Ms. Jazz Shanghai Eats: Zhen Ding Ji 振鼎鸡 @ Fu Xing Zhong Rd

I would strongly recommend "free and easy" trip when it comes to exploring Shanghai. It's really not necessary for you to join the tour because 1) public transport is so convenient 2) common language if you're a chinese, if not their english has actually improved. Most in the city can understand basic english. 3) Whenever you join a tour, it's so rush that you don't get to enjoy much local food

For me, we basically just take the taxi everywhere we go. (so do most local chinese because parking in Shanghai is crazily expensive- try RMB10-20 PER HOUR) All taxis are in standard rate. From airport to the city center will cost you about RMB180-190. For normal taxi fair on non-off hours would be RMB12 to start the meter but it will remain the same rate for 3KM which will pretty much bring you to most places in the city. Subsequent KM will be approx RMB2.50ish. The best thing is the taxi drivers won't cheat you- they are pretty decent comparing to Malaysia, and yes it is much safer too! The only problem is Drivers in Shanghai drives like NUTS. They cut lane like nobody business and can't seem to keep their hands off the horns! ARGH, it was definitely a road nightmare. They are also very very impatient as they will keep swearing along the way.
During peak hours i.e. dinner time- you'll find yourself struggling to catch an empty cab especially in the city center i.e. nanjing rd/ jiu jiang rd. At times you really have to fight for them and be really cunning about it. Don't feel bad if you manage to snatch taxis away from people. haha. It happens all the time. =D

If you want to get out of the city to the surrounding famous towns such as SUZHOU, HANGZHOU, ZHOU ZHUANG, you'll be glad to know that it's actually really convenient to get there too, there's is frequent trains scheduled to bring you to the footsteps of SUZHOU (one hr away), HANGZHOU (two hours away) etc. Or is you do not want to scratch your head too much there's also one day tour available in china tour agencies, ask your hotel operator for assistance.

To enjoy a local eat rather than a common tourist eatery, i'd like to introduce you "Zhen Ding Ji" 振鼎鸡. This restaurant was established on year 1996 and has since expand to more than 10 stores as of today.

They are famous for all things chicken. Most people visit for their steam chicken which i had to say was definitely recommendable. The skin was really smooth and chicken was tender. Basically achieve all basic criteria of finger licking good steam chicken. You get to choose which chicken section of your preference to order. I always go for the thigh-drunmstick part as they tend to be more soft and pleasant to bite.

Apart from their famous steam chicken, 振鼎鸡 also sells chicken porridge, chicken blood soup (which seems favourite among locals) and noodles.

 

The restaurant may seemed a bit crammed up because of the crowd but it was clean, and cooling. Which suits us just fine.

The sauce to dip the chicken is also what's making this steam chicken special. Most importantly it complement well with the chicken without being too salty. The portion was quarter chicken.

The price was reasonable! If i remember correctly, 1/4 chicken plus chicken porridge with 2 drinks are only RMB20 (or 10 ringgit)

PK loving the chicken

I do like the chicken porridge, which i believe it was cooked with chicken stock, the rice was not watery and smooth like the ones you get in CHIU CHOW porridge but rather it's more grainy almost like semi-cooked rice with stock but i thought it suited the dish well.

 

For more info, check out their website http://www.zhending-chicken.com/index.asp to find out about various branch, the ones i went to was in 复兴中路1195号

Ratings:

Food: 7/10