My last visit to Shanghai, the second leg of our China visit, was about a decade ago. As tourists, we visited the regular sites like the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, The Bund, Nanjing Road and the Yuyuan Garden. It was also my first encounter with the Xiao Long Bao or Siopao with Soup.
Recently, however, I had to visit the place again on a business trip and we travelled from Shanghai to Zhengzhou (Henan Province) by land, which is about 1,000 kilometers away (12-hour trip with stops), stayed for two nights and onwards to Jinan (Shandong Province), which is 400 kilometers away. It was amazing that during the entire journey, we did not encounter, excuse me, a single pot hole in the highway. When we compare the conditions of our streets in Cebu City, it would be difficult to find a road without a pot hole!
In these two provinces, your favorite food columnist encountered foods that he has never seen before. I have some pictures in various books like A Cook’s Guide to Chinese Vegetables by Martha Dahlen and videos in my collection but it was very exciting to have to touch, feel or eat these food stuffs. I was surprised that Zhengzhou was near the ancient City of Xi’an (Shaanxi), one of the two China destinations in my wish list.
1. Water Caltrop or língjiao, (Trapa natans). The fruit or nut of this aquatic plant appears like the head of a bull with a large starch seed, cooked and sold as a street side snack. When I tasted it, murag boiled seeds of the nangka (jackfruit).
2. Winter Worm Summer Grass and its Chinese name is dong chong xia cao. The larva of the moth (Thitarodes) which lives on the Tibetan Plateau is infected by a fungus (Cordyceps sinensis), killing it; a fruiting body (mushroom) grows out of the forehead of the larvae. Used in Chinese medicine, it cost only 23,800 Yuan RMB per 66 grams (2,343 pesos per gram). We ate a dish in Zhengzhou, Braised Whole Chicken, which is said to contain this mushroom.
3. Stewed Whole Calf Feet was another dish served in the same restaurant and if my beloved readers are familiar about chicken feet in dim sum restaurants, imagine the possibilities about feasting on this dish, Chinese balbacua.
4. Stir-fry Chrysanthemum leaves or edible Chrysanthemum coronarium looks very similar to our local variety. It had a sweet taste and has to be harvested before flowering and cannot be overcooked because by then the bitter taste will set in.
5. Very Young Bitter Melon, served with ice. This was the first time I have seen ampalaya or bitter melon prepared this way. The fruit was probably blanched in very hot water for a short time then plunged in icy water to stop the cooking process; it was very crunchy when we ate it.
6. Monkey Head Mushrooms or Hericium erinaceus was one of the items I saw in a grocery shop in Shanghai, said to “regulate the function of the digestive system, tonic effect on nervous system and enhances the immune system.”
7. Preserved Dried Duck. If we have dried fish, well, in China they can dry almost anything including ducks in the Shanghai area and whole pigs elsewhere.
We had a buffet breakfast in Dukang Hotel (Zhengzhou) consisting of one hot dish, rice congee and 30 cold vegetarian dishes; unfortunately none of the staff could explain what was served. It took time to recall that one dish was made from Pressed Bean Curd.
Another frustration was that we were unable to see the World Expo 2010 Shanghai because too many Chinese residents want to visit it (800,000 that day). Luckily, it was harvest time for female Shanghai hairy crab and we purchased some at the local market (1,200 pesos a kilo) and we had such a wonderful time extracting all that juicy goodness. Such fine Shanghai memories indeed!