Shanghai food is not spicy. The main taste is "thick oil red sauce".

Shanghai cuisine, referred to as Shanghai cuisine for short, refers to Shanghai cuisine in a narrow sense (Shanghai cuisine is also called "Shanghai cuisine", which is naturally called "Shanghai cuisine" from the perspective of Shanghainese). Shanghai cuisine in a broad sense is a comprehensive and extensive cuisine based on "Shanghai cuisine" and absorbs the strengths of various factions, especially in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai cuisine. Shanghai cuisine is characterized by braising in soy sauce, stir-frying, and thick red sauce. It absorbs the practices of "Jiangsu and Zhejiang Cuisine" such as Hangzhou Cuisine, Ningbo Cuisine, Huizhou Cuisine, Huaiyang Cuisine and Suzhou Cuisine, draws lessons from the practices of Western Cuisine and West Point, and taps the strengths of other cuisines, and gradually forms an inclusive and innovative Shanghai-style cuisine, which can be summarized as mellow soup and brine. Pay attention to live, raw, inch and fresh materials; Seasoning is good at salty, sweet, bad and sour.

This gang originated from local home cooking, and it is characterized by homeliness and common people. The common cooking methods are mainly braised, simmered and sugar, and it is good at using bad cooking. It is famous for its thick oil red sauce, moderate salinity, mellow and delicious. The early local cuisine was characterized by its low price, heavy taste and sufficient quantity. The civilian raw materials such as circle, salted fresh and soybean soup were all the fresh troops of this local cuisine. The earliest local cuisine originated from Sanlin people in Pudong, and it was called "Shovel Gang", which was set up in the old city of Shanghai during the reign of Emperor Jiaqing and Guangxu in Qing Dynasty. After 1931, Shanghai's industry and commerce developed rapidly, and the customers of local cuisine became a new class dominated by company employees, and the proportion of cheap dishes in local cuisine began to decline.

Traditional famous dishes include braised silver carp, soft-shelled turtle eaten in spring and autumn (soft-shelled turtle with cauliflower and sweet-scented osmanthus), white-cut mutton, braised mutton casserole, burnt shredded pork, grilled crucian carp with scallion, braised paddle, steamed shad, choking crab, Shanghai smoked egg, shredded eel with fragrant oil, steamed Yangcheng Lake hairy crab, hairy crab rice cake, etc.