Shanghai Surprise

Wednesday, Dec 08, 2010

Gulf News

Head to Shanghai Chic for some unique dishes

It seems to me that meals in Chinese restaurants, more than other types of restaurant, seem to spark those conversations about the weirdest thing anyone’s eaten. While perusing a menu featuring such exotic items as abalone, “black chicken”, “white fungus”, taro and lotus roots, it always seems the talk becomes rather competitive, turning to other exotic creatures found on far-flung plates. Taking that a step further, it seems my quest for good Chinese food has always been defined by the exoticism of the menu, because those ingredients, I assume (perhaps incorrectly, I’ll admit) go hand-in-hand with the patronage of actual Chinese people, lending even more authenticity. Chicken feet? Count me in! Six different ways of serving sea cucumber? It’s a must try! A dish of cold jellyfish? Let’s do lunch... and so on.

Which brings me to the newly-opened Shanghai Chic at the Ibn Battuta Gate hotel — if you’ve spent any time driving to Abu Dhabi over the last month (haven’t we all?) and wondered what the huge Atlantis-esque building near Jebel Ali was, it’s the new hotel. Shanghai Chic has many of those exotic ingredients, without going as far as to be off-putting to the delicate of stomach, and it also has something even more unusual — the menu is focused on Shanghainese cuisine, which has a number of unique dishes and flavours that distinguish it from the more common Cantonese.

First to note: Shanghainese cuisine is defined by sweetness — something which both myself and my dining partner found unusual and occasionally, disconcerting.

delicate

Our first taste of the cuisine, however, came in the shape of a selection of dim sum (Dh80), those little snacks of steamed and fried deliciousness. The dumplings here are superb — both the steamed squid ink dumpling and the steamed lotus roots siew mai have delicate hand-made skins, a far cry from other stodgy versions you may have had, and taste is infused right into the skin with herbs and flavours — such as the striking black squid ink. They’re rich and meaty, with the sweetness of crab in the squid ink ones and chicken thigh — the more flavourful cut of meat — in the siew mai.

Sweetness first came in the shape of the fried taro puff, a flaky half moon of pastry filled with roasted duck: the taro itself is quite sweet, as is the duck sauce. The plate also featured a wasabi prawn, which although tasty, bothered me — why the Japanese element, even if it is a ridiculously popular dish?

Soups, as suggested by the chef (Shanghainese himself) followed, and my golden seafood broth (Dh50) was an absolute winner. Not only was it beautiful, a thick pool of gold topped with a spinach-flecked dumpling stuffed with crab, but the flavour was as rich and smooth. A hot and sour soup (Dh45) nailed both elements, thick with fresh swirls of tofu, langoustine and mushrooms, but in comparison to the delicate golden soup, it couldn’t hold its own.

appeal

By this time we were close to stuffed, but pressed on regardless to try some of the meat dishes. Cubes of beef in black pepper sauce (Dh85) — spiced up for the UAE market, according to the chef — was again flavourful but the meat was a little tough. Much more interesting was the chilli chicken (Dh70), which I think will appeal to a wide demographic thanks to its spice — and the inclusion of crispy fried curry leaves — like KFC from Shanghai, via Kerala. I also loved the vegetarian option of spinach topped slices of fresh creamy tofu, probably because it comes topped with a rich truffle-scented mushroom sauce (Dh50).

While not all of the dishes were perfect — that sweet, flaky taro is overused, in particular — there are plenty of intriguing options that remain to be tried. I’ll be heading back.

Shanghai Chic Where: Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel. Tel: ?04-444 0000

Must-haves: Golden seafood soup, chilli chicken, beef in black pepper sauce.

Decor: Rich reds

Ambience: Quiet, but with Indian-sounding Chinese music.

Fresh tofu with baby spinach.

Dim sum platter.

Chilli chicken.

3.5

By Natalie Long ?tabloid! Editor