Pork belly, pancakes and hairy crab: Rick Stein eats the best of Shanghai

From learning how to eat soup dumplings to the secret to red braised pork, Rick Stein has a lot to eat in this big, bustling city. But what tops his list?

Of course there's seafood: Rick Stein at Jinshan fishing village. Source: Denham Productions

Rick Stein is a little worried. He's come to Shanghai, a bustling city with a rich culinary history, and he's ready to eat. But is he going to to find the amazing Chinese food he's expecting? 

"Since the eighties it’s become a global financial centre to rival London, New York and Hong Kong. And with all that cash, restaurants have opened up at a rate of knots and chefs have been drawn here from all over the world," he says at the start of Rick Stein's taste of Shanghai (watch below, or on SBS On Demand). 

"What I'm here for is the food, of course, the Shanghainese dishes, but, are they still here i wonder? Because, everything's changing, there's so many western restaurants opening here. What's happening to Shanghainese cooking?"

You will be unsurprised to know that the seafood guru finds plenty to delight as he eats his way through the city and surrounds, meeting enthusiastic winemakers, grumpy noodle vendors and a chef who refuses to carry his wife's handbag (but does share an excellent recipe for red braised pork).

Here are some highlights of his tasty adventures.

1. Steamed hairy crab

"The hairy crab isn’t actually all that hairy – apart from a generous tuft on its meaty forearms, and not much else," Stein comments, before digging into some while getting a succinct summary of what Shanghai food is from local tour guide Jamie Barys. 

"Shanghainese cuisine is kind of the red headed step-child of Chinese cuisine; so there's four major cuisines that are on the compass point. And the one that's in the East is called Huaiyang," Barys explains.

"And Shanghainese is a branch of Huaiyang cuisine. It's a bit sweeter and has a lot more foreign influences than a lot of the other cuisines in China. Because, historically, Shanghai has always been a port town."

2. Red braised pork

Stein goes to meet leading Shanghai chef Anthony Zhou. After a trip to the kitchen where Zhou reveals the secret to his version of local favourite, rich, sticky sweet-savoury red braised pork, the pair sit down for dinner with Zhou's wife. The conversation roams from the incredible number of restaurants in Shanghai (around 120,000!) to why Shanghai husbands are excellent - but  Zhou doesn't embrace the local custom of a husband carrying his wife's purse.

Source: Rick Stein's Taste of Shanghai

Get Anthony Zhao’s red braised pork recipe here. 

3. Pig intestine noodles

Over a bowl of this local favourite, Stein asks Shanghai local Jia Jia why several noodle vendors told him and his film crew to go away.  The famous ones are always grumpy, she assures him - "they don't need to be polite."

Rick Stein and his Shanghai local Jia Jia, enjoy the city’s traditional pig intestine noodles. Source: Denham Productions

4. Clams from the market

As a port city, it's not surprising that Shanghai has fantastic seafood. And (spoiler alert!) without giving away the answer entirely, we can say that when Stein ranks his favourite three dishes from Shaghai at the end of the show, there's a seafood dish on the list. One of the contenders? Clams bought at a bustling seafood market and taken to the kitchen of a nearby restaurant, to be cooked in a matter of minutes.

Market fresh: Stir-fried clams with ginger and spring onions. Source: Denham Productions

5. Scallion pancakes

Would Rick Stein wait an hour for one of the hot, flakey green-flecked scallion pancakes made by local legend Mr Wu?

6. Soup dumplings

Stein gets tips on how to eat xiao long bao - soup dumplings. It's a matter of a delicate nip and a slurp, suspended above the safety-net spoon. "Soft, delicate, doughy bags of flavour," says a happy Stein.

7. Where there's a wine, there's a way

On the island of Chongming, Rick has something else he wants to share. "It’s one particular ingredient that turns up in dish after dish - yellow rice wine – and it’s made from fermented glutinous rice. In this winery, the wine they make is more for drinking than cooking with – and that’s fine by me."

8. Chicken, tofu and afternoon tea

No, not all at once. That's just a quick glimpse of some of the other things he eats. He's not entirely sure about stinky tofu ("Well, it's not great, but I think I could get used to it"); delighted by the chicken dish cooked by the mother of his translator, Jia Jia ("lovely"); and prompted to fanciful imaginings by afternoon tea ("There’s a distinct whiff of the thirties in the air").

Watch Rick Stein's Taste of Shanghai  here or on SBS On Demand).