A.

B.

Kitchen Pucci

(02) 2563-2787
1, NanJing W Rd
Hours: 11 am-9:30 pm
MRT: ZhongShan Station, Exit 1
Credit cards accepted.
10% service charge.

Kitchen Pucci mainly offers Shanghai-style snack-size and noodle dishes, and is also the newest restaurant from the owners of New-Puen Chinese Restaurant. As you make your way inside, you'll clearly see chefs at work in the half-open kitchen. The interior is designed a lot like a department store food court, with no confined seating allowing diners to order at any time. Eating a meal valued at NT$100 or more here and you can add an extra NT$50 to also enjoy a cake and coffee or black tea (available 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., 6-9:30 p.m.), ideal for those wanting to linger a bit longer, or those seeking some afternoon tea snacks. --By Josie Wu, translated by Ann Lee

A. The youthful-looking Chef Chao Chang-rong has over 40 years of experience in the kitchen. Many diners enjoy his creative dish, Luffa & Shrimp Buns (NT$60/3 pieces).

B. Chef Chao's personally-recommended dishes include "three types of buns". First are tiny steamed buns with crab meat and crab roe stuffing in a 3-to-1 ratio (NT$95/3 pieces). Second are traditional Shanghai-style soup buns, served with a bowl of soup (NT$180/12 pcs., limited stock). Last are steamed buns served on pine tree branches in the bamboo steamer (NT$50/3 pcs.). Kitchen Pucci insists that its steamed buns be made with very thin dough, but lots of stuffing and soup on the inside. The meat stuffing isn't the gelatinous pork skin used in many buns, but rather braised with real chicken feet from old hens, making it less greasy.

C. For breakfast, Shanghainese enjoy baskets of tiny soup buns with a bowl of clear soup, made with bean sprouts, winter vegetables and chicken bones. Eating the soup buns in one hand and tasting the soup in the other is the traditional way of savoring this traditional delicacy.!