Lunch - Hangzhou (Meijiawu)

Meijiawu is a pretty little village about 1/2 hour outside of Hangzhou with a few distinctive qualities: 

1) All the people of the village have the same last name: Mei (as in Meijiawu)

2) It's the only tea village, out of 6 in China, open to the public 

The village harvests Dragon Well Tea (Xihu Longjing tea). The best batches of tea are harvested before the Qing Ming Festival in March/April and then hand fried in a large wok:

After the tea tour, we were brought to a restaurant near Meijiawu: 

Soup with tofu, fish and mushrooms

Really yummy! The grey stuff in the picture is the fish skin which added a heartier taste to the soup. 

Shrimp, pork balls, mushrooms and choy

The pork balls in this dish were some of the best I've ever had - perfectly tender and meaty with a nice smooth texture. Yummy!

Shrimps and an appetizer with plump cherry tomatoes, sweet peanuts, zongzi and corn

The shrimps were small and sweet. 

Zongzi is sweet glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo and steamed. They're traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival which fell on June 23rd this year.

Winter melon dish and broccoli with mushrooms

The winter melon was sweet and juicy and the broccoli and mushroom dish was simple and delicious. 

Spicy tofu and vegetables

I was deceived by all the peppers and mushrooms and thought that it would taste sweet. Instead, I felt a slow and intense burn from the spicy sauce - Water!

L: Chicken nuggets in sweet sauce and R: bok choy with mushrooms

They make really delicious vegetarian dishes here because the boy choy and mushrooms were REALLY good. The mushroom sauce was delicious!

The chicken nuggets (slightly more visible in the picture below) were in what I assumed was a sweet and sour sauce - except the sauce was only sweet (not tangy at all). It was like I was left hanging - very strange and the chicken meat was quite tough (I think I'll stick to McDonald's chicken nuggets over this)

Salty duck and soy sauce rice

Two words: Salt overload

The soy sauce had a strange taste and it was extremely salty. 

Conclusion: I think this restaurant is known for their vegetarian dishes more so than their meat dishes (and it's evident from what we tried). Still, overall it was a good meal!