My favorite wonton in all of Shanghai

When I first moved to Shanghai, I stayed at the Fraser Residence (now called Riverdale Residences) on Shouning Road (寿宁路). The driver who picked me up from the airport told me that just next to the serviced apartment building on the same road was a block full of Shanghai snacks (上海小吃). So soon enough, I went exploring on that block, which had some pastry sellers, fried pork chop seller, and a scallion pancake seller which I’ll write about later.

Just around the corner on Renmin Road (人民路), was a wonton shop, called Qianlixiang Wonton (千里香混沌).

The big pot of boiling water where the wontons would be dropped in, was just at the front of the shop, practically in the street. Always the same guy was manning the pot.

Inside, depending on time of day, could often be crowded. I think they might have even had some seats upstairs, but I never ventured up.

I always sat at the ground level - it had quite an open feeling, facing the street and the big trees on the other side.

Their menu was very limited. Basically five fillings, and one of the fillings (the vegetable one, shepherd’s purse 荠菜), in two different sizes large and small. Each variety could be ordered in two or three different quantities of wontons.

Right at the front of the store, one or two ladies would always be wrapping wontons. You can see the large wontons on the left, and the small on the right.

People say that wrapping wontons doesn’t require the same skill as dumplings, but I wholeheartedly disagree. I’ve been to many a store where the filling is too slack, or too compact. And the ratio of filling to wonton skin can vary widely as well.

Here, the fillings were always generous for the “small” wonton size, and perfectly formed into what looked like little brains floating in broth! And the broth itself had just the right amount of cilantro and bits of fried shallot(?), making it assertive yet light and fresh tasting.

My go-to order was the small vegetable wontons (荠菜小混沌) pictured above, but the all-meat ones below were similarly good.

When my family came over to visit at the end of 2019, I made sure to take them there! We had four orders of the small vegetable wontons, and one order of the large for my dad.

From January through December 2020, I was back in California, unable to return to Shanghai due to flight cancellations and border closure. I finally returned at the beginning of December, and was in quarantine until December 17. The only dish I really craved the entire time in California, were these vegetable wontons!

So as soon as I could, on the 27th, I made my way over to my old neighborhood to have a bowl. I was surprised that most of the storefronts were boarded up, slated for reconstruction!

Luckily, the scallion pancake seller was still hanging on, at the ver end of the street, and so was the wonton store. The same people, working away.

Since it had been so long, I had forgotten my regular order! I ordered the small vegetable wontons, but when I saw them put the small wontons in the basket, I suddenly thought that they looked too small, and changed my order to the large vegetable wontons, thinking that that was in fact my regular order.

The large ones came out and I realized that I had made a mistake. They were still excellent, however.

Wanting to rectify my mistake and return for that bowl of small vegetable wontons, I returned just two weeks later, on January 9. To my shock, I saw that the redevelopment steamroller had claimed another victim. My favorite wonton place was shuttered! Almost looking like it was trashed.

I looked through 大众点评, Dazhongdianping, which is kind of like Yelp only more powerful, trying to see if it might have moved somewhere else. The problem is that 千里香混沌 (Qianlixiang Wonton), the name on the storefront, and 老上海混沌铺 (Old Shanghai Wonton Store), the name I saw on the spoons, are both very common names for wonton shops across the city!

And then looking at the listing for this particular store, one reviewer said that the the boss would not continue making wontons, returning to his hometown instead.