Sichuan Fish Dish
The metropolis is famous for several distinct cuisines, some purely from their respective provinces, others fashionably blended by the city’s demand for extravagance. When you say “spicy” in Shanghai, the automatic response word is “Szechuan,” or “Sichuan,” a province reputed for its spice. Ken and Aili took me out to a Sichuan restaurant after hearing that I liked spicy food. The bowl pictured above contains a spicy fish dish. It’s the first fish I truly enjoyed in Shanghai. Little red peppers crowd the bowl to add flavor. They are not meant for consumption, as I understood only after letting them burn a lasting hole in my mouth. Little numbing peppers also float in the oily Szechuan dishes to sophiscate the gustatory experience. I thought I was smart to first eat the sharp-tasting numbing pepper (like a strong clove) and then chew a red pepper, but the fire just hit farther down my throat and more unexpectedly. In some Szechuan restaurants, you can hardly breathe, the air is so infused with spice and oil wafted in from the open kitchen.
Suntory
We each started out with a tall bottle of Suntory, Japanese beer bottled in Shanghai. I was wondering if I was going to be able to finish the two to three 600 ml bottles they had purchased for me when I read the finely-printed alcohol level to be only about 4.64%. Many of the Shanghai beers taste like watered-down Corona. The legal drinking age here, by the way, is 18 as it should still be in the States too.
Ginger Chicken and Lotus Root
Ginger infuses the skin of the chicken and sweet rice stuffs the lotus root. Both were delicious. Chinese enjoy eating meat directly off the bone, which can be challenging with chopsticks. Some restaurants serve plastic gloves to diners in case they have the inclination to eat with their hands.
Lamb on a Stick
Though I love lamb, I cringe a little every time I eat it in Shanghai after hearing a rumor that cat sometime substitutes lamb. After all, stray cats come free. That’s probably only the case for some street kebab vendors, but all the meat here, with the exception of chicken, tastes a little different and I wonder how easy it would be to swap the animal type in the kitchen if there’s little cultural objection to eating it in the first place.