From the low-brow to the high brow. I swapped the plastic bibs for starched napkins and the braised crayfish for beautifully steamed shrimp tonight, at Family Li Imperial Cuisine on the Bund.
The occasion? Li being the first Chinese restaurant (in China - in fact may be Chinese restaurant anywhere) to be accepted into Relais & Chateau (R&C).
Perhaps this is not such exciting news in the UK, where R&C has a staid and old-fashioned reputation (although this is, it must be said, hardly something they are ashamed of, I would imagine, judging by the properties they choose to be members - uh oh, you know what I mean, the properties, not necessarily the cooking - take members like the Fat Duck and the Vineyard, not old fashioned at all... er, let's get back to the evening). But here it is another little detail signifying everyone's obsession with being here.
Michelin of course have only just managed two cities across the Atlantic, but they are dabbling with Tokyo and one wonders how long it will take them to open up shop here too. Or whether anyone here would give a monkey's nut sack. Of course not, they'd prefer to cook it instead.
Back to the point. Imperial cuisine was a good contrast to the mess and noise of last night's meal. This is the food that in many ways sums up what restaurant dining means to many Chinese people: impressing those you are with.
There are a number of set meals, ranging from RMB400-800 for lunch per person, up to around RMB2,000 per person for dinner. This is about £130, or without wine, roughly equaling a rip-off.
Ok, so there are lots of courses, but it does not have any of the magic associated with a really special meal.
But then expensive food here is not necessarily the most exquisitely tasting. On the menu tonight, for example, was the obligatory shark's fin soup. I have mentioned this before, but the shark fin thing is awful. It's not just the terribly cruel way that each fin is hacked off and the alive creature thrown back into the sea to bleed or be eaten by other sharks to death.
It's the fact that the resulting dish doesn't taste of anything besides chicken broth anyway. There is no point to all that savagery. People with disapprove of me saying this, but at least with foie gras you get something that makes you want to cry with the pleasure of it.
Anyway, shark fin consumption is on the rise as the country gets richer, but there have already been some calls for action, which is encouraging, not least when it comes from the state press.
(This leader is quite funny, in as much as it can use a communist-style attack on the rich to launch its own attack on shark fin soup).
Also disappointing was the abalone. I've had these prized snails at the seafood market drenched in garlic and served in the shell and it was much better. Here, just braised and served in a dribble of the soup it was bland, and the girl from Relais & Chateau looked a bit uncertain as she nibbled at it.
Lobster (imported from Australia) and grouper (soft and strangely earthy tasting) weren't much better. Apart from a round of starters, if I was paying for this I'd feel gutted.