More to come from my Japan trip.

The first thing I will mention is that the service at Morton’s is excellent.

Kyle and his lobster bisque

Andrew and his New York Strip

Sides sides side sides

That’s hash browns, asparagus, mashed potatoes and creamed spinach

Dessert tray offering. We ended up with an Apple pie, the cheesecake and the chocolate thing on the lower left.

So, Morton’s is very expensive. At least 50% more than what you’d pay in the US or Hong Kong or Taipei. But as a once a year or twice a year extravagance, they do it very well. The atmosphere is very comfortable, old school Chicago steakhouse. Piped in jazz standards, Sinatra, Billie Holiday. Excellent aged steak (I think Australian – only Roosevelt’s in Shanghai serves American . .. and that place is more expensive). The steak was perfectly cooked – in fact they confirm with you when you order rare or medium rare – pink with warm center. And the service; when I called to reserve, they asked if it was a special occasion (hence the printed menus), plus they gave Kyle a free dessert and took birthday photos and had the staff sign them.

Again, not cheap at all. But it was really a great dinner.

PHONE:6075 8888
ADDRESS:IFC Pudong,
4/F, 8 Shiji Da Dao,
near Lujiazui Huan Lu

From there, we proceeded across the river to the Waldorf Astoria to have drinks at the famous Long Bar. Big Bird was back in town too! Martinis, cigars, steaks.

Andrew at the Long Bar

Kyle and Jercy

Welcome back Big Bird!

The next evening we went out to the Yongjia Lu location of Kota’s Kitchen to celebrate Colin’s birthday.

Then we ended up at the bowling alley, where Colin found his old boss

Reservations were made at Xinguang Jiu Jia.

It was pretty awesome. Every part of the crab. De-shelled. Served with asparagus, crab meat, various reproductive organs.

Jo:

Xinguang Jiu Jia
512 Tianjin Lu,
near Guangxi Bei Lu
Cost: Pretty expensive. Minimum charge is 400 RMB/person. If you like the crab though, you’re good.

Tomato sauce recipe:

Take a good 8-10 good sized tomatoes. Blanch quickly in boiling salted water to make the skins easy to peel off. Squeeze the tomatoes to get rid of a good amount of juice and seeds, then place into hot pot already seasoned with olive oil. Break up the tomatoes with a potato masher.

In another pot, 1 cup of olive oil, some crushed red pepper, and about 10 cloves of garlic, and a lot of fresh basil – heat up over very low heat. You’re making infused olive oil here.

After about 30 minutes of the tomatoes reducing, strain the olive oil infusion into the sauce, keep stirring and keep on simmer. If the tomato sauce becomes dry, strain some of the juice from the earlier squeezing into the pot.

Cook off about 3 ounces of pasta per person in heavily salted water. In a heavy bottomed saute pan, first grill sausages, then after slicing the sausage, add the tomato mixture in, then the dripping wet pasta. Include a couple of tablespoons of the starchy pasta water. Mix. Combine. Serve with fresh basil and fresh Parmesan.

I found myself (and my friend Colin) down in the Shanghai Stadium area last week, and since I had only been to the Yongjia Lu location, we thought we’d hit up the mothership.

First, the Beatles are the theme here. The music. The DVDs playing on the televisions. The decorations – all featuring the Fab Four. But while I like the Beatles, I came for the food. And the food was glorious. This is really where Kota’s Kitchen shines – this is my favorite yakitori place in Shanghai for now.

Eggplant (this was ok)

Chicken Meatballs (with a quail egg surprise inside) these were delicious

Beef tongue and chicken skin – both wonderful with a twist of lemon

Short rib

Mushrooms and delicious delicious delicious pork belly

Chicken bits

Awesome grilled avocados

Cloyingly sweet grilled marshmellows and ice cream (not highly recommended)

I really liked this place – I don’t know how much more descriptive I could be. Its grilled meats and vegetables. The pork belly and avocado is highly recommended if you go. Its not the cheapest yakitori joint around – and down past Xujiahui isn’t very easily gotten to, but I’ve penciled some weekend nights there.

Kota’s Kitchen
2905 Xietu Lu, near Lingling Lu
Near Shanghai Stadium

What they come for is amazing Shanghainese home-cooked food. Excellent Red cooked pork. Great chicken soups. Sweet pork ribs. Vinegar fish. Each of these restaurants (Lan Xin Can Ting, and uh, the one owned by the sister and brother) are very good candidates for favorite Shanghainese restaurant.

But recently, Andrew went to the restaurant down the block, owned by another relative. Hai Jinzi Can Ting And while this place is very good for lots of Shanghainese food, they serve the single best thing I have eaten in Shanghai.

However, first things first. The wait. You have to wait to get in. A while. There’s a phone number (021-62550371) you can call to leave your phone number for a table, but I don’t think its really honored. Just go in and put your phone number at the front and wait. and wait.

Your companion(s) will try to leave. “Oh, Lan Xin is just down the street. So is Southern Barbarian” they’ll whine. Let them whine. Let them leave if they really have to, but you. . . you stay.

Because ahead of you – you have the single best dish I have ever eaten in Shanghai.

Say it with me: Xie Fen Dan (Stupid non-Chinese allowing blog)
That’s crab parts and egg. A simple description, but it won’t prepare you for the perfection of egg, sugar, vinegar and crab parts. Eaten alone or paired with rice, it is true Shanghainese cuisine perfection.

My friends Andrew, Colin and I have started a religion based solely on consumption of this dish. It is that good.

Hai Jinzi Restaurant
240 Jinxian road, near Shaanxi South Road
Luwan District
Shanghai
Per person – about 50 RMB for dinner

Brown Chicken, Brown Cow

VIDEO

The months of May through July have seen a large number of my friends heading off for new opportunities at their various homes, which has been not as much fun, knowing that people who have been part of your daily lives for the last year, or two or five will now be the opposite side of the globe. In today’s ultra connected world, it doesn’t mean good-bye forever, but there will be a lot less of hopping down to Southern Barbarian or Boxing Cat Brewery together.

So as part of our friend Sarah and Eric’s going away – a dinner was arranged at Il Nascondiglio.. Located in a historic lane house down in the French Concession, Il Nascondiglio is a private kitchen restaurant (which was all the rage back in the late 90s in Hong Kong) where a private residence is used as a restaurant. Fabrizio is a Venetian, while his wife Ting is Chinese, and together they have been serving Venetian style dinners with a heavy focus on seafood.

Our menu for that evening was the following

- Menu for July the 9th –

Antipasto (appetizers)

Anchovises with sun dry tomato

Prawn in asparagus cream

Primo piatto (first dish)
Home-made Tagliattelle with fish ragu (prawn, seabass, and clams) with
fresh tomato

Secondo piatto (second dish)
Cuttle fish alla triestina (cuttle fish with a rich sauce a bit spicy)
accompained by polenta cream OR cuttle fish with gorgonzola sauce

Dolce
Sweet cr?pes

Everything was excellent. It was like having dinner at a friend’s house, rather than a restaurant. Standout dishes were the homemade tagiliatelle and the crepes – in fact, if I did have a complaint it was that the portion sizes were a bit on the small side. Despite the review on SmartShanghai the pasta was cooked perfectly and the crepe, while basic, was well cooked and went down extremely well.

But, I must say, the best part of the evening wasn’t the food (although that was excellent), but having a large dinner party with just friends in a wonderful apartment, without actually having to do any work.

Some photos

Antipasto

Scary Masks

Homemade Pasta

Plating the cuttlefish with gorgonzola

Dessert

Dinner

The boys

Dinner – 500 RMB per person

Il Nascondiglio
Address311 Xiangyang Nan Lu, near Yongjia Lu
Phone 131 2231 6425
Reservations necessary – see the website