Surprise honor

Lao Zheng Xing restaurant in Shanghai is known for its signature dishes like 18-second shrimp and red-braised pig intestine. It's the only State-owned eatery in the city to be honored by the Michelin Guide. The restaurant has been packed to capacity since the award. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

The combination was an unexpected and instant hit with newly prosperous Shanghainese, who were eager to enjoy dishes they considered more refined than local offerings. The restaurant's heyday during the 1930s inspired more than 120 copycats in the city, according to online archives of the library of Huangpu district, where Lao Zheng Xing is located. In fact, the one that survived the competition, war and post-war depression and ran till 1950s, when it was taken over by the municipal government as a State-owned company, is one of the copycats.

More recently it has become a nostalgic place frequented mostly by senior citizens and occasionally tourists. The restaurant, like its fellow awardees, has been packed to the full with 400 seats. But if the restaurant's managers missed the news of the Michelin-star award, internet-savvy young diners didn't－they poured in after the award was announced, boosting the business by 25 percent during the first two days. The 400-seat restaurant was packed to capacity, a phenomenon shared by the other Michelin honorees.

"Troubles," Hu grumbles of the award. "We have yet to have a break since the mid-autumn festival," says the 41-year-old Shanghai native.

Hu says the shrimps and the pig-intestine dish today are "modernized" compared with a century ago," but he insists that doesn't mean his team is "innovative".

"Creativity is not something we look for," says Hu. The changes reflect the health-conscious demands of today's diners, he says. Sugar and oil are reduced by 15 percent in his kitchen－the best Hu says he can do without compromising the traditional flavors.