Day 3 of the retreat in Shaoxing, and we continue to dine in the resort restaurant. Today, we pretty much complete the journey throughout the entire menu of the restaurant.
1/12 精美陆味碟 Six flavourful appetisers
The dinner started with the familiar 6 plates of appetisers.
糟三宝 Three treasures in yellow wine
Cooked food marinated in rice wine 糟货 has a long history and is regarded as an ancient technique in Chinese cuisine that can be traced to pre-Qin dynasty period. It was first mentioned in the “Prose of Chu” 楚辞 more than 2,000 years ago. In the “Dream of Red Mansions” written by Cao Xueqin in the Qing dynasty, exquisite tastes such as wine marinated goose paw and quail were mentioned.
Tonight we had pig stomach, prawns, edamame, duck tongue and abalone all served marinated in yellow wine.
笋干菜梗 Dried bamboo shoots and vegetable stems
农家鱼冻 Fish aspic
Fish meat is placed in fish consommé and gelatine is added to form the aspic.
三味花生米 Three tasty peanuts
A very interesting mix of peanuts – the first two types can be commonly found in other places – roasted and salted. The last one was coated with a sweet crust that is black and tasted like olive.
宁波抢蟹 Ningbo-style drunken raw crab
五香豆腐干 Five spice dry bean curd
2/12 翡翠银鱼羹 White bait and vegetable soup
One of the nearby lake to Shaoxing is Taihu, and this dish is one of the famous three “white” from Taihu.
3/12 清蒸大闸蟹 Steamed hairy crabs
And this was the season for hairy crab, so we definitely have to have one. And once again I demonstrated how one can eat a crab and “reassemble” it back together.
4/12 霉菜梗豆腐 Stinky vegetable and tofu
If you think stinky tofu is bad, think again. Try steaming vegetable that has gone off with tofu. Not for the faint-hearted.
5/12 农家腊猪脸 Farmer’s stewed pig’s face
The Europeans have similar dish, but they usually cure the pig face before taking the flesh and skin out of it. The Shaoxing folks just boiled it with spices and salt and then served it whole.
6/12 花雕飘香鸡 Roasted chicken in huadiao wine
Two steps are needed to make this dish. The chicken is marinated with soy sauce and yellow wine and roasted. Then it is stewed in more yellow wine.
7/12 蒸三臭 Three stinky ingredients
OK, if the previous tofu was not good enough, this one the epitome of stink – three foul ingredients are steamed together. It has to be served last, so that people will not be put off from the first dish.
8/12 五谷庆丰登 Five steamed grains
Finally, something more normal.
One More Thing
After spending three days in the resort, eating lunch and dinner at the same restaurant, we have almost finished every dish on their menu.
9/12 回味鲨鳗鲞 Smoked shark eel
Surprisingly, the smoked shark eel was still tender and the smoke process dehydrates and concentrate the flavours.
10/12 酸辣黑木耳 Sour and spicy black wood fungus
11/12 蜜枣 宁波酱鸭 Sweet dates and smoked soy duck
Just when you think you have tried every possible ingredient that can be marinated in rice wine, you get this “drunken dates” – not getting your date drunk. Whole dates are marinated in Shaoxing wine and the dates soaked up all the alcohol like a Moschino cherry.
12/12 清蒸青蟹 Steamed mud crab
Right, that’s it folks, everything from the resort.
Yu Mansion 禹家大院
二环南路1988号 （大禹开元度假村内）Yuecheng District, Shaoxing, China
Tel : +86 575 8829 8888
Date Visited : Oct 2017
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