Which Shanghai dishes hide lard or dried shrimp if I'm vegetarian, avoid pork or have a shellfish allergy?

Lard and dried shrimp are common in Shanghai home cooking, even when the menu does not mention them. Lard (zhu you, 猪油) goes into scallion oil, sweet fillings, pastry and soups. Dried shrimp (kai yang, 开洋; smaller ones are xia pi, 虾皮) seasons noodle dressings, breakfast soy milk, wonton broth and cold vegetables. The city's 2026 food guide describes savoury soy milk with chopped youtiao, seaweed, dried shrimp, scallions and soy sauce, and scallion-oil noodles often topped with dried shrimp. Neither dish is vegetarian just because it looks that way.

In this atlas, watch for scallion-oil noodles (oil often part lard, dried shrimp on top), savoury soy milk (dried shrimp), wonton soup (pork-bone broth, sometimes dried shrimp) and four-happiness gluten (may be braised in lard). Classic eight-treasure rice and black-sesame tangyuan have lard in the filling and are not vegetarian; scallion pancakes have lard in the layers. Radish fritters are usually plain, but shrimp versions exist, and the oil is shared with youtiao and stinky tofu. Red-bean qingtuan is vegetarian; salted-egg-yolk-and-pork-floss is not. Knife-fish and yellow-croaker noodles have fish on top and pork bones in the stock.

Ask 'You mei you zhu you?' (有没有猪油？, any lard?) and 'You mei you kai yang / xia pi?' (有没有开洋 / 虾皮？, any dried shrimp?). For soup, add 'Tang shi zhu gu ma?' (汤是猪骨吗？, is the stock pork bone?). Staff will answer when asked, but may not volunteer the information.

For a shellfish allergy, dried shrimp is a crustacean. You will find it in breakfast soy milk and on ¥8 noodles as well as in crab restaurants. Ask about seafood every time; a menu category cannot tell you enough. Where a recipe is uncertain, this atlas says 'varies by shop' and gives no green label. It never marks a dish 'safe' for an allergy.