April 05, 2007
小南國
First time in Shanghai for a customer meeting, so our Shanghai manager took us out to a nice place to eat. This was relatively near our office, a massive place occupying three floors each with a big central space surrounded private rooms. Each floor featured high ceilings, too. Big tables for the extended family meals with kids and elders, and upholstered booths for the nouveau riche couples. Good spot to bring the foreign visitors, too.
Shanghai food places some emphasis on the cold appetizers. The peanuts with matching cubes of pork-belly soy-roasted with a tea infusion was wrapped in a banana leaf cone for presentation. Also got the cold-cut jellyfish head which had a crunchier, less slippery texture than the standard jellyfish dish. Thought it was weird to be ordering a mixed salad for a Chinese meal, but our guy said it was good, and I was pleasantly surprised for once. A good variety of mixed greens, no corn, and a really good Caesar-ish dressing which had good flavor (i.e. not sweet) without being goopy.
The main dishes started light with the delicately stir-fried mini-shrimp, a Shanghai specialty, and the standard garlic-sauteed pea-shoots. Then came the heavy hitters, like the long-roasted pork-shoulder with all the collagen and fat from the skin basting the meat making it fall-off-bone tender. Crab roe tofu, well, at least the tofu is good for you. The fried salt-and-pepper snake is a signature dish. It's been ages since I've had snake and first time fried. The meat is lean but a good fry job kept it moist. Pulling the strings of meat off all the bones made it almost fish-like. Would've been perfect with some beer but we stuck with juice after a travel day with work to do tomorrow. Of course there's the obligatory xiao long bao, just in case you're still hungry. The crab roe in the filling added some extra richness to the broth inside the dumpling, but I thought the DTF version is a bit more delicate and a bit better done.
小南國
Shanghai Xiao Nan Guo
上海市虹梅路3337號
(Multiple locations in Shanghai)
3208-9777