The Copper Pot

涮羊肉 - Usually translated as Mongolian Hot Pot (as opposed to Sichuan Hot Pot, which was featured in an earlier post - http://orchidscripture.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-post.html). This sort of hot pot is known for an abundance of various cuts of lamb and the old-fashioned, free-standing, "coal burnin' " copper top pot.

McCain would be happy: no pork allowed

Food Diplomacy

Singaporeans are proud of their food and for good reason - it's unique and good.

A company called "Prima Taste" has figured out how to package and market this pride, with a range of ready-to-cook food mixes that allow ordinary home chefs to pull together a surprisingly authentic Singaporean meal without really breaking a sweat. (I've definitely utilized a package or two to the delight of dinner guests.)

While perusing Dianping for West Lake area restaurants yesterday, we came upon an entry for a Singaporean restaurant. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a concept restaurant run by the makers of Prima Taste.

We shared an order of Hainanese Chicken Rice and Beef Rendang, two Singaporean staples, to test the place out. Both were quite good, but I wonder whether it was merely a case of two Prima Taste packets being opened back in the kitchen. I wasn't sure how I felt about that possibility at first, but by the end of the meal came to the conclusion that this was a great business idea/model. If you can neatly package up all the spices and flavors and include simple directions for an authentic and fresh result, then you don't need to put a lot of effort training local chefs - which is often a big roadblock for getting authetic cuisine in a foreign place.

Hainanese Chicken Rice (complete with the side of chicken broth and the trio of sauces - ginger, dark soy sauce, and very spicy chili sauce)

Beef Rendang and a glass of lemon barley water

On your way upstairs to the second dining area and restrooms, you can follow the murals for a brief introduction to Singaporean history and culture (including Sir Stamford above).

Learn more about Prima Taste as a company and concept at http://www.primataste.com.sg/aboutus/abtprimataste.asp

The Smell of Europe

It's been a little over a week since I met my National Committee coworker at The Smell of Europe, a small coffeeshop in Northwestern Shanghai a couple hundred meters from her hotel, for the hour and a half that she was able to escape from the weeklong orientation program she was running for the Committee's longstanding Teacher Exchange Program (TEP).

Nevertheless, the English translations that we found on the coffeeshop's menu are timeless.

Would you feel safe ordering a "fruit vulture"?

We braved it and ordered a fruit cocktail/salad, which actually surpassed our expectations.

You'd think the fries would make you smarter. The weirdest thing is that if you read the Chinese, you know that you are ordering a pasta dish (direct translation is "Napoleon pasta")

Even when the menu seemed to linguistically make sense, we were still in for a surprise . This was the beverage that arrived after Margot ordered an "iced mocha".

Muslim Food from the Black Dragon River

When thinking of 黑龙江省 Heilongjiang Province, many will envision a vast land of ice and snow where taller Chinese coexist with fellow Russians.

When I think of Heilongjiang Province, I remember my time in Harbin (2001) and I remember good food and lively table conversations. Harbin had a unique restaurant rating system where a restaurant would display a certain number of red lanterns outside their door (these were relatively big lanterns...most restaurants had anywhere from2-5.) I never saw this in writing, but was told that the more lanterns out front, the better the restaurant. There were also a fair number of 清真 or Halal (Muslim-run restaurants where food/meat is prepared in the manner prescribed by Islamic law) restaurants and they were designated by having blue, rather than red lanterns.

Since I often crave a 东北 (northeastern, aka Heilongjiang) food fix, we checked Dianping for a highly rated place near us. What we found was a Muslim restaurant run by a family from 齐齐哈尔 (Qiqihaer), another respectable city in the Black Dragon River Province. Their speciality is grilled lamb of all kinds, but their regular dishes would be worthy of at least a couple of blue Harbin lanterns too. They did use their 清真/Halal status to trick us into paying an extra 1 kuai each for the specially saran-wrapped "sterile/clean" dishware. We were relatively new here the first time we ate there and hadn't realized that it's a racket run by many non-Muslim restaurants in Hangzhou too. We no longer fall for this trick.

Pre-mixed 东北拉皮儿 (Northeastern cold mung-bean noodles)

Mixed and ready to eat 东北拉皮儿 (which now looks more like a peanuty version of 家常凉菜）

The always welcome 拔丝苹果 (found it translated as apple in a hot toffee sauce). They also had the banana and yam versions.

土豆泥 Mashed potatoes? (A Dianping recommended dish)

Their much stronger (saltier) version of 京酱肉丝(sauteed shredded pork in a soy bean paste) with the dried tofu wrappers and in the background is an order of 酱茄子(eggplant with a similar soy-bean derived sauce)

Close-up of the 酱茄子

Their 招牌 ("signature" or what many places here translate as "signboard") dish - grilled lamb

Owen mastering the art of the culinary plastic bag

Staple Food

We just had the hottest (as in spicy) food we've had in Hangzhou this trip and my lips are still tingling. Once again, we have Dianping to thank for this find (we really should be getting commission for all the free advertising we've been giving the guide).

The place (湘缘饭店) was described as having authentic 湘菜 (food from Hunan Province - one of the two provinces, along with Sichuan Province, known for spicy food.)

Spicy it was.

茶树菇炒腊肉 (Tea Tree Mushrooms Stir-fried with Hunan Bacon - the bacon in this dish being an example of the best of its kind)

神仙豆腐 ( "Immortal" Tofu...probably because you'd have to be out of this world to handle all the spiciness - lead photo in this entry is a close up of the chilis in one bite of this dish)

The Capital of the South

This past weekend we returned to 南京 (Nanjing) - aka the capital of the south and where we lived and met in 2004.

We spent our two days there revisiting old friends and eateries, with the exception of spending an evening of eating and movie-watching at the new and posh 德基广场 (Deji Plaza) at 新街口(Xinjiekou).

Pre-movie snacking with old friends Zhou Lufei and Zhang Quan at Deji Plaza

Other pre-movie snacks:

芒果冰沙 (Mango Icee)

Hot sago delicacies (first one had fruit and yam; second one had peanut and red bean...another example of when you just need to trust us when we say it was really good)

Post-Movie Dinner at Deji Plaza

(photos taken surreptitiously due to a regulation against visually capturing this restaurant's food)

Selection of cold appetizers (duck, spicy sprouts, and tree ear fungus)

Tea Tree Mushrooms fried with a goose liver-flavored outer skin

Spare Ribs

蒜茸苋菜 (stir-fried amaranth with garlic)

Fish-ball soup with leafy greens

Plateful of food (in the bowl is soft tofu stew with crab roe; plate has the spare ribs, stri-fried amaranth, tea tree mushrooms, and some not yet pictured 粉丝 [bean vermicelli])

Familiar Eateries (spread out among the remainder of our time in Nanjing)

Owen's favorite 香辣鸡汉堡 (spicy chicken sandwich) place

After he got his fill of spicy chicken sandwiches...

I went for some peppery 鸡丝汤面 (shredded chicken noodle soup)

We were full, but it was nice to see that the exploding 包子 (baozi) place was still doing well (and they even spent some of their hard-earned money to get themselves a sign...)

Skyways Bakery moved from Hankou Xi Lu over to Shanghai Lu (and is now even closer to the Hopkins Center). A gaggle of foreigners were still sitting at tables inside.

The Suguo is still in the same location, but also seems to have splurged for a new sign.

The new bubble tea place is called Baida and their signature drink can be described as "bubble tea plus". It's milk tea with pearls and red bean and little aloe pieces and little soft yellow pudding things...and it actually is superior to regular bubble tea. They have everything though from regular bubble tea to fruity icees (冰沙）

Service With A Smile (but no eyes)

Shaanxi: the great desert land of caves and revolution. Also known for great noodles of all varieties and temperatures.

Another Dianping recommendation led us to the heartland of Shaanxi noodles in northwestern Hangzhou.

Unfortunately, the service does not live up to the flavor. We would like to show you a picture of the soup noodles, but after some delay in receiving our full order--and after numerous inquiries and one confrontation--we were a little bit distracted and neglected to click click.

But we do have a picture of the noodles being hand-pounded. A picture of the 炒凉皮 (fried noodles). And pictures of the 肉夹馍 (meat-wiches) and the greasy bags they were served in.