The lanes of Shanghai's old town, between the Yu Garden and the river, have been cooking for hundreds of years, and the food streets around People's Square carry on the same tradition in a shorter, more concentrated form. This is everyday Shanghai cooking: pork, soy, sugar, rice wine and scallions, in portions that are meant to be shared.
Yunnan Road
Yunnan South Road, ten minutes from People's Square, is the most reliable single street for the classics. It runs several long-established restaurants side by side: one known for white cut chicken served with a ginger and scallion oil, one for pan-fried shengjian buns with a crisp base and a burst of hot soup inside, one for roast duck and one that has been serving western-style food since the early twentieth century. You can eat three courses across three shops in an hour.
What to order
Shengjian bao - the pan-fried pork buns - are Shanghai's best snack: pleated, steamed then fried in a shallow pan, finished with sesame and scallion. Bite a small hole first to let the steam out or you will burn your mouth. Scallion oil noodles are thin wheat noodles tossed with oil infused with slowly fried scallions and a little dark soy, and they cost almost nothing. Also look for glutinous rice rolls with pork floss, braised pork belly with egg, drunken chicken served cold in rice wine, and stir-fried rice cakes with shepherd's purse in spring.
The old town lanes
Around the Yu Garden, the streets behind the main tourist arcade still hold small noodle shops, dumpling counters and dessert stalls that open early and close when the food runs out. It is worth walking two or three blocks away from the busiest lanes: the prices drop and the cooking improves. The area is also where you find Shanghai-style mooncakes and glutinous rice cakes as takeaway.
Practical notes
Go for lunch between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., when everything is cooking, or in the evening after 6 p.m. Most shops take mobile payment only and the queues move fast. Soup dumplings, shengjian and noodles are all eaten with vinegar, and the vinegar is on the table - use it. Vegetarians should ask carefully, as pork fat and chicken stock appear in dishes that look vegetarian.
