Shanghai Cuisine

Introduction

The benbang and Haipai cooking of Shanghai, rich and dark-sauced, drawing on flavours from many places.

Shanghai cuisine, also called Shanghainese or benbang cuisine, is the regional cooking of Shanghai. Benbang cooking means the traditional local dishes, strong in red-braising, stewing and wine-lees cooking, with a rich, dark-sauced taste that is salty with a touch of sweetness; its roots go back to the late Qing, and its cooking craft is on the national intangible cultural heritage list. After Shanghai opened to foreign trade, people came from many places, and methods from Suzhou and Wuxi, Huaiyang, Shandong, Guangdong and even Western kitchens flowed in, forming the blended style known as Haipai. Shanghai cuisine belongs to the food of the Jiangnan region; benbang cooking keeps the local methods, while Haipai cooking draws on all of them. Stir-fried river shrimp, eight-treasure duck and braised pork intestines with bur clover are dishes familiar to people in Shanghai.