Showing posts with label shanghai. Show all posts

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

Thursday, August 5, 2010

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

Ms. Jazz's Shanghai Eats: Yang's fried dumpling 小杨生煎

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

One thing i learn during my trip to Shanghai, do not necessary trust restaurant that claim with big bold words that they have 100 years history or when you see pictures of celebrities or royalties in the restaurant (i was fooled by Queen Elizabeth and AGAIN- Bill Clinton who seriously need a check on those tastebuds *more about this later*

Dumplings are very common food from China whereby locals often treat it as their staples/ dinner, so naturally when it comes to Xiao Long Bao, competition is really stiff. However, this does not seem to slow this particular chain down . 小杨生煎 seem to be a favourite among the rest as the whole shanghai practically lines up (literally) to get a taste of their famous fried dumplings. And by gosh, they even have their own FAN PAGE!

What's so special about this particular blooming chain is DEFINITELY not the service. (as it SUCKS beyond imaginable that im considering a rating of -3 if possible.
It is also not about its ambience as it was rather HOT and clammy.

REALLY.. you are just looking at this GLORIOUS, tender, well marinated pork minced and the bonus is the dumpling skin was just perfect without being too thick. The bottom part was crispy while the top skin remain an untouched thin layer. While taking a careful bite on the oh-so-sinful dumpling, you'll find yourself in further ecstacy as the sweet tasting soup spills out slowly but surely.

I went to the one on Huang He Road黄河路, the line wasn't that long, thankfully.. but being in such hot weather, PK was impatient and nearly want to leave- but luckily i manage to be persistent for once.
It was self service whereby after paying at the register you go to pick up your own dumplings. People in front of the line are ordering at least 8 pieces per portion, some even 16! You want to know what the catch is??

The catch is there's no catch! You can enjoy 4 pieces per portion for only RMB5 YUAN. I mean that's equivalent to RM2.5?? Needless to say, we went back there again the very next day.

We went crazy on Hello Kitty Shopping in Shanghai, One thing about Hello Kitty in China, they are ridiculously CHEAP! and it's not fake stuff too! I think it's because it's "MADE IN CHINA"? *snigger at own jokes* OK that's what NO SLEEP for entire night and work the very next morning does to you!

Look what PK bought for me? It's a HELLO KITTY HE & SHE MUG and the SHE is sitting prettily in my office room right now looking all chiq and cute! If i have a BF right now, i'd definitely make him use the HE MUG in the office *evil laugh*

I know i know! i should really start acting my AGE

Ratings:

Food: 8.5/10

(Only the fried dumplings, the rest are OK)

Service: -3/10

(there i said it =P)

Ambience: What ambience?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

小杨生煎

上海市黄浦区黄河路97号

Tel: 021-53751793

For more info, please refer to http://www.xysjg.com/

Ms. Jazz's Shanghai Eats: Fu Mao Xiao Pang Xie 复茂小螃蟹, Huai Hai Zhong Rd

I didnt think i'll say this, but ahh.. it feels good to be back! =D

I enjoyed my trip to Shanghai very much, and took diarrhoea loads of pictures which i would love to share (600 to be exact), but i just don't know where to start!

So let's start with the weather.. (isn't that how one normally start a polite conversation? tee hee)
The weather is crazily humid and HOT. You're looking at about 38 degrees celcius on average with very very few wind. I brought 60SPF sunblock from KL and splattered all over my skin, but all is avail as all the power walking does no good to my once fair skin.
To sum it up, it was basically unbearable hot that we often duck into restaurants and shopping malls to be pampered with the generous air-cons, and this has been a general practice by both of us until the very end of the trip- which explains all the eating, eating and eating.

For starters, i'd like to introduce 复茂小螃蟹 which serves one of the most delicious crayfish EVER. If you're a spicy addict like me, why not give it a try, i'll guarantee that there will not be any dissappointment.
In case you are worried on where to find it, fear not because this popular eat has since branch out to more than 20 chain stores in Shanghai and still counting.
Their specialty is serving up reasonably priced crayfish and baby crab and you'll be spoilt with choices on the types of cooking such as Spicy Salted, Yu xiang, Rod Chilli etc. Most of them comes with different level of spiciness. For weaklings out there you may opt for the mild spicy ones (oh wait, that's me =P)
Their price ranges between 45RMB- 100RMB and those are NOT small portions.