Lao Shanghai

Maybe our American palates just aren’t set up to fall in love with Shanghai cuisine, the namesake food that anchors the menu at this small restaurant (Lao Sze Chuan’s sibling). However, when a Shanghainese friend explored the menu, she declared these eats the real deal. For a tasting of classics, order the dry bean curd salad, the smoked fish, the cold shell-on shrimp in sweet soy, the authentically slimy stir-fried yellow eel, sautéed gi cai greens with bamboo and the weather-appropriate casserole of salted pork.