We enjoyed dinner at 2 local Suzhou restaurants on consecutive evenings. We wanted to get into some of the dishes popular in the region, the few that we tried made us hungry for more!!
The great China firewall makes Googling less of a resource. Only Chinese name available for the restaurants.
Simple no nonsense decor, with a mural reflecting the Canal life of the area. Even before COVID, shrink wrapped sanitized table settings were common in many eateries in China.
A Bass family fish, battered, deep fried, finished with a tangy sweet/sour vinegary sauce. The proprietress urged us to eat quickly once freshly served. Even my sweets adverse wife had a few bites and enjoyed.
Dinner, with a large Chinese Beer and a 250ml Baiji came to the grand total of $33.58.
From our 2nd floor perch, one could see the street was really hopping. We were surrounded on 3 sides by Shanghai Crab eateries. Younger folks happily poking and picking away at one of the region’s specialties.
Dancing (Drunken) Shrimp, most definitely. Freshwater local area shrimp, in a tightly covered bowl of Shaoxing Wine and other ingredients. My wife admonished me to not lift the lid until the crustaceans are properly soused, I peeked anyway.
The spotless yellow tablecloth became not so spotless in short order. Oops.
My wife’s Shanghai origin grandfather taught her (at a young age) the fine art of delicately picking out the tiny (very tiny) shrimpy morsels while imbibing the favorite spirit of choice. My wife learned well.
Shanghai Eel
Shanghai Cai Fan (Rice with Salted Pork and Greens)
Dancing shrimp: I’ve never had it. Though I’ve seen other diners having it, eg in Singapore. So, what I’ve always wondered, how do you eat them? As is, so with the vein?
The little shrimpies require some patience and is quite time consuming. Sure they’re one of those foods where you expend more energy than gain by eating them.
Snap the carapace off, suck the brains and goo out. Gently free the tail meat. Cleaning the vein would require surgery instruments. They add to the flavor, leave them in.
Next time I see them on the menu I’ll try them out!
Apologies if you’ve posted this already, but have you had some hairy crab on this trip? Never had those as well as far as I can remember, curious how they taste.
I saw plenty of crab roe dishes on offer in HK, but not many crab meat. And yes, expensive - same price point as things with “truffle” (but more worth the money imo, than fake truffle flavors).
We had a crab roe place open in nyc recently — also expensive.
