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THE DISH: Home on La Grange
by crystyl (The Dish) A maison for Francophile gourmands Is there a certain charm, a certain magic to feeling like one is in France, when one is really in Shanghai? A French chef, a French hostess (his wife) and a French owner, walking the boards in a 44-seat varnished wood and glowing copper-toned restaurant in the middle of the ... Read more »
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Shanghai Al Fresco Dining
by cityweekend (The Dish) Come with us on a tour of Shanghai's best outdoor dining venues |
THE DISH: Five Generations, One Recipe
by crystyl (The Dish) 150 years of tempura expertise at Karaku Karaku's chef Toyoichiro Seki stands behind the counter in his head-to-toe black chef's uniform. He passes his hand over the bubbling oil in the wok. "What temperature do you fry the tempura at?" I ask. "Oh, I have never used a thermometer," he laughs good-naturedly at the preposterous ... Read more » |
THE DISH: Tempura Generations
by crystyl (The Dish) 150 years of deep-fried expertise now in Shanghai Karaku's chef Toyoichiro Seki stands behind the counter in his head-to-toe black chef's uniform. He passes his hand over the bubbling oil in the wok. "What temperature do you fry the tempura at?" I ask. "Oh, I have never used a thermometer," he laughs good-naturedly at the preposterous ... Read more » |
Wine in a Can
by crystyl (The Dish) You may have noticed these crinkle-cut cans in your local cold beverage section. The 2008 vintage has been released. Kirin’s latest alcoholic offerings have been expanded to canned wines, for better or for worser. Rose Sparkling and Chardonnay Sparkling are on shelves now, at your local 24-hour. I’ve conducted tastings of both new varietals, and present here my tasting notes.
KIRIN ... Read more » |
THE DISH: The Missing Spice
by crystyl (The Dish) Follow the crowds to the restaurants you've never heard of It's 8:15pm on a Wednesday night. A crowd of mid-level office types sits in a shabby entry hallway to a cavernous restaurant with a gray tile floor below, and fluorescent lights above. An amateurish mural of Sichuan-style floral paper cuts adorns the wall. The waitresses wear frayed brown ... Read more »
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Hamilton House “Snail Pizza” is the Bomb
by crystyl (The Dish) Philippe Leban’s new spring menu may be compact, but it’s brilliantly executed. Saffron gnocchi: fluffy pillows of French-style flour-based gnocchi, paired with loads of tender oysters! Croque madame: buttery, salty and scrumptious, on house-baked bread which has just the right crumb (not like that overly-chewy mass at Franck ... Read more » |
China Desperately Lacking Enough KFC’s and Pizza Huts
by crystyl (The Dish) Yum! is on a one-company-mission to obese-ify the whole nation of China China Retail News reports that Yum! plans to open 425 more restaurants this year, and 20,000 more in the long-term. The article, released on May 9, 2008 reads: According to foreign media sources, Yum!, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, is planning its expansion in China, and the ... Read more »
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Young Star Chef Ready to Wow in Jing'an
by crystyl (The Dish) Dane Clouston will be the Puli Hotel's new Executive Chef Just returned to the home office/garden from a lovely luncheon at T8 with the folks behind the Puli Hotel, the lux pile going up across from Jing’an Temple, and sked’d for an October launch. A few other media types and myself were invited for the very first ... Read more » |
THE DISH: Eating In
by crystyl (The Dish) Eating out was an occasion that elicited extreme excitement when I was growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My parents would take me to Charlie's, a dimly-lit working class joint near Harvard Square with dark red vinyl booths. We ate immense portions of Greek salad, pork chops and chicken wings ... Read more » |
New York Times Selects 7 Top New Sandwiches: 2 are Chinese!
by crystyl (The Dish) Who'd a thunk Chinese cuisine would be making the top 7 list of new sandwiches to try in the culinary capital of Manhattan In Julia Moskin's April 30, 2008 dining article in the New York Times, she recommends some of Manhattan's unsung excellent sandwiches. I was surprised and delighted to find that two of her seven picks are of Chinese concoctions. Here are a few excerpts from her article: The Next ... Read more » |
Tianping Lu Keeps Up the Good (Street Food) Fight
by crystyl (The Dish) Food streets have dwindled but Tianping Lu survives and thrives Since my first visit to China, I have been fascinated by the dexterity of roadside snack vendors. I am captivated by their practiced pinching of dough around dumplings, their folding of leaves around glutinous rice zongzi as natural and elegant as the folding of a bird’s wings, the smearing ... Read more »
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Enoteca’s Chef Bids Verabschieden, Heads Down to the (Cool) Docks
by crystyl (The Dish) German Chefs Tommes and Stefan are teaming up A little bird told me that the mono-titular German chef Tommes of Enoteca (formerly of such powerhouse gastro-houses as Jean-Georges SH and WD-50 in Manhattan) will presently jump galleys over to the premises of another German chef—Stefan Stiller’s ambitious new venue at Shanghai’s Cool Docks down by ... Read more » |
THE DISH: The Kitchen as Laboratory
by crystyl (The Dish) Jean-Georges has fine dining (and French fries) down to a science We're experimenting with some of Heston Blumenthal's approaches to French fries," Eric Johnson, chef partner of Jean-Georges (French), told me a few months ago. "Come in anytime, our kitchen is your kitchen," he said. I did not need any more prompting. Heston Blumenthal is the chef extraordinaire at ... Read more »
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Home on the (Organic) Range
by crystyl (The Dish) The joys of fresh air, mom's cooking and, yes, supermarkets Hello dear readers. In case you’ve been missing me around town—I just wanted to let you know I haven’t dropped out of the wine and dine circuit—I’ve only popped over to my old hometown of Cambridge, MA for a gulp of fresh air (my, it ... Read more » |
THE DISH: Eat as the Chinese Eat
by crystyl (The Dish) Embracing the double-dip and other acquired tastes of the Chinese table According to a report from the Journal of Food Safety, all of China is going to the hospital in a hand basket, and it's a wonder we've even survived this long. We chopstick-using, communal-dish-sharing, germ-spreading devotees are guilty of ruthless, non-stop, everyday "double dipping." Astonishingly, this food safety ... Read more »
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THE DISH: The Planet is Low on Caviar
by crystyl (The Dish) The ultimate edible luxury becomes scarcer every year Is your diet legal? Sometimes I wish mine wasn't: USDA and Japanese beef, some of my favorites, are black market foods in China. And Russian sturgeon fishing is currently banned, so if you see Russian caviar on the menu, it's poached. But rare foods are rarely cheap, and ... Read more » |
The end of an era. For me, and my neighborhood.
by crystyl (The Dish) 不是我们不明白，是世界变化快。 Lawson’s, I weep for ye. February 27, 2008—I put my hood up as I was coming up the subway escalator because I could feel a cold wind sweeping down into the tunnel. I was thinking about a lot of things, I was focused inward, but since I was just coming home from the gym ... Read more »
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THE DISH: Imagine This - Women in the Kitchen
by crystyl (The Dish) Shanghai's female chefs say they can take the heat of leadership Whether or not a "woman's place is in the kitchen" depends on which kitchen you are talking about. At home, women are often the cooks, although in women-wear-the-pants Shanghai homes, men are frequent partners at the stove. However, in the professional kitchen, and specifically in the "hot kitchen" (the ... Read more » |
THE DISH: What's Your Dianping Rating?
by crystyl (The Dish) One website, three million restaurant reviews, and the man behind it all I have thought of Zhang Tao frequently in the years since I met him in 2004. The website that he launched in April 2003 has steadily grown to become my indispensable resource for dining information. Dianping.com is now the largest restaurant review site in China with over six million ... Read more » |
There are 20,000 restaurants in Shanghai: Dianping ranks them all
by crystyl (The Dish) Crystyl Mo's full interview with Dianping.com CEO Zhang Tao If you enjoyed my Dish interview on Zhang Tao, which was published in the magazine, here’s a lot more of that good stuff: the full interview with the lovable Dianping.com CEO with a mind like a steel-trap and a passion for all things delicious—especially the hot pot ... Read more »
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The Caesar Salad Wars
by crystyl (The Dish) Crystyl Mo muses on: What makes Caesar great? So, Charles Cabell, owner of Mesa on Julu Lu, has told me with extreme confidence that their Caesar salad is hands-down one of the most scrumptious in town. He’s invited me in to give it a whirl, and I hope to try it in the coming weeks. He's ... Read more »
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Kakadu rocks, but I am not a big fan of kangaroo …
by crystyl (The Dish) Crystyl Mo horks down lots of Aussie beasties (plus roots, nuts, berries...) I’m sorry, maybe it’s a mental thing, but to me it tastes… furry... like a large mouse. I had the large bouncing animal for the first time at Kakadu, Shanghai’s new Aussie restaurant, a few weeks ago. (Read my Dish column about it here) The kangaroo was ... Read more »
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THE DISH: The Wonders of Oz
by crystyl (The Dish) Join my eating adventures at Shanghai's proliferating Australian venues I smiled to myself when I learned that a handful of Australian restaurants have recently sprung up in Shanghai. Clearly my latest eating quest had been determined: to investigate, in a most earnest manner, the Aussie cuisine oeuvre. I started with Kakadu (Australian), a new restaurant featuring aboriginal ingredients from ... Read more »
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THE DISH: The Taste of Memory
by crystyl (The Dish) Recalling 2007 through flavors and foods A new year. New possibilities. New foods waiting to be eaten. As I look forward to another year of eating and cooking, I also have nostalgia for treats from my New England childhood: affordable wholegrain breads–the kind that are heavy in your hand and densely chewy, an overflowing Philly-style ... Read more »
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