The hotel's exterior is simple and elegant. Although the sign is a bit old, it exudes a strong sense of historical heritage.
Walking into the hotel, the interior decoration style is full of the charm of old Shanghai. The wooden tables and chairs are neatly arranged, and some old Shanghai photos and celebrity calligraphy and paintings are hung on the walls, as if telling the hotel's glorious past.
Unlike ordinary state-owned restaurants, when Daya and her group walked into the restaurant, the waiters immediately came up to them warmly and led them to a large round table by the window on the second floor.
Since it was everyone's first time in Huzhou, the responsibility of ordering food naturally fell to Fu Bo and Du Yu.
After a while, authentic local dishes were served on the table one after another, which immediately cheered up the little Hongdou who was a little listless. She stared at the delicious food in front of her with her big eyes without blinking.
The first dish is fried shrimp, which is also a signature dish of Shanghai cuisine. The shrimp shells are fried until bright red and crispy, and the shrimp meat is tender and juicy. When you put it in your mouth, you first feel the crispness of the shrimp shells, followed by the sweetness of the shrimp meat. The rich aroma of shrimp oil spreads on the tip of your tongue, leaving you with an endless aftertaste.
Next is the fried eel paste. As soon as it is served on the table, you can smell the aroma.
The thick eel shreds are attractive in color, sprinkled with chopped green onions and minced garlic. The waiter skillfully pours hot oil on them, and they instantly sizzle and smell fragrant.
The eel is extremely smooth and tender, with a mellow taste and a moderate salty and sweet flavor that perfectly reflects the characteristics of local cuisine.
What was served next was the bright red and shiny braised pork. Each piece of meat was square and evenly sized, and you could tell at a glance that the chef had excellent knife skills.
The skin of the braised pork is slightly wrinkled, shining attractively under the light, as if telling of its softness and sweetness.
Pick up a piece and put it in your mouth. The first thing you feel is the slightly burnt outer skin. With a light bite, it breaks with a "click". Then you will feel the soft and delicate meat that melts in your mouth. The sweet but not greasy taste spreads in your mouth instantly.
The collagen in the pork skin and the tenderness of the lean meat are perfectly blended, and every bite will make you intoxicated and unable to stop.
Another dish, "Three Shredded Pork with Three Threads," features finely chopped ham, chicken breast, and bamboo shoots neatly arranged in a bowl, steamed, and then turned upside down on a plate, topped with a delicious broth. The flavors of these three ingredients blend seamlessly, the salty aroma of the ham, the tenderness of the chicken breast, and the freshness of the bamboo shoots interweaving in the mouth. Each bite is richly layered, delicate, and delicious.
Everyone savored these delicious dishes while admiring the quaint decorations in the restaurant and feeling the charm of Shanghai's unique food culture.
The local cuisine is mainly sweet, which just suits the preferences of Funiu, Lin Hongxia, Lele and Xiao Hongdou. However, Daya and Erya, who are from Sichuan, still feel that they cannot live without spicy food. But they have to admit that the chefs in the Huzhou Old Restaurant are really good, and even for people like them who like spicy food, it is easy to accept.
Attracted by the delicious food, the aunt and niece, Funiu and Lele, had narrowed their eyes. Little Hongdou, being too young, had not yet learned to use chopsticks, so she could only keep urging her mother and aunt to pick up food for her, fearing that if she was slow, the food would be eaten up by her aunt and sister.
Wenwen and Xu Ping'an were also very interested in the local dish, braised pork. Seeing that it was gone after everyone took a bite, Fu Bo had to find the waiter again and order three more servings. At the same time, he asked them to change the rice bowls for everyone to large ones, which scared the front office manager.
In fact, this matter really cannot be blamed on Fu Bo. It is just that the rice bowls in the Huzhou Old Restaurant are too small. At most, they are slightly larger than the tea bowls, which is limited and cannot meet the needs of everyone.
Before half of the dishes were served, Wenwen had already eaten three bowls of rice, and even Xiaohongdou had finished a bowl of rice.
Seeing this, the waiter knew that this family had a huge appetite, so he used the large bowl from the kitchen to serve each person a bowl of steamed rice, excluding the small red bean bowl.
After the rice and the re-ordered braised pork were served, they devoured them in no time. Wenwen and Xu Ping'an even poured the braised pork broth directly onto the rice and ate it with relish, looking very satisfied.
At this time, little Red Bean's face was rosy from eating, his greasy little mouth was covered with sauce, and his big eyes were shining.
She was holding a fried shrimp in her left hand, a piece of braised pork in her right hand, and chewing rice mixed with soup in her mouth, mumbling incoherently: "Mom, it's delicious!"
After she finished eating what she had in her hand, she would stretch out her little hand from time to time, pointing at a dish on the table, signaling her mother, aunt, sister and brothers to eat more, which made everyone laugh and cry.
At this time, Xu Jianguo, who was far away in Jingzhou, didn't know that originally, he hoped that Funiu and others could persuade Lele again during this trip to Huzhou.
Even though the application form has been filled out and the college entrance examination is over, as long as this girl asks, her father Xu Jianguo still has a way to send her to a famous medical university in Jingzhou.
But he could never have imagined that just a meal of authentic local cuisine would further strengthen Lele's determination to come to Huzhou to study.
There was no other reason, it was just because the food here was so much to her taste that she couldn't stop eating. She secretly swore in her heart that after she came here to study, she would try all the food in Huzhou.
But what she didn't know was that the Naval Medical University was different from ordinary schools. It was a military-run institution. How could she possibly want to leave the school? Haha...
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Fu Bo and Du Yu drove them to the Bund.
The Bund is located on the banks of the Huangpu River in Huangpu District, Huzhou City. Since the mid-19th century, it has gradually become an important landmark of Huzhou and even Longxia Kingdom.
In the turbulent times decades ago, the Bund was the core area where Western powers established concessions in Shanghai. Buildings of different styles from various countries sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. Among them was the Huifeng Bank Building, which symbolized the classical style of the United States. Its solemn and magnificent appearance, exquisite carvings and tall columns demonstrated its former status as a financial hegemon.
There is also the Customs Building in the French Renaissance style. Its towering clock tower and unique architectural shape tell of the prosperity and vicissitudes of the past over the years.
These buildings bear witness to how Huzhou gradually developed from a small fishing village into the largest city in the Far East, and also bear the humiliation and struggle of Longxia Kingdom in modern history.
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