5 Chinese breakfast dishes to try in Shanghai

After twenty years visiting and five years living in Shanghai, the hometown of my paternal grandfather, I can see why the locals are so fiercely proud of their city. When my 爷爷 (yeye, or grandfather) left, it was a city battered and bruised by invasions and revolutions, yet today it stands as a pearl on the sea, a polished and prosperous city with a global outlook.

For the first-time visitor, there are many advantages to eating and drinking in Shanghai. With over 100,000 registered restaurants and bars (approximately five times that of London) to cater to the 26 million residents, you are quite literally spoilt for choice. It’s almost impossible to walk down a street without stopping to smell something delicious and unforgettable.

However, the city’s sheer size, the breakneck speed of its redevelopment and the often hilariously mistranslated menus can test even the most seasoned traveller. Chinese cuisine is unparalleled in its scope, expression and depth of flavour and skill – and breakfast feels like as good a time as any to start exploring.

My advice is to wake up in the small hours as the sun is just about to rise, and you will see an entire world at work. For me, breakfast time in China is an electric experience, with skinny alleyways and open doors giving way to steamers, dumplings and spinning pancakes that have vanished by 10am. Skip the hotel breakfast, set your alarm early, and explore the greatest meal of the day, sampling one of the finest cuisines there is.

Five china breakfast dishes you should try (and where in Shanghai to try them)

Across the city, ayis (this literally means ‘aunties’, but is a friendly term for most women in the service industry) tirelessly roll, fill and pleat millions of the global superstar of dumplings, the xiaolongbao. Just be careful not to scald yourself eating them!

Where: Fuchun at 652 Jiang Guo Xi Road

The workhorse of soup dumplings, they are fatter, thicker (usually a semi-leavened dough) and fried on the bottom compared to their xiaolongbao cousins. They require less technical hand skill to make too and are easy to replicate at home. My beloved Dong Tai Xiang is a Shanghainese chain of 24-hour restaurants that specialise in them. It’s the perfect hangover breakfast.

Where: Dong Tai Xiang at 309 Shaanxi Nan Road

Sesame paste is a cornerstone of Chinese cooking. It’s a richer, smoother version of tahini, but the seeds are toasted first before grinding. Over the years, I have taken hundreds of guests to Wei Xiang Zhai for its sesame paste noodles (ma jiang mian). You are given a numbered clothes peg and invited to take a seat; when your bowl arrives, rigorously stir and devour the contents.

Where: 14 Yandang Road

In Shanghai, the spectrum of soy milk falls to the savoury end. In the bottom of a bowl, some vinegar, soya sauce, ginger, herbs and dried shrimp are added, then boiling-hot, freshly made soup milk is poured over. After a minute or so, the milk starts to separate and a custardy texture emerges, known as xian doujiang. Don’t forget to order a fresh youtiao (fried dough) for dunking.

Where: 110 Dongjiangjin Street

My personal favourite breakfast is sadly not from Shanghai, but the northern coastal city of Tianjin. Every order is done à la minute, to your personal preferences. A pancake batter is scraped across a hot plate before being decorated like a canvas with sweet, sour, spicy, crunchy and herbaceous ingredients. In the blink of an eye, all this is folded into a portable breakfast that is eaten as fast as it was made.

Where: You’ll find the impressive Sister Bian Jianbing at 160 Shaanxi Nan Road

About the author

Michael Zee is creator of the online sensation SymmeteryBreakfast and author of Zao Fan: Breakfast of China. British-Chinese, Michael grew up helping out in his parents’ Chinese restaurants and lived in Shanghai for five years.