Food prowl in Shanghai

Our last full day in Shanghai was spent fulfilling our duties as tourists, namely taking a few obligatory pictures at the Bund （外滩）, stuffing ourselves silly at the Whampoa Club buffet brunch and then eating still some more.

It was an overcast day and drizzling a little but it wasn't enough to deter a little determined march across the river to gawk at Shanghai's most recognizable landmark, the TV tower. But first, the brunch at Whampoa Club.

In all honesty, it was over-hyped. And I didn't think it was because I had my expectations too high. Since one MUST have XiaoLongBao in Shanghai, it would be a crime not to order it from Whampoa Club's offering. Unfortunately, while the skin of the dumpling was light and thin, its meat stuffing was bland and forgetable. That was a shame.

We felt that Whampoa Club's redeeming feature was its interesting twists on tried and tested dishes. For instance, Singapore's chicken rice was made into a spring roll (although the accompanying chicken rice chilli wasn't garlicky enough) The Chilled drunken chicken from Shanghai fared a lot better. Tender pieces of chicken (not unlike Singapore's Hainanese chicken) buried under ice shavings tinged with alcohol.

The best part of the brunch was its dessert menu. The Ginger milk custard with osmanthus from Macau was smooth if not a little on the dense side. The best item of the day however had to be Singapore's aloe vera green lime sorbet with lemongrass jelly. Heavenly!

With the brunch ending at 3pm, we felt that it would be impossible to do justice to Le Platane. So there goes the Risotto with wild mushrooms that we would have ordered :( Nonetheless, we went to XinTianDi with the objective of meeting a friend from Singapore whom I've never met before - it was a like a blind date! :D Eventually, we were led by DH's sweet tooth to a swanky (read: expensive) Chocolatier. Indulgent and excellent truffles and hot chocolate for dinner. What decadence.

At a tea house

minibeanie is 11 months, 2 weeks & 5 days old