One day in Hubei

[Fengyi]

I know this is a long shot, but is there anyone here who has been to Shiyan in Hubei?

I am being flown out there to open a wine shop (! Yes, I know it sounds strange!) and will have two nights there.

I was wondering if anyone had been there and was there anything special to eat? I'm sure the usual banquet will happening for one night, but I was hoping to squeeze some local eating in.

Also, I'll be stuck in Zhengzhou for a while too - anybody with any suggestions for there?

Thanks!

[Fengyi]

Well, to answer my own post, I've found the food in Shiyan to be really suited to my tastes! It's slightly spicy and quite salty- YUM!

Having achieved the ultimate dodgy foreigner dream of starring in a Chinese commercial (to be broadcast on Shiyan TV and featuring me picking out bottles of Burgundy and 'savouring it like music - according to the director' ), I managed to enjoy several meals where everyone was eager to explain the intricacies of Hubei cooking.

I've taken a few shots on my crappy camera phone (forgot my real camera!), and plan to post them when I get back to the Big Beige of BJ...if I'm not being too much of a bore!!!

Edited August 18, 2008 by Fengyi (log)

[Fengyi]

OK so I'm being a bore by replying again to my own post, but I thought someone out there might be interested in Hubei mountain food. Sorry for the quality of the photos - they were taken with my crappy camera phone!

The main feature was the 'bumper harvest' plate which was present at every meal:

which consisted mainly of potato, sweet potato, corn on the cob, peanuts, tomatoes (occasionally) and shanyao (Often translated as Chinese yam).

The meals had some lovely surprises like this soft doufu dish, which had a lovely flavour and gentle, soothing texture:

One of the most interesting dishes for texture and flavour was the one of stir-fried lotus flowers (the young buds) with chillies (but not too many chillies - just enough to add a gentle heat);

at the same meal, we had the braised leaves of some sort of mountain plant - apparently it is only eaten in the mountains of Hubei (I didn't catch the name!). It had a very odd texture, slimy yet tough - but with good flavour:

The most delicious dish, though, was one of the mountain mushroom braised in abalone juice. Beautiful texture and flavour!

A very cute dish was this little fellow made from sweet potato and sticky rice:

For the last meal, we went to a place which was more minority (Tujia I think) and had some food that was slightly spicier like this river fish (whose flesh had a terrific texture!):

and one of THE BEST vegetable dishes I have ever had. It was fried, chopped up turnip greens with garlic and chilli. It was like vegetable crack - I just couldn't stop eating it!

n all I really enjoyed the food there. It was great talking to people about Hubei dishes! It appears that there is a great difference in Mountain food and that of the area closer to the Yangtze. Three guys who had come up from Wuhan were at pains to explain to me how much more river fish they ate!