Yuan Yuan Restaurant @ Shanghai

This restaurant at Xingguo Lu, Xu Hui is near where Heather stays and we passed it a few time walking to Huaihai Lu (the main thoroughfare of the old French Concession and now bustling with shops) but never stop until one late morning when I thought we would be able to get some dim sum here. But someone was yelling hungry, so we had an early lunch instead of a late breakfast.

Anchovy appetizer.

Another appetizer, yummy broad beans and preserved veggie. I find the preserved veggie here very fresh and fragrant without the saltiness like those we get back home. 

A so so drunkard chicken. The wine sauce was tasty enough but the chicken was blend, tasteless and like the picture tells, a little anemic too.

 Asparagus in crab sauce.

BBQ pork and

roasted duck platter. Tasted better than they looked.

All these were rather mediocre dishes until we hit the jackpot with this...

Belly pork braised in brown (soy) sauce. 

This got to be the epitome of the goodness of hong shao rou (red cooked pork). I would kill to get the recipe of this dish and the technique to get the meat so perfectly cooked. The 1/2 inch of the belly fat was soft, smooth, silky and succulent without falling apart and didn't taste one bit like fat. The sauce accompanying was amazing - no cornstarch here - some kind of caramelized reduce stock with a amazing depth of flavors. This was totally crazy as I threw all health caution out of the window and dug in with gusto especially with the fatty parts. No pangs of guilt at all when the plate was wiped clean and I alone had almost half of it. Like I said, didn't taste like fat at all...

I am going without pork until I return to this restaurant again and have just this dish all to myself...

This is sheng jian bao, a Shanghai famous xiao chi (small eats/bites). Great soup inside but the skin in this case was more a bao (too thick) rather than a potsticker (thin). We tasted better ones at Wujiang Road.