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Image 1: Jin Mao Tower, the world's 8th tallest building.
Image 2: Club Jin Mao is the fine dining restaurant of Grand Hyatt Shanghai located on the 86th floor of this building. We had to pass through the lobby on the 54th floor and then transfer to another set of lift.
Image 3: www.shanghai.grand.hyatt.com/ClubJinMao
About CN¥150 for a simple main course
Open daily for lunch and dinner.
Image 4: It is the city’s most prestigious Shanghainese restaurant initially for club members only. They have opened to public in recent years due to many booking requests from the general public.
Image 5: This place has only private rooms and each has a superb view of the city. Even though the weather wasn't perfect that day…
Image 6: … we could still clearly see the Pearl Tower. Not bad!
Image 7: Once we settled down in our seats, they immediately welcomed us with a yellow wine which paired very well with our lunch.
Image 8: A traditional Chinese snack box on the table. We were explained that since guests don't always arrive all at once so..
Image 9: ... it is nice to have some snacks while waitin. We were honoured to have lunch with Peter Zhou, the ex-Executive Chef of 28 HuBin, the very best restaurant in China in my opinion. He's now the Food & Beverage Director of Grand Hyatt Shanghai.
Image 10: Every single chef in this restaurant was hired by Peter. He spent months visitin top restaurants in Shanghai and its surrounding area to scout young chefs in order to create a well-rounded kitchen team!
Image 11:
Our meal started with a platter composed of six tasty items
Image 12: Drunken chicken, a popular Chinese cold dish where the chicken is cooked then marinated with Shaoxing wine. I like the deep fragrance of the wine.
Image 13:
Crispy fried shrimp and pieces of fish with a sweet & sour coatin
Image 14:
Spare rib with bone that easily came off
Image 15:
The best item of this plate was this venison terrine, an elegant jelly with light savouriness from the meat.
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And tiny celery sticks with pine nuts to finish this cold platter
Image 17:
Our first warm dish was a mixed fish soup
Image 18: Fried shrimp with dragon well tea. Good execution, just cooked in the centre resultin in a soft crunchy texture!
Image 19: This was a good course but tofu with crab roe is never my favourite combination. I like the crab roe for its intensity but tofu washed away the concentration.
Image 20: A deep fried local fish. Even the bone was crispy. Peter told us he always serves his guests with seafood, poultry, pork, vegetable, but never beef since Chinese cuisine is not strong on beef!
Image 21: A vegetable course, bok choy with a special local vegetable that he described as some kind of root vegetable from the sea. The texture is like rhubarb.
Image 22: We were lucky to try this Shanghainese delicacy as it was the peak of the mitten crab season. The 10th month of the Chinese lunar calendar is the best for male crab.
Image 23:
The crab is steamed whole in a basket.
Image 24: The green tag is a certification that this crab was sourced from YangCheng Lake, THE lake for mitten crab! There is a unique identification code on the back for online verification!
Image 25:
The claws are full of hair hence it is called hairy crab.
Image 26: The proper way to eat this is to have all the legs first as they get cold quickly. Then remove the shell and rip the body in quarters and go for the "crab yolk", i.e. the yellowish stuff!
Image 27: Wow, it was unbelievably seductive! It was like having a creamy meltin yolk, a bit runny and a bit sticky, phenomenal texture with a powerful crab flavour! No wonder these crabs are highly priced and regarded as the top delicacy of the region!
Image 28: Chinese believe crabs have a "cooling" effect (yin) and hence they always have a cup of ginger tea (yang) after having crabs to neutralise the impact.
Image 29: And of course, we had to try Shanghainese soup dumpling while in Shanghai! The soup dumpling was delicately done!
Image 30: A big fried pork bun was served as a staple food. Crunchy at the bottom with juicy pork filling. I really enjoyed this bun.
Image 31:
Finally a large plate with smoke coming out from the bottom!
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Every slice of fruit on this plate was very sweet! High quality fruit!
Image 33: This restaurant is excellent, offering exquisite and authentic cuisine in Shanghai.
