WINE AND DINE: pork hock [Photo provided to Shanghai Star]

Ningbo cuisine

The history of the restaurant dates back to 1937, when Zhejiang native Lin Zhongxiu acquired a restaurant located at Caojiadu, an area where the Jing’an, Putuo and Changning districts meet.

Lin hired a group of local chefs as well as ones from Ningbo in Zhejiang province, which was Lin’s hometown, and began serving dishes with both local and Ningbo flavors when he reopened the restaurant in 1938, keeping its name unchanged as Zhuang Yuan Lou.

Other creative dishes offered by the restaurant include stir-fried yellow fin tuna rolls and fried red glutinous rice. The boned fish, preserved in zao sauce first, is quickly boiled into rolls. The rolled fish has a fresh and palatable taste, with the distinctive zao flavor lingering on the tongue. The fried sticky rice is a winter dish, but it is also a good accompaniment for the cool zao food on hot summer days.

IF YOU GO

Address: 460 Gubei Road 

Home delivery hotline: 400-877-9773