Shanghai cuisine

The culinary style of Shanghai is elegant, with fragrant sauces. Some Chinese cooks are of the opinion that Shanghai does not have its own definitive cuisine, but adopts and adapts those from the surrounding provinces, so that the resulting marriage of styles and ingredients is a hybrid with Shanghai soul. Shanghai chefs can be heavy-handed with alcohol, resulting in many ‘drunken’ dishes. Almost every creature that flies, swims or crawls is fair game for this delicious sousing.

Salted meats and preserved vegetables are commonly used to enhance dishes, and sugar is used with abandon, especially in tandem with soy sauce. ‘Red cooking’ (Hong Shao) is a popular style of stewing meats and vegetables in an intoxicating blend of wine, preserved beancurd and soy sauce.