647259 Mon Aug 24 20:11:35 -0700 2009 48 19 Outer Boroughs 0 4974648 I heard about Taste of Shanghai on chound and yelp. I also read that it was the former chef from Shanghai Tide, which is run by the same owner / chefs as the now defunct Yangtze River Restaurant across the street, which was the best shanghainese in NYC by far when it was open. So I was excited to try it since Yangtze River was really good. It occupies a space that has been a rotating door for chinese restaurants on the corner of 39th and Prince wedged between the parking lot for the Sheraton and a chinese bar who's name escapes me. It's got a yellow onning and is hard to miss. When you walk in there are two stories and maybe 6-7 smaller tables on the bottom floor and 5-6 bigger tables upstairs. The decor is nothing to write home about, but its not a total dump either. The service was brisk, but fine and the waiter was reasonably helpful when ordering explaining some of the dishes. I'm not sure how good or not good their english is b/c we ordered in chinese, but the menu is totally translated into english, so it shouldn't be a problem either way. The menu is 90% shanghainese dishes with a few random other dishes in the mix. The prices are super cheap, I think the most expensive dish on the menu was maybe $15, most dishes range between $5-8. We ordered an absolute ton of food (we were there for 2 hours): - scallion pancake with beef (niu rou jia bing): this isn't really a shanghainese dish, I've had it at lots of taiwanese places and the best version I've ever had is at a shandong place in LA. It's pretty self explanatory, its a scallion pancake brushed with hoisin (haixian) sauce, sliced beef and cucumbers. It was pretty tasty, the scallion pancake was a bit thick, but fresh and crispy and not that oily at all. The combo of everything went well together. Fyi, their version is pretty small, its probably meant for two people (we had four people). - cold cucumbers in garlic sauce: this was excellent, the cucumbers were very fresh and were sliced small enough (I hate when they give you big chunks), had sesame oil, garlic and a big a salt. Very refreshing - crab and pork soup dumplings (xie fen xiao long bao): the XLB here are decent, but not great, I don't think they are any better than the ones in manhattan. The skins are slightly thicker than most, the filling was good and a little lighter than most XLB. The crab wasn't really worth it as they didn't really give you very much. I'd order them if you can if you like XLB, but you're not going to be wow'd by them - sauteed watercress (kong xin cai): pretty standard, just sauteed kong xin cai with oil and garlic. I'm not sure if this was on the menu or not, but the waiter recommended it as a vegetable, so we got it. I love kong xin cai, so it was good. - egg and tomato: this is sort of a homestyle dish. It's basically just scrambled eggs with tomatoes. Wasn't the best version, I've ever had, but i like the dish alot, so I enjoyed it. - scallion and dry shrimp noodle: this was interesting, the noodles sort of reminded me of ramen noodles, it was in a sort of salty sauce that was soy sauce and scallion oil. It was topped with scallion that were brown, I believe they were fermented and put in the oil, there were also tiny dried shrimps on top. It was pretty good although not mind blowing - spicy blue crab (xiang la xie): wow this was so good, blue crab chopped into pieces sauteed in a dry sauce of oil, fermented black beans, peppers, scallions, green onions and maybe one or two other things. Really good, meat was sweet and tender, the sauce was spicy, but not overly spicy...it was also a bit sweet. Everyone was really wow'd by this dish. Fyi, the waiter said there were two preparations a dry and a soupy one, but he said the dry one (the one we got) is better. - braised pork shoulder in brown sauce: another excellent dish, a big pork shoulder with bone-in in a semi-sweet brown sauce. The meat was fall off the bone tender and the skin / fat was melt in your mouth delicious. It's pretty self-explanatory, but really good - meatball casserole: the name was deceiving, but its actually a light soup with meat balls, tofu and cabbage. The meat balls were pretty decent, fairly light actually. The soup was good albeit a bit too salty. Good, but not great dish - mushroom and gluten: this was very simple dish of sauteed mushrooms and gluten. The mushrooms were good, but the gluten was weird, it was kind of mushy, so the dish was just so so. - eight treasure rice (ba bao fan): i like this dish, its sticky glutinous rice with red beans in the middle and then they put raisins and some other dried fruits on it (they are all colorful...think of like fruitcake colorful)...i love red bean and i love sticky rice, so i liked this dish. I really want to come back to try to braised yellow eels, which they had run out of that day. Overall, everyone really liked the restaurant and I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of some of the dishes. What I really liked about this place was that the focus was on shanghainese food other than soup dumplings. I think shanghainese in the city has become solely associated with soup dumplings similar to how vietnamese food is now associated with banh mi and I think there is alot more to these cuisines then these famous dishes (although they are both tasty). This place is definitely worth trying out to taste good shanghainese outside of soup dumplings. I highly recommend. Mon Aug 24 20:11:35 -0700 2009 12298 Lau 1 4975149 Thanks Lau for your diligent review - I've a hankering for blue crab! Tue Aug 25 05:12:48 -0700 2009 4974648 148845 scoopG 2 4975785 yeah its worth trying...i was very pleasantly surprised Tue Aug 25 08:47:14 -0700 2009 4975149 12298 Lau 3 4975810 their fish head casserole (sa guo yue to, i know a massacred this) is great and a bargain at $7.50, i think. nice big pot filled with fish, tofu, noodles. Tue Aug 25 08:52:28 -0700 2009 4975785 28973 FattyDumplin 4 4975999 i almost ordered that dish, but i was getting full so i passed...ill have to try that next time along with the braised yellow eel Tue Aug 25 09:41:37 -0700 2009 4975810 12298 Lau 4 4976122 I loooove that dish, this is up next for next Flushing trek, husband will go anywhere for the real thing zhen zheng Shanghai cai. Tue Aug 25 10:11:59 -0700 2009 4975810 13709 buttertart 5 4976134 i highly recommend that spicy blue crab dish...it was definitely the best dish...the braised pork shoulder was also very good if you have a chance try the braised yellow eel, i really wanted to try that dish, i was disappointed they were out of eel Tue Aug 25 10:14:40 -0700 2009 4976122 12298 Lau 6 4976355 Look forward to it, maybe this weekend. Love crab too. Tue Aug 25 11:10:40 -0700 2009 4976134 13709 buttertart 6 4976370 By the way, are they licensed? Or BYOB? Tue Aug 25 11:14:34 -0700 2009 4976134 13709 buttertart 7 4976438 i recall they serve beer there. Tue Aug 25 11:29:51 -0700 2009 4976370 28973 FattyDumplin 8 4976608 That's all that's needed! thanks. Tue Aug 25 12:08:03 -0700 2009 4976438 13709 buttertart 9 4976640 they do serve beer and its cheap as hell...$2.50 / beer Tue Aug 25 12:17:40 -0700 2009 4976608 12298 Lau 10 4976843 We are so there this weekend! Thanks. Tue Aug 25 13:07:46 -0700 2009 4976640 13709 buttertart 4 5030525 fatty; that is a great price and, a great attempt at pinyin, not bad at all! sa-guo yu-tou is a little closer. Mon Sep 14 22:00:51 -0700 2009 4975810 12656 bigjeff 5 5030822 Sha is the usual Pinyin for the character for sand. Not to ba a pest or anything... Tue Sep 15 05:51:28 -0700 2009 5030525 13709 buttertart 6 5031588 that is my fake taiwanese pinyin! Tue Sep 15 10:23:21 -0700 2009 5030822 12656 bigjeff 7 5031750 Too cute, reflects Taiwan pronunciation as well. I was very surprised to see Pinyin in the Taipei subway - a friend opined that it was of DPP origin...??? Sa guo, sha guo, the yutou and the doufu still taste wonderful. Tue Sep 15 11:11:04 -0700 2009 5031588 13709 buttertart 7 5032878 Guys, both your pinyin translations are extremely helpful, but there might be some minor dialect issues here. Thank you both! Tue Sep 15 18:40:32 -0700 2009 5031588 260841 diprey 8 5033535 Indeed, not minor. As you doubtless know, Shanghainese Wu dialect - which Lau notes is spoken here - is very unlike standard Mandarin. Would love to learn it someday. Wed Sep 16 06:06:18 -0700 2009 5032878 13709 buttertart 1 4978889 going today at like noon Wed Aug 26 07:15:07 -0700 2009 4974648 90996 chefjellynow 2 4979310 Await report w/bated breadth. Wed Aug 26 09:14:27 -0700 2009 4978889 13709 buttertart 3 4979328 yeah let me know how it is Wed Aug 26 09:18:51 -0700 2009 4979310 12298 Lau 4 4979643 OK all hehe I took some PICS of course well i was not too adventurous as i tried 2 items Lau reviewed.. 1) scallion pancake with beef and pepper 2) pork shoulder with brown gravy LARGE PORTIONS! WOW pancake was really nice, as stated in review not too greasy, nice shreaded beef and semi-spicy green peppers. I really liked these Pork ... well what can i really say lol ... i felt like i was in the flintstones cartoon! this was a 2+ pound pork shoulder, here i am sitting alone with my new buddy, the shoulder. fall off the bone tender, brown sauce that was sweet at first but kinda evened itself out as you ate it. the green vegetables were steamed and there bitterness went really nice with the gravy. A+ for sure. i have enough for dinner for my family tonite taboot here are some pics: Wed Aug 26 10:39:48 -0700 2009 4979328 90996 chefjellynow 5 4979693 haha sorry i didnt tell u how big that dish is...that place is really cheap now that i think of it based upon portion size and prices Wed Aug 26 10:53:28 -0700 2009 4979643 12298 Lau 6 4979722 oh yea i forgot Lau, i asked for yellow eel and no go they had none again boooo Wed Aug 26 11:01:14 -0700 2009 4979693 90996 chefjellynow 7 4979770 i read somewhere that it is good there and i like that dish, so i really want to try it Wed Aug 26 11:15:11 -0700 2009 4979722 12298 Lau 5 4979786 Looks great, can't wait, thanks for pics! Wed Aug 26 11:17:59 -0700 2009 4979643 13709 buttertart 1 4979398 Many thanks, yet again, Lau, for your thorough report. Since my only experience with Shanghai in Flushing has been Shanghai Tide, which I've liked and about which I have written a couple of very short notes here, I am wondering if you have, indeed been to Shanghai Tide and how this new place compares. When did the ST chef relocate here? Thanks again! a faithful reader Wed Aug 26 09:36:47 -0700 2009 4974648 12618 erica 2 4979432 well he opened the restaurant, so it must've been in the last 6-9 months b/c the restaurant is pretty new I still haven't gone to shanghai tide although I heard that the actual shanghainese food (not the hot pot) is still quite good since the entire staff from yangtze just relocated, so i cant compare although I can compare it to yangtze and while it was good, yangtze was better Wed Aug 26 09:46:13 -0700 2009 4979398 12298 Lau 1 4989991 We went yesterday afternoon and had the sheng jian bing - which were OK, basically thickskinned dumplings fried on one side - and the scallion pancake with braised beef - which was delicious; the Yangzhou doufu gan si dry beancurd strips which were served heaped in an excellent broth with pork and black mushroom strips and doumiao pea shoots; the redcooked knotted dry beancurd sheets and pork belly; the kong xin cai green veg; and the spicy blue crab - the sauce for which is similar to a Sichuan hot pot preparation, very mala, and the crab is served on a bed of udon-type noodles in the sauce. The crab was fantastic, and the other dishes were very good indeed. Given the Tatung plates and the unsimplified characters on the menu (and on the sign in the rest room), I would expect this place is owned by people from Taiwan. It reminded us rather of Jiangzhe places in Taipei, with the admixture of some Sichuan-leaning dishes to the menu as was often the case there - Shanghai being the NYC of China in a way, drawing culinary influences from all over. Loved the food and we will definitely be back. The Taiwan place across the street at the corner of 39th and Prince looked very interesting as well (are their "Manile clams with basil" really haiguazi, I wonder?) and the place advertising Northern and Jiangzhe snacks on their awning just up from it on Prince is also tempting. I just don't know how we will be able to pass up the blue crab next time in Flushing! (One of the best things I have eaten in a very long time, and that long time includes some truly spectacular meals.) And it's amazingly cheap: all the above plus 4 Tsingtao beers, $60.00 before tip. Sun Aug 30 07:11:13 -0700 2009 4974648 13709 buttertart 2 4990304 you know thats actually a good point, it does taste like how a shanghainese restaurant in taipei would taste like although i know the chef was at yangtze restaurant which was definitely run by shanghainese (my friend knew the owners and they would always blab away in shanghainese) glad you enjoyed...that blue crab is really very excellent and i'd probably concur that its one of the better chinese dishes ive had in NY in a while i think you're talking about lu's seafood (its changed names once or twice, cant remember if thats its current name), but they have good pai gu fan although i havent been there in a while, but they are known for their pai gu fan Sun Aug 30 10:03:05 -0700 2009 4989991 12298 Lau 3 5028249 we went back to taste of shanghai this weekend. was not as good as i had remembered it. their xiao long bao were mediocre this time - very little juice and pretty thick skins. the sen jian bao were ok also. and my wife was disappointed by her shredded vegetable and pork strip noodle soup. kind of weird, because my toddler son, who loved it the last time here, kept spitting it out, so something may have been off. the fish head casserole was great again though. so cheap, great flavors and chock full of noodles, fish and tofu. the eels are back. apparently, his supply here got disrupted, but its back now. although it is 14.95, not 12.95 as it says on the menu. Mon Sep 14 07:56:22 -0700 2009 4990304 28973 FattyDumplin 4 5028283 ohh i have to try the eels, maybe going this weekend their XLB as i said in my original post are not that great, but that isn't the reason to come to this restaurant...highly suggest u try the crab and pork shoulder Mon Sep 14 08:07:16 -0700 2009 5028249 12298 Lau 5 5028312 darn, i totally forgot. i'd had those two recos in mind before i went, but froze up when i went. so only remembered the eels. will need to give it another shot. Mon Sep 14 08:15:18 -0700 2009 5028283 28973 FattyDumplin 6 5028343 its worth going back, its one of the better meals ive had in flushing in a while Mon Sep 14 08:25:35 -0700 2009 5028312 12298 Lau 7 5028497 One of the better meals I've had anywhere in the city recently too. The crab is spectacular. Mon Sep 14 09:18:40 -0700 2009 5028343 13709 buttertart 8 5028941 address please! Mon Sep 14 11:27:25 -0700 2009 5028497 11438 jsigalow 9 5029014 39th and Prince, Flushing, as stated in Lau's original post. Mon Sep 14 11:48:41 -0700 2009 5028941 13709 buttertart 10 5030031 nice, gonna try the eel tomorrow yay, will report with pics of course lol Mon Sep 14 18:19:43 -0700 2009 5029014 90996 chefjellynow 11 5030096 Second the pork shoulder: so tender you don't need anything but chopsticks... Mon Sep 14 18:45:13 -0700 2009 5030031 260841 diprey 2 5030530 ya that stretch of Prince Street is just chock-a-block with restaurants, almost insane. anyone try the hotpot place at the end of prince street, next to ramen setagaya? looked ultra-modern with the individual booth flat-screens, and the "default" vegetable platter looked very nice as well. lau, your ordering above is pretty much the classics; sounds like a real good time. how does this stack up to any manhattan places? Mon Sep 14 22:03:59 -0700 2009 4989991 12656 bigjeff 3 5031023 way better than the manhattan shanghainese places, which for the record i generally think are pretty bad, so i rarely go to them although i know the chef / owner is shanghainese, the food almost tastes like shanghainese you'd get in taipei....any which way, its very good esp the crab and pork shoulder...you should def try Tue Sep 15 07:28:56 -0700 2009 5030530 12298 Lau 1 5033695 Ate there last night. had the crab, great sauce but could use bigger crabs to hold the sauce. The pork leg, omg......and to think Spicy & Tasty is aroung the corner. Can anyone name a better 500 feet to eat out? I think not. Wed Sep 16 07:16:22 -0700 2009 4974648 10491 MOREKASHA 2 5033760 well they are blue crabs, so they're not going to be that big..i like the meat in blue crabs, its very good and the shells are easy to breakthrough in fact sometimes u can just eat them Wed Sep 16 07:40:27 -0700 2009 5033695 12298 Lau 3 5033859 My husband does just that with the thinner pieces, he can lay waste to a lot more crabs than I and still have a lot less debris left on his plate. No GI issues fromn them either. Man or goat? (We took the noodles home, made a tasty lunch in themselves.) Wed Sep 16 08:18:20 -0700 2009 5033760 13709 buttertart 3 5034085 I like them too, it's just that you run out of them so quickly. The blues are so much sweeter than the dungeness out west. Wed Sep 16 09:27:05 -0700 2009 5033760 10491 MOREKASHA 2 5034219 Blue crabs are about as big as you'd get in Shanghai. Be thankful you were weren't dealing with dazha (hairy) crabs. Wed Sep 16 10:06:54 -0700 2009 5033695 131118 Xiao Yang 1 5044290 Sounds great. Just for info - the best niu riu jia bing that you had in LA , Lau, was it 101 noodle express? Sun Sep 20 14:46:20 -0700 2009 4974648 10366 Jerome 2 5045446 yes it was...love that place Mon Sep 21 06:12:18 -0700 2009 5044290 12298 Lau