Shanghai Street Food and Food Streets
Shanghai streetfood is one of the city’s great delights and many streets are devoted to purveying it. For locals, especially, the best-regarded of these mouth-watering delicacies are well worth waiting in serpentine lines for. Huang He Lu and Yunnan Lu near People’s Square are popular for stinky tofu, cold noodles, fried mantou, flaky pastries filled with crab meat, onions and other condiments. Wujiang Lu’s competitive shops sell traditional Chinese snacks and small meals, such as Xiaolongbao, oyster, roasted chicken wings and Malatang.
Nanjing Lu and Zhapu Lu in the Hongkou District are also popular street food venues, complete with seated areas and plenty of food stalls serving local and national specialties. Meichuan Lu is more famous for street food-style restaurants while Tongchuan Lu is a sea food haven. Other popular street specialties include Leisha dumplings made from glutinous rice, pork jiaozi dumplings, fried rice cakes with stuffing and egg rolls.
While street food is decidedly cheap, it is increasingly coming under pressure from local government measures designed to improve health and safety standards. Many shops that fail to meet the necessary requirements are being forced to shut down. However worthy the motivations, this drive threatens to slowly erasing what is left of the city’s street food tradition. (For more on Shanghai Restaurants please follow the link).