Cheesin’ on The Bund
Greetings from Shanghai! Well, really, Hong Kong as I write this. My family, Nate and I spent 6 days exploring Shanghai - spanning Christmas through New Years Day. We stayed at Le Royal Meridien near People’s Square (think Central Park and major shopping destinations) for half the time and then moved to an AirBnB in the French Concession (much cooler, trendier neighborhood). I loved Shanghai and was absolutely surprised with how different it is than I expected! We had a few travel hiccups (i.e. Nate quickly getting up to speed on his Mandarin to be able to navigate our taxi drivers through the city) and lots of laughs to be shared. But - let’s cut to the chase and talk about what we have been eating!
A typical day started out with a massive breakfast spread at Le Royal Meridien. I’m telling you guys, I have NEVER seen quite a breakfast spread like this before. And thanks to my SPG perks, Nate and I got this buffet fo free. I wish I had some pictures to show you - they had stations from every country around the world. On any given morning, I hate dark Swedish seedy bread with cheese and jam AND dumplings AND muesli AND an omelet AND fresh pressed juice. For lunch, we usually stumbled into some noodle and dumpling shop on the side of the road for a steaming bowl of dumplings and broth. For dinner, we explored a variety of different styles - Sichuan, Thai, Yunnan, “Hot Pot”, even Spanish tapas - for a more elaborate sit down dinner. Sometimes I had a treat of a “pearl saga” milk tea (AKA boba) in the afternoon.
So how can I summarize typical Chinese cuisine? Maybe we totally missed the mark and didn’t eat traditional Shanghainese foods, but the flavors are not too spicy, and they do taste distinctively different than American Chinese food. I asked Nate for a “Dani California Cooks” exclusive quote on the food we ate and his response was “vinegary” - so there you have it. We ate lots and lots of pork - something I do not normally eat. Lots of cabbage-y vegetables and spring onions. Lots and lots of white starches, in the form of noodles or rice or dumplings. Lots of clear broths. And quite a bit of MSG too. And LOTS of dumplings! Check out our culinary adventures below as we ate our way through Shanghai, and scroll below for some of my tips and tricks.
Dinner at Sichuan Citizen - different stir fries and Golden Age liquor (yuck) on the side
Homemade noodles being cut and flying into a hot steaming bath in Souzhou!
Exploring some sesame breads right off the street - kind of like a pita pocket with mushrooms and spices.
The famous Xiaolongbau at Din Tai Fung! Take a dumpling, dip it in soy sauce/vinegar, put it in your spoon, puncture it so the broth comes out, top with ginger and then scarf.
Breakfast treats bought off the street back in our AirBnB - pork buns and sesame breads filled with something sweet.
Tips and Tricks for Dining in Shanghai:
1. Shanghai folks eat early, like at around 6pm. Most restaurants are out of their main and popular dishes by 7pm and they are shutting their doors and turning off the lights (even on the weekends) by 8 or 9pm. We had a lot of trouble wandering around and looking for places to eat at night because we would head out around 7:30pm. So this leads me to my next recommendation…
2. Make reservations! More places than I expected took reservations. This helped to avoid the “walking around and not finding an open place to eat” issue. We had very little trouble making reservations on our own or through the concierge, and it made our dining experiences much easier for dinner.
3. Share everything! Order family style.
4. Smartshanghai.com and Cityweekend.com are great resources for dining out.
5. What looks like soy sauce on your table may be vinegar. Poor Nate had a few too many experiences pouring vinegar all over something thinking it was soy sauce.
Thanks for stopping by! 
Holy cow! What an amazing experience. These pictures are incredible!
So happy to share!! Glad you enjoyed!