Reporting from Shanghai

I'm in Shanghai from June 21st til August 25th, so expect many many restaurant reports as I will be eating out most of the times. Happily, Reid will still continue eating his way through Norcal.

The first thing I did when I landed in Shanghai was scour through Chowhound, the NYTimes, and other food websites that mentioned good eats. I made my little list, and have been slowly trying all of them, as well as other places that happen along my way.

Xin Ji Shi
Address: Xin Tian Di, Building 9, #2

This place was recommended by the NYTimes. And it is EXCELLENT!

Backstory: I had gone to Xin Tian Di, the most notorious expat hangout in Shanghai, because I was craving a steak and a friend of mine had mentioned finding a good deal there the other day. However I hit up every restaurant and could not find this freakin holy grail slab of meat. Discouraged, I wandered around for a drink instead. It was happy hour when I arrived and everywhere was advertising half-priced drinks, so I bounced into one place, and tried a watermelon juice. The sticker price was 40 RMB and I thought, dang, 20 RMB for a small juice, that's still pricey. Terrible choice. The watermelon wasn't sweet at all, the size of the cup was tiny, and sadly, this one bar of all the bars in the area was NOT having happy hour. 40 RMB for a drink, omg. Now left with a bitter feeling towards all the Westernized overpriced restaurants in Xin Tian Di, I looked for the one Chinese restaurant that I had heard about.

The place is very small but intimate and has an authentic Chinese feel to it, which deserves praise since it easily could've gone the tacky commercialized route to cater to expats. Another wonderful thing was that they seated me right away even though I didn't have a reservation, and they didn't seat me with another person to save tables, which Chinese restaurants have no qualms about doing.

I ordered the Hong Shao Rou, or the braised red fatty meat, that the NY Times recommended (38 RMB), and also this Nuo Mi Hong Zao, gluttonous rice in Jujube (28 RMB) that was one of their more famous dishes. The meat was VERY good, not too oily and contained a good balance of fatty to lean meat.

The Jujubes were even better, it's one of the best new dishes that I've tried in China. The restaurant also provided two small appetizer plates of peanuts covered with dried seaweed which were fantastic, and edamame beans mixed with pickles. They provided a really good balance to the two heavy dishes. Each dish was fairly small, more than enough for one person, and perhaps just enough for two people.

The service was quick and efficient. Really the first little treasure that I've found here in Shanghai.