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Foodies trek to former mountain path
By Xu Wenwen and Wu Huixin |
December 17, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
FOR years Qingzhiwu was merely a rough country road hidden in a mountain, and people only went there as a shortcut to Hangzhou Botanic Garden and a place of cheap restaurants. However, a facelift taken last year by local government has thoroughly altered its fate.
Greens, waters, small distinct houses standing in lines are now the elements of Qingzhiwu due to the renovation, and when night falls while nicely designed illuminations highlighting stylish facades of restaurants, cafes and bars along the street, the place even lure more crowds than it does in daytime.
Just one year after the renovation, the fame of some restaurants boomed on internet, and Qingzhiwu is already a new zone for foodies, where new restaurant opens one after one, luxury cars come in and out, people dressed to the nines line at the restaurants' gate waiting for a seat.
Shanghai Daily visits three popular to check why they got well known in a short time.
PUR
The restaurant is composed of two villas with a fa?ade of countryside style. The name sounds like "hackberry" in Chinese though the characters are different.
The owner Tang Limin says she named so because there is a hackberry growing between the two villas. Stepping into the restaurant, eaters may find that all the tables, chairs and décor are about wood. In the wait area, which is sustained by wooden pillars, there is a trunk without any artificial polish put there as a bench.
Tang says all these tables and chairs were designed by her husband, the head chef of PUR, and hand made by her father, so none of them would be found anywhere else. She wants to create an atmosphere of leisure and relaxation, which makes eaters feel like eating home.
She sets four zaotai (traditional Chinese brick kitchen range) in the lobby, where chefs cook food on the site and consumers could see the procedure of making cuisine. In consideration of safety, Tang uses induction cookers instead of fire. The signature dish here was Short Rib Stewed in Soy Sauce, Curry Shrimp, Self-made Tofu, and Chinese Rice Wine Stewed Crab.
Address: 61 Yugu Rd (at the intersection of Qingzhiqu Rd and Yugu Rd)
Tel: (0571) 8720-3383
Tea House
Hardly will people walk in the restaurant without any instruction. Qingzhiwu is a small road, while where Tea House nestles is even a smaller sideway jointing Qingzhiwu.
Tea House is not a tea house, but named so because in front of it there is a tea bushes farm, hence the road leading to the restaurant was a muddy way in a farm.
The owner has adopted the original décor to echo with the tea farm, and startlingly some decoration stuff is right from the mountain – the walls are plastered with mud from the farm, and the door handles are tree branches picked in the mountain.
Also the owner Lin Wei who used to be a designer, bought an old wooden house in a village, which was already demolished and could have been burnt as firewood.
Lin reuses and revives the house: the old large pillars are cut and become smaller pillars, the floors are reorganized as floors and stairs, the carved doors are the restaurant's tables, and the tiles are light camps.
But the "traditional-style" provides creative fusion food that combines Chinese, western, Thailand, Japanese. "The chef and I just want to make tasty food, and no matter what kind of food it is," says the owner Lin.
The fusion dishes are of imagination. Lamb transported from Ireland by air is roasted and served with sliced mantou (Chinese buns), pork fried and steamed with fermented beancurd goes with toasts, and egg is steamed with Shaoxing's rice wine.
Besides, fruit liquor is their specialty. On bar counter several jars with baijiu (Chinese grain-made liquor) marinated with fruits like longyan, waxberry and unknown plants are available, and also white semi-transparent rice wine with less than 20% alcohol and mild and sweet taste are favored by women.
In the cold season the restaurant prepares charcoal brazier for big tables and hot water bottle for customers.
Address: 1 Shihuzi Rd, a sideway opposite to Think Coffee on Qingzhiwu. Walk for 100 meters and you won't miss it.
Tel: (0571) 8701-8969
Re Yi Restaurant
It is also a fusion restaurant, while Tea House is more Chinese, Re Yi is more Western, as its slogan says: we make no boundaries in cuisine.
The owner Xiao Xiao is a housewife who makes nice dishes and therefore owns a lot of local fans on internet, and she opened the 30-table restaurant last year so people can finally try her food.
Xiao thinks out of the box, and mixes her ideas and ingredients from Italy, France and Greece in Europe with foods from Thailand and Vietnam. And she also invested a lot with the determination to run the restaurant well – she employs 15 cooks while the menus are iPads.
The fusion menu always amazes customers: it includes Cheese Baked with Chinese Rice Cake, Tomato Salad with Sesame Paste, Persimmon Ice Cream, Tempura Stinky Tofu and Uygur-style Pizza.
Xiao created those dishes for reason: the Cheese Baked with Chinese Rice Cake works well because of their similar softness and stickiness, and the sesame's fragrance stimulate appetite for tomato salad.
Also a rice water drink is a must order for each table because it owns mild clear taste as well as because it is contained in test tubes, a novel experiment for people to try one.
People can eat indoors, in the garden, or on the balcony. Xiao also teaches a cooking class at the restaurant.
Address: 161 Qingzhiwu
Tel: 189-6997-3778
Greens, waters, small distinct houses standing in lines are now the elements of Qingzhiwu due to the renovation, and when night falls while nicely designed illuminations highlighting stylish facades of restaurants, cafes and bars along the street, the place even lure more crowds than it does in daytime.
Just one year after the renovation, the fame of some restaurants boomed on internet, and Qingzhiwu is already a new zone for foodies, where new restaurant opens one after one, luxury cars come in and out, people dressed to the nines line at the restaurants' gate waiting for a seat.
Shanghai Daily visits three popular to check why they got well known in a short time.
PUR
The restaurant is composed of two villas with a fa?ade of countryside style. The name sounds like "hackberry" in Chinese though the characters are different.
The owner Tang Limin says she named so because there is a hackberry growing between the two villas. Stepping into the restaurant, eaters may find that all the tables, chairs and décor are about wood. In the wait area, which is sustained by wooden pillars, there is a trunk without any artificial polish put there as a bench.
Tang says all these tables and chairs were designed by her husband, the head chef of PUR, and hand made by her father, so none of them would be found anywhere else. She wants to create an atmosphere of leisure and relaxation, which makes eaters feel like eating home.
She sets four zaotai (traditional Chinese brick kitchen range) in the lobby, where chefs cook food on the site and consumers could see the procedure of making cuisine. In consideration of safety, Tang uses induction cookers instead of fire. The signature dish here was Short Rib Stewed in Soy Sauce, Curry Shrimp, Self-made Tofu, and Chinese Rice Wine Stewed Crab.
Address: 61 Yugu Rd (at the intersection of Qingzhiqu Rd and Yugu Rd)
Tel: (0571) 8720-3383
Tea House
Hardly will people walk in the restaurant without any instruction. Qingzhiwu is a small road, while where Tea House nestles is even a smaller sideway jointing Qingzhiwu.
Tea House is not a tea house, but named so because in front of it there is a tea bushes farm, hence the road leading to the restaurant was a muddy way in a farm.
The owner has adopted the original décor to echo with the tea farm, and startlingly some decoration stuff is right from the mountain – the walls are plastered with mud from the farm, and the door handles are tree branches picked in the mountain.
Also the owner Lin Wei who used to be a designer, bought an old wooden house in a village, which was already demolished and could have been burnt as firewood.
Lin reuses and revives the house: the old large pillars are cut and become smaller pillars, the floors are reorganized as floors and stairs, the carved doors are the restaurant's tables, and the tiles are light camps.
But the "traditional-style" provides creative fusion food that combines Chinese, western, Thailand, Japanese. "The chef and I just want to make tasty food, and no matter what kind of food it is," says the owner Lin.
The fusion dishes are of imagination. Lamb transported from Ireland by air is roasted and served with sliced mantou (Chinese buns), pork fried and steamed with fermented beancurd goes with toasts, and egg is steamed with Shaoxing's rice wine.
Besides, fruit liquor is their specialty. On bar counter several jars with baijiu (Chinese grain-made liquor) marinated with fruits like longyan, waxberry and unknown plants are available, and also white semi-transparent rice wine with less than 20% alcohol and mild and sweet taste are favored by women.
In the cold season the restaurant prepares charcoal brazier for big tables and hot water bottle for customers.
Address: 1 Shihuzi Rd, a sideway opposite to Think Coffee on Qingzhiwu. Walk for 100 meters and you won't miss it.
Tel: (0571) 8701-8969
Re Yi Restaurant
It is also a fusion restaurant, while Tea House is more Chinese, Re Yi is more Western, as its slogan says: we make no boundaries in cuisine.
The owner Xiao Xiao is a housewife who makes nice dishes and therefore owns a lot of local fans on internet, and she opened the 30-table restaurant last year so people can finally try her food.
Xiao thinks out of the box, and mixes her ideas and ingredients from Italy, France and Greece in Europe with foods from Thailand and Vietnam. And she also invested a lot with the determination to run the restaurant well – she employs 15 cooks while the menus are iPads.
The fusion menu always amazes customers: it includes Cheese Baked with Chinese Rice Cake, Tomato Salad with Sesame Paste, Persimmon Ice Cream, Tempura Stinky Tofu and Uygur-style Pizza.
Xiao created those dishes for reason: the Cheese Baked with Chinese Rice Cake works well because of their similar softness and stickiness, and the sesame's fragrance stimulate appetite for tomato salad.
Also a rice water drink is a must order for each table because it owns mild clear taste as well as because it is contained in test tubes, a novel experiment for people to try one.
People can eat indoors, in the garden, or on the balcony. Xiao also teaches a cooking class at the restaurant.
Address: 161 Qingzhiwu
Tel: 189-6997-3778
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