Wong Kar-wai TV drama serves up nostalgia for hearty Shanghai food

SHANGHAI -- It's well past lunchtime on a weekday, but the Xiandelai restaurant in a rundown area a few blocks from Shanghai's historic riverfront is still full. Its staff rush to serve up plates of sticky rice cakes topped with pork rib and other hearty fare that until very recently had long been out of fashion.

The reason for the boom in business: a wave of nostalgia for traditional Shanghai food, or benbangcai, and the district itself after they featured in the "Blossoms Shanghai" TV drama by acclaimed Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai. The 30-episode series, which is set amid China's breakneck economic growth of the 1990s, has been a huge hit since its release on national broadcaster CCTV in December.