Eating in Hangzhou

　Hangzhou boasts the name of City of Gourmet Food with a long history of cuisine culture. Hangzhou cuisine belongs to the cooking style of Zhejiang picking on fresh materials, processing elaborately and focusing on natural flavor. Tasting light and dainty with pleasant color, fragrance, taste and shape, it is suitable for public consumption. Newly emerging Hangzhou dishes absorb dishes of all places, combing northern and southern flavors in harmony with a new look. Going with traditional Hangzhou dishes are moving stories and legends, enjoying renown home and abroad. Now there are over 9700 restaurants of all kinds in Hangzhou , among which old and reputable ones include Louwailou restaurant and Flavor Savoring Tower and the ones with new Hangzhou dishes are Zhang Shenji and Huazhongcheng and so on.

　Hangzhou enjoys a variety of local flavor dishes such as Dongpo Pork, West Lake Carp in Sweet and Sour Sauce, Shelled Shrimps with Dragon Well Green Tea, Beggar's chicken, Jingle Bell, Honey Ham, All birds Paying Homepage to Phoenix and Quick-fried Prawns. Each one may have a long and interesting story. The famous Dongpo Pork, the Legend has it that in the Northern Song Dynasty when the well-known writer Su Dongpo organized a large-scale dredging of the lake as the governor of Hangzhou , he made Dongpo Pork to reward the laborers. Till now it has a history of over 900 years. It is featured by red and bright color, pure taste and thick juice, crisp but not broken and oily but not greasy.
Besides the above traditional Hangzhou dishes ,there are some other renowned dishes such as Shelled Shrimps with Dragon Well Green Tea, Fish Balls in Clear Soup, Stewed Spring Bamboo Shoot, Steamed Meat Wrapped with Lotus Leaf, West Lake Water Shield Soup, Quick-fried Eel Slices, Hangzhou Soy-sauce Duck and Salty Meat, etc. They all have particular flavors.

　Hangzhou has a variety of special snacks with long histories, delicate shapes and delicious flavors. Lots of snacks have interesting stories about their origin. Famous snacks are Zhiwei Small Dumplings, Noodles with Quick Fried Eel and Shelled Shrimp, Hangzhou Noodles with Pork and Bamboo Shoot, Cat's Ear, Southern Big Bun, Wu Hill Crisp Cakes and Flour Cake Rolled with Shallot and Sauce inside.

Louwailou--The one of Best Restaurant in Hangzhou

　Louwailou, a famous restaurant located south of clear and quite Gu Mountain near scenic West Lake , has a long history of more than 150 years. It is well known for its "enjoying food and picture together".
Louwailou has three origins of its founding year: Daoguang, Tongzhi or Guanxu of Qing dynasties. But commonly it is believed to be Daoguang 28 (1848). The owner of this building is Hong Ruitang who failed in the imperial examination. He and his wife moved from Shaoxing to Qiantang after the death of their parents, and lived at the bank of Xilin Bridge under Gu Mountain, made the living by boating and fishing. They had a professional skill in cooking fresh fish and shrimp, since they came from Shaoxing, a place flowing with fish and rice. So they chose out good fish and shrimp and sold them after cooked. When they noticed that there were no refreshment rooms along that area, they began to save money and opened a small-scale one-floor restaurant located between Yulou and Xilingyinse near Liuyi fountain.
As for the naming of this restaurant, there are two opinions. One is that the merchant got enlightened from a poem written by Lin Shen, a poet from South Song. The Chinese words of Louwailou are in this poem. Another opinion is that because the restaurant was located outside of Yulou which owned by a modern famous scholar, Yu Quyuan. Mr. Hong Ruitang asked Mr. Yu to name his restaurant. Mr. Yu said, “Since your restaurant is at out side of my building, we may refer to Lin Shen's famous sentence and call it Louwailou (a building outside another building). These two parlances both enhance the culture atmosphere of Louwailou.

　After you read all of them, if you like to try it, please make contact with us and we will have a good arrangement for you. Our contact is (0086)10 84405388 by telephone, (0086)10 84405450 by fax, or travelservice@kirintravel.com by email.