Food from the Himalayan region at Yak & Yeti (the pork skewer is a must-order), an impressive contemporary Chinese menu at Collectif°, and traditional Cantonese at Maison Gingko.
📍 97 Xiangyang Bei Lu, near Xinle Lu 襄阳北路97号, 近新乐路
📞 15921230265
🕒 Daily, 11:30am-2:30pm, 5pm-1am; closed Monday
Yak & Yeti is a Himalayan restaurant
and bar that serves a menu of predominantly Nepalese dishes in addition
to cuisines from countries surrounding the mountain range.
It’s
a tiny space with bar seating for 16, total 24 seats, located in the former
Camel/Smokehouse, which by the way, has been sliced in half. The other
half is a Chaoshan hotpot restaurant.
It’s a project led by Nepal-native Anup Rajbhandari,
a long-serving member of the Shanghai F&B industry, formerly of Bar
Rouge, T8, and Capo, etc. He’s brought over a chef from Nepal to ensure
the flavors are on point, which they are. It’s spice-heavy food, as in,
there’s an amalgam of spices in every dish, so much so that you won’t
be able to decipher what’s what. Yet it doesn’t overwhelm the palate, at
least for me.
Anup
The food is delicious and definitely worth trying. It’s eyebrow-raising stuff, especially the pork skewer, a dish that will compel me to return.
Grilled Pork Sekuwa (¥68) –
Pork marinated for 8 hours with Himalayan spices then grilled over
charcoal. Juicy, charred, smoky, and a flavor bomb. This. Get this.
Grilled Chicken Sekuwa (¥68) – There’s also a chicken version of the skewer, which is delicious, but not as kick-ass as the pork.
Here are more highlights:
Momos (¥48) – Momos steamed or with sweet and sour sauce, of which I recommend the latter.
These
fat pork (or chicken) stuffed dumplings are steamed, fried, and coated
with a thick sweet-sour-spicy sauce, served with peppers. The saucy
version is much more enjoyable than the plain steamed ones.
Chicken Chili (¥78) – Doused in a similar sauce as the momos. Can’t get enough of the sauce! Best enjoyed with rice.
Tibetan Shabaley (¥58)
– A deep-fried pork meat pie with house sauce. Crispy on the outside
and gummy on the inside. It’s a hearty dish, one that’s also a great
drinking snack.Served with coriander sauce and house chili sauce.
Grilled Cauliflower (¥38) – Simple and satisfying.
Himalayan Nachos (¥38) – Papadum with diced seasoned carrots, cucumbers, and raw white onions topped with peanuts. Nice kick of spice.
Chicken Biryani (¥138) –
Biryani baked over with roti. It’s a cardamom-forward rice topped with
cashews and curried chicken at the center. Served with raita. Excellent.
Curry Chicken (¥88) – Comes with mini roti to dip. Deep flavors and mildly spicy.
Yak Sukuti (¥148) –
A cold dish of sautéed dried yak meat, herbs, and spices. It has a
slight acidic profile with a peppery kick, and is very appetizing. Best
enjoyed as a drinking snack.
Grilled Fish (¥128) –
Topped with herbs and aromatics of chopped parsley, basil, garlic,
chili, lemongrass, and fresh citrus. Similar to flavors you'd get from
Yunnan dishes.
The drinks
have a Himalayan twist, too. Light, sometimes fruity, made with bases
of rice wine or baijiu. Cocktails range from ¥68-78, and wines by the
glass start at ¥58.
Annapurna (¥78) – Corn wine, guava purée, peach tree liquor, osmanthus syrup, lemon juice. I could easily crush a couple of these.
Very tasty food. Lunch started this week. Coming soon on Eleme.
Contemporary Chinese
Collectif°
📍 D101, 850 Xikang Lu, near Haifang Lu 西康路850号D101, 近海防路
📞 62121835
🕒 Tue-Sun, 6pm-midnight; closed Monday
Collectif°
is a modern Chinese restaurant that serves a prix fixe menu
highlighting local ingredients through reinterpretations of traditional
Chinese dishes. It’s a project led by Malik Xie and Shane Wang, two very talented young chefs, and is backed by The Flask Group.
Malik & Shane
Malik
hails from Taiwan and spent time at Restaurant André (Singapore) and
RAW (Taipei) before working at Bloom as chef de cuisine. Shane, from
Pinghu, Zhejiang, studied at Cordon Bleu, Paris after she graduated from
RMIT, Australia, and worked at Jean Georges, Seul & Seul, and INUA
(Japan). Both chefs have been with The Flask Group for a while now, but
Collectif is their magnum opus.
As
Shane put it, “I’ve traveled to so many countries, and found that there
are so many great Chinese ingredients that people don’t know about.”
The menu changes every season, and is inspired by the
“二十四节气表”, the 24 solar terms, an agricultural calendar of sorts created
by farmers in ancient China that’s based on the sun's position in the
zodiac. This season’s menu is the Spring Equinox, priced at ¥648 per person; wine pairing ¥268 for three glasses, ¥388 for five. It’s about 15 courses, including the amuse bouche and petit fours. The spring menu will run until mid-May.
It's located in M+ Plaza in Jing'an, across from KRU on Tap.
There's a couple of round tables and a bar counter with about 10 seats
facing the open kitchen.
There's also an upstairs bar, which is still being worked on.
Assorted breads and compound butters with preserved egg and chili fermented bean curd.
Amuse bouche – Spring roll with spring vegetables, mung bean taco with preserved eggs, sesame roll with rose jam.
A gummy hawthorn roll with cool pear and dill jelly.
A
dish based on a traditional Cantonese dish, Jiangnan Baihua Chicken
(江南白花鸡), , made by steaming shrimp wrapped with chicken skin. This
version uses shrimp, water chestnut, egg, and lard.
Spring
vegetables with bean curd skin, based off bean curd rolls (蝉衣包圆),
except this version is “open”. Vegetables of Indian Aster (马兰头, ma lan
tou), clover (草头, caotou), and shepherd’s purse (荠菜 , ji cai). Varying
peaks of grassy, bitter, and fresh.
Preserved egg sauce with mashed potato, sous vide egg yolk, toasted puffed rice.
Turnip cake with sakura shrimp and pickled radish, served with house XO.
A soup made with chicken and vegetable broth, featuring a whole scored and grill-charred abalone and cabbage.
Yellow croaker with leek purée and splash of green Sichuan pepper oil. Delicate fish with complex flavors. Excellent.
Seasonal
rice and roasted pigeon. Rice with glistening with lard, flavored with
pigeon stock, tossed with wilted celtuce leaves and mung beans.
Three-day aged pigeon fired on the charcoal grill, leg and breast.
Served with house doubanjiang. This was fantastic.
Wagyu beef from Dalian wrapped with crunchy water fennel served with sautéed Chinese toon shoots. Also fantastic.
Coconut ice cream with roasted jujubes, sweet potato purée, five spice crackers.
Tofu pudding and tofu-lotus leaf cream, jasmine powder.
Strawberry mousse with a pool of rose oil, black tea jelly, meringue, and puffed rice. Delightful.
Tea and pastries. Winter melon jelly on biscuit (桃酥, taosu) and taro dim sum filled with meat and shrimp.
Overall
impressions are that it is impressive and very considered. There’s a lot
of heart in the creation of the menu, and the intent of spotlighting
ingredients is apparent but not superfluous. Still, some small
adjustments could be made, which I assume are underway. (I went on the
first day the spring menu launched.)
Traditional Cantonese
Maison Gingko (Zhen)
文杏馆•臻
📍 L301, 179 Maotai Lu, near Loushanguan Lu茅台路179号金虹桥商场L301, 近娄山关路
📞 62688628
🕒 Daily, 11am-2pm, 5pm-10pm
Maison Gingko
is a Cantonese restaurant located in Shanghai Arch Walk mall in Gubei.
This is the second Maison Gingko (Zhen, 文杏馆·臻), the first one is more
upmarket, called Maison Gingko (Xin, 文杏馆·昕).
The location is an
enigma. Shanghai Arch Walk looks like it could be in an episode of “The
Last Of Us.” Compared to its surroundings, Maison Gingko is posh. It's a big space with two
dining halls and nearly a dozen private rooms adorned with expensive art
pieces.
This kitchen is led by Chef Lu Jing (卢静),
who was previously sous chef at Michelin one-star Lai Heen, The
Ritz-Carlton, Macau. The food at Maison Gingko is traditional Cantonese
made elegant. The menu covers both ends of the spectrum from dim sum to showy banquet mains like the braised chicken with ham.
Dim sum lunch
is slightly pricier than the average, and you can expect to pay upwards
of ¥200 per person. Dinner is ¥400 and up.
Here are the highlights:
The squab (¥78/one, 孜然脆皮乳鸽) is a specialty. It's
coated in cumin powder, which is a rare spice to find in Cantonese
cuisine, let alone with the revered fried pigeon. Otherwise, it’s a
textbook bird with crispy skin and juicy meat.
Honey-Stewed Barbecue Pork (¥158, 明炉蜜汁叉烧) – Possibly the best charsiu I’ve had. It has a crunchy, caramelized layer on top and the meat is tender and juicy. Sliced Abalone with Celtuce (¥108, 青笋鲍螺片) – Tender slices of abalone with poached celtuce and soy sauce.
Braised
Chicken with Ham (¥598) aka Jinhua Yushu Chicken (金华玉树鸡). This is a
typical banquet dish, You'd need incredible knife skills for this
showpiece, as you not only have to debone the chicken, but also remove
all the fat. It's paired with Jinhua ham and mushrooms, and given lashings of superior broth.
Shunde Fresh Fish Broth Soup (¥68, 顺德生拆鱼茸羹) – A comforting bowl of milky, slightly pepper fish broth.
Whole Grouper (¥300/500g, 自制黄椒酱游龙蒸石斑)
– Filets of poached grouper painstakingly rearranged to resemble a
swimming fish. The house soy sauce mix is perfect, and the ensemble
reminds me of Cantonese restaurants from back home.
Kung Pao Australian Small Lobster (¥498/two, 宫保澳洲小花龙) – Two lobsters worth of meat stir-fried kungpao-style with leeks, cashews, and chilies.
Shrimp Meatball with Asparagus (¥398, 金莎焗虾球) –
Like the Jinhua Yushu Chicken, this is another "made to impress" dish. You can't tell, but these are massive globes of shrimp, and it isn't just the batter. These big prawns from Shandong are coated in
salted egg yolk and deep-fried. Undeniably delicious.
Traditional
Fried Egg (¥48, 古法五柳炸蛋) - It's an "old Canton flavor" dish made with
"Five Willow Sauce," a sweet-sour sauce with shredded green papaya,
carrot, chives, ginger, and cucumber. Other than the sauce, it’s just a
plain ol’ fried egg.
Fried Rice (¥168, 文杏馆富贵炒饭 ) with fried shrimp, vegetables, beef, and fluffy egg whites.
“Wizard
of Oz” Baos (¥88/6, 绿野仙踪雪山餐包) – Sweet-savory milk buns with pork floss
jam. It sounds peculiar, but it’s hella tasty. I finished the whole bao,
despite being full to the hilt.
As
far as I can tell, it’s very good. The dining experience and service
was impeccable. The food has a fine touch. Dinner is better enjoyed with a big group. Standouts include the
charsiu, braised chicken, and fish.
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