Shouning Road is a night street market is a lively street located in central Shanghai. It is probably most famous for craw-fish boiled in spicy chili oil and broth. You order a heaping mound of fresh craw-fish then don plastic gloves and dig in! There also are many grilled vegetables to try such as garlic shoots, mushrooms, cauliflower, and lotus. My favorites are grilled eggplant with garlic and grilled mántou (a soft steamed bun).

Less “famous” but certainly worth trying is water snake. Yep, you choose a live snake and they will clean it and cook it up for you right there on the street. It’s battered and deep fried so really it’s not that bad; Most of the flavor is in the batter anyway.

If craw-fish or snakes are not your thing, there is also plenty of BBQ Kebab to be had.

A couple of other foods certainly worth trying are the famous Dwarf Pastries (ǎirén xiànbǐng). I think the “dwarf” part of the name is because the guy who started the business was a bit short. These are light pastries filled with various things like peanut, sesame, or red bean paste. They are quite delicious and interesting.

Also there is a shop selling all sorts of “jello” like deserts. Many flavors to choose from, although I recommend the purple taro, and mango at least.

Most places open in the late afternoon (5pm) and the best time to go is in the evening just around sunset. As for where and what to eat, take a look at the photos below, study them and find the places then order something. It’s all really good and at least worth trying.

How to Get to Shouning Road

The simplest way is to take a taxi and the address is:

Shouning Lu, between Renmin Lu and Liulin Lu, Huangpu district
Chinese address: 黄浦区寿宁路号, 近西藏南路

The nearest metro station is Dashijie (大世界) station on Line 1 or 8.

 

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