Shanghai Bites:

According to this article in Shanghai Daily,

SHANGHAI named 83 folk arts as its first batch of city-level intangible culture heritage today as part of the city’s efforts to protect and promote these “traditional treasures.”

The popular “Huju Opera, Lion Dancing, Dough Modeling and the Longhua Temple Fair” can be found on the list, which has 10 categories — folk music, dances, operas, folk art, acrobatics, handicrafts, medicine and folk customs.

The familiar Nanxiang xiaolongbao from Jiading District is also on the list.

Hmm, is xiao long bao a handicraft? Medicine? Folk Art?  Methinks it’s a whole opera in a steamer.

I’ve been preoccupied with a number of projects, including drafting a piece on Shanghai xiao chi for an upcoming guidebook, taking care of some health issues, and planning my annual New York - Montreal turnaround trip, so I haven’t posted lately. One of my projects in the works is to start adding come content pages to this blogsite, and one of the first is going to be a guide and portal to various videos on the web of Shanghai street eats being prepared and sold. It was the one below, posted on YouTube by “sunnata” that made me realize that YouTube had a higher and better use than just plain vanity and dumb silliness. It was shot near the Shanghai Uiversity of Finance and Economics, but the goody in question is identical in manufacture and ingredients to the jian bing (or dan bing, as Shanghainese like to call them) vendor’s work near our Hongkou apartment, over on the Tongji side of the Universities district. Enjoy!

In Googling around in search of whatever it was, I stumbled across an informational website for Shanghai with something different to offer a foodie. While websites listing or recommending all manner of eating places in Shanghai, it wasn’t until I discovered shanghaitown, a website rich in information for overseas students, that I ever saw a guide to on-campus dining in Shanghai.   This is a topic of particular interest to me, since last year my wife bought an apartment conveniently located to both Fudan University (scrumptious beef noodles) and Tongji University (terrific T-bone steak). The full rundown, school by school, begins here; the website’s recommendated list is here:

Shanghai University Baoshan Campus: Xinjiang mixed Long noodle with vegetable in the Islamic Restaurant, Boiled Beef in Hot Sauce, Rice Cake with T Bone Steak, Pan Fried Beef Bun, Sandwich and Coffee in No.5 Street Restaurant.

Tongji University: T Bone Steak, Fried Egg with Tomato, Beef Noodles.

Shanghai Normal University: Saute Rice Noodles with Green Bean Sprouts on the second floor of West Restaurant, Korean Well-Done Rice by Stone Pot.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University: Beef Ramen Noodles,

Northeastern University, China: good snack bars

Shanghai Medical College Fudan University: Savoury and Crisp Chicken, Pork in Soy Sauce

East China Normal University: Earthenware Casserole, Malatang.

Fudan University: Beef Ramen Noodles

Foreign Trade College in Songjiang University-Town: Breakfast

Shanghai International Studies University: Steamed Bun

Lixin University in Songjiang University-Town: Barbecued pork, Steamed Bun

East China University of Politics and Law in Songjiang University-Town: Pan Fried Pot Sticker, Fried Egg with Tomatoes

Northeastern University in Songjiang University-Town: Spicy Chicken

My town, San Francisco, managed to get National Landmark Status declared for its cable cars, making them the only National Landmark on wheels. If San Francisco had invented xiaolongbao, I’d be the first in line lobbying for National Landmark Status for those, too: imagine being able to pop a National Landmark into your mouth!

The town of Nanxiang, in Shanghai’s suburban Jiading District, whose claim to have invented xiaolongbao has never been seriously disputed, is now trying to accomplish something much like that for its signature dumplings. It’s not National Landmark status precisely, but the Jiading District Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Office (whew!) is trying to get Natonal protection for the “intangible” Cultural Heritage of it’s xiaolongbao. More precisely, it’s trying to stop others from making “fake” Nanxiang xiaolongbao, by essentially copyrighting the term “Nanxiang Xiaolongbao.” Here’s the way Xinhua put it:

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No, this is not something Michael Ohlsson (”Weird Meat”) missed. It’s a Yankee-style hot dog place, and the weirdest thing about it is its location: the northeast corner of People’s Square, near the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center. I tried the dog last December, when I took the picture. There seemed something not quite right about the bun, but otherwise it walked like a hot dog, talked like a hot dog, and looked like a hot dog to me. And I should add tasted like a hot dog.

The controversy, if it can be called such, relates to the graphic logo of the jauntily leaning dog. Others in the blogosphere have pointed out that it’s a copy of the logo used by Top Dog, the beloved and venerable mini-chain in Berkeley, California. I think it has also been reported that the Mac Dog owner once worked at Top Dog for a few months. Is Top Dog complaining? Not that I’ve heard. Should they complain? Unless they are planning to expand beyond their three East Bay shops to Mainland China, I think not. After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.