Rick Stein's Taste of Shanghai

I'm here in Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in the world,

and it's also, I'm told,

the most exciting city at the moment for cooking.

I like to travel around the world and pick up dishes,

I'm a bit of a magpie.

But I don't like reading about them,

I just like going out and trying them

and smelling them, tasting them,

seeing the colour, hearing the sounds of a city like this.

I think I know quite a lot about Chinese cooking,

but actually I only really know about Cantonese cuisine

and there's so much more in China.

And I'm here to pick up ideas and add to my repertoire.

But what I'm really excited about is getting out into the streets

and seeing what it's all about.

So what is it about Shanghai?

100 years ago it was a byword for the exotic,

the forbidden, the dangerous.

After the war, under Communism, it went into hiding for about 30 years.

But since the '80s, it's become a global financial centre

to rival London, New York and Hong Kong.

And with all that cash,

restaurants have opened up at a rate of knots

and chefs have been drawn here from all over the world.

I find it really interesting, I've never been here before,

but Shanghai was knows as the Paris of the east,

also the pearl of the east.

But conversely it was also known as the whore of the orient,

this sort of rather sleazy rundown place,

the centre of the opium trade.

But to me, very interesting, what I'm here for is the food of course,

the Shanghainese dishes.

But are they still here, I wonder?

Because everything's changing,

there's so many western restaurants opening here.

What's happening to Shanghainese cooking

because, at the end of the day as far I'm concerned,

food is about culture,

and if you lose your cuisine, you lose your culture.

My Shanghai journey starts in the heart of the city,

my cheffy friends told me about the most famous iconic, I suppose,

dish here - a dumpling.

A most fabulous dumpling

filled with soup and bits of crab or pork, or chicken.

This is a first for me, a new taste.

-Terrible weather.

-Yeah.

My translator Jia Jia splashed through a Shanghai shower with me

to one of the oldest dumpling restaurants in the city.

-It's coming.

-Oh, good. Oh, I love these.

So, which is which?

This one is a hairy crab dumpling. This one is pork.

-OK.

-Actually, you can pick it up and take a little nap...

-A little nap? You mean a little nip?

-Nip, yes.

And you can take out the soup...

-Suck it out.

-Yeah, suck it out.

-Yeah.

-And then...

-Oh, so good.

-Yeah. And put it into the vinegar.

Mm. And taste the whole dumpling.

-That's exquisite.

-Yeah, delicious.

-So yummy.

And you have hairy crab smell in the mouth, so very seafood.

-Lovely taste of the crab.

-Yeah.

Let's try a pork one then.

-So...this is possibly the most famous food in Shanghai?

-Oh, yes.

It's very typical. Oh, be careful!

Well, that had to happen.

Yes. It's actually, for foreigners, not easy to take the tips of taking dumplings.

That's OK.

I never really understood the point of the spoon

and the chopsticks before.

In dumplings, there's always a lot of soup inside.

-Inside?

-Yes, so you might need it to take out the soup.

In this shop they serve 1,000 dumplings a day, mostly for lunch.

You would be forgiven for imagining

that Xia Long Bao had been here forever, but no.

Mrs Chen's family fell foul of the authorities during

the Cultural Revolution and they couldn't get jobs because

of their bourgeois connections.

In the mid-'80s,

their only way forward was to start their own little business.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Rick, this is the owner, Mrs Chen.

Would you thank her very much. I'm very impressed.

THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE

-You're welcome.

-Thank you.

There are tens of thousands of restaurants here,

the whole gamut as you can imagine.

Street food to fusion to nouvelle cuisine. Yes, it's still with us.

It's a bit of knack to find the best places to eat in a new city,

but I think I've got it,

and I just want some great recipes to take home.

Now this is right up my street.

The night market at Shounin Road is teeming with punters

from early evening to the small hours, all in search of seafood.

Plump crayfish, succulent lobsters

and huge oysters cooked to order on open-air griddles.

I can't begin to tell you how exciting this is for a seafood cook.

I've never seen so much seafood ready to eat,

but what I'm really after is the local hairy crabs.

They're revered by the locals and I wrote down this quote

from a 17th century local playwright called Li Yu.

"While my heart lusts after them

"and my mouth enjoys their delectable taste,

"I can't even begin to describe why I adore their sweet taste

"and why I can never forget them. Dear, crab, Dear, crab,

"You and I are to be lifelong companions."

After a such a eulogy I can't wait to try some.

Here to guide me is Jamie Barys who runs food tours in the city.

So there we have steamed hairy crab.

They're going to be quite hot,

so we're going to have to give them a minute

before you want to start ripping right into them.

The hairy crab isn't actually all that hairy,

apart from a generous tuft on its meaty forearms and not much else.

-Do you have a male or a female?

-I got a female.

-All right, good.

Lovely roe.

Dip it in a little bit of vinegar.

-So hairy crab is famously very sweet.

-That's famously sweet.

Shanghainese food in general is very sweet, so this...

I'm just going to try some without the vinegar.

That is very good crab.

-I actually do know a thing or two about crabs.

-Yeah.

Cos I'm a seafood cook back in the UK.

But this is good.

So tell me about Shanghainese cuisine, cos I know the hairy crabs

is really essential to them, that's right at the centre of it all.

So Shanghainese cuisine is kind of the red-headed

stepchild of Chinese cuisine,

so there's four major cuisines that are on the compass point.

And the one that's in the east is called Huaiyang.

And Shanghainese is a branch of Huaiyang cuisine.

It's a bit sweeter and has a lot more foreign influences

than a lot of the other cuisines in China

because historically Shanghai has always been a port town.

But I love it and once you find good places serving Shanghainese cuisine,

and not ones that hide behind the sugar

and the vinegar, then you have some excellent food.

So what did you call it again?

The red-headed stepchild of Chinese cuisine.

Aw!

We call them wrangers back in the UK.

But I feel very protective towards red-headed stepchilds

because I was a wranger once.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-To the hairy crab.

-To the hairy crab.

Well, that's my first hairy crab experience.

Yum.

On my own personal culinary scale I'd give it about eight out of ten.

It's good, but a Cornish spider crab straight from the sea

with all lovely white leg meat takes some beating.

We're in the former French Concession,

once a trading enclave within the city,

a little piece of France inside China.

I've been tipped off about a fantastic place for breakfast,

and there's always a queue because it's so good.

Mr Wu's spring onion pancakes

or scallion pancakes as they call them around here are a legend,

some people absolutely love them,

others say they're a bit too heavy with lard.

Well, the jury's out. I'm looking forward to trying them.

Actually, the queue is much longer earlier in the morning, so I

came a bit late for my breakfast so I didn't have to wait too long.

I'm watching everything he does and making notes.

It looks to me like the secret of these pancakes is lots of lard,

a big handful of scallions and a ball of fatty pork mince

stuffed into the dough which will be bursting with flavour.

So how long do you have to wait normally?

I would be here more than one hour just for the delicious food.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-More than one hour.

-So what makes them so special?

Al of my family, including my kids, love the flavour very much.

It's a very traditional Chinese flavour from when I was a young kid.

I like to eat this kind of street food.

-It's nice smelling...

-It smells lovely.

Smell of lard. I'm really looking forward to it.

Well, I suppose I better get back to my place at the back.

-Yeah. Enjoy.

-Thank you.

I know it's a bit fanciful,

but I couldn't help thinking that Mr Wu would make a fine character

in a Kurosawa film, Seven Samurai springs to mind.

I know the Chinese and Japanese

don't actually see eye-to-eye most of time,

but here is, without a shadow of doubt, a master of his craft,

a teacher of tradition and excellence.

To me in this busy thrusting city, he's a reminder of the past

and I just know these cakes that smell quite wonderful,

by the way, are going to be fabulous.

What really tastes good to me is the lard he cooked them in.

I love the taste of lard,

it takes me back to my childhood, funnily enough.

It's deliciously crisp and doughy and very savoury,

with the pork inside and the spring onions.

I think queuing for food like that,

anticipating, is great cos it's time to stand and reflect,

think about life, think about what you really enjoy in life.

I'm a fan.

I would wait an hour, but maybe not two.

These I know would go like hotcakes back in Padstow.

Seriously, a little stall by the sea

and the smell of Mr Wu's scallion pancakes

would give any cheese and onion pasty a run for its money.

Filming in somewhere like Shanghai can be a bit of a difficulty

because there's a lot of bureaucracy, not just China,

it was bad in India too, but this one is quite baffling, to be honest.

We were going to go and film just down there,

which is where Mao Zedong convened

the first Chinese Communist Party congress in 1923.

And the reason I wanted to go there simply in my humble culinary way

was that Chairman Mao loved one particular dish -

Chinese red-braised pork.

Now that dish is held by many people to be great brain food

and that's why people felt that Mao Zedong was so bright.

That's all I wanted to say,

but no, for some inexplicable reason we can't film this famous building.

So let's turn now to what we're actually here for

and that's inspirational food.

For a modern take on Shanghainese cuisine,

I've come to meet Anthony Zhao, a local TV chef.

He's going to show me how to make one of his most famous dishes -

Chairman Mao's favourite.

Thank you for coming.

-Red-braised pork.

-Yes.

-Fabulous.

-Follow me.

Anthony was trained in western cuisine

and worked for years in European fine dining,

but now he's returned to his Shanghainese roots.

One thing that characterises the food here is

the so-called Holy Trinity of sugar, soy and oil.

But I think it's really a quartet

because they use serious amounts of yellow rice wine too.

First he fries spring onions with ginger, star anise

and cassia bark - it's a bit like cinnamon -

and a bay leaf.

Then he adds fat cubes of belly pork.

That's what we call five-layer pork.

-How come?

-Because they have five layers, skin, fat, meat...

-That's belly pork though?

-It's belly pork.

-OK.

-Good texture. So this Shaoxing wine.

-OK.

-I would say use sherry.

-Yes!

Yeah, I like sherry.

Sherry has the same flavour, actually. Very similar flavour.

So how come you use dark and light soy?

That's my secret, actually.

I'm sorry. I'll cut it out.

Lots of people, they just use dark soy sauce.

I just figured out if I have light soy sauce I don't need to put MSG.

He's putting in some rock sugar because

it goes so well with the pork and soy sauce.

I don't know why, for some reason rock sugar will make this shininess on the meat,

so the meat looks much better and even tastes much better.

Everybody has their own recipe,

but my recipe is add little bit of vinegar

because I believe vinegar can cut the fat through.

What do you call that vinegar?

This is Chinese dark vinegar.

But sometimes if you can't find it, you can use balsamic vinegar.

OK, same colour and just a bit of sweetness to that.

Yeah, it's OK cos it's already very sweet, so it doesn't matter.

So now you slowly cook probably 40 minutes to an hour.

-OK. Good stuff.

-Yeah.

Antony's wife, she's a food writer, Crystyl Mo joins us for lunch.

And in front of us this glistening pork dish just waiting to be tried.

So traditionally we eat this always with rice.

So if you have a big mouth...

Big enough, so you put a little bit of rice with the meat

-and just one bite.

-Oh, boy.

That's a big bite. How is it?

Oh!

-It's exquisite.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-The fattiness and the sweet...

-Sweetness.

-Yeah.

It's just like when you dream of Chinese food...

it's something like that.

Oh, wow! That makes me very surprised.

I always worry western people won't like this dish.

-What?!

-Sweet, fatty food, you know, how can they like it?

Perfection.

So the whole atmosphere of Shanghai is so wonderfully busy,

luxurious, sophisticated.

I can't imagine what it must have been like during

the Cultural Revolution here. I mean, were there restaurants?

There were basically no restaurants in China.

I mean, Cultural Revolution people were dirt poor.

People were on rations.

You got tickets to get food and you would get a little bit of oil,

a little bit of rice, you wouldn't be eating meat.

-You would eat meat, what? Once a month or something.

-Yeah.

So the exquisite culinary culture of China

was completely dead during that time.

I just sort of remember in the '60s and '70s,

nobody knew a thing about China, it was just like a dead country.

Oh, yeah. It was a mystery.

And the idea when suddenly it reappears

and you hear about Shanghai, you think, "Where's all that come from?"

-It was so sudden.

-It was all latent, I suppose.

It was all like...China's waiting to get back into what they knew

and loved.

To now there's 120,000 restaurants in Shanghai,

which is just an extraordinary number.

When I'm talking to you both it's sort of really...

You're very close.

-Yeah, there's this mythology around Shanghainese husbands...

-Which is.

Which is that everyone in China knows

you can date somebody from anywhere,

but when you marry a Shanghainese husband

because they know how to take care of the household,

-they are famous for being great cooks.

-Housework?

They do the housework.

I mean, a funny thing you'll only see in Shanghai

and not in other cities is you'll see men holding purses.

They're always holding their girlfriend's or their wife's purses.

So on the subway you're like,

"There's a lot of transgender people in this city.

"No, actually they're just holding their pink purse

"for their girlfriend or their wife."

You always see guys holding purses.

I'd love to be able to hold a purse. They're so convenient.

-I want to be clear, I don't do this.

-He will not do that.

I'm like, "I should never have brought him to the States."

He's like, "What?! Men don't carry purses?"

Curious that.

My wife's always telling me I've got a strong feminine side.

It wouldn't worry me a jot holding her handbag.

But not all the time.

All this eating, all these lovely meals,

it's getting slightly out of balance.

Jia Jia my interpreter said the best thing I could do

is go to the Peace Park for gentle exercise.

UPBEAT CHINESE POP MUSIC PLAYS

You may not think so, but I take exercise very seriously.

I take a dip every morning in the Camel Estuary, come rain or shine.

I do!

In fact, I've heard people say, "Who's that old geezer?"

I can hear them, you know!

I know scenes of Chinese people doing their t'ai chi and dancing

is a bit of a cliche, but here, I think, is a good lesson for us all.

I must say

when I heard we were coming to this park early this morning,

it's now only half past seven, I thought,

"Oh, gosh, not a lot of people dancing."

But there are a lot of people dancing and they're all quite old,

probably about as old as me.

But I really enjoyed it.

I think once you get stuck into something like that

you sort of lose your inhibitions

and suddenly you realise what it's all about,

so I know I looked a fool, but I really loved it.

I find all this very uplifting.

After all, China knew the secrets to a long and healthy life

long before the Greeks, long before the Romans,

and diet along with exercise was key.

I've already found some fabulous dishes,

Anthony's red-braised pork is a keeper definitely,

so are Mr Wu's yummy scallion pancakes,

but they're both based on fatty pork.

At this rate, I'll be going home at least a stone heavier.

As Confucius says, "The way you cut your meat reflects the way you live."

Now think about it.

While we're pondering on that,

what about the way we've embraced Chinese food?

It seems every tiny village in the UK has at least one takeaway.

Now who would have seen that coming?

I'm not blessed with a good memory for names,

but I can remember dishes I've had in my past

and I can remember my first Chinese lunch.

I was taken out from my boarding school, Uppingham, for a day -

because we weren't allowed to sleep out,

we could only go out for the day - by my parents

and we went to Peterborough

and I can remember we had crab and sweetcorn soup.

And I can particularly remember the gloopiness of it

and also the savouriness of it, the umaminess

cos it probably had a bit of MSG in it.

And the next course, because we did have it in courses I remember

cos my parents were quite traditional like that,

was a stir-fry and it was probably beef.

But it definitely had bean sprouts in it and lots of soy

and probably five spice.

And I was absolutely wrapped by it, actually.

Finally, of course, I had lychees. I had never tasted anything like it.

And they're a combination of flavours that nobody,

nobody could fail to love.

It's a sunny morning at last.

They say in certain parts of industrial China

that dogs bark at the rare sight of the sun breaking through.

I am that dog on his way to see a spot of fishing,

to leave the city behind and head east

to one of Shanghai's nearby islands - Chongming.

And it sits right in the mouth of the longest river in China -

the Yangtze.

Well, I must say, I've seen these Chinese fishing nets all

the way from Italy to India, but I've never seen one in China before.

But this is quite special because it's enormous.

I'm loving the way they've got it all set up right across the river.

Just a little bit worried, I think they need to get on with it

because the birds are having all the fish.

It's a bit tricky this filming

because actually they haven't got a lot of fish on this haul.

We should have been here at four o'clock in the morning,

but then we wouldn't have been able to see anything.

I love things like this.

I think if I wasn't involved with restaurants

I'd be involved with nets, with pulleys and motors

and all that sort of thing.

I just find it fascinating.

Interestingly, just watching them raising

and lowering the nets into the water,

they have to keep the fish alive

because in China freshwater fish really has to be live.

These fishermen seem to work on the basis of one for me, one for you.

They're having white fish for lunch.

It looks like a freshwater bream to me. Actually, I think it's a carp.

I've steamed fish with spring onion and ginger many times,

but this is a first for me to actually see it done in China.

And notice a difference.

First of all,

I'd be really parsimonious with the ginger always.

I'm just noticing he's putting loads of slices of ginger,

plus some chilli as well.

Just a little pinch of MSG, which is fine by me.

And a good wash of Shaoxing wine, which I've never done.

And a little bit of oil too and a little bit of salt.

Very interesting.

I sometimes think I can remember every step of the cooking process,

but it's so easy to forget one little spoonful of spice

or a twist of lime, so my notes, my precious notes, are vital.

I'm so glad I've seen them cook steamed fish like this because

I've always wanted to know exactly how to do it, and now I know.

It's delicious.

I'm actually quite amazed cos I don't think I've ever sat down

with a load of fishermen and ate fish.

It's just not normally what they'd do

cos I remember years and years ago I made a series in Cornwall.

We went to Newlyn fish market and we went into the cafe there

and asked for some fish.

And they said, "There's no fish here. It's a fishermen's cafe,"

meaning fishermen don't actually eat fish.

Well, that's been my experience anyway.

Bacon rolls and Mars bars, yes.

Filet of bream or haddock, definitely no.

Sounds like a sea shanty.

MOBILE PHONE RINGS

Takes me back to Cornwall.

RICK LAUGHS

Before I go back to downtown Shanghai

there's somewhere else I want to show you on the island of Chongming.

It's one particular ingredient that turns up in dish after dish -

yellow rice wine.

And it's made from fermented glutinous rice.

In this winery

the wine they make is more for drinking than cooking with,

and that's fine by me.

I'd like to taste, but the owner, Mr Yu, wants to show me

the whole production process. It always happens.

I'm told he's very, very funny.

Frustrating because I don't speak Mandarin

and he can't speak a word of English, but I know I like him.

Look at his face.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

The temperature of it is going to be brought down

first by adding some cold water and a little bit of warm

just so that it's exactly the right temperature for

the third phase of this, which is adding yeast for fermentation.

Very appetising aroma.

Mr Yu used to be a government official,

but he says he was born in to wine and he has good taste buds for it.

His father, like most people on the island,

used to make it for the family.

The reason they're making that rice into that cone shape is

as it ferments the liquid comes out of the rice into that well

and they can tell at what stage it is.

If they had left all the rice

the liquid would have been underneath

and they wouldn't be able to see it.

It takes three weeks to ferment

and by that time the liquid is almost clear.

It's yellow but clear,

leaving the rice sediment in the bottom of the jar.

I think this is probably ready to drink.

And I can see why they call it yellow rice wine.

I don't know where the colour's come from, but it is yellow.

That's nice.

I think I should mention at this point that this wine

is considerably stronger than your average Chardonnay.

I like the cups.

Crikey!

Cheers.

I really like this wine.

It's sort of like... I tasted like really old burgundy, funnily enough.

It's got real...real... Sorry.

HE CLEARS THROAT

Drunk all mine.

It's nice.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

What he says is that this wine above all others,

you can drink it and it makes your head clearer and clearer.

You never get a headache. I really like it.

Mmm.

Ha!

# Why did I tell you I was going to Shanghai?

# I want to be with you tonight

# Why did I holler I was going to Shanghai?

# I want to be with you tonight. #

The hottest restaurant ticket in town at the moment is Fu,

the name means good fortune and the waiting list is weeks long.

I'm lucky to get in.

It's lovely.

I've been invited to dine with the owner Mr Fang and his wife Rhianna.

And as a treat, because no-one's normally allowed in,

I've been ushered into the kitchen.

This is sauteed shrimp.

It's a curious mixture of great simplicity and total sophistication.

The shrimp are deep-fried for exactly eight seconds.

Then they're washed in boiling water,

drained and quickly shallow fried.

To finish, a tiny bit of cornflour mixed with egg white is added,

which gives them a silky coating.

The whole process takes less than two minutes.

I can't wait to try them, they're bursting with freshness.

We sit down to find cold starters.

One is lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice,

but this one has a western touch - a spun sugar cage.

And the red-braised pork has truffles in it!

Truffles?! Sacrilege. But delicious.

It's fusion food, but with a Shanghainese heart.

You don't need to eat the tail of the shrimp.

-I like it.

-You like it? OK.

-How is it?

-Very good. It's all very wonderful. It's very delicate.

Thank you.

-Is this eel?

-Eel.

-Gosh!

I like the presentation of that with the bone on it.

-It looks really good.

-Thank you.

And guess what this yellow dish is? It looks and smells lovely.

Well, it's my old chum.

-This is hairy crab.

-Yes.

-How is it?

-Exceptional.

I use the word too much, but it's fragrant.

-It just tastes so fragrant of crab.

-That's it.

-I love it.

I might have a bit more.

I love this way of eating.

The more courses there are on the table the better it is for me.

Eating divides people.

There are those who love to eat like this, sharing, discussing,

tasting, comparing.

And there are those that sit over their own plate of food

guarding it like a bull dog.

Oh, yes! I've known a few of those, believe you me.

And what was the idea of the restaurant in the first place?

Old Shanghai cuisine is very delicious but not...

Not very beautiful.

And especially like a foreigner like you, if it's not very beautiful

maybe you guys not accept it very easily.

Mr Fang gets the restaurant gene from his mum

who ran a very popular down to earth late-night diner.

You'd think she'd be awed by his success, wouldn't you?

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

THEY CHUCKLE

What does your mother think of what you've done?

She thinks...

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Mother always think, "Oh, you are not doing good enough."

-Really?

-He think he can do much, much more.

A lot of things need to do.

How funny. Mothers are the same the whole world over.

Different thinks.

Well, what I think, what it's worth is what I'm seeing here is

the food is recognisably Shanghainese cooking.

It's not fancy international cooking. It's Chinese fine dining.

-Thank you.

-Congratulations.

-Thank you.

What I love about Shanghai is that it's a city of huge food contrasts.

Nestling among the skyscrapers are a few islands of old Shanghai

still as they were 100 years ago.

Neighbours bustle about, each one growing herbs

and salads on the pavement in front of their houses.

Their back yards and gardens have long gone,

but they still have the urge to grow as much as they can.

One of the popular snacks around is

a big plate of noodles from cheap dives,

which are little more than holes in the wall,

where the tables spill out onto the street.

Our translator Jia Jia is a big fan.

Apparently noodle shop owners are famous for being very grumpy.

Oh, good. Here comes Jia Jia. I was just a little bit worried

because we were researching this restaurant which sells

pig intestine noodles,

the restaurant is also called pig intestine noodles,

they told us to go away, they didn't want any filming.

They've got enough customers... Thank you very much.

So I'm very glad you're back with the pig intestine noodles.

And I'm sort of looking forward to eating them.

-Shall we begin?

-Yes, of course.

-Well, Jia Jia... Are you all right?

-Yeah, fine.

-This is a first for me.

-Yes, please.

-Thank you.

-How you feeling?

-Yeah, not too bad.

-Yes?

-Mmm.

-Can you accept this?

-Can I accept it? I like your use of English.

Yes, I can accept it, actually

because I've tasted similar things in France called andouillette.

Oh, OK.

And the more piggy they taste the more they like them.

-And these are quite piggy.

-OK.

I'm not sure that a lot of people would like them from the west.

-Yes, I'm sure.

-But just show me how you eat noodles.

Actually we just simply pour some over and have a taste.

OK.

So it's a bit like Lady and the Tramp.

Mmm. I like it.

Why are they so popular?

Actually it's not expensive and it tastes really delicious.

And in the ancient time, Chinese people,

the poor people actually they can support so much money for pig meat,

or pork, and so they used pig intestine.

But that's true.

But why are they so grumpy, why are they so bad-tempered?

Actually for the traditional noodle shop in Shanghai

the famous ones always be grumpy because they are too delicious,

too famous for customers, they don't need to be polite.

It's interesting cos there's a Chinese restaurant in Soho in London

which is like that.

They're so rude to everybody, but it makes people want to come

because they want them to say, "No, you go! You sit over there!"

Oh, yes. The same thing. Exactly.

Because I like it too because I'm in the restaurant trade

and all the time you have to be so polite to people,

so to see the Chinese people say, "No, no out!" It's, "Yes!"

I think because it's too delicious...

-That's it. You've got something good, why not?

-Yes.

Overlooking the Huangpu River is the famous Bund,

named by the British using the Hindustani word for waterfront.

Those were the days when the globe was painted pink

through British imperialism.

And set in the middle of the Bund is an Art Deco gem - the Peace Hotel,

a relic of Shanghai's colonial past.

This was a favourite of the Hollywood greats

who adorn the walls here.

There's Marlene Dietrich sitting on the far right with

the founder of the hotel Victor Sassoon.

Laurence Olivier with Greer Garson.

George Bernard Shaw with Noel Coward,

of course he would be there,

he's supposed to have finished Private Lives in this very hotel.

There's a distinct whiff of the '30s in the air.

The Saturday afternoon tea dance.

I can imagine louche captains

and subalterns eyeing the local totty.

Pink gins and Manhattans, cucumber sandwiches

and vol-au-vents, of course.

This was the era of the famous Anglo-Chinese cookbook in English

and Mandarin so you could give it to your cook.

The recipes included Indian curries, roast beef

and lobster a-la Newburg, but not one Chinese dish. Not one.

I think the European expats

were definitely a bit sniffy about Chinese food.

Well, I liked it.

I must say, I'm very happy to be here in the Peace Hotel

in the centre of Shanghai and I just love afternoon tea.

I think it's one of the few things that we British

can genuinely lay credit for - afternoon tea.

You get afternoon tea in Singapore, in Shanghai, in Sydney.

But one of the things that slightly irritates me

is if you're having this particular type of afternoon tea

it's always referred to a Devon cream tea.

But I always like to think of them as a Cornish cream tea.

And the difference is that in Cornwall

we have the cream on top of the jam.

In Devon they like it underneath.

So...

Perfect.

There's lots of other Art Deco buildings around the city.

That's one reason why it's so often compared to New York.

But not all of its architecture is quite so appealing.

I think it's fair to say that I've been to more fish markets

than any other TV cook in the world.

This one is a biggie.

It looks a bit like a post office sorting depot.

Every size and species of whelks and clams and prawns,

crayfish and crab is here.

But inside there's an encyclopaedia of wonderfully weird fish

and shellfish too.

As the Cantonese saying goes, "If it walks, swims, crawls or flies

"and has its back to heaven, it must be edible."

I think that probably comes from a country

that has suffered so many famines,

to survive you had to try anything that could sustain life.

But then you could develop a real taste for it,

and that's what cuisine is all about.

The writer Jonathan Swift apparently said,

"He was a bold man that first ate an oyster."

I met up with Zan Lim, a food blogger.

She's my seafood lover's guide here.

-Zan?

-Rick.

-I thought so.

-Nice to meet you.

-Amazingly busy.

-Let's take a walk this side.

-OK.

-Is this open all the time?

-Oh, this is open 24 hours.

-Really?

-Yes, and we've come at one of the busiest days.

The weekend is like the busiest time of the week.

During night-time this whole place is just packed with people.

It's just a feast for the eyes if you like markets.

Yes, one of my favourite things to do at the seafood market is

I buy some fish or crab and then I take it to a restaurant

where they can cook it for me, so I don't have to cook it myself.

-Wow! Can we do that?

-Yes, let's try that.

What would you like?

Well, I think I'd probably go for something

that's quite easy to get back in the UK so I can see how you cook it.

-OK.

-Maybe just some clams.

SHE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

We always have to haggle when you buy seafood.

-Every day?

-So he just told me 500g for 25 kuai.

-But I told him, "No, 20 kuai."

-OK.

-That seems a very good price to me.

-Yes, I think so.

-For 500g that's a good price.

-That's about £2.

Thank you very much.

Also, what I usually do is

I bring a little digital weighing scale of my own...

-Do you?

-Because sometimes they rig this.

-Oh, I couldn't possibly believe that!

-OK, let's go.

-OK.

-Have you tried the pomfret?

-I love pomfret. I tried them in India.

-Shall we try one?

-Yeah, let's have some.

-We can get it steamed, it's a good way to eat.

-Steamed?

-Yes.

-With ginger, spring onion?

-Yes.

-Fabulous.

Just ask him where it's from.

'And then I was in for a bit of a surprise.'

-It's all the way from your hometown. England.

-From England?

It's probably from Devon, actually.

I know they catch them and send them to China.

Can we get one and ask him how much?

It's weird to think that this brown crab came from Devon

or maybe Cornwall,

with beaches full of wind breaks, ice cream, happy families.

And now it's on the other side of the world

and shortly it's going to be my lunch.

This is Zan's favourite here,

and they're going to cook the clams, the pomfret

and the crab for us in return for a small cooking fee.

It's a bit like corkage on wine.

I've been really looking forward to seeing how they cook our brown crab.

I've never seen a British brown crab cooked like this before.

Deep-fried in cornflour.

Very, very simple way of doing it and yet it looks so dangerous.

But my gosh it's interesting and I'm sure it's going to taste fabulous.

He adds preserved duck eggs, just the yolks,

salt and a splash of yellow rice wine

and just a pinch of MSG, monosodium glutamate.

Lunch in China starts around 11 o'clock,

the kitchen's really busy here.

I know what I'd say if a film crew turned up

when the kitchen's red hot.

But here, well, they took it in their stride.

The clams cook in seconds.

Basically he's got oil and spring onions.

I think there was a bit of ginger there too.

And now he's just stir-frying them.

I must say, it's really, really nice that they've let us in.

It's the busiest part of the lunch service.

Well, you'll have to show me how to eat most of this.

With the crabs, just go crazy. Use your hands.

So this has been salted, egg yolk.

Should be pretty delicious. What do you think?

It's very delicious.

It really brings out the sweetness of our British crabs.

This crab is really good.

I find that when I eat local crab it has a bit of a muddy river taste,

but this one is...

I'm very proud, very flattered

and proud of our British crabs in that case.

How do you cook t in the UK?

Well, we tend to just have them cold with mayonnaise.

-Mmm.

-Would you eat the clams with your fingers?

Oh, I think for me I would use my fingers,

but usually we use the chopsticks or a spoon.

-OK. So I'm all right using my fingers.

-You're all right.

They're so delicate.

Just have a bit of ginger, a bit of spring onion,

tiny bit of MSG,

tiny bit of chicken powder and some rice wine. Lovely.

So can we have some pomfret? Just show me how you...

I usually just take it from the belly

because it has the least bones.

There's very little local fish here, like from Shanghai itself.

-Why is that?

-Oh, you know, the pollution.

I suppose pollution's quite a problem in China

-because it's expanding so fast.

-Yes, it is.

Do you want to talk some more about...?

I don't know how to balance eating and talking.

Fair enough.

I have to say, I think the Chinese are probably amongst the best

seafood cooks, probably are the best seafood cooks in the world.

-Wow!

-And I don't think a lot of people realise that,

certainly not in somewhere like the UK.

But honestly, those clams, that pomfret, that crab -

-fabulous dishes.

-Wow! Glad you think so.

Let's just eat then.

I'm spoilt for choice.

Any one of these dishes I would happily cook at home.

One of the things I wanted to do ever since I started these travels

was to pay homage to the wok.

I think it's the greatest culinary invention since the fork.

Because of the searing heat like the jet blast of an F-18 fighter...

F-18 ENGINE ROARS

And the thinness of the pan...

everything cooks in seconds. Yes, seconds.

Small pieces of meat, prawns, vegetables, a touch of soy,

a sprinkling of five spice, ginger, Shaoxing wine. Finish.

So, to Ken, Ken Hom, who introduced us in the UK to the wok.

I salute you.

There's something that China has given the world, and it's

becoming increasingly popular.

It's feng shui.

Nothing in China gets built without the force of feng shui being

taken into account, because it's about the order of things,

so that buildings are in tune with nature and will bring you luck.

In amongst the grey concrete supports for the motorway,

there sits this quite wonderful gilded pillar.

And it's there because of a fabulous trade-off.

You see, when they were drilling here to build the motorway,

the drill stopped working at this very spot.

It could not get through the rock.

Now, a monk was summoned, who said they were on top of a dragon's nest.

Yes, a dragon's nest.

He was asked to appeal to the dragon for permission to drill.

"The only way it can be done to appease the dragon," he said,

"is to forfeit my life."

Apparently, within three days of the foundations going in,

the monk died, and some say they saw black smoke

coming out of the hole, indicating that the dragon had gone.

It's a nice story, but I think, to me,

it really illustrates the fact that even in modern, zippy Shanghai,

feng shui is still very important.

DRAGON ROAR

I don't feel entirely happy if I'm miles away from the sea,

so I just wanted to go to the nearest place to Shanghai

where they land fish from the sea.

This is Jinshan, a fishing village overlooking a rather muddy

East China Sea.

I'm just looking at what they're catching here.

I can't quite identify them.

They look like anchovies or some anchovy-like fish, and there is a

lot of white shrimps, which I guess they are going to just deep fry.

And it's not...brilliant.

It's not exactly a Greek island with boxes of glistening red mullet and

a taverna across the way, and blue and white boats, but it smells nice.

It smells of the sea,

and actually, the water is a little bit muddy, but that's because

we are the end of the Yangtze, and I imagine that's why it's muddy.

No, it's not a picture postcard. But, hey, it's fishing.

These may not look like much to a lot of people,

but I think they are really important in Chinese cooking,

and you find them all over south-east Asia, these dried fish.

Sometimes they're just dried and salted.

Sometimes they're salted and sugared.

It's not really so much the taste of them per se,

it's when you add them to other dishes.

They provide an essential savoury element.

You would really miss them if they weren't there. I'm a great fan.

It turns out this village has been renovated

quite extensively by the government.

And they are jolly pleased that we filmed here

and are showing how clean and pristine it all is.

But there is something in the air, a cooking smell?

It's something indefinable.

THEY CONVERSE IN CHINESE

I'm not... Ah! Thank you.

I'm not totally looking forward to this. I can smell...

This is called stinky tofu. I don't know what the correct name is,

but actually, I could smell it as I was walking over the bridge,

and I thought there was something wrong with the river.

So it's really like, you know...

Oh!

I imagine it's like a Chinese person eating some sort of ripe brie.

Well...

..it's not great.

But I think I could get used to it.

It's got quite a nice sort of savoury taste.

It's sort of smells a bit like bad cabbage.

If you can get that sort of idea.

But...the taste is a lot better than the smell.

The first taste, not so good, but I'm beginning to like it.

-Where do your parents live, then?

-Just in the apartment nearby...

I'm coming close to the end of my taste of Shanghai.

I've got the opportunity to take home one last dish.

-Are they supposed to stop?

-Um... OK, I think it's the right time to go.

My interpreter, Jia Jia, wants me to try her mum's boiled chicken.

She says it's her favourite meal.

If ever she left China,

she would make a point of cooking it at least once a week.

Well, it just so happens I didn't need asking twice.

For years, I have loved this dish.

Back at home, we haven't really discovered, I think,

the sweet joy of chicken - whole chicken - simmered in a pot.

This recipe couldn't be simpler.

A big lump of ginger, spring onions

and Shaoxing wine for the stock.

Then she dunks the chicken straight into the pot.

Apparently, Mrs Chen went to the market this morning

especially for us.

She chose a live chicken and then had it killed in front of her,

and plucked, ready for cooking within hours.

She simmers it for about 20 minutes, then rests it in cold water

for half an hour, but I think I would leave it in the stock.

Because it's so fresh, you can see a little blood on the bones.

It would worry a lot of people, but because I lived on a farm,

it certainly doesn't worry me.

It's just a sign that the chicken is ultra fresh.

Then she dresses it with sesame oil before she serves it up.

The dipping sauce is made of light soy, chopped coriander,

ginger and spring onion, and it's lovely.

-So, do you like coriander?

-I love coriander, yeah.

OK, because a lot of Chinese, they don't like coriander at all.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah, yeah.

-I thought everybody liked coriander in China.

No! That's not true. Please...

Mm!

That is very fresh, very moist.

-Thank you. You like it?

-I love it!

Thank you.

I don't think people realise how very simple and fragrant

-and elegant a lot of Chinese cooking is.

-Oh, yes.

-It's lovely.

Just remind me of what "thank you" is in Shanghainese again.

-Xia xia.

-Xia xia? Xia xia.

Yes! You've got a good pronunciation.

So at the end of the day,

what really set my taste buds going on this trip?

Well, I'm going to choose three dishes that I know

I want to cook back at home.

In third place, it's tong jian ge li.

I hope I said that right. Clams with ginger and spring onion.

From the fish market - so sweet, light and tasty,

with a lovely velvety texture.

Number two - xiaolong bo. Soup dumplings.

They are unbelievably delicious.

Soft, delicate, doughy bags of flavour.

And I think I finally got the knack of the nip and the suck.

Very important if you want a clean shirt!

Oh! Be careful.

Number one has to be hong xiao ro - red-braised pork.

So sweet and spicy, it's the glossy king of dishes,

using one of the cheapest cuts.

Now, this is something that I will definitely cook at home,

probably only a few hours after I get off the plane.

It's quite stupendous,

and it's impossible to talk about it without your mouth watering.

It's my top dish.

FERRY HORN BLASTS

You know that term Shanghaied?

Will, it meant something terrible about being

frogmarched into doing something you didn't want to do.

But it's also got that romantic notion about going off into some

exotic world, and I've been well and truly Shanghaied in Shanghai.

# Oh, what did I tell you It was bye-bye for Shanghai?

# I'm even allergic to rice

# Why don't you stop me when I talk about Shanghai?

# It's just a lovers' device

# Now who's going to kiss me? Who's going to thrill me?

# Who's going to hold me tight?

# I'm right around the corner in a phone booth

# And I want to be with you tonight... #