Shanghai's Best on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Shanghai's Best (also known as Shanghai's Best Street Food) is a
In 2018, Andrea Damewood of the ''
Chinese restaurant
A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves a Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese style, due to the history of the Chinese diaspora and adapted to local taste preferences, as in the American Chinese cuisine and Canad ...
in Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...
. The business operates from the Pine Street Market, as of 2022, and has previously operated from Portland's Alder Street food cart pod and in Salem.
Description
Shanghai's Best specializes inshengjian mantou
Shengjian mantou (Wu Chinese: ssanji mhoedhou), shengjian bao, or shengjian for short, is a type of small, pan-fried ''baozi'' (Steaming, steamed buns) which is a specialty of Suzhou and Shanghai. It is typically filled with pork and gelatin tha ...
, a type of fried ''baozi
Baozi (), Pao-tsih or bao, is a type of yeast-leavened filled bun in various Chinese cuisines. There are many variations in fillings (meat or vegetarian) and preparations, though the buns are most often steamed. They are a variation of '' m ...
'' (steamed buns). Pan-fried dumplings are made with pork, chicken, vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetariani ...
, or vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...
fillings. The vegetarian variety has egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
, chives
Chives, scientific name ''Allium schoenoprasum'', is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaryllidaceae that produces edible leaves and flowers. Their close relatives include the common onions, garlic, shallot, leek, scallion, and ...
, and mung bean noodles, and the vegan version has tofu
Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super f ...
, mushrooms, carrot, and celery. The menu also includes steamed buns with barbecued pork or sweet red bean paste, as well as mooncakes
A mooncake () is a Chinese bakery products, Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is about lunar appreciation and Moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. Mooncak ...
.
History
Owner Lin Chen established the business in April 2018. In 2019, the Alder Street food cart pod closed for the development of Block 216 and the Ritz-Carlton, Portland. The Shanghai's Best food cart was initially placed into storage, then relocated to The Yard Food Park in Salem in October 2019. The business began operating from the Cart Blocks in July 2021. Shanghai's Best operates from the Pine Street Market, as of 2022. The restaurant also participated in ''The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...
'' annual Dumpling Week in 2022.
Reception
In 2018, Andrea Damewood of the ''Portland Mercury
''Portland Mercury'' is an alternative bi-weekly newspaper and media company founded in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. It has a sibling publication in Seattle, Washington, called '' The Stranger''.
Contributors and staff
Editor-in-chief: Wm. Steven ...
'' included Shanghai's Best in her overview of "great new choices for your dumpling fix". She wrote: In her 2021 article "Best Thing I Ate This Week: Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings from Shanghai's Best", ''Portland Monthly
''Portland Monthly'' (also referred to as ''Portland Monthly Magazine'') is a monthly news and general interest magazine which covers food, politics, business, design, events and culture in Portland, Oregon. The magazine was co-founded in 2003 b ...
'' Katherine Chew Hamilton wrote, "The dumplings were a delight—meaty, juicy but not greasy, with crackly bottoms and pillowy tops, and generously sprinkled with sesame seeds." Seiji Nanbu and Brooke Jackson-Glidden included Shanghai's Best in ''Eater Portland'''s 2022 overview of "Where to Find Outstanding Chinese Food in Portland and Beyond". The business was also included in ''Eater Portland''See also
*History of Chinese Americans in Portland, Oregon
According to ''The Oregonian'', 18,000 (7.5 percent) of the Portland metropolitan area's 135,000 Asian/Pacific residents live along 82nd Avenue, in an area dubbed New Chinatown, as of 2012.
Old Town Chinatown features the Lan Su Chinese Garde ...
* List of Chinese restaurants
This is a list of notable Chinese restaurants. A Chinese restaurant is an establishment that serves Chinese cuisine outside China. Some have distinctive styles, as with American Chinese cuisine and Canadian Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in th ...
References
External links
* {{Restaurants in Portland, Oregon 2018 establishments in Oregon Chinese restaurants in Portland, Oregon Culture of Salem, Oregon Food carts in Portland, Oregon Restaurants established in 2018 Southwest Portland, Oregon