PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

Rivaling Sichuan cuisine in spiciness (though relying more on straight chilies and less on the mind-numbing, tongue-lashing peppercorn), the lesser-known cooking of Hunan Province can be tried at this delightful restaurant atop a flight of rickety wooden stairs inside a small French concession storefront. Highly recommended are ziran paigu (cumin ribs), gan guo ji (chicken in chili pot), suan doujiao rouni (mashed pork with sour beans), duojiao yutou (fish head steamed with red chili), and xiangwei hongshu bo (fragrant sweet potato in monk's pot). Or order just about anything in sight and plenty of cold beer to douse the fiery flames in your mouth. Service by the batik-clad waitstaff is no-nonsense, even occasionally impatient, but the food is superb and shouldn't be missed.

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Shanghai, 5th Edition, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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