Michael Booth

Rome: most disappointing European capital food-wise?

I provoked whatever the Twitter equivalent of a few raised eyebrows is a while back when I was in Rome and mentioned online how lacklustre I thought the food was there. There was little variety, the quality of produce was poor, the service hostile, the restaurant decor dated... I could go on but, essentially, the Italian capital - at least the central part of it (the bit circled by the Metro, with all the main tourist sights) - just didn't have much of a food vibe. I am sure there are worse capital cities (Bern and Warsaw spring to mind), and doubtless there's some good stuff out in the suburbs, but one would hope for so much more from Rome. When I think how long the list of 'must eat' restaurants is in central London and Paris, you would expect more of the Eternal City.

I'd really done my research and tried to find some interesting places before we went, but the pickings were thin before we'd even left, and the reality was even more sparse.

Frankly, if this young chap had actually been behind the stoves, I would have stood a better chance of getting a decent meal.

Thank the good lord for the gelato, although we had to eat an awful lot of mediocre stuff before we discovered the new Flor on via Cavour, which was stunningly good.

This pizza place, a ten minute walk from the Vatican, has generated a great deal of heat online for its 'gourmet' toppings (smoked eel; baccalao, etc), but it was fiercely expensive, you had to eat sitting hunched on a bench outside, and the crusty, bread-like base reminded me why I prefer soft, doughy Neapolitan pizzas so very much more.

So, the dining options were a disappointment, but I at least hoped for a few decent food stores, particularly around the Campo di Fiori market.

There were a couple...

But literally only two, and the market itself was a tourist travesty with no fish, meat or cheese. This (below) pretty much summed up the level of food retail in Rome (just lacking that extra 'i').

I was far more inspired by this sign for a ladies detective agency: there's a whole new TV franchise right there, I'd have thought. 

Final photos from Shanghai

And, just to round off the Shanghai stuff, some final photos of things that caught my eye.

Like this house, which looks like something from a Roald Dahl story.

The poultry guy's wares. Don't think I've ever seen such dejected looking ducks.

Next door, a man selling lampreys in a baby bath (well, it's a living):

The lovely packaging of the hairy crab seller, for that extra special hostess gift.

Sugar cane juice.

And leaving on the high speed Maglev as it reaches 300km/h.

Two more lovely Shanghai restaurants

One of the most interesting streets in Shanghai for nosing around on is Jinxian Road in the French Concession. There's a strange cognitive dissonance in walking around in a place which looks like one of the quieter arondissments but there's a guy slaughtering chickens on the kerbside and the air is filled with the smell of hot peanut oil and soy.

This, I was reliably informed, is the best restaurant on the street, the one-up, one-down Lan Xin (No.130). The New York Times wrote about another place a couple of doors down a while back, apparently, but Lan Xin is superior. It is the closest you can get to eating your Shanghai grandmother's food without having a Shanghai grandmother.

Downstairs was full...

So we were shown upstairs to what appeared to be the owners' living space.

Some of the best food of my trip: top right is a whole pomfret with fermented rice sauce. Delish.

But probably best of all was this steamed clover. Didn't even know clover was a food.

The pork in this hot pot was rather gnarly, but loved the tofu skin and the broth was wonderful.

On a rather different note, I also ate down on the Bund at the Peninsula Hotel.

I had steered clear of the Bund, my trip being more about indigenous, day-to-day Shanghai food than glam ‘fine dining’, but on my final night I succumbed to the high rolling allure of Yi Long Court. Its hushed Art Deco dining room was a world away from my experiences of the previous few days: this was world class haute cuisine, by any measure. Looking out at the great towers of Pudong as I tucked into a dish of spoon-tender braised beef with matsutake mushrooms, I thought to myself: Shanghai really does have it all.

Shanghai restaurants: The legendary Jesse

One restaurant's name kept cropping up as the most authentic in Shanghai whenever I talked to locals, friends who had visited Shanghai, or when I searched online: Jesse. It's actually a small chain, but I was invited one evening to the original, by chef Austin Hu of Madison, and we were joined by a great group of expat and local chefs, food writers and enthusiastic eaters.

Staggering food. So many new dishes, flavours and textures. Pungent fermented tofu (left) was not, I have to admit, one of my favourites, but the tofu skin salad (right) was great. 

Another challenging dish, drunken crab: raw crab marinaded in shaoxing wine. I've read some reports that the live crabs are literally drowned in the rice wine. Not such a bad way to go, I suppose. Most disconcerting was the fizziness of the resulting raw crab meat, fizziness usually being one of nature's warning signs that something is no longer edible.

This, though, was stunning - head of a grouper, roasted on a bed of some kind of sea asparagus-type thing.

And, at last, my chance to taste sea cucumber. Delicious, actually: very mild, very soft, very difficult to pick up with chopsticks in front of a table of people with expert chopstick skills.

And, the legendary Shanghai dish: hairy crab.

Shanghai food is resolutely un-spicy (sugar, soy, garlic and ginger are the main flavours), so this fried prawn dish was a bit of a surprise. Actually, the chillis weren't all that hot.

'Eight treasure duck', stuffed with eight ingredients, of which I can only remember 'rice'. Crunchy, fatty, meaty, delicious.

Pomfret marinated in fermented rice.

The aftermath.

... which be followed by far too many cocktails.

Shanghai Street Food

This was what I really came to China for: the dirty, quick, terribly tasty stuff they eat on the street. I don't really know where to begin to describe how indescribably great this peanut-filled wonton in pork broth tasted. It was, like, oh my god, I need to eat these every day for the rest of my life. It was, like, wha... oh... baby... more... again...

Like that thing Meg Ryan did that time.

Or the moment they opened the Ark of the Covenenant in Indiana Jones (but in a good way, and without any burning Nazis).

It was like a culinary crash-zoom, when everything else goes blurry, and your taste buds take over every other sensory input.

It was quite good.

And I have chef Austin Hu of the fantastic modern American restaurant, Madison, to thank for introducing us. He took me there together with a few of his chef friends and staff. Don't know what the place was called, nor it's address or telephone number. All I can tell you is that it was close to the junction Zhao Zhou road and Hefei Road.

Next stop was the fabulously chaotic Shouning Rd Night Food market. This is 2am on a Monday morning, and it was still buzzing.

I have never had anything quite as garlicky as these grilled oysters. I can still taste the garlic. And it was a few days ago now.

These were fabulous: grilled tofu with cumin (the latter an influence from the Chinese muslim community). Why can't we get tofu like this in the West?

Shouning Rd is famous for its crayfish. Here are some of the little blighters. Frankly, I can live without them, but they were a must-try.

The next day I met up with the wonderful Shanghai food blogger, Fiona Reilly, whose lifeonnanchanglu.com is one of the city's best English-language food blogs. We went to Jia Jia Tang Bao, probably the most famous xiaolongbao restaurant among visitors. It was excellent. For this xiaolongbao novice, as good as they get.

And, then across the street to Yang's for some sheng jian bao, kind of like fat gyoza - steamed then fried pork dumplings with sesame seeds. Of course, sesame seeds (like bacon and parmesan) could make clay taste good, but these really were terrific. If only there was one of these places on the corner of my street. Then again, I'd probably end up sheng jian bao-shaped if there were.

Any guesses what this is? Mm-mmm, congealed duck blood. Well, shame to waste it.

And thanks to Shirley Huang for taking me to this incredible chong yu bing place the next day. It looked like a janitor's closet, but chef A-Da's truly heroic spring onion pancakes are said to be the best in the city. He only makes 300 a day, and when he's made 'em, he packs up for the day. We made it just in time - in fact, Shirley had to beg with some people ahead of us in the queue to be able to buy the last two. 

Here is the master at work. I really feel there is hope for the future of humanity when I find someone who has dedicated their life to making one particular food stuff to the best of their ability, gradually honing their technique over the years, and who couldn't give a stuff about opening chains, branding, franchising, or industrialising their product.

And yet another great Shanghai street food highlight, their version of a crepe which I found in the French Concession: jiang bing, with a spicy bean paste, fried egg filling instead of ham and cheese.

You will not believe how great these taste. My god. Almost worth getting a hangover for.

And if you're still feeling peckish, take a beak, sorry, peak at these lovely duck heads.

They are partial to their deep fryers, the Shanghaiese...

Less partial to Japanese-style department-store basement food halls. This one was virtually empty.

The classic Shanghai ice lolly flavour is pea. I can imagine pea ice cream can be fantastic...

But this one was a little past its sell-by.

Table No.1 at The Waterhouse Hotel, South Bund, Shanghai

I stayed at the super-cool Langham Xintiandi (best breakfast buffet EVER, including individual chefs making ramen noodles and sushi to order), and the impossibly glamorous Langham Yangtze, but if you are looking for the hippest Shanghai hotel, it has to be the radically post-modern Waterhouse, by Singaporean hotelier, Loh Lik Peng. Believe it or not, this is it:

And the view from the terrace towards Pudong:

The hotel's restaurant is Jason Atherton's Table No.1. Atherton visits a few times a year, but the rest of the time the kitchen is in the very capable hands of ex-Maze chef, Scott Melvin. I was Scott's guest for a fantastic lunch, together with his partner, and pastry chef, Kim Lyle, formerly of Maze's South African branch.

Started with some excellent razor clams with fava beans.

Foie gras (left) and a very pretty dish of crab with a watermelon sandwich.

Smoked eel with avocado cream.

A sumptuously tasty braised chicken dish and terrific piece of turbot.

Kim Lyle's glorious desserts.

In all, I couldn't fault this meal for its rock solid technique, superb produce and unashamedly cosseting combinations of flavours. Classic, with a twist. Fabulous. And, perhaps most impressive of all, this very contemporary European cuisine draws an 80-90% Chinese clientele. 

(Disclosure: as I said, I was Scott's guest but, frankly, I am unlikely to be heading to Shanghai any time soon so would have no problem about burning my bridges in that regard, but if I didn't think it was good, as I am not obliged to, I simply wouldn't bother to post about it.)

More food and non-food stuff from Shanghai

The photos speak for themselves, so for once no smart alec captions...

To a Shanghai market

One of the best restaurants in Shanghai is Jason Atherton's Table No.1 at the too-cool-for-school Waterhouse Hotel. Atherton is apparently there a few times a year, but the rest of the time the kitchen is in the more than capable hands of Dundee-born chef, Scott Melvin, who has previously worked at Atherton's Maze and Pollen Street Social in London.

Scott and his lovely South African partner, Kim (who is also his highly skilled pastry chef), kindly offered to take me on a market tour on Sunday, to one of Shanghai's best produce markets. 'Actually, I don't often get the chance to come out here myself,' Scott told me. 'If the stallholders see me, then the prices go up.' He usually gets his ingredients delivered to the restaurant, so it was a bit of a spree for all of us.

First stop was the astonishing seafood section. Now, I like to think I am pretty au fait with just about everything that's edible from the sea - after all, I have spent quite a lot of time at Tsukiji over the years - but the fairly grotesque creatures in the top half of the picture were a new one on me. Some kind of sea cucumber, I guess...

Then there were the various species of clam, some no larger than a finger nail - presumably used for flavouring soups.

There were several shops specialising in dried sharks' fins. Don't worry, I am sure the fins were removed under anaesthetic, and replaced on the donor shark with a prosthetic. Or perhaps not...

Unlike the Japanese, the Chinese are far from squeamish when it comes to offal.

Look at the size of those fins! They've got to be from a Great White, no? (Bear in mind, I am well over six foot. Ish.). 

Is there really money to be made by counterfeiting Lea and Perrins? Hard to believe, but here's the evidence. Not shown: Jeinz Tomato Ketchup and Jaggi Seasoning.

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the big ticket restaurant items in Shanghai is sea cucumber. Here is a shop filled with dried ones - I'd love to know how they prepare them, or whether all the ones served in restaurants are dried.

Though the market was far, far more hygienic, clean and better run than the markets I visited in India last year, there was still quite a relaxed attitude to certain items.

Here's a true foodie test for you: Does this tray of sheep's brains a) revolt you to the very pit of your stomach, or b) remind you of that great lunch you once had at Ribouldingue?

Kim bought this astonishing citrus fruit, whose name (and use, other than ornament) escapes me.

(STOP PRESS: It's called a Buddha's Hand! At least, by some.) And then they took me to the cricket market, where old blokes buy fighting crickets, exchange stories of great fighting crickets of the past, and sit around watching old bouts of cricket fights on DVDs. Really.

Now, this is more like it. I'd definitely be more up for a spot of scorpion fighting.

Try teaching your grandmother to suck one of these:

The Shanghai food odyssey begins in earnest

My hotel: the staggeringly good Langham Xintiandi:

Out wandering the streets on my first day, I kept being accosted by images of sea cucumbers, of all things. Seems they are a big ticket item in Shanghai's restaurants:

Sea cucumbers intrigued me, while this, on the other hand, looks like an unconscionable misuse of the earth's natural resources to me. White truffles? For cosmetics?:

Generally, during my trip I aimed to avoid the big name, mostly Western restaurants down on the Bund, Shanghai's glitzy, colonial riverfront night zone. So the first night I had a reservation at Fu1088, a much-talked-about contemporary Shanghaiese restaurant based in a most uncontemporary setting: a 1930s French-style villa in the French Concession, the old colonial quarter.

It was one of the very strangest dining experiences I have ever had. The place was virtually deserted, and had the feel of a very posh provincial Welsh hotel, circa 1954.

The food was... robust. This is one of their signature dishes: boiled egg with hairy crab, the latter one of Shanghai's other big ticket ingredients. It was mighty rich.

Things grew more peculiar with the arrival of bird's nest tarts, which were essentially sweet egg custard tarts with bird's nests in them. Wouldn't have been so weird, except that they were from the savoury part of the menu.

It's rare for me not to eat up, but these and other challenging dishes at FU1088 did somewhat defeat me, so I stopped by a 7-11 for a snack. Spotted these chickens' feet:

The next day brought more fortunate culinary experiences. Local chef Austin Hu, of modern American restaurant Madison (also in the French Concession), kindly offered to guide me around the city's food scene, starting with xiaolongbao at a branch of the Taiwanese soup dumpling masters, Din Tai Fung (now a global chain, whose Hong Kong branch has a Michelin star):

We started with a wheat gluten dish, cooked in rice wine and soy. Addictively umami-ish, with a lovely spongey texture, like some rare, ethereal mushroom.

And jelly fish - whose crunchiness always takes me by surprise - in, if memory serves, a zingy vinaigrette. 

And the star of the show, the soup and porked-filled parcels of pleasure, to be dipped in a ginger and vinegar mix. The Xiaolongbao Platonic ideal. Beautiful. I lost my xiaolongbao virginity to the best.

(Predictable headline alert) Shanghai Surprises

I landed in China for only the second time in my life. It doesn't seem that popular these days. This is immigration.

If they catch you doing any of this kind of stuff, then it appears you're really in trouble:

This is my kind of welcome: in my hotel room, chocolates, plus a small bag of meringues. AND THE BAG WAS MADE OUT OF CHOCOLATE. Well, that didn't last.

Shanghai is quite shockingly big.

Even the scale model is vast.

Pudong: where the future can't wait: