Shanghai ChefsAbout the Culinary World of Shanghai

It’s been a while since our last post, and our sincere apologies. Summer trip overseas to regain some fresh breath (and a will to live again) has been helpful and necessary in living and working here in Shanghai.

A few bits of interesting information has reached our ears regarding the rightful owners of Wine Spectator goblets and Michelin Stars. If you are in the industry, you would have heard of a man called Zoltan Szabo. If you haven’t, then you obviously haven’t been in the industry long enough – or so he would like to think anyway.

We have been told that his short venture here in Shanghai ended abruptly when no paychecks came his way. From what we know, this is definitely not the first case. However, he did earn the restaurant one wine goblet – and a photo of himself in the renowned Wine Spectator magazine. A pity then that he is no longer connected to the restaurant or its wine list.

We congratulate him on his award (it wouldn’t be fair to call it the restaurant’s award now, would it?) and the other restaurants who made the list here in Shanghai this year!

Now on an entirely different topic, a good read dropped onto our desks a.k.a laptops last week and we thought it would be an interesting read for everyone – if you haven’t come across it already.

It poses the question of just where each chef sets his/her limits. To the brink of insanity? Bankruptcy? Suicide for losing a star?

Kitchen Savant

Various rumors have been passing around concerning the closure of M1NT, the scams involved and the Australian guy behind the concept being captured. M1NT in Shanghai had a lot of expected promises offering the ‘exclusive members-only club’ scene. Whilst nobody knows the true story exactly (yet), the place is still definitely open, and we wish them all the best as we do really enjoy having Dan’s input in the Shanghai food scene.

The offer of a members-only place caters to a very select minority group in Shanghai. A bit like the Polo…which I had the painful pleasure of being present at as part of a Hen’s Day outing. Us chefs being mostly socially inept and awkward; particularly when it comes to being in the company of polite and cultured people, I was a little nervous, especially with the free-flow offer of champagne and wine throughout the day. However, the free-flow ran out only about three hours into the event, with several more  hours to go. Having paid almost an obscene amount for the VIP tickets, we were needless to say quite disappointed.

Firstly, the white wine and champagne was served at room-temperature (and the sun was out in full-force that day with the tent acting more like a heated yoga room than a shade from the heat). The line-up for the buffet was disappointing, luke-warm and flies were buzzing around the hot dogs. Need I say more? With this exclusive bunch of people paying for their tickets and taking an interest in the event, you’d think that they could have spent a bit more on the food budget, serve wine at the right temperature, and at least have enough wine to support the ‘free-flow’ theme as advertised. Luckily for me, the company I had was enough to keep me entertained for the whole day. That, and coincidentally meeting the operations manager from LAN.

Having attended the City Weekend Awards night last week, I had the chance for the first time to visit the place. While I won’t mention anything concerning the awards (as it has been covered by our other writer), I will say however that LAN does not serve glasses of ice water. At least that is what the bar tender told me that night. Instead, I was offered Sprite filled up to 1/4 of the glass when the bottle was finished. He didn’t bother to open another bottle and just continued to stare at me. Now, come on…

We were informed by the operations manager that a new concept was being designed for a place…something that involved two tapas menus – one Western style and the other “Chinese style” (dim sums) on the same floor. There was also going to be a sushi bar, rooftop bar and another restaurant? Sounded like a whole lot of confusion to us…but let’s hope they’ll serve ice water in all areas.

On another note, Factory will be hosting another ‘Too Many Chefs’ event. The ten chefs involved will be judged by customers who attend on the night and the winner gets…to keep their ego intact. We hear that even the media has to pay for their seats so this one will definitely be a paying-only customers’ choice awards….

Once getting past the the throngs of sleazebags selling tickets outside the building for an event that is actually free of charge, we were looking forward to seeing what was on offer for the Shanghai food scene at the moment. The SIAL event held a week ago was somewhat disappointing, with the display of different food items veering more towards local Chinese supermarket products including cheap lollies and crackers. There was a wide selection of wine vendors, but many other foreign vendors such as Organic Powdered Chicken Egg and Papa Mario was just devastatingly disappointing and pointless.

Compared to the FHC trade show featuring products from various countries, the SIAL event was not really worth a visit – besides of course for the Cooking Trends Demonstration.

Organized by ‘Chef of the Year’(as voted by CW Editors) Emmanuel Soliere, the demonstration covered different themes from East Meets West, Foie Gras, Sub Zero, etc. A few of the chefs involved in the demonstrations were Dan Segall (M1NT), Shaun Anthony (NAPA Wine Bar & Kitchen), and Brian Tan (House of Flour).

While it was a good opportunity for these chefs to show the spectators some cooking skills and techniques, the spectators a.k.a. cheap freeloaders were more interested in eating the finished product rather than learning anything. One of the chefs described the feeling of being surrounded by hungry, snarling vultures with some of the spectators grabbing items of the demonstration plates before the chefs even had a chance to finish plating up.

Though there were a handful that seem genuinely interested, pulling out their cameras and snapping away; we couldn’t help but wonder – rather synically – whether we would see replicas of these demonstrated dishes in a ‘new restaurant’ a few weeks later.

Only time will tell…

As things go here in Shanghai when running a restaurant, it’s always a good idea to take the kitchen crew out for a meal and several Tsing Taos every so often. Well, actually this bonding session should take place within chef and crew no matter what country you’re in. It promotes a high level of mutual respect,full bellies at the end of a long day at work, and some sense of silliness and red faces (which doesn’t take too long in Shanghai) when it’s time to get home.

While the usual outing consists of a hotpot meal, we took the opportunity to take advantage of the baby crayfish season. The guys of course knew the right street to go to – a street filled with vendors selling exactly the same thing as far as the eye can see; baby crayfish being dropped into boiling vats of hot chili oil, grilled items such as mussels as big as your hands, skewered meat, and gigantic scary oysters being opened by the roadside with an axe.

An axe? For oysters?

Well, so we settled for an impromptu table by the street-side with cars whooshing past a few millimeters away from our sleeves. A table of 12 was obviously too big to fit into any of the small holes in the wall dotted along the street. The guys were in charge of the ordering – a few baskets of steaming baby crayfish, some grilled meats, vegetables, seafood and cold beer.

After a few bad previous experiences with ’street-fresh-grilled-seafood’, we were smart enough to stay away from the mussels, oysters, razor clams and scallops. The local guys were game enough and had some, but when you see oysters that big and then remember just how shit-brown that Huangpu River is? Put two and two together and then also remember that oysters filter the water. Need we say more?

Okay, okay…so crayfish might be the same deal, but we are told that they are mostly farmed and plus, all that boiling chili oil has got to kill 99% of the bad stuff. The oysters and others are grilled with an overly generous dollop of chopped garlic on the top. An ingredient commonly used here to mask and overpower any other ‘off tastes’ in the local food.

The crayfish arrive with little dipping sauces of black vinegar and a bit of chopped garlic. Oh, and not to forget, the plastic gloves. If you’re smart, you’ll put on two pairs just for the hell of it. Lamb, beef, mushrooms, garlic chives and chicken cartilage (yes, you read that right) skewers all arrive with the same seasoning of cumin, chili and msg. Someone sneakily ordered some stinky tofu too. These overly fermented item surpasses the term ’spoiled’ or ‘rotten’. The more it’s covered in hairy mold the better.

Just when we think it’s a safer option to eat the skewered meat, one of the guys informs us that it is pretty common for people to show up with dead cats to some of these shops at the end of the night. These cats are then left to ‘marinade’ in some lamb fat overnight before being sold as lamb skewers the next day. Hmmm…more mushrooms and garlic chives please! And definitely more cold beer!!

After copious amounts of beer, the razor clams start to look appetizing and we try one. A bit of stinky tofu gets pushed our way and we settle for a tiny tiny bite.

Back to the “Ganbei!” and more baby crayfish. The night carries on for a few more hours until there is talk of Tongren Lu and someone losing money in a previous outing. Definitely time to head home.

One week on, and we’re still paying for that one bloody razor clam and stinky tofu…obviously not enough garlic or boiling chili oil to kill the little buggers.

While I haven’t had the chance to visit the Shanghai fish markets (okay, well more like don’t really want the chance), we decided to give the fish markets in Guangzhou a go.

Now it’s understood that in this area of the world, you do tend to see the odd turtles, water roaches and slugs up for sale. Not really like wondering through the ample aisles of the Tokyo fish market, but you know all of that before going.

Having said that though, seeing a fat purple-ish slug that resembled an earthworm still made us squirm a little. And we were definitely not expecting to see crates after crates and sacks after sacks of different turtles and tortoises. There were turtles as old as 30 years stuck in tiny ‘aquariums’.

Fair enough, it may be a delicacy here and we have no qualms with that. The Guangzhou port is reportedly one of the busiest and biggest in China. But taking note of the sheer numbers of turtles, it made one of our mates wonder about the possibility that there may be an undiscovered species in one of the crates.

Problem with our aquatic ecosystem? Over-fishing? Guangzhou fish market is probably responsible for causing 70% of turtles to be on the endangered species list.

We’re not even going to get into detail regarding the crocodiles that we saw. We just secretly hoped that at least some of them came from farms…Yes, crocodiles are also eaten in the West and farmed for their skin and meat but the thing that was devastating was the lack of respect for all things living. Dozens of these powerful aquatic reptiles laying on top of each other in a skinny aquarium.

As we cringe and squirm through the aisles, with a feeling of disdain for the country starting to build up, we acknowledge that this is just all part of living in China. We see the bad and the good (the food in Guangzhou is definitely worth a visit), and remember that people are different. We don’t agree with most of their conduct, just as we don’t agree to the existence of ‘puppy mills’ in Utah, but this is China! Hate it, love it, the chances of these practices stopping are slim to none.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/young-critic/2009/04/07/1238869961814.html

Let’s all hope that this isn’t going to be the latest trend in the industry – being judged and reviewed by kids!

I’m always fascinated by what the general public has to say concerning their views on food. Scrolling through the sites of City Weekend, Smart Shanghai and Shanghai Expat, there is definitely no shortage of people who proudly posts their own food criticisms.

With sites like these being open to everyone, it got me wondering about just how much damage a bad review (by some anonymous paying customer) can do to a restaurant. All due respect, of course customers are entitled to their opinion.

But seriously, when a person is writing (a.k.a. complaining) about not getting a bottle of wine comped in a restaurant like T8 (the wine they initially ordered was not in stock and the staff offered another similar wine), or about not getting free food when a mistake took place concerning their table reservations, it seriously annoys me to bits.

My aggravated levels rise even more as I continue to read about people who pretend they know the A-Z when it comes to food. Come on, complaining that El Willy’s Patatas Bravas is not real tapas because it was shaped like fries? The guy wears a chef white with blotches of red heart shapes and a red beret! Do you really think his food is going to be traditional home-y chunky food?

The best ones are those that complain portions are too small in places like M on the Bund, or that mistake spring rolls for fried eggs rolls on NAPA’s menu and proceed to go on and on and on, trying to prove how much they know about the culinary world because they skip through Ferran Adria’s book and watch Anthony Bourdain’s show.

One has to consider the possibility that there are malicious restaurateurs out there who will post bad reviews about other restaurants. Thus the yo-yo game begins with restaurant X’s staff posting in defence of their restaurant.

I don’t think people tend to realize just how much damage they can do to a restaurant’s reputation by posting these reviews. What’s that they say in marketing? A customer who has gone through a bad experience will spread the word to a hundred friends, whilst a customer that had a good experience will only tell ten friends.

With the Internet being the biggest source of information, should people will no food experience be able to write any comment on a restaurant? Even worse is the fact that editors are allowing this to happen. As mentioned before, paying customers have the right to speak their mind. But when it gets to the point where they complain and become vindictive because their wine did not get comped, a line has to be drawn somewhere!

Since I’m on a rant, I might as well say how much it peeved me that Blarney Stone was charging more than 60rmb for a pint of Kilkennys on St Patty’s day…only 3kwai less than on their normal days.

How often do we chefs vocally complain about a meal or bad service in a restaurant?

I know that there are quite a number of seriously bad restaurants in the Shanghai scene. I can tell you however, that neither I nor my partner have ever sent back a plate when we have hated the dish. We either just eat the blob because we are starving from having to wait forty-five minutes for the entrée or we don’t touch it.

All of us hate it when a dish comes back into the kitchen because the customer thinks that the meat is really not a medium-rare or because the fish is not cooked enough. Okay, maybe the apprentice (or in Shanghai, let’s say your local sous chef) did make a mistake. More often than not though, you yourself know that that meat was perfect. And the fish? Just the way it’s meant to be.

I cannot speak for everyone but personally, when I enter a restaurant, I notice everything from the menu, to the service, to the fact that there are no salt and pepper shakers on the table (which means that I expect things to be seasoned right or praying that the chef knows what he’s doing), down to the comfortableness of the chair I’m sitting on.

Now, I notice all these things…but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to complain about my overcooked meat, mushy vegetables and unseasoned fish.

I don’t know whether it’s a Western thing, and we feel bad and impolite to complain. Or whether it’s just a very Chinese thing to have to vocally be opinionated about everything.

I agree that I may be doing a disservice by not speaking my mind. Depending on the restaurant’s level, be it a fine-dining establishment or just another Italian joint, I may be more inclined to say something at the posher place.

If I was back home dining at a very established restaurant -one without salt and pepper shakers on the table- and my third course consisting of rabbit was not seasoned (apprentice’s mistake, I’m sure), I would say something to the service staff. And I have, before.

Why? Because my expectations of that restaurant was exceptionally high.

I’m afraid that the same cannot be said of Shanghai. My personal expectations have dropped to the point where I’m overjoyed if I get someone’s attention among the group of five waitstaff chatting in the corner. If I get my medium-rare meat? Then that’s a hell of a great night.

So is it wrong of me to have lowered my expectations? I don’t think so. I think we all have to agree at some point that Shanghai is in a league of its own and cannot be compared to the likes of New York, London or Hong Kong. Culinary wise, anyway.

Hopefully, that statement changes in the years to come.

Last night’s Chef’s Talk at Pinnacle Peak Steakhouse was an entertaining event; with a few new chefs being introduced into the Shanghai scene, a surprise involving cheerleaders and pom-poms, and news of restaurant openings in the coming months, including the much anticipated Barbie Dreamhouse Restaurant…

With shots of Jagermeister being handed out, a few tough men finally decided to take on Pinnacle’s bull. It may have seemed a good idea at the time (especially when the alcohol has kicked in!), but I hear that at least one of them have woken up with a very, very sore elbow…no names mentioned!

China never ceases to amaze us when it comes to fake items; whether its bags, shoes, or the more secretive operations like fake medicines, baby formula (and we hear the latest – chicken eggs???).

Here’s something to keep everyone on their toes – http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/755767/boy-killed-by-exploding-office-chair

Have a beautiful and safe day!