Letter from Shanghai - Teppanyaki and Taikang Lu

Our man in Shanghai Tim Gifford eats all he can at a Teppanyaki restaurant and hangs out with the art crowd.

After my first week of re-adjustment, I can safely say that I am finally feeling comfortable back in Shanghai. For me, the sprawling, breathing metropolis is like a pair of old shoes; after wearing them for a while they seem clumsy and ill-fitting, but given enough time they mould to your step and  you forget you even own another pair.

 Having rediscovered my stride, I decided to indulge in some of the simple pleasures that Shanghai offers, and that I had missed in my sojourn back to the Motherland. The first was to visit a Teppanyaki restaurant. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Teppanyaki is a Japanese form of dining that involves sitting around a large hot plate whilst the chef prepares and cooks your dinner, serving it piping hot onto your plate with his cooking spatula.
Shanghai boasts hundreds of these restaurants, all of varying quality and reputation, but the ones that interest me the most (and almost every expat out here) are the ‘All You Can Eat’ versions. It’s fiendishly simple – for the price of around 160RMB ( around £12) you get to order as much of whatever you want, food and booze alike.

And that is pretty much what we do. Once the word has been sent out and everyone has arrived, we show ourselves as the gluttons that we truly are. Needless to say that we skipped straight to the quality beef steaks at the back of the comprehensive menu, only to be told disapprovingly by our waiter that those were a la carte dishes. We didn’t argue, I guess they had to draw the line somewhere, and 500RMB steaks might as well be it. Having said that, we took our fill of sashimi, sushi, beef, squid and the free-flow beer and sake. Given the opportunity to point randomly at a menu and have whatever you want cooked to your liking, I’m ashamed to say that’s exactly what happens.

My next port of call was the magical Taikang Lu alley. Located a short walk from the bustling Huaihai Road – the shopping Mecca of Shanghainese and out-of-towner alike – Taikang Lu is a unique place for several reasons. Occupying the original lanes and alleyways of an old-Shanghai residential area, the alleys are now filling with boutiques, galleries and tiny coffee shops catering for the city’s blooming art crowd and cognoscenti.  Walking through the narrow, labyrinthine streets is an experience that cannot be matched anywhere else in Shanghai. The original doorways and ageing structures now sport colourfully lit signs declaring the presence of a cosy bar or jewellery shop that would otherwise have been easily overlooked by a hurried passerby.

Café tables line the already constricted alleyways, occupied by patrons sipping their white wine and talking in a Babel of tongues. Given its limited space the place is unmistakably relaxed. The monotonous hum of traffic is noticeably absent and the overwhelming neon signs of the downtown skyscrapers are replaced by twinkling fairy lights that hang across the walkways. Were it not for the distinctive skyline of the nearby shopping district that looms from several blocks away, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had entered an altogether different world.

As I said,hangs out the whole thing is located in an old residential estate, but that’s not to say it isn’t still functioning. Many of the houses are still home to Shanghainese families and it’s not uncommon to see the residents walking through the lanes, totally unfazed by the new crowd that has taken an interest in their little development. I even had the fortune to watch young boys playing tag through the streets, diving into bar doorways or hiding behind boutique signs to evade their pursuers. They seemed blissfully unaware of the changes that had occurred and were not about to let the newcomers interfere with them having fun.

For me, this place is the perfect example of what Shanghai is all about. It combines history with artistic vision, tradition with fashion and the influence of Western culture with Chinese charm and humility. But, there is the feeling that we are invading something precious and private; the trendy bars and galleries and the young crowd they attract are seemingly passing phases in this resilient, living corner of the city.
As I finish my Yoga pasta and diet coke I watch the boys still chasing each other, hoping that they will be playing their games long after we have paid the bill and left.