Tea at The Fairmont Peace Hotel. Or, what not to do in Shanghai

This was from way back in the winter when I went for my xiaolongbao marathon and discovered the transcendence that was Sincere's hongshaorou. But as I was writing about tea at the InterContinental Hong Kong, I suddenly remembered this failure of an afternoon tea at Jasmine Lounge, on the ground level of the Fairmont Peace Hotel.

Shanghai - If You Only Eat 3 Things...

If you only eat 3 things in Shanghai, at least take home a fourth - frozen Jia Jia xlb, anyone?

How crazy would you be if you went to Shanghai and could only eat three things? Well, you wouldn't need a proton pump inhibitor, that's for sure (if you don't know what a PPI is, lucky you), but you'd be missing out on a lot. These are, aside from the xiaolongbao, just the top three things I had when I went this time round. The first was new to me too - always nice to make new discoveries - the other two are old faves.

Shanghai - The Xiaolongbao

Lin Long Fang

Just after Christmas, I did an annual holiday/food vacation with my two bestest friends (I sound so high school - wait - we did meet in high school) to Suzhou and Shanghai. We ate lots, of course, but let's begin with the elephant in the city - xiaolongbao. These little mounds of pork steamed in a basic flour-water veil of dough sound like the easiest thing in the world to put make, but as with all things deceptively simple, they can drive people crazy in trying to perfect them, taking over the world with them (hello, Din Tai Fung), or in our case, trying to taste them all.