Top 8 Most Popular Snacks in Shanghai

Shanghai is a famous international city in China. You can find many kinds of different food in the world. But do you know what the most famous local food in Shanghai? Cuisine is always one of the main theme during a trip. Here TCT would like to introduce top most popular snacks in Shanghai. Hope it is helpful for your Shanghai tour itinerary plan.

Leisha Dumpling

Leisha Dumpling is one of top ten snacks in Shanghai city with a history of over 70 years. Shanghai's Qiaojiashan Restaurant take this food as its signature snack there.

There is a story telling about the snack. It was said that in the late Qing Dynasty, an old lady surnamed Lei sold sweet dumplings with soup for a living. In order to sell more dumplings, she tried to find ways to keep the dumplings fresh for a longer time and make them easier to carry. She tried to coat the dumplings with dry glutinous rice flour, and she found out that red bean flour was the best choice to reach. Therefore, the dumplings are called Leisha dumpling after her. Since this snack made by this way, it is not only delicious, but also convenient to carry. So it became popular among people soon.

The round-shaped dumpling, filled with sweetened bean paste, sesame or pork, is boiled, then drained of water, and finally rolled in dry red bean flour. The dumplings have a color of purplish red and have the refreshing flavor of red beans.

►Ingredient
Red bean flour, sweet soup balls stuffed with fresh meat, bean paste, sesame or other ingredients

►Where to eat
Qiaojiashan Restaurant in Shanghai city is the most famous restaurant to have Leisha Dumpling. This restaurant has a long history and takes Leisha Dumpling as its signature food here. So when you get to chance to Shanghai city, Leisha Dumpling in the restaurant is highly recommended.


Noodles Mixed with Scallion, Oil and Soy

Noodles Mixed with Scallion, Oil and Soy is a deceptively simple street food packing a powerful flavour punch. It is a classic Shanghai home-style dish is often the cheapest bowl in any street-side noodle restaurant at around 5 yuan (80 cents) but is also served in upmarket Shanghainese restaurants towards the end of a meal.Noodles are served with spring onion and fried shrimps. Local people say that eating a bowl of delicious noodles which having some other flavored snacks is a great way to enjoy life.

To make the dish, the scallion oil is prepared by slowly frying the scallions in low-temperature oil until they turn golden-brown, and the oil is imbued with an irresistible aroma, which permeates your kitchen as well. When the stringy noodles are tossed with soy sauce and the scallion oil, they are coasted with a powerful flavor punch, a beautiful golden color, and a marvelous sheen. The fried scallions, served as a garnish to the dish, not only add a crisp texture, but also an intriguing mix of smokiness, bitterness, and sweetness.

►Ingredient
Small bundle organic scallions, soy sauce, vegetable oil, salt and freshly ground white pepper

►Where to eat
You can eat this kind of dish at many street-side restaurants. Nong Tang Wonton at No. 714 Weihai Road in Shanghai city may be a good place to go. A six-minute walk from Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai, this place is famous for its traditional Shanghainese cuisine. Order one of the most popular dishes in the city: noodles mixed with scallions, oil and tangy soy sauce.


Begonia Cake

Begonia Cake is an old-fashioned snack of Shanghai that's been around for ages. It has been found since Qing Dynasty of China. The Begonia cake is baked in a mold that is shaped like the Begonia flower, giving it an extra pretty appearance. Therefore, the name comes from its shape. The cake is enhanced by a coating of tiny preserved fruits, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and barley sugar. Bean paste is wrapped in flour dough and coated with slices of preserved fruits. Famous among old generation in Shanghai, Begonia Cake best served hot with sweet tastes and soft texture.

Ingredient
►Main ingredients: peanuts, wheat flour, the old leaven, hummus, net pork suet
►Accessories ingredients: soda e, sugar, sesame, barley sugar, unflower seeds

Begonia Cake uses peanut as its main ingredients. The cooking skill makes use of fire curing. It tastes sweet and soft. You'd better eat the cake when it is hot. It may taste not so good after it gets cool.

►Where to eat
Begonia Cake is famous snack in Shanghai. So you can find it in most of the bakeries in this city.

Note: top 10 most famous Shanghai snacks include Pork ribs with fried New Year cake, Leisha dumpling, Crab shell cake, Begonia cake, Tiaotou cake and mint cake, Shrimps and spring onion braised noodles, Fried tofu soup, Wonton (dumpling) soup with three fresh delicacies, Nanxiang steamed bun, Pan-fried bun stuffed with pork.

Crab Shell Cake is a kind of long prestigious specialty dessert in Shanghai city, founded in the early 1920s. Luochunge Bakery and Wuyuan Bakery are two well-known places which makes the tastiest Crab Shell Cake.


Crab Shell Cake

Crab Shell Cake is a kind of shortbread baked from ferment flour with sesame seeds, oil and sweet or salty fillings. The name s so named because of its color of brown yellow, which looks like a cooked crab shell. There are many options for the cake’s fillings: rose pedals, pork, spring onion, shrimp, crab meat, sugar, jujube paste and bean paste. The cake is crispy with a sesame flavor. The crab shell cakes, along with the pan-fried buns stuffed with pork, is the most popular snacks in many most Shanghai tea houses over the years.

There are two flavors of this dissert: salt and sweet. To mark off these two different flavors, the salt Crab Shell Cake is made in circled shape; while the sweet Crab Shell Cake is made in oval shape.

Ingredients
Flour, alkali, pig suet, soft sugar, caramel, raw sesame, cooked lard, peanut oil

Where to eat
Luochunge Bakery and Wuyuan Bakery are two most famous snacks restaurant that serves this specialty.

►Luochunge Bakery
Address: 462 Zhengjiang Zhong Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai

►Wuyuan Bakery
Address: 255 Yanping Road, Jingan District, Shanghai
Tel: 021-62565556

Wuyuan Bakery is an old shop that offers simple meals. It provides Suzhou-style pastries and other snacks. As the price here is affordable, many local people come here to buy disserts.

Spare Ribs with Rice Cakes

Spare Ribs with Rice Cakes is an affordable local snack with unique flavor in Shanghai. It has a history of more than 50 years. Spare ribs, accompanied with thin cakes, are fried in hot oil in a wok for a few minutes, the dish is made. It contains both the flavor of spare ribs and the soft and crispy rice cake, very tasty. Spare ribs are in golden color, with crisp surface but fresh meat inside. It tastes slightly sweet and spicy. The cake is made of glutinous rice flour after pounding and kneading. It tastes tender, sticky. Two ingredients, spare ribs and rice cake, have high nutritional value. It can provide calcium for young children and the elderly. "Xianchangzhou” and "Xiandelai " in Shanghai are two most famous snacks restaurant that serves this specialty.

Where to eat
You can find Spare Ribs with Rice Cakes in many local restaurants in Shanghai. "Xianchangzhou Restaurant” and "Xiandelai Restaurant" are two famous old-branded restaurants that offers the most delicious Spare Ribs with Rice Cakes.

►Xianlaide Restaurant
Address: YunNan South Road 46, Shanghai, China
Tel: 021-63261284, 021-63366108

This restaurant has been opened since 1921. It is well known in Shanghai local people. It features many local-flavor snack, including Spare Ribs with Rice Cakes. If you would like to try local food while traveling in this city, this restaurant is a must go place.

►Xiaochangzhou Restaurant
Address: 187 Dongchang Road, Pudong District, Shanghai
Tel: 021-58399364

Xiaochangzhou Restaurant is famous for Spare Ribs with Rice Cakes too. The restaurant uses the ingredients from Changzhou, Wuxi and other place, which gives the dish a unique flavor. 


Fried Whitebait with Scrambled Eggs

Fried Whitebait with Scrambled Eggs is not only rich in protein, especially essential amino acids, high nutritional value, but also is nourishing yin and moistening, nourishing tocolysis, especially for pregnant women with history of abortion in early pregnancy, is a good health tocolysis recipes, but also conducive to the development of the fetal nervous system and skeletal system. It is a special dish in Shanghai restaurants.

►Where to eat
Visitors can find this dish in most of the local restaurants. You just need to ask the waiters to make this dish into the order.

Xiaolongbao

Nanxiang Xiaolongbao is the most well-known cuisine in Shanghai area. It is must eat during touring to Shanghai. It is sold in a cheap price. It features with thin skin, abundant filling. Xiaolongbao can be found in many places in Shanghai, from five-star restaurants, malls, food courts, and street stalls.


Pan-fried Bun Stuffed with Pork

Pan-fried bun stuffed with pork is usually made of fresh pork and pork jelly wrapped in half-risen flour dough. Then they are fried in the saucepan. The buns, with thin skin and freshly cooking fillings, are crispy at the bottom and delicious with the taste of a mixture of pork, spring onion and sesame.

The above are some top famous snacks in Shanghai. They are all classic food in this place and are spoke highly by the local people. How can you not taste after get there?