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September 18, 2014

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Homemade dishes worth clucking about

By Xu Wenwen | September 18, 2014, Thursday | Print Edition

RESTAURANTS dishing out authentic traditional Hangzhou cuisine are mostly in scenic areas and usually target tourists — a stereotype shaped about a decade ago when contemporary Hangzhou cuisine restaurants boomed and gained mainstream status.

Ask any local where tourists can eat traditional Hangzhou cuisine and most will likely say Louwailou Restaurant or Zhiweiguan Restaurant and those on Gaoyin Street, a popular food street among many tourists.

The foods they introduce are very likely Dongpo pork, Longjing shrimp, Beggar’s chicken and West Lake vinegar fish. All are signature Hangzhou dishes, but not necessarily what locals eat at home very often. These dishes require expensive ingredients, and take hours to make.

It doesn’t mean locals are lazy. They love to spend time cooking, but they are a practical bunch. If they spend the better part of a day cooking, they want to share it with many diners or be able to preserve the leftovers easily.

Thus, poultry has become common on the dinner table in local homes. Chickens and ducks are big enough to be shared or to be made into more than one dish, and the meat from either can be cooked in different ways.

However, the poultry dishes popular in Hangzhou households are not often seen in restaurants.

Today, we introduce three poultry dishes Hangzhou people love to cook at home and several restaurants that insist on keeping them on their menus.

Old duck pot

A classic Hangzhou homemade dish, this is usually served to guests at family feasts because it requires a fair amount of care when selecting the ingredients and stewing the duck.

First, it has to be an old shelduck, a large goose-like duck, to ensure it has less fat and body odor. Second, dried bamboo shoot and ham is required. The ham must be Jinhua ham, made from the leg meat of a small pig that originated in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. The dried bamboo shoot needs to be in one piece — the old root part is used to absorb the oil in the soup. The tender part and its crunchy fibers end up tasting better than the meat after cooking in the broth.

Stewing the duck requires three steps starting with boiling and scalding it for five minutes, throwing away the water and washing the duck to remove all the blood froth. Next add the bamboo shoot, ham and ginger into a crockery pot with hot water, then simmer with rice wine for three hours.

The smell, taste and size of the duck never fail to impress guests.

Leftovers are often made into congee or noodles for breakfast the next day.

 

Where to eat:

• Zhang Sheng Ji Restaurant

Address: 6/F, Tian Gong Yi Yuan Department Store, 91-93 Jiefang Rd

Tel: (0571) 8735-5188

Address: 77 Shuanglin Rd

Tel: (0571) 8606-6666

Address: 4/F, 58 Shaoxing Rd

Tel: (0571) 8581-7773

Shrimp-and-fish sauce chicken

Fish sauce is popular in many coastal areas of Southeast Asia such as Thailand and Vietnam. In Hangzhou, people make the sauce from shrimp, fish and rice wine. Sometimes it is also made with crab meat.

This dish combines the umami of shrimp, fish and chicken, and smells like wine. Since old times it has been a typical winter dish in Hangzhou and also other cities in Zhejiang Province since it had to be preserved at a low temperature when there were no refrigerators.

Wine and salt also help preserve the sauce while adding additional flavor. The sauce abstracted from shrimp and fish should be boiled with chicken soup and rice wine, allowing the flavors to mix while also sterilizing the liquid. The ratio between chicken soup and rice wine is one to one. The proportion of sauce depends on the level of saltiness preferred.

The final step is easy. When the liquid is cool, pour it into an airtight container, add chopped and boiled chicken — ensuring it is all covered in the liquid. Then put on the lid and leave it in a cold place (less than 10 degrees Celsius) or in a fridge.

After a week, open the container and take the chicken out. Be prepared for a strong smell as the sauce has only just started fermenting. Longer fermentation reduces this and gives the food a richer flavor.

 

Where to eat:

• Fu Yuan Ju Restaurant

Address: 5-9 Huimin Rd (near the Xihu Intime Department Store)

Tel: (0571) 8703-8018

Duck braised in soy sauce

When mothers in Hangzhou pondered: “Is the woman good enough to marry my son,” she would give the young woman a test: make the family luya, or duck braised in soy sauce. Why? Because it tested whether she knew how to kill and clean a duck, as well as her patience.

Luya, along with noodles, was among the few dishes a Hangzhou mother would use to “test” a potential daughter-in-law’s domestic abilities in the old days. Housewives love to make it for the family because the long-boiled meat is tender and the soy sauce is appetizing — good for both children and seniors in the house.

The recipe is not complicated but requires time and patience. Boil water with sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, ginger and shallots and put the whole duck in when the broth reaches a boil. Keep boiling until the duck is over medium-done, and bring to a simmer.

When the soup becomes starchy, use a ladle to scoop up the sauce and pour it onto the duck for 30 minutes while simmering. Don’t overcook. And remember to turn the duck over so both sides are colored evenly.

Cut the whole duck into pieces before serving. The dish can be eaten hot, going great with rice. It can also be served as a cold appetizer.

 

Where to eat:

• Chamber Rouge

Address: 53-4 Hefang St

Tel: (0571) 8781-8799

• New Zhou’s

Address: No. 3, Shiwukui Lane, Drum Tower

Tel: (0571) 8681-7810

• Zao Feng Nian Jian

Address: 126 Ding’an Rd

Tel: (0571) 8708-0055

• Old Man’s Fried Shrimp

Address: No. 2 Bldg, No. 25, Jietansi Lane

Tel: (0571) 8515-1117

Address: 272 Shengli River Food St

Tel: (0571) 8803-1919

Hangzhou


 

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