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[Local Flavor]:Die Yuan

The right Shanghainese restaurant - By Derek Hafner, Feb 03, 09

When discussing the city's local cuisine, non¨Clocals have the tendency to be disparaging in their criticism. Like the city itself, Shanghai's cuisine is an amalgamation of foreign cooking methods, with the most palpable flavors coming from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Unlike the subtle flavoring of the dishes of those two provinces, Shanghai's cuisine is much more potent, and most complaints follow the same line -- the food is too sweet, uses too much rice wine, or is too oily.

Admittedly, a successful Shanghainese dish requires a careful balance. Shanghai food can be sweet, but a well-prepared dish is not overwhelming in its sweetness, and there's a thin line where just a small amount of sugar can change the edibility of a dish. Eating at a greasy spoon like Bao Luo is not a proper place to experience good Shanghainese food. These kinds of restaurants have neither the time nor the energy to make sure that, while trying to be innovative -- adding, say, sprinkles to a dish -- they won't overwhelm it with too much sweetness. With such a delicate balance of rich flavor necessary, it should be no surprise that many Shanghainese restaurants, in an attempt to quickly serve the masses, don't achieve that balance, and leave so many people with reason to criticize the food.

The real problem is that most people just haven't found the right restaurant.

Down the street from Xintiandi is a restaurant that avoids all of the mistakes that give Shanghainese cuisine a bad name. Die Yuan (the English name is Butterfly Garden, but the English sign is barely visible from the road) is the type of restaurant that makes a food lover happy to live in this city. The food here is 100% Shanghainese; while many other quality Shanghai restaurants are attempting (welcome) innovations to the genre, Die Yuan is a virtual map to the roots of Shanghai food.

Looking through the menu (available in English) you'll notice a lot of the dishes are Shanghai classics. On last visit, the server recommended three cold dishes (a lot for a three-person party). Lu Cai (³²Ë) is similar to the cucumber and garlic ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants, but they've added the texture of jellyfish slices (adds more crunch, not more taste). Shou si ji (ÊÖ˺¼¦) is dry, slightly salty shredded chicken. While seemingly plain, I felt it was great as a light dish before heading into the heavier sauces of the main dishes. The third cold dish was one of Shanghai's famous drunken dishes, zui mao xie (×íëз), drunken crab. I've had this in several restaurants before, but I've never been a fan, either because the crab didn't taste fresh or the rice wine it had been marinated in was of a low quality. Die Yuan was the first restaurant in which I've eaten more than one piece of the crab without the intention of being polite. The crab here was cut so that the roe was easily accessible, and the rice wine was good enough to drink.

The two specialties of the restaurant were new to me, but are apparently Shanghai staples: Shao zhi tang yu (ÉÕÖ­öðÓã) was served on a flaming plate that the waiter magically extinguishes. The fish, fried pomfret, was crispy and served in a tangy sauce that was sweet, but only lightly so -- not overwhelming as many expect from a Shanghainese sauce. The standout for me though was mian jing sai rou kao qing cai (Ãæ½îÈûÈ⿾Çà²Ë). Lion's head pork meatballs stuffed into fried tofu balls and served in a thick hong shao sauce with baby bok choy. This dish was the perfect balance of sweetness that comes from Shanghai's secret red sauce, with the added diversity of texture from a tough ball of fried tofu and the soft meatball inside.

Die Yuan's menu is a veritable guide to Shanghai cuisine. It's certainly not the first restaurant to establish itself as a purveyor of classic Shanghai cooking, but it deserves to be said in the same breathe as other Shanghai food institutions. Die Yuan does not have a single dish that makes it famous, it has a thorough, consistent menu instead, and it will leave foreigners remembering Shanghai as a city of great food, not food that's too sweet and oily.

In terms of prices, dinner for two including drinks should come out to around 250rmb.

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