We lunched today at Depot 369. This 50-year-old restaurant is a specialist in Shanghai style food.
We ordered our favorite dish, babat item. It’s made of beef tripe, cooked, and mixed with sesame oil and coriander leaves. It was top notch, as usual. Although it looks like alien tentacles, the taste is nothing cosmic (well, the texture might be strange for some people). The sesame oil penetrates the tripe well and it was very fragrant.
I also had sup shanghai, which is pork soup (I think ribs?), steamed inside a ceramic mug. When I was a child, my mom often brought me here to eat this soup when I had a cold. It has a soothing effect and is very warm to your body. I don’t know how they make it but boy, that soup is really good. It is actually quite plain; but the broth is so fresh and pure tasting that you won’t need any other seasoning.
My mother had song mie. It was good but nothing spectacular. I like Mie KJ better. The other side dishes that we had were fried mantau (bakpau goreng) aka fried mantou bun. Need I say less that anything fried is almost always good? It was juicy and crispy, very nice.
We also ordered bakpau lipat, a sort of folded bun, served with braised pork belly (khou ruk), as well as xiao long bao. I always like fatty pork, so no question that I love this khou ruk bun. I can taste the soy sauce and star anise in this dish. For the xiao long bao, yeah it was a proper xiao long bao. When you bite it, there needs to be broth inside. You need to slurp it before you eat the entire dumpling with ginger vinegar sauce.
We also ate our tahu pong that we got from the store LOL sshhhh…🤫
On the way back home, we passed by what seemed to be a local festival. The locals were hanging sort of lanterns in various forms. They were waving at us happily👋🏽.
Depot 369 Shanghai Dumplings
Jl. Manyar Kertoarjo V/16
Surabaya
Opening hours: 10.00-22.00 everyday