“Pours the sincere vegetable point Chinese prickly ash seeds catgut”
found in Hangzhou
Posts Tagged: hangzhou
27
Aug 09
Phat in Hangzhou II: Dragonwell Manor
Dragonwell Manor is the best restaurant in China. Yep. Luckily, we just happened to be in the neighborhood!
Dragonwell is situated on a really nice farm filled with tea fields, manicured gardens, and a small flowing creek. Upon arrival, we were greeted by qipao-wearing xiao jie who led us up a winding path to a private villa equipped with our own washroom & attendants. Pretty luxe!
Everything at Dragonwell is organic, locally sourced, and picked the day of. You can tell by their dated menu. Don’t those farmers look proud?
We started our meal off with fresh-pressed soybean milk, served sweet – with the perfect amount of sugar, or savory – with dried shrimp, green onions, and soy sauce. This meal was certainly phatass-approved. We had an assortment of dishes; fresh-picked greens, tofu soaked in chicken broth, soft-braised wintermelon, pork belly with bamboo shoots, and much, much more.
Another fantastic chicken soup – the meat was so tender it just fell off the bone. Flavored with some kind of bug we mistook for ginseng.
I also got the opportunity to enjoy some Chinese delicacies I’ve never had before, including sea cucumber and some really legit Long Jing (dragonwell) tea. At $80RMB (~$11USD), it was pretty spectacular.
After our meal, we spent some time wandering around the gardens and perfecting our Chinese tourist poses…
See ya in the fall, Hangzhou!l
26
Aug 09
Phat in Hangzhou I: Farm Food
Me & some good peoples – Gee, Ado, the InfaMou, & Sammy took a weekend trip to the most beautiful Tier 2 City in China; Hangzhou.
After lots of Chinese-style jostling & pushing through crowded train stations, we arrived fresh off the train (straight f.o.t.-in’). We promptly threw our bags down, and directed our Shifu (driver) to take us to the best place to get farmer food.
Ok, my mandarin is the sucks, so I can’t really tell you how to get here or how it works. But basically we rolled up to this family owned restaurant and were invited into their kitchen to choose what we wanted to eat. Here’s a sweet lil video I’ve dilligently prepared in iMovie.
Hmm, my editing skills are pretty lackluster.
So anyways, we sat down in this superflourescent private dining room and enjoyed some formaldehyde -free local beer. Within minutes the feast began to arrive:
Veggies! Kabocha stir fried with rich salted duck egg yolk, super fresh eggplant with minced pork.
River shrimp with ginger & green onion, chili pepper & beef stir fry.
Whole xihu river fish & the chicken-iest chicken soup ever, complete with chicken head.
All served with plenty of hot rice, beer, and good company!
