Three Cheap and Good Meals in Shanghai, China

I needed a fast lunch in between meetings today, and for some reason, this qingzhen beef noodle place came straight into my head, despite there being a lot of other restaurants that I wanted to explore. So I came here and got this knife cut noodle topped with sliced lamb, and it totally hit the spot, especially after a spiking it with a few scoops of their dried chili oil. I definitely prefer lamb over beef, especially given the extra stank that it provides.



After meetings, I was on my way over to drinks when I realized that my stomach was growling. Right there on the street was this stand selling some kind of pancake thing as well as some fried chicken strips known as xiangsujiliu. The latter was a bit like Taiwanese yansuji but was garnished with cumin powder instead of basil (yes, one could still get red chili powder too). It was exactly the street snack that I needed as I walked to the train station.



And then on the way back to the hotel, I needed a meal to finish off the day. I passed by a restaurant serving Xian food, and thus got a bowl of biang biang noodles. It came out piping hot and was loaded up with hot oil, vinegar, and raw garlic. Sure, it was a bit crude, but it's not like I get to eat this stuff very often. The best part about all three of these items above was that they were each RMB 15 (US$2.25) or less. Nice.