Shanghai: Ponchiki
Ponchiki is a Russian pirogi and donut shop that opened up at Changle Lu & Xiangyang Lu. After reading about them on City Weekend, I stopped by the other day to sample their goods.
Ponchiki offers one kind of donut ($3RMB), which is served up with your choice of honey, condensed milk, or chocolate sauce and then dusted with powdered sugar. The donut is on chewy and tough side, and takes a good pair of chompers to get through the whole thing.
Ponchiki also makes pirogis, which unlike their doughy Polish counterparts, feature various fillings stuffed in a soft dinner roll type bread. The potato and bacon pirogi ($4) was soft and yummy, and reminded me of the buns you get in Hong Kong bakeries.
We also tried the apple blintz – some chopped apples wrapped in a thin crepe. It was a little dry, definitely could have used some cream or cheese to moisten it up. But not bad for $3RMB.
There are a lot of other little shops around the intersection of Xiangyang & Changle – steamed bun shops, noodle shops, and my favorite – pancakes cooked on a griddle and stuffed with Chinese garlic chives or scallions ($1.20 RMB). Do try to get them when they are hot and fresh – or else they become stale.
Ponchiki – 棒极圈
612 Changle Lu at Xiangyang Lu
长乐路612号近襄阳路
Suckling Pig
This is one of Santi's signature dish ... and it takes almost 24 hours to prepare. They season the piglet hind quarters in paprika for a few hours, then wash off the access and vacuum bag to roast in 75 degrees oven for 16 hours! This process is to let the meat cook in its own juices and also not loosing any juice to evaporation. The last 45 mins before serving, the meat is roasted @ 200 degrees to get the golden brown crispy skin
We were enjoying this dish so much ... the meat is so tender, juicy and skin crispy at the same time. There is almost no fat! The langoustine, couscous, fresh petit pois (green peas) in au jus is delicious.
Then the manager said something that turned everyone especially my wife queasy. The reason why the skin can be so crispy is because of little fat. The reason for little fat was because the suckling piglet is only 5 weeks old! I know .... eeeew rite?
Then I went to read up about how long it takes for pigs to mature -- typically a piglet is born at 1.5KG and double in weight within 7 days. And matures within 3 months and ready for butcher in 6 months. But then ... 5 weeks seems such a short time
Sichuan Spicy Cold Noodles/四川麻辣涼面/Chinese Food, Cooking and Recipes
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