Pu Dong – or Shanghainese, as we call it – is a small place in Balmoral plaza. Located in the basement, it really is a inconspicuous place and not many know about its existence. The restaurant serves typical no-nonsense Shanghainese food. Greasy, but tasty. Coming here regularly for years with my best friend and her family, we always tend to order the same things – we know what’s good. On this particular afternoon I joined my best friend’s mum for lunch here – sadly my best friend is in the U.S. studying, so it was just the two of us.
We ordered our standard dishes: dry fried green beans with minced garlic and chili, duo miao, noodles with pork and tofu, lion’s head and of course Xiao Long Bao. I think a Shanghai meal isn’t complete without Xiao Long Bao. These are soup dumplings, on which it’s nearly impossible not to burn your tongue. Usually what I do is carefully dipping the dumpling in the accompanying sauce (vinegar with sliced ginger) and placing the dumpling on my spoon and biting a little hole at the top (at the pleats) and letting the steam escape. Once I think it’s cooled down enough I’ll slurp out the soup before eating the whole dumpling. This is a must-order for any Shanghai meal, and this dish in particular has gained a cult like following worldwide. The lion’s head here is really good, especially the gravy is extremely tasty – I’m actually kind of scared to know what’s in there, so in this case: ignorance is bliss. Lion’s head are giant fatty pork meatballs braised in soy sauce. Apparently there’s a healthier version – a plain steamed one – however I’ve never come across it and it doesn’t really interest me that much, since the gravy is what it’s all about anyways. It’s just delicious soaking up all the gravy with white fluffy rice and gobbling it up. It makes me hungry just thinking about it.
Overall the food at Pu Dong is quite nice, it’s no-nonsense food, so you shouldn’t have any great expectations. Also, the service is quite terrible and the people working there are rude, impatient and don’t speak much English. Basically, it’s a place where you just go for unpretentious food, nothing else.
Restaurant: Pu Dong Kitchen
Address: #B1-02, Balmoral Plaza, 271 Bukit Timah Road, Singapore
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