火锅

At the bookstore, I bought what can only be described as an exact copy of the Zagat Survey for Hangzhou. (They are online too at http://www.dianping.com/.) I've never had as thorough and well-organized of a restaurant guide in China before, and it's especially helpful for finding restaurant chains or types of food we've enjoyed before that exist in Hangzhou too.

One example is the hot pot chain 小肥羊 (Little Lamb). We actually found a newly opened branch close to our place that was not yet included under the Hangzhou restaurant guidebook's 小肥羊listing and shared a boiling pot of 半麻辣半清 (half spicy/half not) broth in which we cooked orders of 冻豆腐，羊肉，牛肉，金针菇，鱼丸，白菜，土豆，年糕，蛋较，等 (frozen tofu - doesn't translate well but trust me it's good in hot pot-; lamb; beef; golden needle mushroom (enoki); fish balls, thinly sliced potato, "rice cake" - another inadequate translation-; dumplings with egg wrappers, etc).

It may not look good, but it tastes good