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August 6, 2015

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Home » City specials » Hangzhou

Trendy scene emerges around small eateries

By Xu Wenwen | August 6, 2015, Thursday | Print Edition

THERE are two kinds of food streets. The sort organized by local authorities and the type that develop organically. Zhubuli, a community along Lane 400, Shaoxin Road is of the latter.

The 500-meter strip is home to nearly 100 restaurants, and not one of them would be considered upscale. The smell of hotpot, grilled meat, crayfish, and lamb kebabs waft through the air. Most feature simple names that indicate what they sell.

They started as small eateries serving mostly migrant workers, many of whom rent apartments nearby. Zhubuli used to be mostly farmland but was turned into an “urban village” with abundant cheap apartments about two decades ago.

People from around the country have realized there was a business opportunity by opening small restaurants that cater to people who are from the same place where he/she is from.

These restaurants have a couple of key rules. One they have to be affordable since migrant workers are cautious with their cash. Two, the food needs to be authentic. These guidelines have remained in place for two decades.

The bulk of the restaurants serve either Zhejiang, Sichuan or northeastern cuisine.

The street is quiet during the day but comes to life when it gets dark. Cars flow into the narrow streets, waiters set up plastic tables and chairs outdoors. Men and women, including hipsters, enter into the small place and all the restaurants are usually full.

It’s hard to say which restaurants are the best, but there are some popular ones. It takes about 10 minutes to walk by the whole stretch and decide which restaurant to try. Here are five of the most popular eateries on the strip.

Qiandao Lake Family

Qiandao Lake, or Thousand Islands Lake in Chun’an, Hangzhou, is known for fish with large heads, which are added into soups or other dishes.

At Zhubuli, the fish heads here are so popular that the restaurant opened a second branch just opposite to the first to serve its loyal customers.

The signature fish pot costs only 68 yuan but contains noodles made of potatoes, tofu, shrimp, salty meat, clams, and of course an entire fish. The average price per person is about 50 yuan (US$8).

Northeastern Donkey Pot

Donkey meat wouldn’t rank too high on the list of most popular foods in Hangzhou, but if you’ve got a hankering for it this is a good restaurant to try.

The meat is boiled, fried, stewed, and diced for dumplings. More adventurous eaters can try: donkey stomach with wasabi, donkey tail stewed in soy sauce, donkey skin jelly or donkey blood pudding.

Even the animals organs are used for some dishes.

“Any part of the donkey, just name it,” the owner said. “We can prepare it for you.”

The meat is shipped from his family’s farm in northeastern China.

Ma Ya’s

Ma Ya’s is actually four restaurants run by owner Ma Ya. Her original restaurant is Ma Ya’s, but she also owns Ma Ya Grilled Meat, Ma Ya Northeastern Dish and Maya BBQ.

Northeastern dishes like cold Korean noodles and Beijing hotpot (bronze pot style) to kebabs and double-cooked pork slices, candied sweet potato, and pork bones preserved in soy sauce are available.

Ma recommends the pork bones in soy sauce for summer. Kebabs and beer are seen on most tables.

Though all four are large restaurants, they are noisy because they are almost always packed and people from the northeast tend to speak loudly.

Tonglu Small Fish Restaurant

Tonglu Small Fish Restaurant sells only one dish — small fish pot. What makes the difference from one to another is the vegetables that customers order to mix with the fish.

The fish is wangci fish, which has smooth and tight meat.

The fish is common in Zhejiang. The restaurant only serves small ones, about the length of a palm, because they, apparently, taste better.

Fish is simmered in soup with tofu and vegetables for an hour.

The tight meat softens and becomes rather tender in the broth. The restaurant also doesn’t add much seasoning to allow the natural flavors to dominate.

Jiangshan Goose Restaurant

Goose is not used as much as chicken or duck in China, but there are fans of its fatter and softer meat, along with its special smell that is similar to duck.

Jiangshan is a good place for goose meat with farmers there feeding the birds wheat and grass, which apparently softens the smell of the meat. The restaurant owner is from Jiangshan and she has three goose recipes on the menu: boiled, stewed in soy sauce and goose pot.

Hangzhou


 

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