As one of the world’s largest and most cosmopolitan cities, Shanghai has a highly sophisticated and impressive restaurant scene and food culture. But some of the real treats of Shanghai’s culinary scene are the simple, local foods that are available in hole-in-the-wall shops across the city. Many mornings, I enjoyed two such foods – the ubiquitous baozi and tea eggs, which make for a very tasty breakfast.
One of the many tiny baozi shops filled with bamboo steamers
Baozi are steamed buns, which can be filled with meats or vegetables. I particularly like the pork-filled baozi. Tea eggs are hard-boiled eggs cooked in salted tea, sometimes with other spices added, which gives them a subtle but enjoyable tea flavor. The eggs are cracked part way through the cooking process, so the tea gets inside the shell, usually giving the egg sort of tie-dyed or marbled tan color. A couple of tea eggs and a pork baozi make a nice breakfast, and the total cost is less than a dollar.
