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This is the dish you aren’t eating at Mian

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Spicy Tofu Custard
With all the hype about their saucy noodle soups and savory wontons, it’s understandable that you overlooked the Tofu with Minced Pork in the appetizers section of the menu. Don’t let the unexciting name put you off though, because the Tofu with Minced Pork is one of the best dishes on the menu.

Warm, custardy tofu comes topped with bits of pork, crispy fried noodle, a savory sauce, and the perfect sprinkling of peppercorn, sugar, chili flakes, and a scattering of vegetables. Every spoonful of this dish is a disco in your mouth. The fried noodle is reminiscent of the crumbs of at the bottom of a package of instant ramen. The crunchy vegetables are a necessary counterpoint to the softness of the tofu. This definitely isn’t the mild, comforting doufu hua you’re used to eating from the northern Chinese restaurants in the morning.

The Humble Baozi is a Must Eat in Shanghai

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On this recent trip to China, I was happy to still be able to find street food in Shanghai.  Even in more affluent areas, I could wander down an alley and find delicious, cheap food of questionable cleanliness.

One type of place that’s easy to spot is the baozi (bun) stand, thanks to the stacks of giant steamers.  The good ones have people crowded around them in the morning like this one across the street from where we were staying.

Unless it’s a fancier type place, don’t bother queueing since an older Chinese person is just going to elbow their way in front of you anyway.  Just figure out 1.) what filling you want, 2.) how many you want, and 3.) how much money to hand the vendor before wrangling your way to the front of the steamers.

It’s hard to find good savory baozi in the US because they’re often pre-made or frozen and realistically, nothing will taste as good as a bun that’s still steaming straight from the bamboo steamer.  The buns I got in China were still white and fluffy, but the bread part was less sweet and the filling was more textured.  My favorite is the mei cai rou bao, which is a baozi filled with dried pickled cabbage and ground pork — I ate plenty of those.

I also ate a couple of baozi with a pickled green bean and pork filling. The green beans tasted like chopped up versions of the spicy and sour green beans that often show up as cold appetizers in Chinese restaurants in the US. There was only a sprinkling of pork for flavor, but that was enough. The combination of hot and tangy in the morning may be too much for some, but I’d imagine it’s a great hangover cure.

For the vegans, there’s the ubiquitous xiangu baozi which is filled with usually filled with chopped shiitake, baked tofu, and lightly pickled green vegetables.  Usually, other than a sweet filling, this is the only vegan option.

On one morning, I decided to branch out from my usual stand to a different one across the street that was attached to a larger, more formal restaurant.  It had the same amount of people lining up in front of it, so I thought it would be safe, but it turned out to be a disappointment. The baozi didn’t taste as good and the filling was cold.  This just cements my bias that the smaller baozi stands are more delicious.

Niu Rou Mian @ Honey Badger Restaurant

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I went back to Honey Badger Restaurant last night and ordered the niu rou mian because I was in the mood for noodle soup. What came out was a bowl of beefy, chewy noodles that surprised me in one way.

Niu rou mian with house-made noodles from #honeybadgerrestautant. #latergram

The broth was thicker than I expected, almost to the level of the thick Japanese tonkatsu broth. The house-made noodles were well coated in that thick, savory broth each time I dipped my chopsticks into the bowl for more. The flavor of the broth had more tomato than I was used to, but the tang of the tomato went well with the deeper flavor of beef.

Instead of large pieces of beef, the bowl had broken-down pieces of beef, almost of pulled-pork consistency, both tender and flavorful. The ample spinach was enough to give me massive muscles had I been in a Popeye cartoon.

Served on the side was a small cup of pickled cabbage, which I immediately dumped into the soup.

I came into Honey Badger with lowered hopes of a good bowl of niu rou mian just because I didn’t think a place that didn’t specialize in noodle soups would have good niu rou mian, but it was good enough that I would probably return for more.