the magical dumpling hour
A more organised trip to Shanghai would have seen Dan and I whisked through the recognised cultural sites around People’s Square and The Bund in a matter of days. We’d have bought a couple of “bagsshoesrolexdvd” at the fakes market and gone on our merry way.
However, we seem to be organised not by our guidebooks, but by our feet (“Hey, let’s go down this street”) and our stomachs.
Even though I’ve had a couple of reasonable vegetarian meals (at the restaurant next to the Jade Buddha Temple and at Element Fresh in the Shanghai Centre), never has there been a time when I’ve celebrated my non-vegetarian status quite so much. And the reason for this celebration is street food in its myriad forms – but specifically the dumpling form.
Every two hours or so, Dan and I look at each other longingly, there’s hunger in our eyes… We’re thinking of snacks.
Any snack will do. We’ve had a rather tasty / pretzel like bread from the sinkiang area of China, fruit and bubble tea, tiny custard tarts and steamed buns with different fillings. There’s still various kebabs, steamed corn and candied fruit to try. Any snack will do and will probably more than suffice, but already, the tastiness we desire most is shengjian mantou (生煎馒头).
We keep finding ourselves walking in obscure local wet markets where we happen to be the only westerners around. We are stared at. We stare back at the people and the food for sale (specifically at the bullfrogs and obscure wriggling little eel things that we can’t identify). Yet that hasn’t stopped us in our search for shengjian mantou. We see them occasionally and gesture for two serves of them… Delicious!
But now I know what to ask for! Dan and I still haven’t explored the magical dumpling hour (just after 5) in the Old City near the Yunnan Gardens. And Shanghaiist has even provided me with an address for the best dumpling store in town.
I know where we’ll be having lunch tomorrow!
Isn’t Shanghai just the best? I knew you would enjoy it! Tell me, did you stumble across that amazing artist colony?
Hey pippa – what is in the magical dumplings, you are leaving us hanging in wonderment and our gastric juices need developing, love mum
hooray for magical dumplings! someone left magical pears in the tea room so in honour of you and dan i’ll deep fry them and have them for afternoon tea. i’m also about to try stinging nettle tea for the first time, so this could be the last time i correspond with the world…
xo lsd
yumm dumplings.