(Visited in June, 2011)
Shang Hai Xing Cun, Shanghai Kitchen, is one of popular Chinese restaurants
specialized in Shanghai-style food in Taipei. Their signature item, braised
pork, has rich texture of taste, with high quality of pork. My friend invited
me for lunch.
Stinky Tofu
When people visit Taiwan, they always wonder what Stinky Tofu is. As you
can guess, it is tofu with VERY STRANGE smell. It is really strange… I usually
cannot stand it. However, I was surprised when this item was served in front of
us. There was no such a smell! My friend told me that that is just because we
were the only table who ordered Stinky Tofu. Ha ha. I see. If many tables order
it, then we could SMELL it.
This Stinky Tofu (清燉臭豆腐) was
steamed one, with spicy soup. Once I put my nose closer to the dish, yeah I
could slightly smell it. It is stinky tofu. As you can see, soup was made of spicy oil and red pepper. Surprisingly, it tasted good.
Braised Pork
Here is their signature item, Braised Pork (東坡肉) (NT$ 420). I forgot to take a picture,
but it was served with white bun (割包). Take one
piece of pork, put on top of white bun with shredded green onion then enjoy the
richness taste of the pork. Wow! I know the similar taste of this sauce,
because on Japanese food, we have similar item called Kakuni (角煮). However,
this braised pork was quite different. Tenderness, sauce, texture… I have never
tasted like this before, especially I was astonished by the tenderness of pork.
The meat simply melted in my mouth, without biting. The fatty part was like
pudding, and don’t even feel it would hurt my cholesterol number. Quantity was
a lot, so just a two of us could not finish all. I brought it back to my home
and ate with steamed rice the next day, which was also tasty.
Beancurd Preserved Vegetables with Soybean paste
雪菜百頁 (NT$ 420). This was interesting item. I am
not quite sure what it was, but I believe it was something like Yuba (湯葉). Yuba was
cooked with interesting vegetable, so-called 雪菜. I have
tried雪菜 before,
and I kinda like feeling in my mouth when I bite it.
Sour Fish
Last item is Sour Fish (醋溜魚片). To tell
you the truth, it was okay taste among other items. I think it is just because
of my taste. Of course, it was delicious, but I personally not a huge fun of
sourness. Sweetness and sourness, for me, are a bit too strong taste for me. I
like light taste, as close as raw or original taste. So this dish had heavy
taste. I also thought their fish was not fresh enough, which was disappointing.
Ironically, this was the most pricy dish in this lunch.
Their service was alright, but they could train workers more properly since
their food is great. Sadly, the friendliest person was a guy in bullet parking.
I would like to go back there again to enjoy their braised pork. Next time, I
hope I get just a little bit better service.
http://www.shanghaikitchen.com.tw/
