We strolled (well, I limped) back to our room. After a pretty, well, I guess you could say eventful day, we decided to stick close to the hotel. I really needed to rest my foot. Across the street from the hotel was a bunch of smaller hotels and restaurants, and we finally chose this one (photo taken the next morning):
I gotta say we kinda lucked out on this one. In spite of the busy dining area, full of cigarette smoke and demanding customers, the service here was just righ for us. Friendly, without being overbearing. The woman running the dining room seemed to have great control over the employees…… we felt very comfortable here. Our server was quick with a smile, and seemed to enjoy explaining the specials to the Missus.
The Missus translated the menu to me, and I selected a classic Nanjing dish I wanted to try; the Nanjing Salted Duck:
A dish with a long history, this was delicious; fragrant, not too salty, much more tender than I expected, with a mild "wild game" flavor. I really enjoyed this.
The other dish that caught our fancy was the Dry Cooked Wild Mushroom. Man these Cordycep mushrooms were outstanding.
These mushroom were obviously twice cooked, first "passed through the oil", then stir fried with Chinese celery which added a nice palate cleansing flavor to the salty-sweetness of the soy and dark soy sauce and sugar. We ended up ordering this dish when we saw it again later. I've made this dish several times at home, perhaps I'll post a recipe one of these days. This was a very nice dish.
The Missus also enjoyed the simple stir-fried vegetable.
I didn't care much for the soup, which I thought was really bland, but the Missus loved it.
She thought it was light and rejuvenating.
Overall, this was a very nice meal, it was just what we wanted and needed. We simply crossed the street and headed back to our room for a good night's sleep.