Shang Palace 香宫 @ Hangzhou

Shang Palace is the flagship Chinese restaurant of the Shangri-La Hotel group and can be found in every Shangri-La. Some were very good and got their Michelin stars. In general they served very good Cantonese with a mix of the local cuisine.

It was coming to two weeks on the road around China and one more stop before home. We have been chomping our way through some very good food so its time to slow down a bit.

香煎带鱼 Pan fried ribbon fish

Usually not a fish to order when you are entertaining a guest, but I am so sick of the usual stuff, this dish jumped out at me. A peasant fish, ribbon fish was found in abundance in the blackish water around these areas. They have a lot of bones but it was easy to take out all the bones if you know how. All you need are salt and pepper for taste, you pan fried them to a crisp outside. The back fin had been removed so that it was easy to consume. That’s where most of the bones were. A simple dish but really nostalgic of a simpler time. 哥吃的是回忆。

东坡肉 Stewed pork belly Dongpo-style

This would be the fourth time this trip I had the stewed pork Dongpo-style. By far it was not the best we have taste, the meat was overcooked and the rendering was not complete.

腊肉炒山药芦笋 Asparagus and mountain yam sautéed with waxed meat

This turned out to be a fantastic yet simple dish. Sometime the best things in life are so simple and elegant. The salty meat gave the bland mountain yam and asparagus that needed salt and umami. Everything worked in harmony – sweetness of the mountain yam gave the starchy consistence to the sauce, the asparagus provided the lightness and crunch.

大闸蟹 Hairy crab

It is still the crab season and we had to have another pair before going home.

And of course there are two types of ending to these hairy crabs – either you take your time, eat elegantly and reassembled the crab shell back to the original formation like a good Shanghainese, or you may just munch through it like everyone else.

扬州炒饭 Yangzhou fried rice

We ended the meal with Yangzhou fried rice. The chef de cuisine was a Singaporean in Hangzhou, his style of fried rice was definitely not Yangzhou-style. However it did taste of home and it did invoke some level of homesickness. Time to go home.

Shang Palace 香宫 at Shangri-La Hotel, Hangzhou
78 Beishan Road, Hangzhou 310007 China
Tel : (86 571) 8797 7951

http://www.shangri-la.com/hangzhou/shangrila/dining/restaurants/shang-palace/

Date Visited : Oct 2016