Shanghainese Cuisine: Where Lies its Destiny?
With contributions from Alice Huang.
It would appear that the fortune of Shanghainese cuisine was told in the latest MICHELIN Guide Shanghai. Not one single Shanghainese cuisine restaurant made it to the coveted 3-star category (defined as exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey), now three years running, and the majority that were included in the Guide were in the Bib Gourmand (good quality, good value cooking) and 1-star (high quality cooking, worth a stop) categories. Interestingly, cuisine from nearby province, Zhejiang, performed rather well. The 2019 edition unveiled a new 2-star, Xinrongji, on Nanyang Road famous for its Taizhou-style (a city on the Eastern coast of Zhejiang) cooking.
Eddie Zhou, Assistant Professor and Doctor of History at Zhejiang Gongshang University thinks one of the reasons for the cuisine to be somewhat underappreciated is because it is too undefined. For one, Shanghainese cuisine is quite similar to Huaiyang cooking, a sub regional style of Jiangsu cuisine, and Zhejiang cuisine in terms of flavours and ingredients.
“Historically, a large population from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces migrated to Shanghai and brought with them their cooking techniques and taste. The essence of Shanghainese cuisine has been the localisation of the two. Some people would say that Shanghainese cuisine is just ‘local cuisine’ but the problem is we can’t find what it is that makes it characteristically different from Huaiyang style cooking or Zhejiang cuisine.”
And that’s not the end of the story. In addition, the taste of Shanghainese cuisine was evolving to adapt to the diverse population that Shanghai was attracting as an early large trading city.
“As a harbour, Shanghai has also been influenced by Western cultures and a specific Shanghai Western-style culture impregnated the cuisine. So, people sometimes say Shanghainese cuisine is like Shanghainese western-style cooking, but the problem is we cannot find in it any trace of the unique food culture of Europe or of America either,” Prof Zhou added.
The effect of being undefined is all too well illustrated when people are asked to describe Shanghainese cuisine, and it would be the classical response: 濃油赤醬 (translated as lots of oil with red sauce, or, rich and uses a lot of soya sauce).
But is this the destiny of Shanghainese cuisine? Undefined and therefore underappreciated?
In recent years, I have come across a few noteworthy restaurant owners, who are taking upon themselves to define a distinctive and refined version of Shanghainese cuisine of their generation. These individuals are bringing a new dimension to the world of fine dining in China by putting together quality ingredients, distinctive cooking, excellent service and beautiful venues into a formula of their own to craft unique and distinguished experiences that delight their guests.
Take Shanghai-born Fang Yuan who owns the suite of Shanghainese Fu restaurants (Fu 1015, Fu 1034, Fu 1088) and Shandong-born Caesar Song, at the head of fashionable restaurants like Sichuanese Mayura and Cantonese Sense 8 and who has made a first step venturing into Shanghainese cuisine with Eileen (named after the famous Shanghainese writer Eileen Chang). While not all their restaurants are always recognised by rating systems, they are celebrated by the local clientele, which flocks there to enjoy a modernised version of the cuisine of their childhood.
Knowing the popularity of Mr Fang and Mr Song’s enterprises, my thought is that in a vibrant city like Shanghai where desires are changing all the time, tastes are dynamic and trends ebb and flow, there is probably only one constant standard by which something as ingrained as a local cuisine like Shanghainese cuisine can be measured — demand from the people. So, a people’s vote taken like one would a pulse of a person’s heart, is likely the fairest judge for a cuisine like Shanghainese. Might it evolve to become a vegetarian cuisine, or might it become more a fusion cuisine, the story will only unfold with time.
Personally speaking, I am quite sure that the fortune of Shanghainese cuisine is not yet told, and while it takes time and effort to change any fortune, the trajectory is bright. What’s important, I believe, is for contemporary restaurateurs of Shanghai to be audacious, to leverage the beauty of what’s locally of the moment and to capture our imagination, and in this way, bring this elusive, local cuisine to the top of the stars. The destiny of Shanghainese cuisine is in their hands.
Do Your Part
People’s Vote: FOOD+ journal invites you to be your own judge and submit names of Shanghainese cuisine restaurants in Shanghai to which you would award 3 stars. Please send your submission here along with the address of the restaurant and a brief explanation of your choice by October 21st. We will publish all submissions received.
This article is a follow-up of a previous article:
