The weekend here brought excellent sunny weather and a plethora of activity with the kids- multiple birthday parties, school picnic and soccer games. In between, we found time to eat. Friday night brought us to a new restaurant in our neighborhood , Mei Zhou Dong Po Restaurant. It's located down the road from the Daystar Academy on Shunbai Road. The food variety was quite broad, cutting across multiple regions. The Dong Po Pork, the classic Hangzhou dish, was excellent, with a pleasant surprise of green chili mixed in to give it a little kick. The black pepper beef was well executed, on an iron skillet with copious wild mushrooms and grilled onions- the beef was tender. The baozi were pretty good - minced pork but with more of a sweeter sauce which seemed to be based on bean paste. Erik pretty much gobbled these up. The sweet and sour pork was a bit disappointing, the exterior not crispy enough and the sauce was pretty bland. The gongbao jiding was reasonably well cooked but was lacking personality, as the level of spice was nowhere near where it should have been. The eggplant on iron skillet was enjoyable, a touch on the oily side but still very flavorful with diced peppers , grilled onions and garlic. The overall meal was pleasant and the value was good- 240 RMB for 5 people.
Saturday night brought us to Bellagio on Gongti Xilu. Bellagio is an upscale Taiwanese eatery popular with clubbers as it is located next to some of the best clubs in the city and it is open late. One notable feature is its female wait staff, all of who must have short cropped hair to work there. But this idiosyncrasy aside, the food is quite enjoyable. We had the delicious san bei ji (3 cup chicken), which is an aromatic dish of chicken based on soy, rice wine, and sesame oil and flavored with garlic and ginger. Then we had some barbecued pork and roasted duck, more in the Cantonese style but delicious nevertheless. We had sauteed dragon beans and ginkgo, the dragon beans with an excellent crispy texture. We also had some melt in your mouth minced pork in a flavorful broth and a noodle dish of barbecued beef and fragrant greens which had a pleasant kick to it. This was washed down with chrysanthemum tea and a very pleasant Taiwanese beer with a nice touch of hops. Dinner for 3 netted out at around 290.
On Sunday we decided to pick up some local food in our neighborhood for lunch. I had a craving for jianbing so I headed to the Jenny Lou's on Laiguangying where the food carts were set up. Jianbing is a little work of art. It is essentially a crepe which is cooked with egg, black sesame seeds, cilantro, green onions, bean paste, and optionally some chili , wrapped around a crispy piece of fried dough. It is excellent and cheap and is great for breakfast or lunch. So , I picked up a couple of these, then went down Laiguangying for some baozi, and then also stopped in the local village next to our compound, Ma Quan Ying, for some lao bing - unleavened flat bread - and some stuffed pancakes with chinese chives and egg. I think I spent a total of $3 but had plenty of food for everyone.
Our day finished at Pinotage restaurant in Lane Bridge Compound on Laiguangying, where we attended a birthday party. The catered food was very good, from the lamb skewers to the shrimp spring rolls. The notable thing for me was the wine i had- a Kanonkop Kadette, which is a South African red blend of Pinotage, Cab and Merlot. It had a pleasant, earthy character, with plenty of cherry and berry fruit- and had a medium body which worked well with the food we were having. I am usually not a Pinotage fan as it tends to be a bit tannic for me but the Cab and Merlot did wonders in balancing it out.
A busy weekend, but a few opportunities here and there to experience some new things.
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