One thing about Nashville's constantly evolving restaurant scene is that good things sometimes disappear as quickly as they appear. Such was the case with Shanghai Cafe, which closed last year. Just about the time that we outside the Chinese community discovered the wonderfully authentic menu there, the restaurant shut down.
But here's the good news. Another Chinese restaurant, Ouyang House along Nolensville Road, is offering an authentic Chinese menu modeled after the one offered at the late, lamented Shanghai Cafe.
This separate lineup of authentic dishes, which the staff calls the Shanghai menu, is available every day to any diner who asks -- but you have to ask.
They're also offering a selection of the terrific little nibbles known as dim sum. It, too, can be ordered any day of the week. But for weekend brunch, the restaurant offers traditional dim sum cart service. A server pushes a cart full of steamer baskets holding delectable little dishes. Customers pick out whichever dishes strike their fancy.
On a recent Saturday, I and my loyal (and in this case, lucky) dining companion enjoyed the dim sum service. In addition, we sampled a couple of specials from the Shanghai menu.
These were every bit as good as I remembered from a year ago at Shanghai Cafe. Which adds up to one of the best Chinese meals I've ever had in Nashville. And while the dim sum service didn't quite hit the celestial heights of dim sum I've sampled in San Francisco, it was an absolute treat.
On an earlier visit to Ouyang House, I allowed myself to be steered to the buffet, which was serviceable and inexpensive -- $10.99 a person -- but not the exciting revelation I was looking for.
This time we asked about dim sum, and the gates of heaven opened. We were taken to a smaller dining room, dominated by tables filled with Chinese families. A dim sum cart quickly arrived, and soon our table was topped with an assortment of little dishes full of wonder. The friendly waitress then hastened to give us recommendations for what to order from the Shanghai menu.
Having suddenly loaded up with six or eight dim sum appetizers, we were hesitant to order more. But our waitress was persistent, suggesting a fish dish, a duck dish and something that she described as "melon soup" that is good for hot weather and which enhances a beautiful complexion in people who eat it.
Who could turn that down? But first, we addressed our dim sum. The first and most familiar was the pork bun. This was a steamed globe of soft pastry, stuffed with delicious spiced pork.
We tackled the rest of the dishes with glee: sweet, sticky rice steamed in a locust leaf; pan-fried dumplings with a sprightly chive filling; a little bowl of spare ribs in a broth with a touch of black bean sauce; a green bell pepper stuffed with shrimp filling and steamed; a bean curd skin roll, which is basically a wrinkly tofu wrapping around savory mushrooms and bamboo shoots.
So that was the huge first course. Then came our Shanghai dishes. The cold marinated duck was absolutely soothing and refreshing, the cool, meaty slices of duck balanced with savory spices and a wine marinade.
The smoked fish was also served cold, which was a little surprising when married with the amazing spice blend that to a Western palate tasted like autumn. I suspected cinnamon. It was transcendent.
On to that melon soup. It wasn't just garden-variety honeydew. It was bitter melon, something I'd heard of in the Asian culinary pantheon but never tried myself.
The big bowl of hot broth, seasoned with spare ribs, had two-inch lengths of pale green melon floating in it. The bowl looked like something you might sip to clear your sinuses when you've got a cold.
But this wasn't my mother's chicken soup. It was the most tongue-blastingly bitter thing I've ever tasted in my life. And also amazing. I couldn't bear to keep eating it, but I couldn't bear to stop.
My solution was to introduce the plastic soup spoon as far back on my tongue as I could, bypassing the set of taste buds that specialize in the sensation of bitterness. Kids, don't try this at home.
That soup is not for everyone. Which is why I feel grateful to the waitress for respecting me enough to suggest I try it. I won't be ordering it often, even if it does give me a clear complexion. It's too much sensory overload.
The rest of the dim sum and Shanghai menu I will absolutely try again. And again. For as long as we're lucky enough to have it in Nashville.
