Shanghainese cuisine: Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, but refines those of the surrounding provinces (mostly from adjacent Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces).
What can be called Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, eel, crab and chicken are "drunken" with spirits and usually served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to spice up the dish.
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An insight from 'Metropolasia-Man':
The use of sugar and alcohol in cooking is what characterize the Shanghainese cuisine, although these two ingredients do not usually dominate the food in terms of flavor...
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The use of sugar is common in Shanghainese cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the "secret ingredient." The most notable dish of this type of cooking is "sweet and sour spare ribs".
"Beggar's Chicken" is a legendary dish wrapped in lotus leaves, covered in clay and oven baked to steamy, tasty perfection - in olden times, it was baked in the ground. Lime-and-ginger-flavoured "1,000-year-old" eggs are another popular Shanghainese creation.
Seafood is also very popular in Shanghainese cuisine and one of the most famous delicacies is Shanghai hairy crab.
Other popular dishes include the "eight treasure" duck, "drunken" chicken, braised eel and yellow fish. Dumplings, breads and noodles are served more often than rice.
Unlike Cantonese or Mandarin cuisine, Shanghainese restaurant menus will sometimes have a dessert section.
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You may also want to read about...
The Cantonese Cuisine
Chiuchow (Teochew) cuisine
Szechuan (Sichuan) cuisine
Peking/Beijing (Mandarin) cuisine
