It’s a wet, filthy night in Shanghai and I’m wide awake and hungry.The streets of Putuo are unlit and I’m dodging faceless black figures sailing past on bikes; others, on foot, in huge, trailing cloaks slosh through puddles on the road and gutters.
There are no cars. It’s quiet for the persistent patter of rain. Most shops are shuttered up; the few still open are spot-lit shells with little sign of life.
It’s so dark, I almost walk into three huge steaming pots on the narrow pavement outside a noodle shop. I duck inside. Its three tables are stained with orange smears, there’s murky vinegar in white teapots and soy sauce in plastic coke bottles.
Hunched over one table are two women shelling sunflower seeds, crunching and cracking through the dusty grey pile. They look up then continue their task. Beside them, on the floor, a fire burns in a metal cylinder, its glowing orange embers within almost too bright for such a dismal night. On another table, tinny music is coming from an abandoned laptop.
There’s no menu so I order from a picture on the wall. An aproned man appears and starts thwacking dough on a bench by the window, pulling, stretching and twisting it. Longer and thinner it becomes and, like a skipping rope, he swings it high and low.
I look up briefly as three women walk past me, staring down, then walk down a corridor past my table. When I look back to the bench, the dough has been cut into a long, fine fringe: noodles. They’re stretched some more, then thrust through the open window to an old man in the street, who drops them into one of the pots I nearly tripped over.
Two minutes later, a bowl of hot noodles in a dark sauce is put down before me. Emerging from the liquid is a little cold sliced beef, coriander and shredded bok choi. A second smaller bowl contains a clear broth with floating ringlets of spring onion and droplets of oil.
The steam rising from both is enough to warm your face and hands. It’s all much too hot to eat straight away and when you do it’s oily-slippy and spiked with garlic but it’s just what you need on a night like this.
