Home
» City specials
» Hangzhou
Diners come running for snack of chicken feet
By Xu Wenwen |
August 9, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
NIGHT falls and neon lights flicker into life. Beneath them in the thickening darkness vendors
set up barbecue grills, laying on skewered kebabs; some sit on stools opening oysters; others
get a fire going and begin to transform a cauldron of raw rice into thick, tasty porridge.
Night snacks are a big attraction on Hedong Road, a 1.4-kilometer street that contains over 30
restaurants, plus bakeries and grocery stores.
Last week, Shanghai Daily's Hangzhou Special told how the previously anonymous Hedong Road
became a foodies' paradise. Today, we introduce some snack booths on the road, most of which are open from late afternoon until midnight.
Ding's Beef with Salt Restaurant
The restaurant, opened in 2003, is one of the earliest night snack eateries, and the fact that the owner opened another outlet a stone's throw away from the first shows how popular the brand is.
With nightfall, customers can be seen queuing patiently, as tables in the restaurant and sidewalk are already occupied.
One old customer orders a bowl of beef soup with rice noodles, plus beef with salt and beef tendon with salt - favorites at the restaurant. Like others around him, he stabs a piece of beef with a toothpick, rolls it in salt, gobbles up, and then takes a sip of the steaming soup.
The specialty of the restaurant is, of course, beef with salt - boiled and sliced beef served with a pinch of salt. The best meat is cooked with little seasoning; the flavor comes from the meat itself, plus a little salt mixed with pepper and spices.
The eatery also excels at other beef-related dishes, such as beef soup with rice noodles, beef tendon, ox tongue, ox stomach and ox heart, all boiled and sliced. These boiled and sliced dishes are more usually offered on napkins than a plate, making it easier for customers to take home leftovers.
At the moment, the restaurant also offers crayfish, a seasonal favorite.
Address: 202 Hedong Rd
Excellent Oyster Restaurant
This restaurant's staples are oysters and scallops, which though selling for 10 yuan (US$1.57) a piece - a little more expensive than average night snack booths - still entice numerous customers to the small eatery.
To meet demand, staff members sit in front of the restaurant from late afternoon to midnight every day, opening oysters.
As with fresh seafood anywhere, the key is to ensure that it is indeed fresh.
In this score, the Excellent Oyster Restaurant does very well. All oysters and scallops seem extremely fresh, exuding their own sweetness, smoothness and tenderness.
The standard menu extends only as far as barbecued oysters and scallops, but with different seasonings - including garlic, curry, chili and black pepper - and all served with rice noodles. Scallops are cut into four to make them more manageable for chopsticks.
Address: 233-1 Hedong Rd
Xinlong Chicken Feet King
The thought of eating chicken feet is a strange, not altogether pleasant, concept to many foreigners, even though they may take some slight comfort in the fact that Chinese don't simply throw the feet into boiling water.
Preparation involves a lengthy process, which includes peeling off the crust of the feet.
In China, chicken feet can be served as a beer snack, a cold dish or a soup. They are very gelatinous due to most of the meat on the feet consisting of skin and tendons, so have a distinct texture, quite unlike other chicken meat.
Methods of cooking chicken feet vary, and the longer they are stewed, the more tender they become.
For the uninitiated tempted to try this bony snack, we recommend Xinlong Chicken Feet, an eatery renowned among aficionados as "Hangzhou's King of Chicken Feet," and which sells more than 3,000 chicken feet in various flavors each day.
The newly opened Hedong Road branch offers the likes of marinated chicken feet, spicy chicken feet, chicken feet marinated in mature vinegar and spicy steamed chicken feet.
The best sellers are marinated chicken feet. These are boiled in soy sauce for a lengthy period, resulting in dark brown meat with a classic Hangzhou flavor.
However, the restaurant does not always make chicken feet in this way. Often the feet are first boiled, then kept in a pot for about four hours. This ensures seasonings fully permeate the skin and meat, while the skin and tendons remain decidedly al dente.
Address: 167 Hedong Rd
set up barbecue grills, laying on skewered kebabs; some sit on stools opening oysters; others
get a fire going and begin to transform a cauldron of raw rice into thick, tasty porridge.
Night snacks are a big attraction on Hedong Road, a 1.4-kilometer street that contains over 30
restaurants, plus bakeries and grocery stores.
Last week, Shanghai Daily's Hangzhou Special told how the previously anonymous Hedong Road
became a foodies' paradise. Today, we introduce some snack booths on the road, most of which are open from late afternoon until midnight.
Ding's Beef with Salt Restaurant
The restaurant, opened in 2003, is one of the earliest night snack eateries, and the fact that the owner opened another outlet a stone's throw away from the first shows how popular the brand is.
With nightfall, customers can be seen queuing patiently, as tables in the restaurant and sidewalk are already occupied.
One old customer orders a bowl of beef soup with rice noodles, plus beef with salt and beef tendon with salt - favorites at the restaurant. Like others around him, he stabs a piece of beef with a toothpick, rolls it in salt, gobbles up, and then takes a sip of the steaming soup.
The specialty of the restaurant is, of course, beef with salt - boiled and sliced beef served with a pinch of salt. The best meat is cooked with little seasoning; the flavor comes from the meat itself, plus a little salt mixed with pepper and spices.
The eatery also excels at other beef-related dishes, such as beef soup with rice noodles, beef tendon, ox tongue, ox stomach and ox heart, all boiled and sliced. These boiled and sliced dishes are more usually offered on napkins than a plate, making it easier for customers to take home leftovers.
At the moment, the restaurant also offers crayfish, a seasonal favorite.
Address: 202 Hedong Rd
Excellent Oyster Restaurant
This restaurant's staples are oysters and scallops, which though selling for 10 yuan (US$1.57) a piece - a little more expensive than average night snack booths - still entice numerous customers to the small eatery.
To meet demand, staff members sit in front of the restaurant from late afternoon to midnight every day, opening oysters.
As with fresh seafood anywhere, the key is to ensure that it is indeed fresh.
In this score, the Excellent Oyster Restaurant does very well. All oysters and scallops seem extremely fresh, exuding their own sweetness, smoothness and tenderness.
The standard menu extends only as far as barbecued oysters and scallops, but with different seasonings - including garlic, curry, chili and black pepper - and all served with rice noodles. Scallops are cut into four to make them more manageable for chopsticks.
Address: 233-1 Hedong Rd
Xinlong Chicken Feet King
The thought of eating chicken feet is a strange, not altogether pleasant, concept to many foreigners, even though they may take some slight comfort in the fact that Chinese don't simply throw the feet into boiling water.
Preparation involves a lengthy process, which includes peeling off the crust of the feet.
In China, chicken feet can be served as a beer snack, a cold dish or a soup. They are very gelatinous due to most of the meat on the feet consisting of skin and tendons, so have a distinct texture, quite unlike other chicken meat.
Methods of cooking chicken feet vary, and the longer they are stewed, the more tender they become.
For the uninitiated tempted to try this bony snack, we recommend Xinlong Chicken Feet, an eatery renowned among aficionados as "Hangzhou's King of Chicken Feet," and which sells more than 3,000 chicken feet in various flavors each day.
The newly opened Hedong Road branch offers the likes of marinated chicken feet, spicy chicken feet, chicken feet marinated in mature vinegar and spicy steamed chicken feet.
The best sellers are marinated chicken feet. These are boiled in soy sauce for a lengthy period, resulting in dark brown meat with a classic Hangzhou flavor.
However, the restaurant does not always make chicken feet in this way. Often the feet are first boiled, then kept in a pot for about four hours. This ensures seasonings fully permeate the skin and meat, while the skin and tendons remain decidedly al dente.
Address: 167 Hedong Rd
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
