Finally real Shanghai food in Shanghai! I tried Lao Sheng Chang 老盛昌 on the night of day 4 of my Shanghai trip. This restaurant was recommended by a Shanghainese girl’s blog. Since it’s just my sis and me, we braved the restaurant with courage, sat on an empty table and waited. We’re banana when it comes to reading Chinese characters and speaking Mandarin. At least my sister is better than me. Thankfully they have Chinese-English menu! Still we have a tough time telling where xiaolongbaos are in the menu. Apparently they’re called by different names here.
Wooden chopsticks. In one of the teapot is vinegar, an important condiment for xiaolongbao.
The restaurant is pretty spacey. Our order came about 15 minutes later. Freshly made I guess?
Lao Sheng Chang takes up the corner lot of 1st and 2nd floors. The branch we visited is in Fujian Middle Road. It’s a at the intersection of Nanjing Road.
We ordered 2 baskets of xiaolongbao. This one being fresh meat soup bag of salted egg yolk @ 18 Yuan. Literally it means xiaolongbao with salted egg yolk.
The given salted egg yolk is one whole yolk which I think is too over-powering. Pork meat is too little. 🙁
Fresh meat soup bun @ 8 Yuan which is really cheap! It’s basic xiaolongbao made of pork meat.
To eat xiaolongbao, I bite the top off, sip the soup and then…
Dip the whole thing in vinegar.
Though I’m a fan of salted egg yolk, I’ve got to admit the fresh meat soup bun is nicer. If you’re Malaysian, then I can tell you the broth and the meat are almost similar in taste to ‘sang yoke bao’. We wanted to order crab meat xiaolongbao but were told they don’t have/sold out. We don’t really understand what they told us. Haha
Discarded bun skins… they’re uhmmm too thick. Hehehe
The next day which is our final day in Shanghai, I made it a point to visit Lao Sheng Chang again for breakfast. This time our travel mates followed us as well.
Wanton soup with fresh prawns Hong Kong style @ 15 Yuan for 10 pieces.
I wouldn’t call this Hong Kong style. The wanton is not as springy as the one I had in Hong Kong plus it lacks large prawns. It’s still yum with its own style. The broth is nice too.
Our 2 baskets of xiaolongbao have arrived. In the foreground is fresh meat soup bun @ 8 Yuan and background is champignon fresh meat soup bag @ 12 Yuan (it’s mushroom xiaolongbao). Unfortunately we were told they don’t have crab xiaolongbao yet again.
Lovely looking xiaolongbao!
Generous amount of mushroom and pork fillings. Yum! This one is the best. The taste of Lao Sheng Chang’s yummy xiaolongbao lingers on in my mind until I came back home to Malaysia and decided to give Din Tai Fung a try. I’ll blog about it soon.
Address:
Lao Sheng Chang 老盛昌
335 Fujian Middle Rd,
Huangpu, Shanghai,
China
+86 21 6352 3003
Map:
View Lao Sheng Chang 老盛昌 Untitled in a larger map
Photos from Samsung Galaxy S3 and Lumix.
2 Comments
Yummy….btw, I like Din Tai Fung also..hahaha, I’m a greedy pig, I love food! 😀
After trying this, I went back to Malaysia for Ding Tai Fung’s xiaolongbao because I kinda miss Lao Sheng Chang’s ones. The taste are different… so different. Not sure if the Din Tai Fungs in Shanghai has the same xiaolongbao taste as Malaysia’s one or not.