Here It Is! Eating & Drinking My Way Through Shanghai, Suzhou, and Ningbo
My last travelogue didn’t go into detail about food, so here’s a supplement! Even though my views are dismal, jotting down these memories is still a way to leave an impression for myself.
The first meal of the trip was the expected plane food, but unexpectedly, the catering on domestic flights has improved a lot. I ordered the fish rice, which was hot, not fishy, and tender. It happened to be the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, so the red bean paste zongzi was a pleasant surprise.
The next day’s breakfast was taken care of at the Atour Hotel buffet. Generally, when I travel, I go for the hotel buffet – convenient, clean, and with a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Some may say this means missing out on the chance to try local breakfasts, and that’s true; you win some, you lose some. I usually wake up early and to avoid getting ‘overheated,’ I eat more veggies for breakfast, something you can’t get at a typical breakfast stall.
The Atour Hotel breakfast selection was quite comprehensive; the ingredients weren’t expensive but tasted good. It’s good value for money.
For lunch, I went to Gang Ya Gou. I’m sure you find the name just as strange as I did. I later looked it up: the founder’s name was Jiang A Gou. At first, his shop sign was a picture, but a scholar thought a picture wasn’t easy to spread by word of mouth, so he suggested giving it a name. The two decided to use ‘Gang Ya Gou’ as the sign, a homophone for ‘Jiang A Gou’ in Ningbo dialect: ‘Gang’ for ‘Jiang’, ‘Ya’ for ‘A’, easy to understand and matching the original picture.
Gang Ya Gou is most famous for its tangyuan, which are made fresh to order, but I’m not a big fan so I didn’t order any. If you get a chance to try them, do share your thoughts!
For dinner, I ate at Yuanzhi Yuanwei Authentic Zhoushan Seafood (Tianyi Branch). You can find the details on your phone.
My last meal in Ningbo was at a hotpot place opened by Chen He, specializing in braised-snack hotpot.
Personally, unless you’re really into braised snacks, this hotpot isn’t much different from others and doesn’t stand out. But since eating hotpot alone makes ordering tricky, one serving of braised food and a bowl of rice was enough; ordering more hotpot would have been a waste.
After that, I arrived in Shanghai. The lunch hotpot hadn’t even digested when sukiyaki for dinner rolled around. My stomach was burning from the spice, and I craved something hot but not spicy, with veggies. Then it hit me: Japanese food! Youxiwu Late-Night Diner (East Nanjing Road).
The next day for lunch, I headed to Dassai Bar, one of only three in the world. I went at noon, right when they had lunch set menus. There were many options; I chose the spicy miso with mountain vegetables. Paired with a seasonal limited-edition cherry blossom sake, it was totally worth the trip. (After all, I took a 30-plus-minute cab ride just to see this Dassai Bar.)
For dinner, I went to Tung Fatt Dou Cha Chaan Teng, said to be the pioneer of ‘wo nai hua’ (a creamy drink).
The char siu was a mix of fatty and lean, overall on the sweet side, and absolutely delicious when hot. I personally felt it was already salty enough; adding the salted duck egg made it a bit too overwhelming.
Later, I went to a Western restaurant with a bit of class: THE WELLINGTON UNIVERSE.
Oh, and I have to mention the jianbing at the Holiday Inn. As a Tianjin native, seeing that auntie make jianbing made me want to shout: everyone, you must come to Tianjin for an authentic jianbing! Really, no lettuce, no pickled veggies, the crepe isn’t plain wheat flour, and the guobi (crispy sheet) isn't like a potato chip.
Of course, the dining environment at the Holiday Inn is quite commendable. The food variety was greater than at the Atour, and the price was certainly higher.
Later on, I visited Suzhou and had white broth noodles with braised duck.
The flavors were quite authentic. I even saw some locals buying it in lunch boxes to take home!
Looking forward to your comments and feedback!
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Travel Journal Index: 1. Introduction 2. Not as thrilled about buffets as when I was a kid 3. Southern dishes still a bit hard to get used to! 4. Seafood never disappoints 5. Heavy-flavored hotpot vs. ‘light’ hotpot 6. Drinking alone 7. The pioneer of wo nai hua 8. A touch of class 9. Can’t help but rant 10. Noodle soup so hot it burns your tongue 11. Afterword Travel Information Hotel Index Guide Index Flight Index Website Navigation Travel Index Cruise Index Corporate Travel Index Join Us Distribution Alliance Friendly Links Corporate Gift Card Procurement Insurance Agency Agent Cooperation Hotel Joining Destination & Scenic Spot Cooperation More Cooperation About Ctrip About Ctrip Ctrip Hot Topics Contact Us We're Hiring User Agreement Privacy Policy Business License Safety Center Ctrip Content Center Intellectual Property Trip.com Group Algorithm Announcement
