Best Food In China

Location

Way out into the suburban sprawl that is Shanghai, in the Hongqiao district, is Bubba's Texas-style Bar-B-Que and Saloon. It’s a little bastion of America here in faraway China.

I have only visited Bubba's once before at the beginning of autumn when they had their excellent annual chilli cook off. A memorable afternoon for the chilli of course but also as a friend of mine ruined his brand new trainers by spilling flamin’ hot chilli on them, but I digress.

If there is one food America is pretty famous for, and granted this is a fairly broad category, it is meat! This is basically what is on the menu at Bubba’s, which makes it maybe not the best place for a vegetarian to visit. What’s more, most of the meat they serve is freshly smoked in the restaurant’s own industrial sized smoker in the kitchen.

Having just said that, another American favourite is Mexican food so to start we were served with eye wateringly spicy Beef enchiladas (75rmb) with a couple of tasty little corn muffins. It was excellent but if you’re not a fan of spicy food then I would stay well clear.

For our next course we had Chicken Drummies (45rmb), which was my favourite dish. Served with a blue cheese dip, the eight nicely smoked drumsticks were juicy and succulent. We then tried the smoked house sandwich sampler platter (50rmb) with pulled beef and chopped pork. These were served with their own sauce and like all the other sauces and dips they are made in house. These four mini buns were bursting with flavour and were even better when mixed with their sauces.

For our last meat course we had the juicy beef short ribs USDA (180rmb) and the slightly too dry half rack all natural Montana pork ribs (100rmb). Although both were good, I have to say they were not amazing. If you want really good smoked meat I would stick to the smoked chicken drumsticks.

Finally we had the home made apple pie (30rmb) with nice soft apple chunks and a cinnamon flavour that wasn’t too over powering.

This restaurant is full of Americans, but don’t let that put you off. The Filipino staff are friendly and attentive. Whether you’re an American and missing the Mid-West, or from any other part of the world, Bubba’s is a good place to head for some good quality smoked cooked meat and some gridiron.

Be sure to look out for the annual chilli cook off. It’s a bit crowded but a great way to spend the afternoon with some chilli that is sure to put some hairs on your chest!

- by David Evans

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