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Eating
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You'll find a few
restaurants
around the northern half of Jiefang Lu, including a small
food street
on an alley near the stone bridge one block south of the
Jinyu Hotel.
The restaurant in the
Jinyu Hotel
is quite good, serving several dishes in the local Shaoxing
mei
(charcoal grilled) style, but the menu is in Chinese only. Dried freshwater fish is a great speciality in Shaoxing, as is the
yellow rice wine
which they claim to have been making round here for over two thousand years. It's made from locally grown glutinous rice and (most importantly) water from Jian Hu, a substantial lake to the southwest. These days the wine is more commonly used for cooking than drinking. To try it, your best bet is to order
Shaoxing ji
(Shaoxing chicken - cooked in the wine) for dinner. While walking around town you might be struck by the huge number of stalls selling that malodorous staple of Chinese street life,
tofu doufu
(smelly tofu). The recipe, since disseminated all over China, was allegedly created by a Shaoxing woman. Tired of her limited cooking prowess, she decided to experiment by throwing a variety of spices into a wok with some
tofu doufu.
If you dare to try the food behind the foul smell, you will find, surprisingly, that the taste doesn't stink. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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China,
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