatic when it was served steamy hot on the table.  The other dishes weren't that impressive.

米廳 (Meeting), noodle shop, Shanghai

The name of this place sounds a bit interesting in English - Meeting, which spells from the romanization of the Mandarin of "Rice Room".

We waited for about 20 minutes and noticed that the chef freshly made the noodle.  It's worth the waiting.  Always find it so nice for freshly cooking the food.

蘇小柳 (Sue Hsiao Liu) Dim Sum shop, Shanghai

The hotel is in the shopping compound of Hesheng Int'l plaza of Wu Jia Chang.  It's so convenient that you can walk through the mall to the other malls in this vicinity.  On the night of arrival, this restaurant caught my attention for its Siu Long Bao and other Shanghai delicacies.  The cool noodle with dried shrimp roe dressing simply reminds me of those I tried in Taipei, but this one is even more aromatic.  The drunken chicken and the osmanthus sweet cake made me even order more.  Really a "bon appetite".  

上海，五角場 (Wu Jia Chang), Shanghai

This area is undergoing some big changes with more modern malls and technology companies moving in.  It's the core linkage of the 5 major roads of the NE Shanghai area.  Besides, the historical Fu Dan University（复旦大學)  is just nearby.

Hyatt Regency Wu Jia Chang (五角場), Shanghai

The room is pretty big with a super king size bed, a walk-in closet, bathroom with separate bathtub and shower.  As this area is a bit off the downtown, the price is relatively lower, at just US$100 a night through a HK travel booking site.

Video: Dance party on Nan Jing East Road, Shanghai

A grocery on Huai Hai Rd 淮海路, Shanghai

Checking a local store or grocery would simply give you an idea of how life it is with the local people, especially for me to smell the food. That's really exciting for me. I really wanna grab a bucket of the drunken crab (photo 1) & preserved salty pork and golden ham (photo 8), as well as some jelly fish (photo 11).

Horrible dinner at Wan Hao Xuan 萬豪軒, JW Marriott Shanghai

Due to my good impression of The Pearl of Marriott City Wall Beijing, I thought the Chinese restaurants of this JW Marriott shouldn't be missed. The answer is "so wrong"! This one is double worse than Wan Hao of JW Marriott HK and BKK.

First the drunken chicken - it's not either with any wine or chicken flavour. So I asked the waitress "is it a drunken chicken?". I pointed out it's not with any wine and chicken flavour. Then she replied "our drunken chicken is in a special cooking style that light taste is the main point.". I kept on telling her "this is Shanghai and this dish is a symbolic dish of Shanghai cuisine. This is not about the cooking style. It's about the essence of this renowned dish...etc.". Then she handed me a comment form to fill in. At first, I did write down what I feel. However, after the other dishes, I crossed out my comments and decided this restaurant doesn't deserve a single word of comments. The pork terrine is too hard and yet a strong smell of fridge. The soup is average. Another horrible dish is the stir fried beef. Check how small the portion is. Besides, the thickening is in a wrong step not even a beginner chef should make this mistake. See how those thickening be in bits and pieces. That means the chef didn't stir in well.

As I left the restaurant, I found out it got a best restaurant. Really amazing!