JingPuHui晶浦会 of Pudong
You know the thing about good food? It brings folks together from all walks of life. It warms them right up and it puts little smiles on their faces …
— From The Frog and The Princess
Shanghai, in my humble opinion, gathers the a diverse population that rivals others cities around the world. Good food also follows, or is it the other way – good food bring people together, like in the quote from The Frog and The Princess. And yes, I am proudly quoting from a recent Disney Children’s Animation film. And Shanghai is the epitome of where good food find people together.
Jingpuhui 晶浦会, specializing in Cantonese cuisine, is located right on the river front with views from Pudong to the Shanghai Puxi side. Right across the street, the Tomson Riviera at 160,848 yuan per square meter or 130 million yuan per unit. Tomson Riviera is the most expensive apartment condos complexes in the world. On the other side of the restaurant, there’s a outdoor balcony overlooking the river. Banquets and private events utilize this space. Coupled with great views and Tomson Riviera overlooking the Huangpu River, one can only imagine the exquisiteness of the food at Jingpuhui.
The dark grey hues with accents of red flowed throughout the restaurant. The contemporary decor feature traditional features of lighting, antiquities, and wall imagery. For our lunch, the four of us, was reserved in a private room. The room featured a arched ceiling with wood beams that almost felt like we were at traditional Chinese country-side villa for simple lunch. Restaurants in China, typically features a large number of private rooms, perhaps even half the space of the dining area is devotde to private rooms. With a typical round table with lazy susan, our room was made of 8 people, rather than our small group. As kings we are, we proceed to order.
Actually, our generous host started to order. In China, the host usually orders and selects the dishes, as well as takes care of the bill. The colorful menu features Cantonese lunch favorites that you would usually find at dim sum restaurants. Yet today, we lunch featured seafood. We started with a light shelled shrimp, which was promptly gobbled up, almost before the second dish came. I think we were either quite hungry or the shrimp was fantastic – I think both. WIth a peppery infused taste with the dipping sauce, helped started with happy mouths. Then an order of shark fin soup arrived, an individual bowl for each. I know that shark fin is something not to be had in the western world, due to the inhumane manner by the was it is acquired, but it was a delightfully yummy. The strands of the shard fin was abundant. You could tell it was real shard fin with long strands held together. Our next dish was the cubed marinated beef, quite similar to the Crystal Jade version. Individual servings of a mixture with a thick sauce of crab, eel, and other seafood, almost like a cooked peruvian ceviche, was served. Then this amazing fish arrived on our table. Steamed and in a sweet soy sauce, this fish, with a name that I forgot, features meaty white texture without a lot of bones. We had another fish, a vegetable, and another dish or two. The last dish came in a large shallow clay pot. This baked sticky rice features sausage and sliced pork. As one of my favorites, this savory dish always has me wondering why it comes out last. But then I realized, in China, rice and noodle dishes are usually the last ones, since it helps fill out all the servings. This meaning – if you aren’t full from everything else, the starch will complete it.
I’ve been told that Jingpuhui is also known for its great desserts. We had a custard-like sweet rice soup. I don’t usually like rice pudding, but this particular one was pretty good. I heard that some people just come in for the desserts, perhaps I might do that in the future.
What to Order: the desserts, the shark fin soup, the fish What not to Order:
Rating 3 Pigs Price Range 3 $/¥/NT
Other sites featuring Jingpuhui diningsecretary.com chineseye.com shmag.cn 95171.cn dianping.com ddmap.com