Friday, April 2, 2010

XinJiShi aka Jesse Restaurant


The chain of XinJiShi restaurants in Shanghai have become culinary institutions over the years. Although they are now located it more tourist friendly quarters, the standard of food remains excellent and is still held in high regard by the locals, even though prices are much higher than the average local hole-in-the-wall eatery serving traditional Shanghainese cuisine.

Today, I brought my coworker to the Xintiandi branch of XinJiShi to experience the excellent dishes that the rest of us have been raving for years. The usual must-haves included the three-layered pork meat stewed in claypot, the baked crab meat and roe in claypot and the famous jujue dates with glutinous rice. I also ordered a dish of local Chinese vegetables with strips of beancurd.

It has been at least three years since I ate here, but all the dishes were still very good. The stewed pork tasted just as good, although it seemed there was less gravy at the bottom of the pot this time. The stewed crab was amazing, but I remembered the version at Villa Mansion restaurant was even better. 

The jujube dates were still the best in town, and the local vegetable dish featured a local vegetable that I wasn't familair with but tasted a lot like tiny stalks of asparagus. I could have eaten a second plate of the jujube dates, but I had to save room for dessert at the Park Hyatt's 100 Century Ave restaurant later that night.

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