We arrived in Nanjing after a relatively short two hour bus ride from Suzhou. I'd been told that "100 kilometers or two hours away from anywhere in China, in any province, the food will be different." It had been a two hour bus ride from Hangzhou to Suzhou, and the cuisine was quite different. Now, in Nanjing the capital of China during six dynasties, and along with Beijing, Xi'an (our next destination), and Luoyang, one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, I was curious to see if the cuisine would differ so much. It would be interesting to see since we were still within Jiangsu Province. We caught a cab from the bus station to our hotel, during which time the Missus struck up a conversation with the cab driver. Finding out he was born and raised in Nanjing, the first business at hand would be questions about what to eat. I had a couple things in mind, but still really didn't know too much about Nanjing style food. The cab driver went through a couple of things, made a recommendation of a place to eat, and more importantly, where not to eat and why.
We arrived at the hotel, settled in, rested my foot which was starting to look pretty bad for about a half hour, then set out on foot to the major shopping area around the Confucian Temple and Qinhuai river….. bustling and busy…..
The Missus hit the brakes right alongside one of the snack stands……
Pointed at one of the mounds…….
And told me, "we gotta get this!"
It was my first experience with Gua Wei Can Dou (Strange Flavor Broad Beans – 怪味蚕豆).
One bite, and I was hooked! We stopped by here two more times during the trip. This version was the best I had.
Near the Qinhua River, we found the place the cab driver had recommended.
Walked through the doors and entered the restaurant upstairs…..
And was seated at one of the long tables in the dining area….
So what was this place?
Well, I heard that Nanjing was famous for its snacks; and this was a restaurant specializing in "Snack Banquets". There were several multi-course banquets available ranging in price from relatively inexpensive (by US standards) to very expensive (also by US standards). We just went with the most simple banquet.
And then it started……. plates started arriving at a pretty incredible speed.
And they just kept coming…..
And coming…..
Much of it was rather unremarkable……
For instance, on this plate, the only item I enjoyed was the Nanjing Salted Duck, one of a handful of Nanjing specialities I knew of.
On the other hand, I found that I didn't care for another Nanjing specialty, Duck Blood soup.
Man, this was pretty hardcore; next to the "Everything Soup" from Huguosi Snack Bar in Beijing, this was probably the most difficult item I'd had to date. Strong offal flavor; very metallic, not my cup of tea.
Most of the other soups were pretty routine in flavor.
More dishes…..
It was fairly apparent that everything has to be prepared ahead of time…….
And some of it rather haphazardly, check out the stray rice on the wrapper of the zongzi…..
All the dumplings, bao, and like were served cold……
My favorite item, was this…….
Though I'm not a big fan of pork sung, I loved the texture of this….. that's when the Missus told me, "oh, it says they make this with duck lard"…. duh…..
The rest of the meal.
In the end, this was more about the experience then the food. We'd find the same thing again a bit later on during or trip.
We left the restaurant, with almost a half day ahead of us. But by that time; my foot was really killing, and as I hobbled back to the hotel, I knew it had to be addressed……
Stay tuned!