#Start to Keep a Diary#825 Three meals a day in Nanxun, experience Huzhou cuisine

Monday, May 6, Nanxun, Huzhou

After leaving the hotel and driving to the urban area of ??Huzhou, Xiaoshuai said that he must eat thousands of steamed buns when he arrives in Huzhou. The most famous one in Huzhou is Ding Lianfang Qianzhang Steamed Buns. The main store is near the Central Hospital. The road in front of the store is extremely congested and there is no parking lot nearby. I couldn't get in when I saw the steamed bun shop, but I became increasingly hungry. Finally we parked the car and bought the traditional Qianzhang Baozi Vermicelli Soup. I took a bite of the buns when I was hungry. To be honest, I didn’t feel the deliciousness I imagined. It wasn’t bad, and I couldn’t say how delicious it was. The meat and scallops are wrapped in tofu skin. The meat is very solid and the umami flavor of the scallops can be tasted, but it just doesn’t taste fragrant enough. Maybe the meat filling is too strong. After soaking it in the soup for a while, I feel it tastes better.

Said to be steamed buns, it looks more like two meatballs wrapped in tofu skin.

This is what it looks like when you bite it open!

I wanted to buy some wontons to try, but Xiaoshuai took me to Chow Sang Kee to eat wontons. Chow Sang Kee is also a time-honored brand in Huzhou. According to the introduction, it started in 1940. This year was the period of Wang Puppetry. It seems that Huzhou was relatively stable at that time, otherwise no one would have the intention to open a store and do business. Chow Sang Kee has many kinds of wontons. I ordered the kind with flat tips. The wontons were good, and the few drops of lard in the soup really enhanced the flavor. After finishing a bowl, I was full for breakfast.

After eating thousands of steamed buns, I looked for a bowl of Chow Sang Kee’s large wontons with dried bamboo shoots and fresh meat.

After breakfast, we went to Lianzhuang for a walk. It used to be Zhao Mengfu’s villa, but now it is a free park. The garden is quite lively, with singers, opera singers, dancers, etc. occupying the flat area. , Xiaoshuai and I ordered a cup of tea in front of the lotus pond, sat down and watched the scenery. At this moment, we could ignore the sounds and imagine the scene of Zhao Mengfu drawing and writing here~

We drove more than 30 kilometers for lunch I went to Lianshi Town, the mutton here is very famous. After asking a lot of questions, I found the fish restaurant recommended by my friend. When I saw a lot of cars parked in front of the restaurant, I knew I had found the right place.

When I came in to order, I was puzzled to see that the mutton was different in size. After asking the store, I found out that large mutton is the meat of large sheep, and small mutton is the meat of newly born lambs. It’s just that there is no big lamb this season, only lamb. And the lamb is sold as a whole sheep. If you want to eat, you can only eat one, otherwise it will not be sold. How can two of us eat a sheep? Even if it's just a little lamb. I had no choice but to order a few dishes at random and have lunch here.

Saltwater lagoon shrimp.

Crushed and fried fish head. Originally it was supposed to be cooked with some glutinous rice wine, but it turned out that the store added glutinous rice wine. However, the fish head is really fresh and has a salty taste, so it tastes good no matter how you cook it.

Fried shredded eel. Too many onions.

Roast old goose. This one is very flavorful and delicious.

For breakfast, I saw a lot of soy sauce products at Ding Lianfang and Chow Sang Kee. They were black and red and shiny. I felt that a lot of soy sauce was used and the taste was heavy and salty. The lunch meal confirmed my opinion, it was really salty and strong. In the afternoon, I walked around Nanxun Ancient Town and saw some roasted dishes placed in front of restaurants, which were also black and red and shiny. It seems that the food in Huzhou is also rich in oil and red sauce. That year in Wujiang, when Mr. Jiang Hong introduced his hometown cuisine, he said that their hometown cuisine is the style of thick oil and red sauce. Although Wujiang and Nanxun belong to Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, they are closely connected geographically, and their food styles are probably not the same. The difference is too far. From this perspective, I can understand the black and red colors of Nanxun (Huzhou).

Xunti in the restaurant in the ancient town

In the afternoon, take a leisurely stroll in Nanxun Ancient Town. The wealth here used to be truly unparalleled. Nanxun has a saying of "four elephants, eight oxen and seventy-two dogs", which uses the size of the animals to represent the amount of wealth. An elephant is worth more than or equal to 10 million taels of silver, an ox is worth more than or equal to 5 million taels, and a dog is worth more than or equal to 1 million taels. During the Qianlong period, the national income was only 50 million taels of silver a year, but the wealth of a town in Nanxun was more than that.

The garden pond of the library

The ancient town is built on both sides of the river

Arch bridge

Old shops

Ancestral Hall Archway

Library

Xiaolianzhuang

Staying at Nanxun Garden Mingdu Hotel, the food and beverage director Cao Shoufeng is an old friend, and Songzhu and Nanjing Marriott Hotel He is a good friend and specially asked Shoufeng to entertain me well. In the afternoon Shoufeng accompanied me to visit the ancient town, and in the evening a banquet was held for me with the chairman of the company as his companion.

Tea cake.

Erliang Taihu shrimp in a bad marinade. rare!

Fish dumplings made from white fish.

Braised lamb. This time I came to Huzhou just to eat mutton. I didn’t eat it at noon, but I finally ate it tonight, and it was lamb. Mr. Fu from the hotel said that this place only uses lambs that have never had milk, so that the taste is right. I don't have this experience, so I don't know what the difference is. But I really like this dish tonight. It is rich in flavor and not smelly.

Squab. This dish needs to be improved.

Tubu fish in white soup. The fish comes from Taihu Lake and tastes really fresh.

It is said that this green vegetable is related to Xi Shi. It no longer has a sweet and glutinous taste after leaving Nanxun. After Shoufeng made this dish, it has been selected by the Hangbang Cuisine Museum.

Double toppings, the toppings are fried fish and big meat. It’s delicious, but the portion is too small and I didn’t eat enough.

Shoufeng said that tonight they would all serve Nanxun Huzhou-style dishes, using local ingredients. After eating the meal, I could feel Shoufeng’s thoughts. It takes some courage to create local flavor in a five-star hotel. You have to do something better than ordinary public restaurants, with good environment and services, so that you can sell it more expensively than ordinary public restaurants and win business customers. At the same time, Nanxun Ancient Town is a tourist destination, with many tourists visiting it every day. Many guests will choose to dine in the hotel. As a local hotel, it has the obligation and responsibility to introduce local specialties to tourists. If you do it well, it will add points to Nanxun. , otherwise points will be reduced. I think the dishes I ate tonight can add points to Nanxun. They were carefully prepared and tasted good. Because of these delicious dishes, I will come to Nanxun again.