Wednesday, September 21, 2016

上海雨天吃火锅

Thanks to Typhoon Meranti, the rain washed down in sheets over Shanghai. Best weather for hotpot. Stared at the name of one recommendation. The address is familiar. Realized it's one of my favorites in Shanghai and I've been there numerous times- 捞王锅物料理. Heeeheeehee. It's the one in Jing An (静安) on Wuding Lu (武定路) right across from one outlet of Enoterra.

On a crowded evening, while the friends waited outside for me to do magic.  I stealthily waltzed in, and grabbed a table for 10 at peak dinner hour. Hahaha. What luck! Didn't have to get a queue number and didn't have to wait long. :P Everyone else was waiting in a long line; this group even tried to snatch my table, but the servers decided to be really awesome to us. We sat down at a table within 10 minutes. WOOHOOO.

I'm not this huge fan of hotpot. But this 捞王锅物料理 hasn't disappointed. I especially love its cloudy stock boiled from chicken and pig stomach. It's beautifully peppery. Although I'm also not a fan of pork or its innards, I do have a soft spot for the bovine's stomach when it's all sliced up thinly. At this restaurant, drink the soup first before cooking the other ingredients, and always cook raw chicken last. Loved how the servers gave us so much attention that evening. We left a nice tip.

Since nobody bothered to read the menu or whatever, yours truly ordered whatever the heck I wanted. Sure, there were the token platters of beef and crab balls, slices of beef, and more chicken, and seafood including squid. But that also meant eight different kinds of mushrooms and loads of spinach and my fav type of baby cabbage, 娃娃菜. LOL. Apparently the friends loved how everything made the soup taste fabulous. Had so much Tsingtao Chun Sheng (青岛纯生) that we couldn't even roll across to the other side for more beer at the bars. The table was completely stuffed. It was bedtime! One fantastic meal in Shanghai.

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