25 July 2013

Taste of Shanghai (on the cheap) ~ Chinese - World Square, City


Sit back, sip on a Tsing Tao and suck on a soup dumpling at Taste of Shanghai in World Square.






Taste of Shanghai have an empire that spreads across the city from Ashfield, Hurstville and Eastwood to finer dining at Chatswood. While the fine dining might be nice, we are cheapskates and look for the best meals at the lower end of the budget. The World Square location means a great feed for two in the CBD with change from a lobster, can't get any better than that.



Spicy dan dan noodle soup - $9.80. An oily broth tasting of Szechuan pepper with a fair chili whack, spaghetti-thick noodles with mince pork and (we guess) some fermented soy beans. The broth has an almost milky consistency, we're not sure how they do it but we love it. This is a flavour we have grown to love over the years. Sensational. We've come back again for this one.



Shanghai pork noodle soup - about $10 on the specials menu. This is another soup with an oily broth, but unlike the dan dan noodles, it is less spicy, and not milky. It is topped with pork, hard tofu, mushrooms, peanuts and soy beans. Very good.



Pan fried pork bun with sesame - $9.80 for 8. A ball of piggy in a blanket of bun, crispy pan fried on the bottom. You know they're good.



Preserved vegetable with shredded pork noodle soup - $9.80. The pork and lightly salty veggies are served on the side, and there's plenty of 'em. The noodle soup is clear and plain with spaghetti-thick noodles.



Spicy beef belly noodle soup - $11.80. A nice chili and Schezuan pepper heat, a dash of oil keeps it 'burnies!' hot for quite a while. The spicy flavours nicely complement the white noodles and soak into the fatty meat. Taste of Shanghai does killer noodle soups.



Poached pork dumpling in chili oil - $9.80. Lovely pork dumpling with fresh chives drizzled with chili oil, it's flavoursome chili, not super hot bitey chili. Very happy. Highly recommended.



Shredded pork with wild vegetables stir fried rice cakes - $10.80. The humble, stodgey, simple rice cake is given a subtle lift with some green veg and slithers of pork. Yay.



Nanjing style salty duck - $10.80. Served cool. Not nearly as salty as we expected. It just tasted like good, simple duck. We found it a perfect counter\refresher when having one of the spicy soups.



From the lunch specials menu - steamed rice with diced pork - $9.80 (or $5.80 for small). The diced pork is wonderful, dark and sweet, it tastes like it has been simmered in something like soy, sugar and maybe five spice. Amongst the porky bits are nibbles of century egg, which gives it some extra oomph. It's like a fancy pants version of the Taiwanese pork'n'rice, garnished with steamed broccoli, tea smoked quail eggs and semi-sweet pickled radish. Mr Shawn liked this so much he went back the next day for it.



A simple stir fried rice noodles from the lunch special menu - $12.80. It's nice and wet. The belly pork is twice cooked and finely cut, it has a smoky bacon like taste.



Shanghai turnip croissants - $8.80. These are like little Chinese veggie pasties: light delicate pastry (we'd almost go so far as to call it dainty), with a simple filling of finely grated white turnip and veg in plain sauce. Beware the filling is hot - burnies!



Spicy crab meat Xiao Long Bao - $8.80. The famous soup filled dumplings, we tasted more pork than crab but we didn't care. We love the slight chili after-kick.



Longnecks of Tsingtao are only $9, only a couple of bucks more than bottle shop price, bargain!



We must look a bit stupid, we got a dill instead of a bill.



If you feel like it you can have a Tsing Tao beer with your meal and they serve free Chinese tea.

Taste of Shanghai is on the bottom level of World Square, next to the excellent Noodles Your Way.

Taste of Shanghai on Urbanspoon

6 comments:

  1. Poached pork dumpling in chili oil - is even better when it comes with sesame/peanut sauce!

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  2. Hey,
    love your blog!
    secondly a question, I'm Jewish so I can't have any pork (plus i usually avoid seafood) but I've always stayed away from chinese food because i've always thought it has a heap of pork in it. and im scared I might eat it accidentally. I have the same fearful attitude towards yum cha. Do you have any suggestions of places I could try?
    Or perhaps other asian cuisines( and which places to eat) where pork is less prevalent
    I love Thai!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sonya
      Perhaps you could try Uyghur cuisine, a Chinese cuisine for the north west with muslim influences. They don't serve pork, mostly beef and mutton. Also, there are Indian/Chinese restos in Auburn that are pork free and sound like they could fit the bill.

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    2. The excellent Malacca Straits on Broadway, whilst not kosher, is halal. Next door is Indo Rasa, also halal. Malacca Straits is Malaysian and as such the food has a heavy Chinese influence (on top of Indian, Thai, and Malay influences). Indo Rasa is Indonesian. Best to book at Malacca Straits as they're always busy, especially towards the weekend. Note that they're closed Sundays. Indo Rasa opens 7 days.

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  3. Great post, the spicy dan dan looks and sounds great. Will have to give that a go next time. The pan fried pork buns are of course compulsory each visit!
    Stan.

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  4. dandan mian and rice cakes are a must order for me!

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Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)

Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).