Grand Shanghai (Edison, NJ)

I visit my wife's family in Flemington, NJ every year around Christmas time. Her parents are immigrants from Taiwan, so I searched for a good Asian restaurant near by for a Christmas feast. We hit the jackpot with Grand Shanghai!

The meal started off with pickled duck tongues. They were pickled in a sweet brine with a definite ginger flavor. This was quickly followed by two orders of excellent pork and crab soup dumplings.


The skins were thin and chewy, and the liquid inside was scalding hot, but intensely flavored by the pork and scallion filling. My in-laws liked them so they bought some frozen dumplings for breakfast the next day. Then came the pickled greens soup with fish. The broth was surprisingly sour but refreshing and went remarkably well with the soft mild fish (not sure what it was). Finally the last appetizer was the crispy jelly with cucumber. My father-in-law told us that the "crispy" jelly fish was actually jelly fish heads. They were slimy and snapped when you bit into them and were served with a mild vinegar sauce that definitely fit the cucumbers well. The dish was mild but clean, a great bridge to the dishes to come as entrees.


First off was the eel with yellow chives. There was smokiness to the sauce and the eel was exceptionally tender. Most of our group cited this as their favorite dish. We followed that with what the menu called Chinese green vegetable with been curd sheets. The vegetable was a green squash that had a mild flavor that married well with the light vinegar-based sauce. The been curd sheets were white and spongy, at first I thought it was tripe. I didn't care for the texture, but the dish was very mild.


Next up was the crab prepared with ginger and scallion. This was very messy to eat but worth the effort.


Finally we had the braised pork shoulder. It was prepared with a barbecue sauce with definite anise flavor. The meat was fall off the bone tender and there sure was a lot of it.

An excellent and very filling Christmas feast indeed!

http://grandshanghairestaurantnj.com/

turkob -- As an exiled Jerseyman who occasionally manages to sneak back for a visit to the 'old country', I welcome your post most enthusiastically. Looks great; I hope to get a chance to go there, perhaps this spring... Many thanks...

Antonius

Thanks! It's definitely within striking distance for me. I'll be giving it a try soon.