The biggest dinner we had in Shanghai occurred on January 8 at a grandiose restaurant on Zhaojiabang Road called Jade Garden, and involved two round tables of 10-11 people each. Although service was strangely slow, the dishes were certainly impressive.
First, Drunken Chicken:
Next, some sort of meat (probably beef) in aspic:
Kao fu (baked spongy wheat gluten), a Shanghai specialty:
Then there was a "salad" of lettuce leaves with peanut sauce - a rather strange inclusion, so we'll skip the picture and move on to tofu skin:
River shrimp (we had this preparation at several meals in China; the shrimp are steamed and then - I think - briefly tossed in a barely perceptible, slightly starchy sauce. You eat the shrimp with a little vinegar, and it's incredibly simple and good):
Here are most of the appetizers on my plate:
Now, moving on to hot dishes, beginning with wheat gluten with vegetables in a tomato-based sauce:
"Drumstick mushroom" with baby bok choy:
Eel, in a traditional Shanghai-style preparation (also a dish I love):
Some sort of beef:
Tea-smoked duck with gorgeous little seashell-shaped steamed buns. This duck was amazingly tender:
Sea-bass, slow-cooked with "red-braised pork" (hong shao rou) in a clay pot:
Pressed tofu skin (bai ye):
Whole sea cucumber, served to each diner. Sea cucumber has no taste of its own, so everything depends on the sauce in which it is prepared/served, and this sauce was the perfect balance of sweet and savory. Apparently these sea cucumbers that are served whole (as opposed to bite-size pieces in a shared dish) are even more of a delicacy.
Fish-head soup. I should point out that this fish head and the tureen that contained it were simply enormous. Also, the soup was delicious.
"Snacks" to end, beginning with a fried rice cake:
Sheng jian bao (pan-fried pork dumplings):
