Shanghai Street Food Update: Sipping Soup

One issue us Pudong area nigh-shifters just have to deal with is where to get food, when we are too lazy to cook our own. Our choices usually are:

• Order food at McDonalds across the street before they close at 10PM.
• The vast selection of convenience store food.
• Halal food.

We’ve already had our fair share of the last option, and since the Shanghai early morning temperature have been favoroable lately, we decided to take on a soup place open until 2AM.

What’s seen above is actually a commonplace thing here in any Shanghai street. No attempts have been made previously to enter any of these places before, but since we already have Tsinoy’s in our lunch group, we can now afford to savor cheap and hot sabaw.

Ingredients are mostly gathered on sticks, from meat (pork, fish, squid, etc.) balls, mushrooms, green veggies, and other edibles I don’t have a name to attach to. Noodles are actually optional.

By default, these are cooked in hot, very spicy broth. Even if you ask for the non-spicy kind, you’d still sweat profusely when consuming the thing.

But is it any good? Its fine, for 7.5 RMB (roughly 50 PHP: yes, this is already Shanghai-cheap). Any Pinoy would probably ask for patis, paminta, calamansi, toyo, since we’re so spoiled with the mentioned condiments. The soup place only had balsamic vinegar, and more chili to add.