Dear Culinary Backstreets,
I am a practicing Muslim and have a hard time finding halal food in Shanghai. Do you have any recommendations?
Eating halal is difficult in a country whose cuisine considers pork its staple meat. Pork consumption in China – the largest consumer of the meat globally – reached record levels last year, averaging 86 pounds per capita. Since 2007, the government has operated “strategic pork reserves,” which include underground bunkers of frozen pork and live pig farms, to help regulate porcine inflation. If you pop into a wet market, you’ll see rows of pork vendors selling everything from cutlets to brains, but typically only one butcher filleting beef and lamb. Above that stall, you’ll inevitably find Arabic script and the characters: 清真 (qīngzhēn, or “halal”).
Those characters will come in handy when you’re looking for a permissible place to tuck in, as Shanghai’s halal options – usually run by Hui migrants – are limited. The Hui are China’s largest group of ethnic Muslims and the country’s second-largest minority group, but they make up less than one percent of the entire population, and most live in central and western China. However, their domestically exotic menus are extremely popular amongst Han Chinese (the ethnic majority), especially those Xinjiang-style restaurants that feature performances from musicians strumming on sitars while buxom young women belly dance vigorously. The food at these dinnertainment places tends to suffer from the diverted attention, so here are better places to eat halal food in Shanghai:
Lanzhou Lamian
The most prolific example of fast casual dining in China, Lanzhou Lamian restaurants are open at all hours, with a location on virtually every other block in Shanghai. Offering cheap, nutritious, steaming bowls of noodles, this is just about the best 10 RMB you can spend, and you get to watch the strands being hand-pulled to order by taqiyah-wearing boys fresh from their native provinces of Qinghai or Gansu. Try the standard beef soup noodles (牛肉拉面, niú ròu lā miàn) that soak up the fragrant beef stock simmered with the earthy cumin and curry flavors of the Silk Road. Hand-sliced noodles are also available, and the broad cuts are served with a mélange of Central Asian toppings – just pick from the picture menu on the wall. We like lamb wok-fried with onions (葱爆羊肉面, cōngbào yángròu miàn) or eggs scrambled with bok choy and tomato (番茄炒蛋刀削面, fānqié chǎo dàn dāoxiāomiàn).
Xinjiang Expedition
Passersby can grab a glistening lamb skewer (羊肉串儿, yángròu chuànr) and freshly toasted naan to-go from the grill man in front of this Uighur restaurant, but we prefer to sit inside here. Not all of the menu is halal (they do serve Xinjiang Black Beer), but you can definitely make a meal out of the dishes available, like the spicy naan fried with lamb, (馕炒肉, nǎng chǎo ròu), stewed whole chicken (大盘鸡, dà pánjī) and the delightfully greasy pumpkin and lamb rice pilaf with plump raisins (抓饭, zhuāfàn).
One of our favorite places for Friday lunch, this once-a-week market outside a mosque is a gathering point for Chinese Muslims. In 2013, it briefly closed down after neighbors complained of the billowing smoke from the charcoal grills but has reopened on a quieter, less trafficked street around the corner. Many offerings are seasonal, with fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice (石榴汁, shíliú zhī) during the winter and dripping sweet musk melons (哈密瓜, hāmìguā) in summer. Keep an eye out for steamed pumpkin dumplings (南瓜蒸饺, nánguā zhēng jiǎo), cold mung bean noodles (凉皮, liángpí) and sweet yogurt (酸奶, suānnǎi).
Published on March 18, 2014
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