Xiao Shaoxing 小绍兴 @ Shanghai

It was one of the first restaurant I encountered in Shanghai almost 25 years ago, and it has remained one of my favourite. Xiao Shaoxing has one bestseller – poached chicken.

When you get to Xiao Shaoxing, you’ll need to order at the counter in the middle (it might be useful to have the Chinese dish names handy). Then take your receipt to the counter on the left, grab a plastic tray and you’ll be unceremoniously handed your chicken. If you’ve ordered anything other than the chicken, you’ll need to head to the counter on the right for collection. Because of Covid, they will send the other dishes to your table.

Their mainstay attraction since opening is the Three Yellow Chicken 三黄鸡 – chicken with yellow beak, yellow skin and yellow feet. The chicken is cooked to perfection, every piece is tender and full of the chicken flavour.

The jelly of the fats formed between the skin and meat is the highlight of this signature dish of the restaurant.

Next, the chicken blood pudding in a delightful chicken stock. Most places would sell pig blood or duck blood pudding. This place is the only one in Shanghai that I know that sell chicken blood pudding. Great source of iron during the resource scarce Shanghai in the past.

I don’t know what my infatuation with the blood pudding, it is not as if I need the supplement of iron. But the fact that it is no longer available in Singapore made me order this whenever I am in China, Taiwan or Thailand.

The soup base of the noodles is the same as the blood pudding – the same chicken stock that is most likely made from poaching all those chicken. The chicken soup was perfect for the cold winter day.

Xiao Shaoxing is a great little place to chow down on affordable, tasty Chinese food, not to mention brush up on your Shanghainese with some locals. Forget about service, you are there for the food. If you’re after a more sedate experience, head up to the second floor where you can sit and order from a menu.

Xiao Shao Xing 小绍兴 (云南南路店)
云南南路69-75号(近宁海东路)
Tel : 021-63260845 021-63203562

Date Visited : Dec 2020