Dinner - Hangzhou

Hangzhou is one of the most beautiful cities in China. There's an old Chinese saying: "There is paradise in heaven, there are Suzhou and Hangzhou on earth (上有天堂, 下有蘇杭)". It is also a core city in the Yangtze River Delta and has a special part in Chinese history since it was the capital city of China during the Southern Song Dynasty. 

 

People love this city because of the temperate weather, scenic and calm West Lake and relaxed atmosphere. In the summer, citizens can be seen taking casual strolls around the West Lake. 

<Rainy Season along the Yangtze river>

The duck soup was delicious! 

Lots of flavour and duck meat - I kept going back for more.

Egg whites, ham and shrimp custard

 It was very sweet and refreshing

Steamed local fish in soy sauce

The meat was sweet and a little mushy which made it difficult to eat properly since there were so many tiny bones in the fish.

Pork Belly dish on the Left

Really delicious! It was soaked in soy sauce and it had the right balance of fat to melt in your mouth.

Top dish: Lettuce in spicy sauce

Bottom dish: Nian gao (new year cake) 

The lettuce sauce was spicy to me (so I didn't eat a lot of it) and the nian gao (which is a type of sticky glutinous rice cake) was okay. I generally don't like the texture and the doughy aftertaste of nian gao, but this dish had enough sauce to take away the doughy taste. 

L: White radish (or Daikon Radish) and Dried tofu cubes

The white radish dish looked like the radish side dishes that you're served when you go out for KBBQ in Toronto. So I almost expected it to be cold and tasty - it was a bit of a shocker to find it warm and kind of bland. 

The dried tofu cubes were nice though and had lots of flavour (and if you eat the two dishes together, it's actually a lot better)

L: Bak Yip tofu with salted vegetables and R: Celery...in oil

The tofu was okay; the celery, on the other hand, looked like all the nutritional value was drowned away in the oil.

Overall: This Hangzhou dinner had much better food than we had in Shanghai for lunch. I like Hangzhou cuisine.