Home
» City specials
» Hangzhou
New kids on the block broaden culinary horizon
Print Edition
HANGZHOU’S restaurant scene is booming and competition is getting fiercer. We’ve looked at three new additions to the food scene to see how they are trying to attract customers.
Hawker 18 specializes in Southeast Asian cuisine and has now brought south China’s coconut chicken soup to Hangzhou.
This dish is widely popular in Guangdong and Hainan provinces as it’s simple and quick — just remove the top of an old coconut, put in a piece of boiled chicken, add some salt and steam the entire coconut. The best part of the dish is the light sweet coconut juice that adds a special fruit taste.
Hawker 18 also serves coconut soup hotpot. Coconut juice is poured into a hotpot while white meat is cut into flakes that float on top.
Other dishes include strawberry sauced ribs, kaya shrimp balls, Japanese tofu made with shrimp paste.
Address: 4/F, Chengxi Intime City, 380 Fengtan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8987-0771
Where there’s a school, a small eatery is usually not far. Vendors know where to position their business, and college areas are often a popular option. With several colleges in Binjiang District, Mingde Street turned into a food street.
Because most of the stalls operated under poor conditions and without licenses, the street was referred to as “rubbish street.”
Recently, the local government tore down the illegal buildings. After months of work, rubbish street was turned into a new well-planned wider street with bright stores and public tables and seats on the sidewalks.
About 100 vendors are back — now with licenses and clean kitchens.
Popular snacks include clams in tinfoil, ice cream on pie and BBQ pig feet. All dishes come at very affordable prices, including the Chinese version of a waffle for 15 yuan (US$2.31).
The local government has renamed the street Laxi Street.
In the local dialect, laxi can mean rubbish, but the characters used for the street mean happiness.
In the evenings, the street is packed with students and young residents. It’s hard to get one of the public tables, so be prepared to eat while walking or standing — after all, that’s one of the joys of street food.
As the weather is getting warmer, “crayfish” (in Chinese xiaolongxia) are back on the table.
Small restaurants, eateries, and food stalls are preparing the fiery-red little crustaceans.
This month, the high-end crayfish restaurant You Don’t Go opened in Dragon Hotel, one of Hangzhou’s top hotels.
You Don’t Go is trying to attract a high-end clientele who prefer to eat the messy crayfish out of fine porcelain plates and bowls while dressed in suits.
The crayfish come from Hubei Province and costs 168 yuan per dish.
The typical crayfish recipes can be found on the menu, but there are three that stood out: iced crayfish made with alcohol, lemon and wasabi, steamed crayfish, and crayfish with Hangzhou noodles.
Crayfish is available from April to September. The rest of the year the restaurant offers other types of seafood, like Boston lobsters and tiny dried shrimps.
“Our way of selecting food is simple — choose the seasonal dish,” said restaurant owner Wu Guoping, who is also the founder of Grandma’s Kitchen, one of the most popular local chain restaurants.
Address: 1/F, Dragon Hotel, 120 Shuguang Rd
Tel: (0571) 8682-3278
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
