Vertical Pork Bone

A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal published a series of articles (now a book) highlighting what they found to be the best restaurants in major Asian cities. I held on to them and whenever I head off to another Asian city, I refer to them. When I first moved to Shanghai, I checked out all the restaurants on the list. One of them was Sichuan Garden, behind the Grand Gateway mall in Xujiahui. It wasn't bad a few years ago, but they've gone downhill so much that I was entirely disappointed with my last visit. The "dan dan mian" noodles were like Chef Boy-R-Dee's version of Sichuan cuisine. The tea tasted like tap water. The water-cooked fish slices tasted like mud and nothing else. There are far better Sichuan restaurants -- even in culinary challenged Shanghai -- so I suggest you avoid this one.

But I had to return for one reason -- to check out the "vertical pork bone" that I knew this place was famous for but not tried yet. Here's a pic:



Yes, it's a large pig bone, served vertical, with a plastic bendy straw in the center, so you can suck out the marrow. I suppose there's nothing weird about a pork bone, to most of us, but to serve it like this, with the bendy straw, would turn some weak stomachs out there. It's the presentation, not the content, that makes it weird.



It was the best item we had. The marrow was just soupy sauce -- reminiscent of a sweet pizza sauce, but with a subtle complexity you get from the taste of blood. The meat on the side was pleasantly sweet (they give you a plastic glove to hold it with).



Even more entertaining, however, is the chinglish on the menu. This place has some real doozies like, "Cold gynurabicolor DC" and "Daily desetrl nulr" and "Sir-friend pleurotus nebrodensis" -- these look like scientific names, and then there's the more poetic ones like "Spring dances in courtyard" and "Great bumper"



... But the winner has to be the "rabbit heads with duck's lipps". I'll get that next time, whatever it really is. Ducks don't have lips, and even though I've seen some crazy dishes in my life, I just can't fathom of plate full of rodent heads. Can you? Tune in next time...