The prospect of eating food in China was very exciting. Sadly we weren’t always armed with the best info. Long Kuan took us to a few vegetarian places in Beijing that were really spectacular. Lily Vegetarian restaurant in the hutongs was the best. We had a huge feast there and all of it was really good. The Hot Pot was the best and we tried to recreate that spicy delight again and again but unsuccessfully. In Shanghai we went to a few places that my friend Ruby Yao recommended and they were very good but not transcendent. We would have a dish or two here or there that was unlike anything one could taste in NY or SF but nothing that really blew us away. On our second to last day I gave Lei Tsao, our local producer, a bit of a talking to about his dining guidance and he really went whole hog in getting us to some great cuisine. The next day we went to a tiny hole in the wall very near the Bug restaurant (that’s another story) and had some of the best stuff we ate on the entire trip. The very best were some greens sauteed in the broth of fermented tofu. The fermented tofu flavor is very distinct, very delicate and delicious, and very hard to get in the US, or at least in NYC. Here are pics of all that we ate there. We had our first meats in 3 weeks at that place.
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