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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Great-tasting cuisine featuring pyramids made of pork and delicate snowy ladies

By Xu Wenwen and Wu Huixin | August 16, 2012, Thursday | Print Edition

ACROSS China most cities have a few time-honored brands or popular restaurants dishing up local specialties. These places are often listed as "must-see" sites for tourists. However, there should be more options for those who have been to the city several times.

The options can be restaurants offering other varieties of cuisine or eateries serving up new twists on local cuisine. Hangzhou has several restaurants that are pushing the local cuisine to new culinary heights.

Hangzhou cuisine is light, crisp and elegant. It is characterized by elaborate preparation and various cooking techniques such as sauteing, stewing, as well as stir-frying and deep-frying that change with the season.

Modern chefs are building on the foundations of great Hangzhou food to make more refined dishes. Shanghai Daily recommends two restaurants that serve such innovative dishes.

Fortune House

Many know Grandma's Kitchen, a Hangzhou restaurant brand that now has outlets in Shanghai. It makes classic Hangzhou cuisine and long lines of hungry customers often form outside the restaurant during peak hours.

Fortune House is run by the same owners and is an upscale version of Grandma's Kitchen. It has been dubbed a "rich grandma's kitchen" by online fans due to its more luxurious facade and interior decor. Prices at Fortune House are also higher than at Grandma's Kitchen.

Fortune House serves Hangzhou cuisine with new twists.

For instance, Deep Fried Dough Sticks and Dried Shrimp in Soybean Milk - traditionally eaten for breakfast - has been altered to make it suitable for dinner. In this version, a bowl of dried shrimp and fried dough sticks are served in a bowl, which the waiter fills with soybean milk.

It is a classic combination as fried food is believed to contain carcinogens while soybean milk is said to erase carcinogens. The dish is made as a soup, with a salty umami flavor from the dried shrimps.

The restaurant also makes Pepper and Chili Chicken, a popular Sichuan dish adapted by Hangzhou chefs to suit locals. Fortune House uses less chili in this dish compared to most restaurants.

Other Hangzhou dishes include Tofu Stewed with Crab Meat, Scallion Fried with Pork Liver and Candied Pumpkin.

? Address: 218 Tiyuchang Rd

Tel: (0571) 8505-2306

? Address: 6/F, Tianyi Mansion, 829 Gudun Rd

Tel: (0571) 8523-1797

? Address: 2/F, Insigan Mansion, 226 Tianmu Rd

Tel: (0571) 8502-3885

? Address: 3/F, Hengxin Mansion,

588 Jiangnan Ave

Tel: (0571) 8681-8190Wei Zhuang Restaurant

This is a high-end branch of Zhiweiguan, one of the major culinary attractions in the city. It serves authentic local dishes and some southern China specialties including xiaolongbao (little steamed buns, D?áy°ü) and wonton soup.

The brand has evolved from a little humble snack bar founded 99 years ago and now has 45 outlets around Hangzhou. Zhiweiguan is very popular and it's quite common for long queues to form during meal times. One reason for Zhiweiguan's popularity is the food is reasonably priced.

However, an average meal in Wei Zhuang will cost between 150 yuan (US$23.55) and 200 yuan per person.

The restaurant is situated at the end of Yanggong Causeway just behind the famous scenic spot "Viewing Fish at Flower Harbor." It consists of six antique-style houses above West Lake. Each house is connected by a corridor.

Visitors can appreciate the water, sky and mountains surrounding the area through the French windows in every room.

The restaurant offers snacks along with Hangzhou specialties. The food here is well presented and placed in either nice dishes or bamboo steamers.

The restaurant is famous for its West Lake Vinegar Fish, Longjing Tea Shrimp, Beggar's Chicken, West Lake Water Shield Soup, Zhiweiguan Homemade Steamed Bun, Cat's Ear Noodles and Dingsheng Cake.

But the restaurant's chefs have also created some new dishes, including the extremely popular Golden Medal Steamed Pork in Soy Sauce.

This dish is an updated version of the traditional Dongpo Pork and is shaped like a pyramid as it features thin, long slices of pork that are piled up. Under the pile of pork is preserved vegetables.

The presentation attracts the eye and diners usually enjoy unraveling the pyramid. The marbled slices of pork have absorbed the juice of the preserved vegetables.

West Lake Snowy Lady, a dessert with a cream-and-mango heart and wrapped in snowy white glutinous rice, is another highly recommended dish. The Crab Meat Steamed in an Orange is a classic dish first created in ancient times by Hangzhou people. It features crab meat and roe steamed in a hollowed orange.

Dim sum favorites include Lotus Pastry with Bean Filling, Papaya Cake, Puree of Peas and Cucumber Pastry.

Address: 10-12 Yanggong Causeway

Tel: (0571) 8797-0568

Hangzhou


 

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