This summer, a simple meal of rice topped with shelled crawfish was all the rage. It originated in Nanjing but was quickly picked up in Shanghai, where some restaurants started to offer the dish at prices as low as 36 yuan (US$5.7).
The cheap price should have been a warning signal about the quality of the food.
On August 16, the Zheng Wenqi Crawfish Rice Restaurant in Yangpu District was closed four days after it opened and seven customers came down with food poisoning. It turned out the restaurant was selling the crawfish meals at a price below the labor cost of shelling the crustaceans. Zheng Wenqi’s other chain outlets suffered a dramatic drop in business.
FoodWorld 