Holding off on posts for a few days. Will be moving site over to a new server in the coming week where I will also be adding a section with tips on taking better photos.

lol Pizza Hut 

Location: Hangzhou, China

Cuisine: Balling 

Dress Code: Baller suit

Dining Style: Casual to Fine Dining<—(not really)

Price: the meal here was more expensive than a fine dining restaurant<—-(really) I went to earlier in the week that was considered one of the higher end restaurants in Hangzhou

Why am I posting about pizza hut? Because I can! Well, that and I was told that pizza hut is a fine dining establishment in China and is a different experience from the one in the states. My friends here raved about how different it is. I simply explained to them that New Yorkers don’t eat pizza hut to begin with and we are especially proud of our NY pizza so even if this was amazing, I would have stood by New York pizza all the way.

Upon entering, we were seated by a hostess lol 

Ballinnnnnng

Some fine wine to go with your personal pan pizza?

Supreme: Chicken, Ham, Italian Sausage, Peppers, Corn, Pineapple, Cheese and Jumbo Shrimp baked in to the crust

The Hawaiian: cheese, ham, and pineapple

OMG! its sooooo CHEESY!!!!!

Actually…..it wasn’t….as you can see by the 2 inches of bread and the layer of cheese that was painted on. I just make things look better than they should.

So not the best pizza, but I’m a New Yorker and we have amazing pizza.  An extra shout out to Chicago deep dish too. Cheese is not a local product so it’s very expensive in China. Just for comparison purposes, a bottle of wine was 128 rmb and a medium sized pizza with extra cheese and nothing else was 90 rmb. The large supreme pizza with all of those toppings and the stuffed jumbo shrimps was only 80 rmb and the hawaiian with ham and pineapples was only 72. These prices are actually pretty high for food in China. I bought a bunch of raw mantis prawns earlier in the week at under 1 rmb each. 

Ok. It’s not like you’re going to get pizza anywhere else so you gotta do what you gotta do. The supreme actually wasn’t bad because there was so much going on that you kind of forget that its a pizza. I like jumbo shrimp so they got some points for that. It was a nice experience none the less just to say I went to a fine dining pizza hut. 

Xi’an Hotel/西安饭庄

Location:  396 Zhong San Nan Lu in Shang Cheng Qu of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China/上城区中山南路396号

Cuisine: Chinese/Xi’an

Dress Code: None

Dining Style: Casual

Price: Inexpensive. They do have a more pricier list for large entrees but I just wanted some snacks and those were all in the single digit list. 

I love Xi’an famous foods in NYC and had a craving for liang pi which I get pretty often in the city so I had to come in here for a snack while I passed by. My only experience with xi’an cuisine is from xi’an famous foods in nyc so I’m basing my tastes on that.

Hot and sour soup…..a real one, not the ones you get at the 4 chicken wings and fries places with the bulletproof windows that we new yorkers have come to love…well not me but whatever floats your boat. This was a real well made hot and sour soup and it was actually spicy. The broth was clean and didn’t have a lot of residue which means it was most likely put through a fine mesh siev first so care was put in to it resulting in a much better flavor. 

LAMB!!!

left: The lamb *stick* was sooooo goooood. The meat was so tender that it fell off the bone. It also had a nice seer going around which added a light crunch for texture. I don’t remember the price but it was very inexpensive. Maybe less than 2 american dollars per stick?

right:  I’m not a fan of the lamb burger at xi’an famous foods in nyc because it heavily  uses cumin which I dislike but the lamb burger here at xi’an hotel didn’t so I enjoyed it very much. The lamb was juicy, tender and the right amount of moistness from the gravy it was cooked in. The bread used  was soft but sturdy enough to hold together the generous portions of lamb inside

Liang Pi: I got both the regular and spicy ones just for comparison purposes but I love spicy foods so naturally, the spicy one was my favorite. This was far different than the liang pi that I’m used to from xi’an famous foods in nyc. It was a thicker round noodle opposed to the flat noodles. The texture of these noodles weren’t as sticky either and were more close to that of noodles used in soups. It felt more like a fine dining liang pi. The spice although good wasn’t as strong as the one from xi’an famous foods though. It wasn’t as spicy and lacked the ma la(numbing spice) component. 

The liang pi here was  good in its own way but I personally still prefer the liang pi at xi’an famous foods since I like the al dente flat noodles and their spice recipe. What I do enjoy more here is their lamb burger not only because it doesn’t use cumin but a much more higher quality lamb. The lamb stick goes without saying as one of my favorite things that I’ve eaten and I’d compare the quality to that to a lamb dish I’ve had at cafe boulud which is a michelin one star by daniel boulud. Yeah…it was that good. 

Jean Georges/Shanghai

Location: No.3 Bund 4th floor 3 Zhong Shan Dong Yi Road Shanghai/黄浦区中山东一路3号外滩3号4楼

Cuisine: French

Dress Code: For Lunch/None….Jeans and a Yankees Cap, but I believe there might be one for dinner

Dining Style: Fine Dining

Price: Lunch Pre-fixe was 598rmb before the service charge which would come out to close to 100 american so it’s very close to the one in NYC. Dinner is around 1300 rmb which would be a bit over 200 american which is also very close to the price of the one in NYC. 

It’s very hard to find good sweets in China since the majority of the desserts cater to the locals which is a more subtle taste. I do enjoy chinese desserts but I did miss the taste of rich creamy chocolate and Jean Georges is well known around the world for his chocolate cake. I also wanted to see how this restaurant would differ in taste being in Shanghai.

Cherry and Yuzu Soda

Kingfish Sashimi w/Chipotle Emulsion and Crispy Rice

- A very nice start to the meal. The crispy rice was light and airy which provided a nice subtle crunch and neutral flavor which paired very well with the rich chipotle emulsion and the kingfish sashimi. 

Crispy Crabcake w/Sugar Snap Pea Remoulade

- I picked this dish because I missed crab cakes and also because it used beijing crab which would be a local product. The added sweetness of the sugar snap pea remoulade paired very well with the crabcake and was a very good variation of the traditional tarter sauce used on crab cakes.

Caramelized Beef Tenderloin w/Carrots+Miso and Mustard

- I usually like medium to medium well when it comes to beef but I picked medium for the tenderloin since I found that the majority of chinese tastes prefer a more cooked piece of beef so I figured that medium would be playing it safe.  It was cooked close to a medium well and had a nice crispy seer. It paired very well with the pureed carrots which did not do well alone. I wasn’t a fan of the mustard so I avoided it entirely.  

Prosciutto wrapped Pork Chop w/Glazed Mushrooms+Sage

I’ve been eating pork a lot in China and it does taste better than pork from the states so this was acceptable since I usually never get a pork dish for my meat course when dining in the states. This was a very generous portion of thick porkchop that had the right amount of fat that I prefer. I wasn’t a fan of the prosciutto wrap though since I think the saltiness overpowered the pork chop. 

The four mushrooms used were shimiji, shitake, button and bailing. 

Jean Georges Chocolaté Cake

All I can say is this was slamming!!! I was full at this point of the meal since the portions were quite generous, but I still managed to devour this. The perfectly made cake shaped like a chocolate mt. fuji with its frosted white top opened up to a delicious warm, rich and creamy chocolate center. It paired so damn well with the cold ice cream on the side. Unfortunately, I have no picture of the inside since I scarfed it down and completely forgot about taking a picture. 

My experience here was great and I’m sure that dinner would be significantly better since that’s where the main focus is. Lunch is more casual and Jean Georges is known for an elegant fine dining experience.  The service was top notch as expected and the dude with his little comb for brushing off the crumbs finally made an apperance in Shanghai.  The decor was beautiful and at night would be a very nice spot to dine since its windows overlook a beautiful view of the bund.

Jin Lu 锦庐/The Chinoise Story

Location: no. 59 Mao Ming South Road Jin Jiang Hotel, Shanghai, China/卢湾区茂名南路59号锦江饭店锦北楼

Cuisine: New Shanghai

Dress Code: None/ I had on jeans and a yankee cap

Dining Style: Casual Elegant

Price: This was relatively high for a restaurant in Shanghai. I did one of the least expensive tasting menus since this was supposed to be a snack and it was still about 500+ rmb for two people who barely ate. 

I stumbled upon this restaurant with a friend when we were randomly walking around looking for a place to eat. Initially, this wasn’t on my list of places to go and was a spur of the moment dinner/snack. Upon entering, you can easily tell that its a well established fine dining restaurant by the decor and the wall with a picture of their chef standing next to Chef Ferran Adria of el Bulli and their multiple awards including past awards in best food and wine, five star diamond, top 10 hotel, 45 best shanghai of time out and one of the best jingnan restaurants/time out. 

The Chinois Story Combinations

Broth Shredded Bean Curd with Crab Meat and Truffle

Braised Duck with Soya Sauce

-This was well seasoned and had a lot of flavor but I like fat on my duck and this duck spent too much time at the gym.

Grilled Cod with Stir-fried Egg White and Caramelized Vintage Dark Vinegar

The Magnificent Duo of Oatmeal and Wasabi-mayo Prawns

- There were several different tasting menus, but I picked this one specifically for this one dish. I love prawns and one of my favorite dishes is honey walnut prawn which I often make myself and try my own variations on.

This was a very impressive dish for me. I was looking forward to the wasabi-mayo one for inspiration on my own dishes but ended up being more inspired by the oatmeal encrusted prawn. The wasabi mayo one was good but the oatmeal crust went so well with the prawn and gave it a different type of crunch from the traditional beer/panko/tempura/corn starch/ etc crunch I’m used to. Both the oatmeal and prawn stood equally in flavor without any one thing overpowering the other. I could have eaten 20 of these! 

Left: Deep fried Lychee with Crab Meat in Curry Sauce

- I think it was at one of Daniel Bouluds restaurants that I had a peekytoe crab dish that incorporated apples and have since fell in love with that flavor combination so I had the chef replace one of the dishes on the tasting menu with this particular one since it incorporated lychee and curry. The fried lychee was fine but there wasn’t enough crab for me to taste whether or not the combination would have worked. 

Right: Shanghai Style Vegetable Fried Rice with Wen Tun Soup

Baked Egg Tart with Sesame Rice Ball

This was not what I expected at all. I was hoping that they incorporated within the custard maybe a pureed sesame rice ball or something inventive…but this was literally a sesame rice ball in the middle of the puff pastry with no custard whatsoever. My favorite thing about an egg tart is the texture of the custard paired with the thin puff pastry but this was the sticky texture of a rice ball paired with the puff pastry which was not to my liking. 

The Chinoise Story Dessert

-This was just fruit with a cup of dry ice for presentation…and I think thats a chocolate cake hiding behind the dragonfruit…..I didn’t want to find it.

Overall, my experience was good here. The waitress was accommodative to my requests for switching out certain dishes and also wrote me a list of the dishes in english which made up for the pacing of the food being too fast that it became buffet style which I did not like for a fine dining establishment.  Also, I had taken for granted the dude that comes with his little comb to brush stuff off my table which I get when dining out in NY but wasn’t present here.  The shining light is the magnificent duo of oatmeal and wasabi-mayo prawns and that alone would keep me going back to this restaurant to try other things on the menu. 

Li Shui literally means, ” Beautiful Water” is a prefectural level city in China known for its beautiful mountains and rivers. I don’t really like doing scenic shots but this place was beautiful so I put on my circular polarizer and played around with some hand held HDR. 

Just to keep with the mitch eats too much theme, here’s a quick contact sheet of the food from the restaurants out here. It wasn’t anything special except the fact that it was purely organic.

This was just a boiled unseasoned chicken with soy sauce for dipping, but it tasted so much better than any chicken because it was truly organic being raised by farmers opposed to machines or cloned or injected with anything. 

Jingning

While in Jingning which is an autonomous county in Lishui, my cousins out here brought me to a restaurant towards the end of a mountain path that was basically the house of one of the locals. This was truly a treat being that it’s an untouched area by tourists. It was literally in the middle of no where, then up a mountain path where you would never expect a restaurant to be. I barely even saw any locals.

The kitchen used firewood.

The stream of water from the mountains were used to clean the fresh vegetables.

Fresh shitake! I love shitake mushrooms so I pretty much had it for every meal since the bulk of them are grown in lishui. Everywhere I passed by had hundreds of shitakes drying out on the street. I found it funny that the people out here hated shitake mushrooms with a passion since its basically what they eat, see, breathe everyday. 

Just going to leave the dishes in contact sheet form since there isn’t much to show aesthetically. It’s just a record of the fresh food that came straight from the nature surrounding the restaurant.

There’s a Nan Xiang located in Queens, NY that is my go to for the best Shanghainese small eats in New York City, so naturally I had to go to one of the best ones in Shanghai. This isn’t the original one which would be located in a small town that I won’t be going to but this one is the best one modeled after the original. The one in Flushing is one of my favorite restaurants and probably still is once I get back to NY, but even with all that praise…..the one in Shanghai was significantly better. 

There was a line of about at least 70 plus people waiting outside for takeout. Inside the restaurant, there were 3 different lines for dine in which was a new experience. There was a minimum of 50rmb per person line, 80rmb minimum line, and a 150rmb minimum line. Both the 50 and 80 minimums lines were still pretty damn long, but the 150 one was instant. It worked out perfectly since I’m impatient and a glutton so the 150 minimum was nothing. 

The one of the left is Yao Guo Shu Bing/Cashew Nut Chinese Croquette. 

The one on the right is a crab/xie feng tang bao which is a large xiao long bao filled with the juices/soup of the pork and crab inside. You are given a straw to sip out the soup. This soup was full of crab flavor and it was clear they didn’t hold back on packing the insides with crab. Normally, you don’t eat the bao since its cooked in a way to dry out everything outside to amplify the soup inside. I opened it up and found chunks of crab and roe inside along with the pork. Obviously, I ate that too. 

From left to right: Original Pork Xiao Long Bao, Pork and Crab Xiao Long Bao, Matsutake and Pork Xiao Long Bao.

All of these were amazing. The pork was of high quality, the crab was fresh and the matsutake was aromatic. The xiao long bao was really skillfully made with a soft yet sturdy skin that preserved the flavorful soup inside. Good xiao long bao have a generous amount of soup inside but not watered down. This definitely accomplished both of those things and then some. My experience with places is that everyone messes up at least one thing whether its a great soup with bad meat or great skin with bad soup, etc. The xiao long bao here had perfect 10s in all of the categories. 

The matsutake is a prized mushroom that is firm, meaty, and aromatic. It is also said to have amazing health benefits. I got the matsutake one since matsutake is really hard to get in NYC.  Its usually only served at the expensive restaurants. I’m sure more places have it but the only restaurant that comes to mind that serves it is Kajitsu which is a 2 michelin star shojin cuisine restaurant.  Last I remember, it was part of one of their pre fixe which was priced around 100 per person. Although, there is a clear difference in the rarity and type of matsutake when comparing the one at Kajitsu against Nan Xiang, the one at Nan Xiang still was of a decent quality and maintains the texture and a weaker but still aromatic flavor. It was also priced at around 120 rmb which is about 20 bucks. 

Just landed in Shanghai this afternoon and as I entered through the gates of my  home out here, I had to pick up some ice cream from my security guard. Yes…..my security guard also sells ice cream. 

This may or may not be a dramatization.

Da Guang Ming or in other words Big and Bright is the name of this ice cream that comes in a box that looks like a cleaning product. The design of the package and the only english word being, ” Bright” really doesn’t help it appeal to foreigners as anything but a cleaning product. 

This was the first ice cream I had as a kid when growing up in Shanghai. According to my dad, I learned how to ask for this ice cream at age 2(looks like i was eating too much at an early age already). Usually, its hard to describe the tastes of your childhood without any biases, but I will try. For starters, its a lot less mild than american ice cream. Asian desserts in general are a lot less sweet. The ice cream was firm like the inside of a klondike bar and has more of a milky flavor rather than a vanilla flavor. When I was a kid, this was 10 cents. It is now 60 cents…damn economy! you scary!

Xiao Yang Shen Jiang/Yang’s Fried Dumplings

First stop in Shanghai was Xiao Yang Shen Jian/Yang’s Fried Dumplings. The place serves Shen Jian Bao which is a fried big fat round pork dumpling bao thingy(<—-very technical description..I know)with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. I normally get this a lot when at certain places in NYC but the ones I just had here in Shanghai just blew my mind! The inside is full of delicious meat juice as if it was an oversized xiaolongbao. The skin was a nice golden brown on the bottom with a quality firm texture throughout preserving all the delicious pork and juices within. 

This order of 8 of the most amazing shen jian bao in my life pushed me back a WHOPPING 2 AMERICAN DOLLARS!!! I could have made it rain dumplings in that place at those prices! 

Marea (michelin 2 star)

Cuisine: Italian/Seafood

Dress Code: Smart Casual

Dining Style: Casual Elegant

Executive Chef: Michael White

Location: Midtown West(A,B,C,D,1 to Columbus Circle)

Outdoor Seating: No

Price: $$$$ 

Wallse (michelin 1 star)

Cuisine: Austrian

Dress Code: Business Casual

Dining Style: Casual/Fine Dining

Executive Chef: Kurt Gutenbrunner

Location: West Village(11st street/corner of Washington) A,C,E,L to w.14 street. 1 train to Christopher street.

Outdoor Seating: Yes

Price: $$$$ (Choose your own 4 dish pairing for $89/6 dish pairing for $109)

Appetizer: Marinated veal loin and tuna with fried caper berries

Appetizer: Foie Gras terrine with peach gelée and brioche 

Appetizer: Spätzle with braised rabbit, wild mushrooms, and green asparagus 

Fish Course: Poached Maine lobster with cherries, fava beans, and béarnaise sauce 

Fish Course: Steamed halibut with cucumbers, dill, and chanterelles 

Fish Course: Slow cooked Arctic char with tomatoes and buttermilk-lime marinade  

Fish Course: Pan seared brook trout with apple, celery, and elderflower sauce 

Meat Course: Wiener Schnitzel with potato-cucumber salad and lingonberries

Meat Course: Pan seared NY strip loin and steak tartare praline with King oyster mushrooms 

Meat Course: Sautéed squab with chanterelles, spinach, and quail egg ravioli  

Meat: Oxtail goulash and bread dumpling with baby bok choy  

Dessert: Champagne soup with elderflower mousse and fresh market raspberries 

Dessert: Chilled Marillenknödel with marinated apricot salad

Dessert: Salzburger Nockerl with huckleberries