Moving with the times

He always likes to order the vegetable rice, a traditional Shanghai dish which combines vegetables, rice and lard, and retains the same flavor as it did half a century ago.

Pan-fried buns (sheng jian bao) are a favorite with regulars, which are fried to a golden color on the bottom and contain a filling of chopped pork and pork jelly. The jelly takes three hours to make via a nine-step cooking process.

They are now presented in five colors-white, green, orange, purple, and black-and are made with spinach, pumpkin, purple cabbage and edible bamboo charcoal powder.

Even though Meiweizhai likes to combine classical flavors with a modern twist, the traditional Shanghai dishes have not been forgotten.

To mark its first anniversary, three private rooms at the restaurant have reopened after a lengthy renovation, and many of their signature dishes that were taken off the menu have made a return.

"The private rooms have to be booked in advance so that we have time to prepare the dishes," says Tian, who is happy to bring around 200 time-consuming dishes back to the table.

Baked bread chicken is a new signature dish, updating the traditional dish of beggar's chicken, which uses a 1.5-kilogram chicken wrapped in lotus leaves and flour before being roasted for four hours-and which used to be covered in mud to aid the cooking process.

"We asked a retired chef to teach us the recipe for beggar's chicken, which is not easy to find in the capital," says Tian.

Meiweizhai is planning to open its first sub-branch in Beijing, expanding from its original neighborhood for the first time in 60 years. In another first, the restaurant is also planning to expand its operations to Japan and even farther afield. "We are also trying to find a location in Canada, which is a new challenge for us," Tian says.

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

6:30 am-9:00 am, 11:00 am-2:00 pm, 5:00 pm-9:00 pm. No 167 Guang'anmennei Dajie, Xicheng district, Beijing. 010-6356-7321.