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3 places in Shanghainese — touch one for what it's known for.
Shanghai, on the Yangtze delta, eastern China · its own page

Shanghainese

Also Hu, Benbang
One of Chinese cooking's regional kitchens · all 13 side by side

Sweet, dark and glossy: a port city's home cooking, red-braised in soy, sugar and Shaoxing wine, with soup dumplings, cold 'drunken' dishes and hairy crab in autumn.

Where it comes from

Běnbāng cài means 'local cooking' — the food of the farmers and fishermen around the old walled town, before Shanghai grew. It leant on what the delta gave: pork, river fish, rice, greens and Shaoxing wine from just over the border, cooked long in soy and sugar.

After the port opened in 1843 the city filled with newcomers from Ningbo, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Anhui and Canton, and their cooking fed into its own. What came out is richer and sweeter than its neighbours', and proud of it — nóng yóu chì jiàng, thick oil and rich sauce.

Where in it

  1. Old ShanghaiThe old walled town by the Huangpu, where Benbang cooking took shape: red-braised pork, pan-fried buns and scallion oil noodles. Soup dumplings are traced to Nanxiang, a town just to the north-west.XiaolongbaoRed-braised porkShengjian baoShanghai drunken chickenScallion oil noodlesShanghai smoked fish
  2. Chongming IslandA broad, flat island in the mouth of the Yangtze, still largely farmland, known for its steamed rice cakes and for crabs raised in the estuary waters where mitten crabs breed.Hairy crab
  3. Zhujiajiao and QingpuA canal town of stone bridges in Qingpu, near Dianshan Lake: zongzi, lake crabs in autumn, and zhārou — pork belly tied with a reed and red-braised.Red-braised porkHairy crab

How it cooks

Red-braising (hóngshāo)
Slow braising in dark soy, sugar and Shaoxing wine, then reducing until the sauce is glossy and clings — pork, fish, bean curd.
Nóng yóu chì jiàng
'Thick oil, rich sauce': the city's own style, generous with oil, soy and sugar, so dishes come out dark, sweet and shining.
Drunken and lees-steeped (zuì, zāo)
Cooked meat or seafood steeped cold in Shaoxing wine, or in the fragrant lees left from making it.
Aspic in the filling
Pork-skin stock set to a jelly and folded into dumpling fillings, so it melts into soup as they cook.

Always in the kitchen

Shaoxing winedark soylight soyrock sugarblack vinegarspring oniongingerwine lees (zāo)pork bellydried shrimpbamboo shootsbean curd knotsshepherd's purse

Cook from it

Tonight, with what's good in October

Its classics

ShanghaineseXiaolongbaoSmall, thin-skinned steamed buns of minced pork, pleated at the top and full of hot soup, served in the bamboo basket they cooked in.No one here has made it yetShanghaineseRed-braised porkCubes of pork belly braised in Shaoxing wine, dark soy and rock sugar until the sauce reduces to a sticky, mahogany glaze.No one here has made it yetShanghaineseShengjian baoSmall risen pork buns fried in a wide, shallow pan, steamed under a lid, so their bottoms go crisp and golden while the tops stay soft.No one here has made it yetShanghaineseShanghai drunken chickenChicken poached until only just cooked, chilled, and steeped in Shaoxing wine or wine lees, then served cold as a starter.No one here has made it yetShanghaineseScallion oil noodlesThin wheat noodles tossed in oil in which spring onions have been fried slowly until dark and crisp, with dark soy and sugar.No one here has made it yetShanghaineseHairy crabFreshwater mitten crabs, steamed whole in autumn and picked apart at the table for their sweet meat and rich golden roe, with ginger and black vinegar.No one here has made it yetShanghaineseShanghai smoked fishThick slices of carp, marinated, fried until crisp, then plunged into a sweet, spiced soy syrup and served cold — 'smoked' in name only.No one here has made it yet

Cooked here

No one here has cooked Shanghainese yet.