Chinese Corner: Pu Li

What: Traditional Taiwanese cuisine
Where: Room 318, 168 Fangbang Zhong Lu, inside Yucheng Fashion Building. Tel: 5353 0058
Why: You crave authentic street food from across the Strait

Unless you’re willing to settle for the shanzhai eateries scattered all over Shanghai, your options for authentic Taiwan cai are limited. Most of us end up holding out for our next trip to the island itself, but if you are willing to dig around, you can come across some hidden gems. Pu Li, named after a Taiwanese town, is one of them. The owner from Taipei grew up living across the street from the Shilin Night Market, a hotspot for Taiwanese hawker food. It’s this experience that has served as the inspiration for her own restaurant.

From the restaurant’s French windows, you can soak up the iconic view of the Yu Garden and part of The Bund beyond. Inside, light-coloured wooden tables, chairs and indoor greenery give the dining area a homey, relaxed feeling. Despite its environs, Pu Li’s décor is unpretentious, and so is the food.

The osmanthus and tomato in honey sauce (RMB 18) doesn’t look like such a labour of love at first glance, but this cold appetizer takes a full day to prepare. After being skinned and pickled with preserved plums, the tomatoes are immersed in honey and osmanthus soup for 24 hours. The sweet and sour flavour of these morsels lingers on the tongue with a refreshing fragrance that’s hard to forget. 

Ingredients also prove to be essential to Pu Li’s authentic flavours. The oyster omelet with sweet and spicy sauce (RMB 42) is another dish that will leave you stunned with its authentic flavour. The secret? The oysters are imported every day from Taiwan, so they are guaranteed to be fresh, creamy and delectable.
For purists wanting a truly authentic taste of Taiwan, dishes like the Taiwanese fried rice with lard (RMB 36) should do the trick. The nongjia-styled dish is known to almost every Taiwanese in their 40s and 50s as a pre-dinner snack after arriving home from school. Pu Li’s version keeps the original flavour, but dresses the dish up a bit.

For its top-notch and inexpensive Taiwanese delicacies, Pu Li might just delay that inevitable flight to Taipei.