[beachfan]

Hi all!

Any tips on food in these cities. Chicken, fish, veg. No duck or four-leggers.

Thanks in advance!

Cheers
Barry

[fantasty]

In Yangshuo, the center of town is pretty well touristed and many restaurants cater to backpackers. Fujian Noodle (I think that's what it's called) caters to a local crowd even though it has a sign in English. To find it, situate yourself so that you are facing main entrance to the Paradise Resort (which did not appear to be aptly named, but no matter), then walk to your left (you'll likely be backtracking) and turn right down the first alley you come to. It will be on your right the first or second door down. The noodles with peanut sauce were great, and became my breakfast of choice the few days we were there.

If you go past the Paradise Resort and turn left and walk over the footbridge you may find a young Uigher couple selling sesame-covered flatbread. It was a good snack that we returned for again and again. We had a lot of delicious nibbles at various street vendors, and in the main market look for those selling Tianjin buns (which we were told by a local have a name that translates to "buns so ugly dog won't eat").

If your schedule permits I'd recommend spending a morning (or longer) at the Yangshuo Cooking School.

I need to do some digging to recall where we ate in Chengdu and Beijing. Chengdu especially was a food fest, and included a very good meal at an Indian restaurant near the American embassy as well as a pilgrimage to Chen's Ma Po Do Fu.

[fantasty]

In Xian there's an interesting dumpling dinner at the Bell and Drum. Something like 20 courses of dumplings, many of them quite beautiful. The better tasting ones all contained pork or lamb, fyi.

You can eat very well in Xian wandering around the Muslim quarter, nibbling on street food.

[Jon Tseng]

Gongdelin is the most famous, and one of the best, vegetarian restaurants in Beijing (although thats not saying much). Notable for its tofu dishes and a fantastic range of mock-meat dishes - you'll never want to touch quorn again!

Its on Qianmen Nan street, south of the Qianmen gate (directly south of Tiananmen Sq). Google for precise details

ta

J

[fantasty]

More info:

In Chengdu we loved our lunch at the Baguo Buyi (not sure that's the correct pinyan spelling), which included a good chicken dish with peppers and cilantro and one of the best beef dishes we've ever had. I can't find the card for the other place we went to but it's affiliated with a cooking school (not the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine). It's near the Kempinski Hotel and the fish and vegetable options were plentiful, though I can't imagine going back and not ordering the pork with leeks and green vegetables.

If you need a break from Sichuanese food, we had a great dinner at Tandoor. Address: No 34, Section 4, Ren Ming Nan Lu, near the Baguo Buyi.

In Yangshuo we enjoyed the meal we had at Cloud 9 Restaurant one night, which we picked because it seemed to have more Chinese tourists and fewer European tourists. FYI we didn't see any Americans, not that we were looking for them.

In Beijing we went for duck at Da Dong, where there were many interesting salads on the menu. Lots of seafood options, too, as I recall.

[beachfan]

Thanks!

[Jon Tseng]

r u on a package tour or will you be making ur own way?

as a rule of thumb the Lonely Planet dining recommendations for China are pretty reasonable. there are some good pointers on Chengdu including the original Mapo Dofu joint (although that has meat in it so maybe less useful)

J

[beachfan]

Making my own way in China. Here's my review of two Shanghai Vegetarian Restuarants.

I had lunch at Vegetarian Lifestyle Restaurant today, one of the two better known ones in Shanghai. Overall it was excellent. Much lighter than the food I've been getting, a welcome relief. Even the fried things were light.

Fried vegetarian meat stuffed lotus root was excellent, crispy and light.
Steamed eggplant in sichuan sauce was a lovely light version of a Sichuan classic.
Vegetarian meatball in broth was excellent (if you like soy products which I do).
Various vegetarian dim sum were very good filling wise, but needed a lighter hand with the wrapper.
A Suzhou style vegetable soup was a little bland for my taste.
A large selection of teas are available, ours was a citrus blend.
The desert was one of the best I've ever had in a Chinese restaurant, lotus seed pastries.

On the other hand, the Godly (Gongdelin) Vegetarian restaurant was more hit and miss.
Vegetarian Fried Chicken cutlet was lovely quorn type cutlet, not heavy.
Tofu and vegetarian ground pork had great flavors.
Vegetarian abalone with broccoli was light, bland and curiously textured (like abalone).
On the other hand, vegetarian meatballs and greens and the vegetable noodles had the traditional Shanghai load of oil.

If you're with a vegetarian, they'll like both. But if like me, you're looking for a lighter change of pace, stick to Vegetarian lifestyle.

PS Only Godly Vegetarian serves alcohol.

[beachfan]

Four Shanghai Top Western Places (on the Bund)

I heard a lot abot Whampoa Club, expecially the hot and sour soup. My reaction:

Wow, what a different soup I had. It wsa concentrated, and rich, but neither sour nor hot at all. My wife's vegetarian version had more kick. A real disappointment.

My starter was crispy fried eel. I orderered wrong, I wanted a hot seafood appetizer, and this is what the waiter steered me to. Tthis was ok for what it was, but it's basically a snack to go with drink. At least I think it is, IIRC, Yixin introduced me to them in Singapore (and it was better there).

My entree was very good sauteed shrimp and pea pods. Very fresh, not much spicing.

Given I was really only 1 for 3, I skipped desert even though the Vahlrona deserts sounded tempting. I could have forgiven the crispy eel, but bland hot and sour soup?

After Whampoa Club, I completed my restaurat tour of the Bund.

Laris - very impressive menu, and I so wanted to like this place. The menu and style of cooking reminded me of Eleven Madison Park. Of course, it's different, but that's what I thought of.

I had a lovely starter of crisped skate in a paprika crust. Delicous, although skate wasn't the best piece I've had. Then came the sad dish, blue marlin in a cabbage/mustard sauce. The sauce was fabulous, but the fish was so tough I thought it was raw. Sent it back, only to get well done tough fish. As an apology, they wanted to give me desert, I asked for stuffed calamari appetizer again, which was stellar. A couple of glasses of Trimbach Pinot Gris (one comped) went well with it.

M on the Bund- a less serious, more fun place. Food was ok, enviornment great, even better views than the restaurants across the street at 3 on the Bund. Not much to interest fish enthusiasts, I had a crab bisque (ok) and scallps in green pea emulsion sauce. Sauce was great, scallops cooked well, but not the best specimens (adequate however). A couple of glasses of NZ Sauv Blanc (can't see paying $100 for Jadot Macon Village) kept me company.

Jean Georges was the most satisfying of the Shanghai high end places. I didn't try any of my favorites (turbot with chalone sauce was on the menu), but I did have a lovely entree of curried snapper and an appetizer of bacon wrapped shrimp. More NZ SB with it. This was the best executed meal of all of them.

Even this meal suffered from less than top ingredients. The shrimp was adequate, but not pristine. It's clear that the talent is there in Shanghai, but until they source the top stuff, the experience will suffer.

[Behemoth]

Note to mods: would it be better to park this and my following posts in a dedicated thread? It would be very user-friendly to group the Shanghai tips in one place.

We haven't bothered much with the Bund/Pudong this trip, as the few times we have we've been underwhelmed by everything but the view. More our style has been stuff around the French Concession, Jingan and Xintiandi. Yesterday we went to Pin Chuan in the French Concession, which is reputed to be the best Sichuan restuant in Shanghai. Based on our experience (I wasn't crazy about South Beauty in Pudong), I have no trouble believing this.

We started with a cold beef salad, which arrived as a mound of razor thin slices of boiled(?) beef smothered in deep red oil and vinegar dressing, minced chiles and aromatics, fremented black beans, sesame, chinese celery, crowned with a tangle of cilantro. The first bite you take seems like it will be bland, but then you catch the vinegar and the subtle underlying sweetness, then the ginger and garlic, then the beans and slowly the whole thing builds up, with a slight foreground of heat that just seems to tie everything together without being itself noticeable. I've really never had anything like it, incredible and addictive.

Second dish was a whole river fish that the waiter suggested. I wasn't prepared for the appearance of the dish. It arrived whole on a long oval platter -- in fact it was the head and tail at the ends, flesh and beans sprouts but with the bones removed from the middle. Steamed I would guess, then covered in a layer of deep red aromatic oil and about a hundred fried red lantern-shaped chiles and deep green chives. Stunning to look at and delicious. Again, one is aware of some heat but it is nothing like spicy cuisines I am more familiar with, it is something you notice if you look for it, and hightens the other flavors, but that never seems to dominate the dish. The flavor was actually very delicate and subtle, the fish itself and the aromatics being the main focus, which is such a contrast to the appearance of the dish which is dominated by the brilliant red chiles.

Third dish was pork, fried and mixed with a spicy sauce. I now see what american restaurants are referencing with certain types of dishes, but in this case the sauce was not sticky -- in fact I hesitate to call it a sauce so much as a final coating. There was a hint of sweetness but the primary taste was of the meat itself, the garlic, ginger. Very satisfying and...moreish.

Fourth dish was vegetables in a clay pot. This was various mushrooms, tofu skin and miniature greens simmered in (what else) a clay pot. This dish was primarily earthy/meaty (though vegetarian), leaning more towards sweetness than the others, with textures playing a big role. Not the visual show stopper of the other dishes but a great contrast and wonderful depth of flavor.

Fifth dish was wontons in hot oil. Typically one would order noodles or rice for this part of the meal but at this point we'd really had so much to eat. The dumplings were tiny and the skin was very delicate. It was the best version I've had of this dish but couldn't compete with the rest of the meal. No worries, it was about all we could handle at that point.

To drink we had erdinger dunkel, which is a flavorful but clean tasting wheat beer, and therefore complemented the food brilliantly. They have a bunch of NZ wines on list, white would be the better choice with this food but still a distant second to beer I think.

I have to give special mention to the service, which was extremely graceful and friendly. Crowd was chic, but youngish and creative looking mixed expat and chinese. The restaurant is in a two-story french concession style villa, but with a modern and understated interior.

After all this, we were informed that due to the street renvations outside it was a soft opening and therefore it was 20% off the bill. Therefore our entire bill was all of 250 RMB, about 23 euro. We would have happily paid twice that.

[Behemoth]

Of course, the lack of heat in the above dishes might well be due to the fact that Shanghainese apparently don't like spicy food. (I'm told) the women think it makes their skin bad.

Yesterday we decided to explore Shanghai food beyond xiaolongbao. We headed to the Jinshi branch in Xintiandi, which is supposed to be the more user friendly version of this very popular local restaurant. Very loud and raucous atmosphere, but, you know, in a good way. Very basic in furnishing, despite the tendency of places in the Xintiandi complex towards downright exquisite (over)design. I wonder what the other branches look like. For some reason the place was freezing.

They had these amazing peanuts on the table for us. I have no idea what they were. They were roasted, there was sugar and salt in there but also this green flaky stuff that looked like it could have been nori but didn't taste strongly of seaweed. Any idea?

Beer, cold cucumber salad, jellyfish salad with sesame dressing (I'm sort of obsessed with this dish) to start.

I ordered two shanghai specialities, the red cooked pork which they are famous for, and the fried tiny river shrimp which is a famous local dish.

the pork was fantastic. I lack the anatomical knowledge to say exactly how they did this, but the meat was in cubes, about 1 inch square by three inch length that had a piece of rib on one end and bacon/skin on the other. Very intense very sweet red sauce, kind of like a pig praline. Mmm.

The shrimp sadly was kind of awful. The first bite is agreeable, really candy sweet (you eat the whole thing, head shell and all) but then you got this aftertaste of muddy river bottom that just wouldn't go away. I can still taste it actually. Reminiscent of the Shanghai tap water, come to think of it. I thought it might be because of the gunk in the heads, but a bite sans head had the same taste. I don't know if it was a bad batch or just typical for the dish, maybe someone else knows?

The vegetable of the day (literally menus here will list "green seasonal vegetable") ended up being spinach sauteed with whole cloves of garlic and century eggs. Very simple but very good actually, and the century eggs -- who came up with that idea?-- were not at all the usual sulpherous stinky thing so I liked them a lot.

Finished off with some scallion pancakes, which were wonderfully flaky but in the end heavy as a rock.

There are other famous shanghai dishes we didn't try, might get to tonight as we are invited to dinner. My favorite thing is still of course the xiaolongbao but this was all kind of cool to try. The pork dish was a definite hit though I wouldn't schedule a cholesterol check for the month following. Meal was just over 200 RMB for the two of us.

Followed up with drinks at TMSK, whose bar, lamps, stools and glassware are all made of the most beautiful (handmade?) chinese-themed art-glass I've ever seen. Wildly over the top in design and very beautiful waitstaff.

[Behemoth]

Southern Barbarian is located inside a slightly sketchy-looking (but not actually sketchy) labyrinth of an art warehouse in Jingan. It is a bit of a hipster place, with grey concrete floors, nice black & white photos, and these big square booth-like seats, but more in an artist workshop than a Wallpaper* reader kind of way, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, like artist workshops, can get a little chilly. The owner is really nice, young guy and speaks good english. If I were an expat I would probably be here at least once a week, especially since the eclectic beer list went beyond the usual Tsing Tao and Munich options. My brooklyn lager went very well with the food.

We picked this because we were feeling a little chinese food overload, but didn't want to lame out with something we can get at home. Having absolutely no knowledge of Yunnanese food, I can't make any claims about authenticity for the food here, I can only tell you it is extremely tasty, and very unlike what I would associate with chinese. There were at least 20 things on the menu I wanted to try, but unfortunately we can only usually handle about 5 at any meal. Here's what we had:

Smoked eggplant salad with tomato. This dish would be dear to any lebanese heart, especially as the eggplant was good and smoky, but the gentle rice(?) vinegar, soy (I'm guessing here) and slightly sweet marinade puts it squarely in the asian column. I loved this.

A goat cheese similar to haloumi in texture, sliced and grilled. Like an improved haloumi 2.0, I loved the goat's milk aspect especially. Seasoned with a dusting of chili.

Beef slivers seasoned with (anise?) stir fried under a mountain of dried red chiles. You don't eat the chiles of course. Oh and deep fried mint. How could you not love this?

Potato pancake. Basically a big roesti, with some chives on top. Nicely crisp outside, soft inside. Yeah it's just a roesti, but a very goood one for that.

I wanted to try something with garlic chives and something with mushrooms, so I ended up ordering a dish that contained both -- stir fried garlic chives, pork and mushrooms. I little plain, this one. If I could go again (and boy do I want to) I would have ordered the grilled garlic chive skewer and a separate all-mushroom dish.

I also would have liked to try the mint salad and more of the grilled stuff, especially the fish.

They are also known for their crossing the bridge noodles. The stomach is never as big as the menu, is it? Oh well, we are definitely planning a next time. I don't remember what the bill came to, but it was certainly under 200 RMB.

Another good thing: Southern Barbarian is located a mere 5 minutes walk from some very nice bars:

Face Bar is in a french concession villa with great french doors that open onto a terrace and immaculately landscaped grounds. Pricey by local standards but for that kind of setting they can really charge whatever they want. Somewhat yuppy crowd but who cares. Another one close by that we liked was YY's, which is more dark and smoky and I'm told was very fashionable a while back. Nice cosy atmosphere to get your drink on in any case.

Oh yeah, since I'm talking about bars, you should certainly check out Kathleen's 5, on the top floor of the Shanghai Art Museum. Fabulous terrace views of the People's Square and a really nice laid-back atmosphere. Actually it is a restaurant that does western stuff, but all I can tell you first-hand is that the bloody mary's were very nice.