It’s the gorging season. To guide you, Christopher St. Cavish presents 50 things in Shanghai you absolutely have to eat.

50. Peking Duck at Xindalu

Xindalu imported the whole duck kit: warehouse of apricot wood, stone oven, ducks, and duck chef, and they know how to use it. The skin on their ducks puts potato chips to shame; dip it in the provided sugar for full effect.

49. Suan La Tang Hotpot at Xiao Fei Yang

Everyone gets addicted to hotpot, but most people make do with the low grade. Once you take a dip into this Mongolian broth, however, there can be no other. It’s got depth like a good stock, it’s got cumin-fueled spice, and unlike those other hustlers, has crowds queuing up for an hour to take their turn.

48. Grilled Beef Tongue at Chang Lai Chang Wang

It’s not just that you can linger at this fatigued Dongbei BBQ for any one of the 24 hours, it’s that you can do it while cooking fatty beef tongue, wrapping it in lettuce leaves with a spoonful of sweet, fermented bean sauce and drinking two beers, and it’ll cost you less than ¥40. Only catch (for left bank residents): it’s in Pudong.

47. Paneer Dosa at Punjabi

South Indian food is a rare treat in Shanghai. Skip Punjabi’s scary buffet and head for the back of the menu, where the city’s best dosa lives. It’s as crisp as should be, filled with cumin and mustard seed-spiced paneer, and only ¥30.

46. Fried Goats’ Cheese at Southern Barbarian

Salty, rubbery cheese pan-fried until it’s golden. This Yunnan dish is a plate-per-person kind of thing; order accordingly.

45. Live Octopus at He Lin

Eating a live octopus is all shock, no flavor, and a healthy amount of chew-fight. If that’s your idea of fun, He Lin is one of a very limited amount of restaurants willing to forego the cooking of your meal. November to February is cephalopod eating season, so call in advance to reserve.

44. Taiwanese Noodles at Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle

This Taiwanese noodle chain landed in the Mainland for the first time this year, and brought its range of thin, abbreviated noodles with it. The salty ones made with pork intestine and coriander are among their best.

43. Beef Carpaccio at Trattoria Isabelle

Trattoria Isabelle should have “DATE PLACE” written on its business card. It’s as charming as they come, and their beef carpaccio is as tasty as places charging three times the price. It’s simple, with a scattering of capers and the sharp bite of arugula, and unlike the pale versions that abound, tastes like beef instead of water.

42. The Spinach Lamb Curry at Bukhara

Aromatic, rich, and filling.

41. Bebemamie Yogurt

Sick of the thick, sweetened vanilla milk that passes for yogurt? Call Bebemamie and have them deliver their creamy, tart version to your house. (Tip, cut with milk, it makes a killer substitute for buttermilk in your weekend pancakes.)

40. Peanut Snowflake from Kampung Kitchen

Imagine light feathers of frozen peanut ice. Imagine a sweet peanut falling through a frozen arctic sky, only to be shaved paper thin by the blades of a passing helicopter, and slowly falling to earth, somewhere in Gubei. (Yes, it has this effect on people.)

39. Cumin Rabbit at Yue Lai Jiu Jia

Fragrant cumin meets tender rabbit, gets wrapped in foil and lit on fire at the table. Deliciousness ensues.

38. Chicken Paella at Indalo

Indalo’s shallow paella pan holds a vast expanse of tender rice cradling big chunks of chicken, broad white beans, snow peas, and a healthy dose of rosemary. It’s the perfect one-pan food, and Indalo’s most recent chef is, like paella, from Valencia. He makes an outstanding version.

37. Shao Jiao Pidan at Guyi

The creamy preserved egg yolks and tea colored whites make a mean foil for the spicy roasted peppers crowned with fried fermented black beans.

36. La Mian at Crystal Jade

Both varieties, one fiery and sitting in a peanut-flavored broth and the other mild, flavored with fried leek oil, put your local puller to shame.

35. Braised Pork Shank from Dongbei Ren

The plastic straw sticking out of this salty, braised pork shank, and the plastic gloves they give you to hold it, both look a little comical. But there’s nothing funny about the delicious marrow inside, pitch-perfect for the coming season and its hibernation fantasies.

34. Hongshou Rou at A Shan

Yeah, yeah, no one does it better than your mom. Whatever. A Shan does, with its huge, half-fat chunks of pork belly heaven. They’re bigger and moister than anything downtown. Maybe it’s all that room to grow they have out in Hongqiao.

33. Chocolate Brownie at Whisk

They serve more than just chocolate brownies, but we rarely get past this. This much chocolate makes it hard to concentrate on anything else.

32. Spicy Duck Head at Youjia Chuan Cai

For all the ducks served in Shanghai, you’d think it’d be easier to find a Sichuan restaurant serving this regional dish. It’s a spicy blast of a split head served over a cooling base of carrots, potatoes, and stem lettuce.

31. Mi Doufu at Qian Xiang Ge

This Guizhou specialty of rice “tofu” looks like a brick of firm, off-white noodle, but has a texture and taste all of its own that stands up to its covering of chili, garlic, coriander, and fried soy beans.

30. The Baguette at PAUL

2007 will mark the year a proper baguette came to Shanghai. Paul’s is as chewy and crusty as you could want, with an edge of sourness. Plus it’s only ¥9. The only problem? You’ve got to get there early; everyone else wants one too.

29. Hot Chocolate at Charmant

Charmant does a lot of things right, but one of the best is this hot mug of a melted chocolate bar, with a side plate of marshmallows. It’s the equivalent of three hot chocolates anywhere else, efficiently condensed into a single cup.

28. Grilled Chicken Wings on Wujiang Lu

Yes, you want them spicy.

27. Chicken Tatsta from Pure

A deboned thigh of chicken, pressed into a cylinder, marinated, and then cooked to crunchy golden perfection. It’s faintly sweet and should be an idol for the rest of Shanghai’s heretic fried chicken.

26. Roast Goose at Hengshan Café

It’s succulent, it’s rich, and it has had its fat turned into a brittle-on-the-outside but melting underneath coat of goodness.

25. Terrine de Campagne at Franck

A slow-cooked terrine of pork, duck, bay leaf, and spices, plus cornichons, red wine and onion jam, and slices of crunchy baguette.

24. Grilled Chicken Skewers at Yakitori Fukuchan

Forget chicken nuggets at Maccy D’s. This is real fast food. A light teriyaki glaze, a perfectionist’s turn over the coals, and the most tender grilled chicken morsels that your mouth will ever entertain.

23. Mala Tang at Chuan Chuan Xiang

The reason the lines for this mala tang are out the door is simple. It’s in the broth.

22. Chocolate Ice Cream at Awfully Chocolate

Dark lusciousness.

21. Laksa at Parkson’s New Crossroads

A hearty bowl of coconut milk, spongy fish slices, fried tofu, noodles, bean sprouts, chili heat, and pungent Malay shrimp paste keep this Singaporean restaurant full of those in the know.

20. Thai-style Sausage at Thai House

Thai House serves two types of this sour sausage, traditionally mixed with rice and copious amounts of garlic and left for a few days to ferment. The Chiang Mai style is sliced, and a touch dry; instead, order the Isaan version, pungent little balls of pork goodness. Their sour edge and gamy flavor can be an acquired taste, but once you acquire it, Thai House is the only place in town capable of satisfying it.

19. Steamed Flower Crabs with Melted Butter at Tongchuan Lu

The ultimate in seafood market triumphs: Crab Night. Buy these sweet crabs from the wholesale vendors and take them to a restaurant on nearby Lanxi Lu. Bring your own butter.

18. Truffle Burnt Soup Bread at Jade on 36

Paul Pairet elevates a simple sauce meuniere-dipped piece of bread to its highest potential: a toasted rectangle of bread so thoroughly soaked in his fantastic sauce meuniere, it essentially becomes a portable soup.

17. Shanghai-style Duck at Lynn

Beijing can keep their hometown duck if we can guarantee an uninterrupted supply of ours that lives up to Lynn’s – salty, sweety, crispy, moist, and boneless. Peking what?

16. Thirteen Seasoning Crayfish at Fomo

One seasoning for every second it takes to eat a jin of these little buggers.

15. Opka Hesip from Afanti Gourmet City

A Xinjiang specialty hard to find (in Mandarin it’s mi feizi and mi changzi), and even harder to stop eating, despite its “extra part” origins: lamb lungs filled with flour and spice, steamed to the consistency of firm polenta, with slices of homemade lamb and rice sausage on top. Don’t forget to grab a small bottle of the pomegranite juice they press themselves from the attached Uighur grocery store.

14. Smoked Ham and Goat Cheese “Salagalette” at La Crêperie

Is it heresy to go to La Crêperie and order a dish that doesn’t focus on, but merely involves, the crêpe? I don’t know, but this is the best thing on an already good menu: tangy goats’ cheese, sweet apple jam, smoked ham, a fresh salad, sitting on top of, and tempered by, the bitter edge of a warm buckwheat crêpe.

13. Mango Pudding with Mango Ice Balls at Hui Lau Shan

Hui Lau Shan is famous for their mango desserts, and this is their showpiece: frozen balls of mango ice, creamy mango pudding, and a thick, fragrant mango puree.

12. Smoked Pork Ribs at Bubba’s Texas Style Bar-B-Que and Saloon

Ken Walker’s smokes everything at his suburban BBQ pit stop. But nothing comes out better than his spicy, pink-tinged pork ribs, and it’s the reason he won my unofficial rib tour over the summer. Bubba’s proprietary house sauce helped also; during the judging, the big guy at the end of my table was squirting it directly into his mouth.

11. Cream Puff at Beard Papa

A glorious marriage of velvety vanilla pastry cream and a fist-sized choux puff.

10. Ji Gu Jiang at Lan Ting

A Shanghainese sweetened soy success story. This is a plate of sticky, tar-black chicken at hole-in-the-wall Lan Ting. Don’t write off our hometown cooking until you’ve eaten this here.

09. Shengjian Bao at Yang’s Fry Dumpling

Last year’s winner ranking may have dropped (if only to allow for a little competition), but the lines to get these crust-bottomed dumplings definitely haven’t. Along with the chicken wing, these are Wujiang Lu royalty.

08. Poached Egg from Hamilton House

A thick slab of buttered toast with sauteed spinach, shallots, and bacon lardons only gets better with one thing: a runny poached egg.

07. Pizza at Velvet Lounge

When we reviewed Velvet Lounge, this crispy pie is what gave them five stars. Serving it until 3am certainly helped.

06. Suandou Jiao Chao Larou at Hunan Xiangcun Fengwei

Last year, we highlighted Guyi’s version of this Hunan classic of pickled beans, smoky bacon, garlic, peppers, and a shake from the hot-as-hell bottle. Sorry guys, no one – listen, NO ONE – does it better than this nondescript neighborhood restaurant.

05. Frozen Pear, Hazelnut Toffee, Yogurt at Jean Georges

This is a newcomer to the Jean Georges dessert menu, and will only be around for the next couple of months, so act quick. It’s a frozen cylinder of pear puree, filled with hazelnut toffee, and served with a whipped cream/yogurt and candied hazelnuts. You break the cylinder, the toffee pours out, and the combination of the two together – cold, refreshing pear and nutty toffee – is like a candy apple (or pear) for adults.

04. Pork Xiaolongbao at Jia Jia Tang Bao

These little packages of pork essence are so entrenched in the city’s consciousness, we’re awarding them two top ten places this year. Jia Jia Tang Bao, the more down-market of the two restaurants we’ve picked, has perfected the thin skin and rich soup formula, at a fraction of the cost of many others. If it’s crab you want, go somewhere else; JJTB’s always seem a little too strong.

03. USDA Prime Steaks at Roosevelt Steakhouse

It doesn’t matter if it’s the 504g bone-in ribeye, or the 681g porterhouse. They’re both USDA Prime beef, heavily marbled and full of flavor, with the tang that comes from proper aging, and a deep-brown sear. Hands down the best steak in Shanghai.

02. Toro Tasting Menu at Tian Jia

Tuna tribute. Fatty slices of o-toro and chu-toro have quickly made Tian Jia a Shanghai legend.

01. Pork and Crab Xiaolongbao at Ding Tai Fung

Ding Tai Fung has the crab and pork filling as flawless as their tissue paper-thin wrappers, along with a bright, clean dining room and supremely well-trained staff. Their non-Shanghai origin is wholly irrelevant when the food is this good.