Shanghai Vegetarian

On our second night in Shanghai we went for something different and visited Fu He Hui. I am always curious about this restaurant as this is one of the two vegetarian places awarded a star in the local Michelin Guide, and ranked highly as one of the Asia’s best.

Good Old Jesse

We did two other serious meals during our short stay in Shanghai – one that we have been to before, one that was new to us. First, the good old Jesse Restaurant (or Lao Ji Shi 老吉士 as known by the locals) right in the center of the French Concession neighborhood. What started of as a home-style restaurant in a quiet block serving classic Shanghainese cuisine has grown into an institution, with multiple branches around the city and other places in China. We had a memorable meal there during our last visit to Shanghai so we were dying to go back, and we made a reservation at their original branch right after our flights were confirmed, helped by our friend M who was a regular at the restaurant during her days living in Shanghai.

Shanghai Shanghai

It kinda sucks when our entire weekend getaway was washed out by the continuous rainstorm, but if there’s any comfort from all that, at least this time we stayed in a lovely hotel and got more time to spend inside our room with possibly one of the best view in the city. It’s been years, over a decade even, since we travelled to Shanghai, so we decided to pop by during the July 1 long weekend.

Marathon Meal

I was recently eating at Aurora at Altira Macau when their chef Helder Amaral joined hands with Chef Eric Raty of Arbor from Hong Kong to present a four-hands menu as part of the Michelin Guide promotional series. I had a hard time trying to draw a connection between the two chefs and their cooking style, but since I have enjoyed Chef Eric’s food previously at both his starred restaurant and at events where he’s a guest chef, and this did give me an opportunity to visit a new restaurant, I went along and made a short trip over.

Young Chef's Pop-up Menu

We recently went back to visit PMQ Taste Kitchen to check out the latest pop-up menu from a local young chef. Biased as I might be, I always love this idea of restaurant incubator concept (managed by our friends J and C) that allows new chefs to test out new recipes and business ideas with full set-up and operational support, and we were always surprised (and impressed) from the few visits we made previously.