Fried polenta sticks absolutely rule! I'm going to add this to the list of the things that are so tasty when crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside.

I take back what I said about Hanuta here. The first one I ate really was stale.

I'm eating a second one as I'm typing and omg...it's SO good. The wafer doesn't taste stale at all!

Little Shanghai Restaurant, Part 2

My mom and I were hankering for a light snack/lupper (lunch + supper)/snupper on Saturday. Thankfully, my dad said though he wasn't really hungry, he'll go where ever we decided.

We happened to be in the San Mateo area so we headed over to Little Shanghai again on Saturday around 4pm. This time, there was only a 2-top occupied. The rest of the staff was cleaning up the dining room and setting up for dinner.

My dad let my mom and I decide so we ordered xiao long bao (soup dumplings), sheng jian bao (fried pork buns), and the cong you bing (green onion pancake) from the "Shanghai Dim Sum" section plus the chao ma mian and "Ji Cai & Pork w/Rice Cake" from the "Shanghai Noodles" section. I had heard about this "ji cai" dish from Chowhounders and had asked a coworker who went to university in Shanghai. She said it was a very common Shanghainese vegetable ingredient so I was curious to taste it. I was bummed to find out that they had sold out of ci fan, the Chinese donut with pork fluff and pickled veggies wrapped with glutinous rice. :(

The chao ma mian and the xiao long bao were pretty much the same as before. The chao ma mian had fewer shrimps this time...we only counted 3 vs. the ~6 last time. The soup was also a bit saltier than before...I really wished I had some rice. The XLB (xiao long bao) fared better this time around - only one sad busted one out of the 8.

Green onion pancake (cong you bing)

The green onion pancake was okay. Nice and crisp on the outside but it was lacking something. More onions? More interior fluff? All of us dipped this into the tasty but salty chao ma mian broth.

Ji Cai & Pork with Rice Cake

I'm a person who dislikes certain chewy things including many Asian rice products such as mochi, nian gao (rice cakes/ovalettes), uh...variations of these things. A lot of times, I find rice cakes too chewy or rubbery and I'm afraid I'm going to choke on them when I swallow. I don't have that much patience for mastication. :P Yet, I still ordered this dish with rice cakes. And I'm glad I did. These rice cakes were very fresh and tender. No gumminess or rubberyness at all! I don't know what ingredients or magic many Shanghai dishes have but a lot of them have a distinct smell of deliciousness I can't put my finger on. It's sort of (but not exactly like) the smell of garlic sizzling in hot oil. I could smell the yummyness as soon as the waiter dropped off this dish off. My dad started picking at it as soon as put my camera down. ^_^ My dad is not one for saying things are good but his actions speak louder than words. Well, his chopstick actions anyway. He kept picking at the dish! :D

Also, we weren't exactly sure what vegetable "ji cai" is. The stalk ends and pieces were so tiny and delicate looking. The stalk ends looked like the end of a miniature spinach. In any case, it had a very interesting flavor. Green with a slight floral flavor.

Sheng jian bao (fried pork buns)

These were slightly larger than the XLB with a thicker skin. Sort of a like a pan-fried version of XLB - these babies also contain "juice."You can sort of see from the photo above that the bun in front was busted so no soup from that one. :( A bit oily for my taste but I loved the crispy browned bottoms. Mom thought the pork filling was a bit bland in the sheng jian bao but I thought it was similar to the XLB.

All in all, this was a delicious lunner/lupper/snupper - er, whatever you call the meal between lunch and dinner. :P Dad approved...seeing as how he nabbed 5/8 XLBs and inhaled a whole bunch of the rice cakes. When dad has a good appetite for food after claiming he wasn't hungry, it means he liked it. (Mom and I didn't realize he ate most of the XLBs until he left the table. O_o)

Hanuta

My coworker MD shared her bounty of these little guys given to her by a sales rep from a German company. To "sweeten" up the demo session, he brought in a whole sack of goodies including these chocolate and hazelnut wafer sandwich cookies. MD raved about how these were totally addictive and were her (sad) little morning secret. Haha...she had way way way too many and gave us each a few. Would I turn down a chocolate-hazelnut combo? Never. :D

Hanuta = wafer + chocolate w/ hazelnuts + wafer

So how was it? Meh. I guess my expectations were kinda high following MD's praise and seeing the picture on the label. The wafers were a bit dry and stale...not quite Triscuit-dry but not flaky and light either. The filling was very chocolaty but I guess I expected larger hazelnut pieces too.

I don't know if it was a fluke - I could've gotten a bum stale one since the salesman flew from Germany then traveled around the US with Hanutas in tow.

Little Shanghai Restaurant, San Mateo, CA

02/16/2008

My mom and I were in San Mateo for some shopping and were feeling a bit snacky. I suggested heading over to Shanghai East on W. 25th Ave when my mom suggested Little Shanghai down the street. We had seen this restaurant before and were curious to try it.

At ~2:15pm, the restaurant was jam-packed with families. We waited about 10 minutes for a table to clear up. The wait allowed us to survey the room to see what people were ordering. The Lion's Head meatballs (advance order required) looked fantastic! Too bad we weren't starvingbecause there were so many items to try. One note, the Shanghai Dim Sum and Shanghai Noodles sections of the menu look very much like what Shanghai East offers. Also interesting: Jiangnan Reminiscent Dishes.

Chow Ma Noodle Soup:

The noodles under the generous portion of seafood looked like they were made in-house. A bit yellow in color, they had a nice bouncy bite that held up well in soup. There were at least 6-7 perfectly crisp shrimp and quite a few pieces of fish and beef. The broth was oilier than I would have liked but it had a good flavor with a nice punch.


Shanghai Rice Roll "Salted"


Ginormous "ci fan tuan" and only $1.95. It was obviously made to order since it took a while to arrive and it was piping hot. This is a Chinese donut (you tiao/you zha gwai) with preserved vegetables and pork floss/fluff/sung wrapped with glutinous rice. A very tasty version.

Xiao Long Bao (8 per order)
These dumplings had with a nice pork filling and were very juicy. I thought these wrappers were pretty good but only 5/8 did not leak. The dough was not the thinnest I've had, but they were at least cooked through.

I was very impressed with this restaurant and I can't wait to go back to try more of their Shanghai specialties.