There's a dish on the menu at the eponymous Chouchou that tells you almost everything you need to know about what its chef, Chouchou Jia, is trying to do: Xiao cong ban dou fu, a cold tofu preparation that's been a staple of Shanghai home cooking for generations.
But at this new Little Italy bistro, it arrives looking nothing like what you'd expect: a composed, elegantly plated tartare, its identity concealed beneath a delicate layer of tofu skin and sucrine. When Chinese friends came in to try it during the restaurant's first week, Jia recalls, they didn't recognize it by sight. Then they tasted it.
"They knew," Jia recalls, "this is this dish."
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