Today I saw this big board in Songjiang district:

Grandma Ji Ma La Tang

Very familiar… I was wondering when Colonel Sanders’ Wife decided to open a restaurant in Shanghai, and it is not fried chicken!

OK. It actually is Grandma Ji’s Ma La Tang!

So what is Ma La Tang?

Ma is for the numb feeling from a spice called Sichuan Pepper
La is for spicy hot from the chili
Tang is hot hot from the boiled soup

 So basically Ma La Tang is to put whatever you like into a hot spicy soup till it’s cooked.

It is actually a very popular fast food in China. Why?

- tasty (you can tell it is very spicy from its name)

- variety (literally you can put anything you want, vegetable, meat, fish, mushroom, noodles whatever)

- fast (ingredients are sliced or diced which makes them easy to be cooked)

- fun of DIY (every Ma La Tang is different as it is totally up to you to decide what you want to put)

First, pick the skewered food from the fridge

A variety of food skewered in the fridge

Second, boil them in the spicy soup

vegetables, meat, noodles boiled in the spicy soup

Final product:

This is what you get!

Of course, you can add extra spices and sauces to make it hotter!

Go hotter! Chilli powder, garlic, seasame sauce, just add in

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Tags: Shanghai Street Food

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