Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's first-ever TV series, Blossoms Shanghai, attracted crowds to Huanghe Road and the Fairmont Peace Hotel in search of food and nostalgia.
Adapted from the local writer Jin Yucheng's award-winning novel, Fan Hua (Blossoms), the TV series takes audiences back to the 1990s Shanghai, when the city was experiencing unprecedented economic growth and prosperity.
Formerly known as a gastronomical paradise, Shanghai's Huanghe Road used to be home to over 100 restaurants, many of which served high-end fare that only the rich and famous could afford. Still, everything started to change in the late-1990s when a spate of changes sapped the luster out of this bustling street.
Visitor numbers to the Fairmont Peace Hotel on the Bund, another landmark in the TV series, have also risen. The hotel recently unveiled a new set menu comprising several dishes featured in the TV series, including crispy pork chop with rice cake and fried rice noodles with beef. Restaurant staff revealed that the set meals were quickly snapped up, and reservations have been booked for about a week later.
Online food delivery services have also reported soaring takeaway orders for meals featured in the TV drama. For example, online orders of crispy pork chop with rice cake have surpassed 3,000 orders in a restaurant, much more than any other dish.
(Reported by Xu Yin and Kang Yuzhan; Edited by Jiang Lu)
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