Street food for thought: Traditional Shanghai cuisine Blossoms again
Tai Sheng Yuan restaurant, on which the Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant in the TV series based, welcomed visitors and diners over the weekend.
Traditional Shanghai cuisines, as well as a downtown food street famous for Shanghai-style restaurants, are basking in newfound fame after a hit television drama has struck a chord with city residents, bringing back memories of old-school local home dishes.
Blossoms Shanghai, a Chinese TV series directed by Wong Kar-wai and produced in both Mandarin and the local dialect, has sparked much debate about the city and has had visitors and food lovers rushing to local restaurants offering namesake set menus featured in the series.
Depicting Shanghai's economic boom in the 1990s, the series also touches upon local cuisine and the bustling culinary scene on Huanghe Road, as well as ordinary people's relation with home-made dishes.
Many residents have rushed to order takeaway of pork chops and rice cakes, a famous local street food with rich soy sauce, after watching the hit TV drama Blossoms Shanghai.
A Fairmont Peace Hotel menu featuring dishes from the TV serial.
A Bao, the protagonist in the series played by Hu Ge, has the habit of having rice soup, a kind of Shanghai-style homemade seafood broth to soak up leftover rice.
On Meituan, online takeaway orders of rice soup, soared 1.5 times as A Bao's beloved local dishes made social media headlines over the weekend.
Pork chops and rice cakes, a classic street food with rich soy sauce, also piqued the interest of Shanghai food lovers.
Meituan's food delivery orders of pork chops and rice cakes soared 300 percent.
On lifestyle platform Ele.me, food vendors are using the TV drama to promote their dishes.
The average search amount on Ele.me for pork chops and rice cakes surged 670 percent, and the number of orders jumped 237 percent from a week ago.
Fairmont Peace Hotel offers a set menu for two for 1,460 yuan (US$206) containing the classic dishes in the hit TV drama.
Latest livestreaming sessions, which invited one of the actresses in the TV show, grabbed online viewers' attention with discount coupons for local dishes.
Latest livestreaming sessions, which invited one of the actresses in the TV show, grabbed online viewers' attention with discount coupons for local dishes.
Tai Sheng Yuan restaurant, on which the Zhi Zhen Yuan restaurant in the TV series is based, saw its online transaction size adding 170 percent from a week ago, and group buying orders also jumped 240 percent.
Fairmont Peace Hotel, another landmark depicted in the series, attracted visitors as the number of social media posts about the iconic place jumped more than five times.
Food vendors are using the TV series to promote their takeaway dishes.
Social media posts list over a dozen local landmarks depicted in the TV series.
