Best places to get Hangbang cai in Hangzhou

A revered poet of Song Dynasty Su Dongpo once wrote that there are no better banquets in the world than those comprising Hangbang cai -- or Hangzhou food.

More on Chinese cuisine on CNNGo: "How to tell your Dezhou from your Dongpo"

Unlike dishes from northern China, steaming, boiling and roasting are preferred cooking styles in Hangzhou, and famous Hangbang cai such as Dongpo pork, beggar’s chicken, long jing fried shrimp and West Lake vinegar fish are favored for being much lighter in taste, perfect when taken with a pot of tea while contemplating the calmness of the West Lake.

With the new high-speed railway this month halving travel time between Shanghai and Hangzhou to just 40 minutes, Hangbang cai is closer than ever to the food-loving Shanghai masses.

Here are the five best places to get Hangbang cai.

1. Shan Wai Shan

Known for: A wide selection of traditional Hangzhou dishes and seafood sourced from the lakes in and around the city. 

Though on the more expensive end of the scale (it used to be run by the people behind the extravagant Lou Wai Lou restaurant, where foreign dignitaries are often received by state officials), Shan Wai Shan’s use of fresh ingredients and idyllic outdoor setting in the middle of Hangzhou’s Botanic Gardens make the price (about RMB 60-100 per person on average) worth it.

Take a taxi to the Botanical Gardens’ north gate and from there it's just a 10-minute walk to the restaurant. Nature lovers can opt to dine outdoors on the second-floor balcony when the weather is good.

Don’t leave without ordering: The dragon well shrimp (龙井虾仁, RMB 98), succulent baby shrimps fried in long jing tea or the beggar’s chicken (叫花鸡, RMB 98 per whole chicken).

According to legend, beggar’s chicken takes its name from a beggar who once caught a chicken but was so poor that he had no pot to cook it with. He wrapped it with lotus leaves and baked it in clay and the result was chicken meat so tender that word of the cooking method spread even to the Emperor of the Qing dynasty. 

At Shan Wai Shan, the chicken is marinated in a mixture of Shaoxing wine, sugar and soy sauce for four hours before being wrapped in lotus leaves and baked in an oven.

According to head chef Shen Yinfa, many restaurants cut corners when it comes to preparing dragon well shrimp because long jing tea leaves don’t come cheap.

“Not only do we use pure long jing tea leaves to prepare the sauce, we only use the best quality leaves, that is, those picked during the peak season just before Qing Ming Festival each year. They are boiled with water and then frozen to retain their freshness for use throughout the year,” he says.

Shan Wai Shan (山外山), 8 Yuquan Lu 玉泉路8号, hours: 10:30 a.m.-1.30 p.m., 4:30-8:30 p.m., +86 +571 8799 5866

2. Grandma’s Kitchen

Known for: A true value-for-money experience combining skillfully prepared dishes, friendly service and an easily accessible lakeside location. 

Despite being only 12 years old, the restaurant chain has outlets in 30 locations around Hangzhou and in other cities in the Zhejiang Province and Beijing. Its first Shanghai outpost will open on December 28 near Zhongshan Park.

Service is taken seriously here -- the waiters have undergone significant training about the food and are able to expertly recommend dishes. There’s even a number on every table that you can call should you receive dismal service.

The only downside to Grandma's Kitchen is that reservations are only allowed for groups of 10 or more. The rest have to take a ticket and join the queue, which can take 30 to 40 minutes, or go before 6:30 p.m. and after 8:30 p.m. to avoid the crowds. 

Though the Ma Cheng Lu branch is the chain’s first restaurant, the one on Hubin Lu is the most central and just a minute’s stroll from the West Lake.

Don’t leave without ordering: Long jing tea chicken (龙井茶香鸡), also the restaurant’s most expensive dish at RMB 45. The recipe was crafted by Grandma’s Kitchen’s chefs and is a contemporary marriage of two of Hangzhou’s traditional dishes, the beggar’s chicken and long jing shrimp. According to chef Yuan Zi Xiang, wrapping the tea-soaked chicken in parchment paper and roasting rather than boiling the package makes the meat amazingly moist with a fall-off-the-bone tenderness.

“It was the philosophy of our owner Wu Guoping when he opened the chain’s first restaurant that it should provide food that fellow Chinese citizens are able to afford and enjoy in a nice setting,” says business manager Liu Wei. “We plan to have about 100 restaurants in China in the next five years and 150 worldwide in the next one to two decades." 

Grandma’s Kitchen (外婆家), 2/F, 3 Hubin Lu 湖滨路3号2楼, hours: 10 a.m.-2 p.m., 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m., +86 571 8517 5778, +86 571 8515 3911, www.waipojia.com

3. Kui Yuan Guan

Known for: Tasty and affordable noodles with a long history and bizarre origins. The 800-seater space is clean, spacious and makes a good pit-stop while trawling through Jiefang Lu, the city’s main shopping artery.

Though the cooking style technically originated from Ningbo, this 154-year-old restaurant set up by an Anhui businessman has become such an establishment in Hangzhou that there is a saying among locals that you have not been to Hangzhou if you have not eaten shrimp and fried eel -- Kui Yuan Guan’s specialty.

The shop is supposedly named after a poor student who was treated to a bowl of noodles when he came to take his imperial examinations in Hangzhou and who gratefully returned to the restaurant when he successfully become a scholar. 

Don’t leave without ordering: The sauteed shrimp and eel noodles (虾爆鳝面, RMB 35) and bamboo shoot and salted vegetable pork noodles (片儿面, RMB 10).

Ingredients are abundant in each dish, and rather than using a generic MSG-laden soup base for the noodles, the broth in each of the two bowls of noodles actually tastes and smells of the ingredients. The chewy noodles are handmade using a special technique that’s over 100 years old.

“A lot of attention to detail goes into our food preparation,” says manager Zheng Peng. “We are very precise about the weight of the eels we select. For example, we insist that they are soaked in water for at least three days to remove the mud taste. We also source most of our ingredients from within Zhejiang Province to ensure that the quality of our dishes remains the same over the years.”

Kui Yuan Guan (奎元馆), 124 Jiefang Lu 解放路124号, hours: 9 a.m-9 p.m., +86 571 8702 8626, www.hzkyg.com

4. Guangfu Lu Food Street

Known for: Traditional Hangzhou snacks -- including lesser-seen delicacies such as rabbit’s head and mock turtle soup -- and a bustling outdoor atmosphere. 

All sorts of greasy snacks, meaty dishes and sweet treats can be found in the more than 50 stalls on both sides of Guangfu Lu, a little lane just off the touristic Hefang Lu.

It’s the best option for lone travelers or those who aren’t in Hangzhou long enough to make a round of the city’s popular eateries as here you can sample smaller individual portions of traditional favorites such as beggar’s chicken and dongpo pork for a fifth of the price that restaurants charge.

Scarce seating is available in the form of benches in the middle of the lane so be prepared to share a table with hungry Chinese families.

Don’t leave without ordering: Beggar’s chicken (叫花鸡, RMB 25) from stall C39, which provides gloves and pretty takeaway paper bags on request, and scholar cakes (状元糕, RMB 10 for four pieces, stall C14), starchy, brownie-lookalike rice cakes with auspicious characters printed on them. Because the word for cake sounds the same as “top,” those sitting for the imperial examinations often ate the cakes in hope of good grades.

Lotus root starch soup (西湖藕粉, RMB5, stall C26), said to be good for one’s complexion when drunk regularly and spare ribs and rice wrapped in lotus leaf (荷叶排骨饭, RMB10, Stall C35), a fragrant rice and meat combination served in a little bamboo basket, are also good bets. 

“This street used to be completely empty but since this food street was built six years ago it has been packed with people everyday,” says stallholder of booth C26 Mr Liu. “There are people from everywhere -- both tourists and stallholders selling regional cuisines from their hometowns in Quzhou, Fuzhou and even as faraway as Sichuan -- so you can really eat your way through China.”

Guangfu Lu Food Street, near No. 88 Hefang Lu, 光复路特色小吃街, 靠近河坊街88号, hours: 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

5. Songdu Food City

Known for: Savory snacks and barbecued seafood in an indoor food court-like setting. The two-year-old indoor food court is an option for those who like to enjoy their street snacks in the heated comfort in the middle of winter (or air-conditioning in the summer).

Tiled off-white floors and a skylight in the middle that lets in floods of sunlight give the place an appearance of cleanliness, and sufficient seating space is provided in the form of bright orange plastic benches.

Around 20 stalls line the walls on the first floor, while a Taiwanese fast-food joint occupies the second floor.

Don’t leave without ordering: Crispy fried mini crabs (香辣蟹, RMB 10 per stick), deep fried bean curd rolls (干炸响铃, RMB 10), steamed egg custard in bamboo (杭式竹筒蒸蛋, RMB 5), Hangzhou chicken rolls (杭州卷鸡, RMB 5 per portion of six rolls) and the Chinese version of escargot, West Lake snails cooked in spicy broth (西湖大田螺, RMB 10 per bowl).

Stall assistant Ms Li says, “There are many little snacks here you will not find the big restaurants serving, nor are there many street hawkers left selling these outside anymore. We’re popular with young families but young people like to come here with friends and have a snack in the afternoon too.”

Songdu Food City (宋都美食城), 21 Xiao Jing Xiang, off Hefang Lu 河坊街小井巷21号, hours: 9:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

Read more: The best of Hangzhou's Hangbang cai | CNNGo.com http://www.cnngo.com/shanghai/eat/best-places-get-hangbang-cai-hangzhou-231156#ixzz18AhV8J00