Shanghai Old Cheng Huang Temple (上海老城隍庙) - A Food Heaven for _xiao long bao_ 小笼包 in Shanghai, China

Are you looking for yummy Chinese Cuisines in Shanghai?

Then, read on

During my recent trip to China in June 2018, my tour group decided to visit the popular food heaven known as the "Shanghai Old Cheng Huang Temple" (上海老城隍庙). It is popular for its xiao long bao 小笼包 dumpling for breakfast. And It is located in China, Shanghai, Huangpu, Chenghuang Temple, Fangbang Middle Road. Location Map

Please do not be mislead by its name "temple". Actually, it is a big complex with many restaurants and food stores as well as shops for buying souvenirs. It is so big that I did not see the whereabouts of the temple though.

As I arrived at the complex is too early as most of the restaurants and food stores are not yet open for business. We ended up with this particular lakeside restaurant "湖边美食楼" ( pictured above). It is one of the restaurants by the side of a lake as I have videotaped these two ducks from the restaurant. They swim toward my direction while I start to shoot and stop to let me continue the videotaping ( I believe ) before they swim away.

Most tourist who visited this complex come for xiao long bao 小笼包. It is a special Chinese cuisine among the dim sum delicacy which is prepared in round pyramid shape bun but small in size at about 1,5 inches in diameter. It is made from minced meat with source wrapped with special raised flour skin that could keep the source inside the bun. It is then placed in a small basket of 6 ( or more depending on the chef's preference) and steam to cook.

xiao long is in Chinese language and it means small basket and bao mean bun. It is called xiaolong bao 小笼包 because the bun is placed in a small basket. And it is steam cooked and served in a small basket too. It is also known as Steam dumplings

Watch out though, when you bite the "bao", the source will be squeezed out from the xiao long bao 小笼包. I have not taken the xiao long bao 小笼包 before but I could see from the display how it looks. From far, it looks like a small size of char-xiao-bao 叉烧包, a type of steam bun normally available in Malaysia.

This is the menu in Chinese wordings and the price tag is written below it. When I was a teenager, I remember I could see this type of menu in Chinese coffee shop or restaurant. Since then, I have not seen it for years.

The picture below is the pictorial form of the menu but without the price tag. The order for xiao long bao 小笼包 is by a basket and the rest are shown in the pictorial display. For my appetite, I need 1.5 baskets to fill my hunger but I have reserved some stomach space for other varieties of yummy food too.

The picture above shows another variety of Dim Sum 点心 which has a unique feature. The size of it is bigger like a regular bao. Do you wonder why there is a straw stuck into the bao? This soup in bao is special dumpling as it contains delicious soup inside it and you have to suck out all the soup before you eat it or risk to get your shirt stain with soup

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Before we take order for the xiao long bao 小笼包, we ordered a pot of Chinese Tea well known as the lungJing 龙井 It has a mild fragrant and tastes very pleasant. It is one of the high-quality tea among the Chinese Tea. It is believed that it helps to break down and cleanse the oil in the food.

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Our breakfast is not complete if we only settle for the bao. So our leader ordered other yummy delicacies from outside food stores as shown in the pictures above.

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This small restaurant is clean and well decorated with a couple of pictures apparently looks like the olden days of the restaurant. If you like historical pictures of a restaurant, this is the place to visit.

The write-up mentioned above focus on the "湖边美食楼" or "Lakeside Restaurant", but I did mention earlier, this complex is a food heaven. Below are more photos of yummy food, food stores and restaurant within the complex.

This particular cuisine is still in the boiling state. It stays inside the wok to keep warm for best serves while it is hot/warm. I am not sure the name of this cuisine but I suspect it is the well-known chao tofu 臭豆腐 or "smelly bean curd. But don't be mislead by its name. It does not smell bad but has a special smell.

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I don't like deep fried food, so I didn't bother to ask the seller for their name.

There are a few more restaurants within the complex. But we have enough food in the earlier mentioned restaurant with more than usual consumption for breakfast.

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However, I could not resist sharing I believe, the most popular xia long bao 小笼包 restaurant as you can witness customers are queued up to buy the xiao long bao 小笼包. As a matter of fact, we wanted to locate this restaurant but it was not open for business when we arrived at about 7.30 AM and is open only at 8.30 AM

The following pictures are landmarks of the "Shanghai Old Cheng Huang Temple" (上海老城隍庙). YOu need to pay attention to other landmarks as these buildings looks alike.

In the picture above, on the right is one of the entrances to the complex. We came out from another entrance/exit located at behind the far end of the building blocks.

One of the better way to take note of the name of the street or nearby building in order for you to find your assembly point. More often than not, many tourists spend extra time to locate their assembly point and keep fellow tourist for waiting.

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I believe this is one pace of interest if you travel to Shanghai, China. You can also get many choices of food and local items for souvenir outside the complex. I could see all items are tagged with a price so you can do you bargain if you like.

My experience in this visit tells me NOT to fill your stomach in a particular restaurant or store as there are abundant of other yummy food within the complex as well as around it.

Thank you for your time in this lengthy sharing of the "Shanghai Old Cheng Huang Temple" (上海老城隍庙). You can click on this Location Map for direction.

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Conclusions

This Food Review is to take part and support the Steem Food Tour Contest organized by @jeffjagoe.

All the pictures are taken from its menu, display board as well as actual food at the restaurants or food stores

This review is written by @DigitalMind

Disclaimers:-

• unless otherwise stated, the images and pictures are taken by @DigitalMind with ASUS smartphone
• video and gif are created by @digitalmind
• All price and images are subjected to changes without notice
• The author, @DigitalMind does not own or has any vested interest in restaurants or food stores mentioned