Surprisingly, there are many of halal food restaurant around Shanghai. Chinese food has always been associated with pork and I assume there would be hard to find halal food in Shanghai. From my experience, I did not need any googling to find a halal restaurant since Muslim noodle shops are everywhere. Most of the halal restaurant there runs by Uyghur Muslim Community. I have been to a few countries that are not populous of Muslim communities, like France, Tokyo and Korea. Usually, the halal food that was sold over there are Arab type of food like biryani, kebab, shawarma and many others along those line.
However, in Shanghai, we are able to taste true Chinese food that halal for us Muslim. For example, the spicy dumplings and hand-pulled noodles. Finding the halal restaurant was easy, just looking at the usual halal sign that we have seen in Malaysia you are good to go. But the biggest challenge comes from the menu. Be prepared for the menus, most of the menus are in Chinese characters. When I am in Shanghai, there are countless times, the local people tried to communicate with me but in Chinese even though I do not look Chinese. So, it is no different in restaurant as they will just hand you menu in Chinese character. Then you will end up randomly picking out dishes, but you need to be careful as it is very common there that they eat every kind animal entrails. Thus, when picking out menu, hope for the best that it would not be serves on your plate. But being in a technological era, we now have google translate, make sure to download the application.
Moreover, if you happened, to stay on, take the time on Friday to go to the Muslim Market for the halal food. The fragrant barbecue smokes and generous samplings of traditional dishes are there for you to taste. Every Friday, before and after the Friday prayers, the Uyghur community, Chinese from the north-western region of China will be seen selling their cuisine in front of a mosque. The Uyghurs are the largest group of minorities from the Xinjiang province. You can find Xinjiang restaurants all over Shanghai (mostly the halal restaurant), but this Friday market is different. They gather in the Pudong Mosque neighborhood rolls out their stoves and grills to treat visitors to a delicious halal meal. You will know you are near the market when you see all of the smoke billowing from the countless kebab grills off in the distance.
As you approach, you will start seeing these dried fruit vendors, selling several varieties of raisins, dried dates, figs, apricots, almonds walnuts. You will see and smell deliciously lamb everywhere. Fresh lamb on sale by local Uyghur butchers, freshly baked Uyghur breads, lamb skewers, lamb patties, and so much more. Not to forget, dumplings, buns and noodles, Uyghur style. The lamb skewers you get here are probably the juiciest chunks of meats you will have in Shanghai, even the lamb fat tasted really good.
It can get quite smoky here, so be careful. Keep stall-hopping to eat more delectable bites. Buy some bread, have some freshly-brewed hot tea with the locals, to help wash down all that food and cut the grease because Chinese food can get really oily. Also expect no fork and spoon, only chopsticks. In addition, always carry tissues. Do not worry about carrying these over from hotel; mini packets of tissue can be purchased inexpensively in every convenience store. You will need to get them on day one, not only when dining. You also need wet tissues for their public restrooms. Beside not having hose, even in luxury shopping malls, either have no toilet paper at all or run out quickly.
Other than your hotel, do not expect any establishment to provide toilet paper or soap. Most people carry travel tissue packs and hand sanitizer with them for this reason. On top of that, like toilet paper, hand soap is not standard in many Chinese bathrooms. Carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer with you just to be sure for your hygiene.
Comments