El restaurante Manfulou está situado en el corazón de Pekín, a pocos minutos caminando de la ciudad prohibida y en una zona donde aún se puede pasear por los hutong, los callejones tradicionales de muros grises tan característicos de la capital china.
La suntuosa decoración interior de Manfulou se inspira en los palacios de la China imperial. Tanto en la planta baja como en el primer piso, (al que se accede en ascensor) hay amplios salones y acogedores reservados con decoración tradicional china. Una de las sorpresas que reserva Manfulou es su espectacular terraza con vistas directas al parque de Beihai, y en especial a la pagoda blanca que corona este antiguo parque imperial.
Manfulou se especializa en huoguo, o “caldero mongol”, uno de los platos más típicos de Pekín. Pero más que un plato en sí, el huoguo es una manera de comer. Consiste en una olla llena de agua con determinados condimentos que se pone sobre la mesa al fuego hasta que hierve. Entonces se van introduciendo los ingredientes crudos en la olla para cocinarlos al momento. Una vez hervidos, se sacan de la olla, se mojan en una salsa especial (la tradicional es una salsa de sésamo a la que se añade perejil y cebollino chino picado) y ya están listos para comer.
Las ollas de Manfulou son las tradicionales de cobre, aunque en lugar de una gran olla por mesa para compartir son pequeñas ollas individuales.
Los ingredientes que se pueden comer de esta manera son muy variados: todo tipo de verduras, setas, tofu, y, sobre todo, carne de cordero y ternera. Al comer huoguo, lo mejor es hacer una selección equilibrada de ingredientes, pidiendo carne, verduras, setas, tofu, bolas de pescado o marisco e incluso fideos chinos.
La calidad y frescura de la materia prima y la selección del producto son la insignia de Manfulou, que ofrece carnes de cordero y ternera procedentes de lugares famosos por sus pastos, como Mongolia Interior e incluso Nueva Zelanda. La carne es fresca, o congelada, pero siempre cruda para hervirla en el huoguo.
La cocina china es famosa por aprovechar todas las partes del animal. De hecho, para los no escrupulosos, el corazón de cordero cortado en tiras es una de las elecciones más recomendables para el huoguo. Otra de las estrellas de la carta son las bolas frescas de calamar, elaboradas artesanalmente y sin fécula.
La excelente calidad de sus productos, su espectacular decoración y su ubicación hacen de Manfulou una parada obligada para los que quieran captar la esencia de la cultura culinaria pekinesa.
Precio aproximado por persona: 120-150 Rmb
Platos recomendados: Huoguo (caldero mongol). Ingredientes recomendados (para el huoguo): Cordero lechal fresco, corazón de cordero cortado en tiras, ternera grasa, bolas frescas de calamar y setas negras chinas (xianggu).
One of our favourite Chinese cold dishes is Jellyfish Salad. Haizhe or Haizhetou as its called on most Chinese menus. The salad usually comes accompanied with golden needle mushrooms (Jinzhengu), Soya Sauce, rice vinegar and topped with fresh coriander and a pinch of MSG. Some variations add sesame oil and cucumber. Sichuan Restaurants tend to liberally lace the salad with fiery chillies. Yum!
A Great Cold Salad
Jellyfish salad is a fantastic way to start a meal. The crisp and crunchy texture of the jellyfish contrasts with the much softer texture of the mushrooms. At the same time it absorbs and is enhanced by the strong flavours of the soya sauce, sesame oil and vinegar. To wash it down I’d recommend an ice cold (bingzhen) Snow, Yanjing or Qingdao beer as the perfect accompaniment for this dish.
Jellyfish can have different colours
Depending on where, and sometimes when, the jelly fish can either be dark brown and served in chunky pieces or it can be transparent and cut up into thin strips. The Rhipolema esculenta is the most common edible type. The good news for those with withdrawal symptoms, like myself, edible jellyfish can now be found in many Chinese grocery stores in most major cities around the world. Unless it is already precooked and packed, (often the transparent variety), you usually have to soak it before use.
Living Madrid we are lucky enough to have a number of Chinese restaurants that serve a pretty decent jellyfish salad. My Chinese friends told me that the Chinese have been exploiting jellyfish for more than 1700 years and swear that it has medicinal properties. Especially for the bones they claim. I only know that it is delicious.
The bar was pretty cool; just a few wooden tables with simple but stylish decoration. We ordered a bottle of dry red wine and savoured the moment as the dark burgundy liquid filled our glasses. We toasted and rejoiced that we had chosen well.
Note: after the fire in the old town of Zhongdian it is very possible that this place doesn’t exist anymore.
Adam
But the best was yet to come. The cheese, beautifully presented and excellently cut, looked as if it had arrived straight from Castilla la Mancha. The fried cheese sticks were scrumptious too.
With a little bit of imagination we could almost feel as if we had been transported to one of those lazy, boozy days kicking back in Spain. But actually we were at 3,200 meters above sea level, not too far from the Tibetan border in the Yunnanese town of Zhongdian. The wine and the cheese where both local products; the latter 100% yak….
About the wine and cheese
The wine was a Tibetan red from the Yunnan Shangeli wine company, while the cheese was the result of an amazing project to produce quality yak cheese in one of China’s remotest areas. The Mei Xiang Cheese Factory http://www.meixiangcheese.com/index.asp
is located in Langdu Village in the Diqin Tibetan Autonomous Region of Yunnan. The area where the yaks graze is a pristine alpine spot 4,500 meters above sea level. So far, the Meixiang Factory has developed two types of cheese: the first, Yage, is a Mediterranean Halloumi type cheese with a soft and mild flavour. The second cheese, which is called Geza Gold, is a creamy full flavoured cheese.
The cheese making project
The cheese making project is a result of the collaboration between local Tibetan herdsmen, families from Langdu village and an assortment of outside help such as CERS (China Exploration & Research Society), a Hong Kong based organisationhttp://www.cers.org.hk/ that claims to be committed to “…helping China’s remote regions and implementing projects to conserve nature and culture, in a sensitive and equitable manner…”,
or Ventures in Development http://www.venturesindev.org/index.asp another organisation which aims to build viable projects in remote areas of China. These organisations have provided technical assistance in the guise of professional American cheese experts from the university of Wisconsin who have gone to Langdu to apply their expertise to the production of yak cheese, especially in the areas of quality control and sanitation. The organisations have also tried to find markets for the cheese products.
When I spoke to the lady running the shop and bar in Zhongdian (Shangrila) she told me that while there was a market for the yak cheese in China’s big cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong, two problems needed to be overcome. Firstly, transportation: Langdu is a remote village and infrastructure still leaves a lot to be desired. Secondly, production: the production capacity at Langdu is still very limited and unable to cope with substantial increases in demand. Until those problems are resolved, Zhongdian’s cheese business is likely to remain small-scale.
Though I wish their seemingly harmless and environmentally-friendly enterprise well, I can see a contradiction here. How do you preserve Langdu’s unspoilt wilderness, while at the same time building the transport infrastructure and production capacity to make the yak cheese business viable? Are the two compatible? A question that those involved in the project will need to work out.
For now though, any visitor to Zhongdian should definitely drop into the Shangri-La wine and cheese shop and sample what’s on offer. Apart from the delicious cheese platter with crackers, there are fried yak cheese sticks, yak cheese burgers, yak cheese club sandwiches and a variety of yak cheese salads. The Address is Zhongdian Old Town, Cang Fang Jie, #22. It is just down the hill from the main square. Wine is by the glass or bottle.
In the next week a new article will be posted on HolaChina.com Your Gateway to China about the remote Tibetan village of Cizhong in Yunnan province and Tibetan wine.
The area has a tradition of wine making ever since French missionaries came to the region more than 100 years ago. The village of Cizhong also has a beautiful Catholic church built in traditonal and local style.
Just the name is usually enough for most people to distort their faces in a display of disgust and exclaim: “YUCK”, “URGH” or “revolting”! Quite often this reaction is repeated when they are seen and smelt for the first time, lying on a plate, dark, slimy and odorous. However, if this initial repulse barrier can be overcome and the diner is persuaded to try them, then the reaction is usually, “ah delicious”, “yum”! And a new convert has been won.
The Chinese translation for what we in the West call “thousand-year-old-eggs” is “pine-flower-eggs” (Songhua Dan), due to the flowery patterns resembling pine needles that…….. For more go to: HolaChina: Your Gateway to China
The authentic Chinese Restaurant Nihao XiaoChi, located in Calle Silva Just off the Gran Via in Madrid, closed down a few months ago. It has since resurfaced as Nihao Huoguo in the same street. The food is still great with the added plus that real Sichuan dishes have been added to the menu.
The Chef is from Chongqing and will happily make the authentic fiery Sichuan Huoguo (Sichuan hot pot). See you there!
Huo Guo 火锅, the fiery hot pot from Sichuan and Chongqing, is undoubtedly one of those great culinary experiences you should try when you visit China. It’s not a meal to have on your own, but something to share and savour in the company of friends. I’ve found that between 4 – 6 diners is about the perfect number, but on many occasions it’s simply a case of ‘the more the merrier’.
What exactly is a Huoguo?
A Huoguo is a giant pot of boiling broth to which you keep adding the fresh ingredients you have previously selected from the menu. Accompanying the Huoguo there are a variety of dips into which you dunk the ingredients, once they are cooked. The creamy, sesame sauce dip is the most popular and definitely our favourite. However, in Chengdu you will often find a sharper, sesame oil dip, heavily laced with garlic.
The original hot pots from Chongqing
The original hot pots from Chongqing only came with one option: a bubbling bowl of red- hot liquid filled with chillies, Sichuan peppercorns and other pungent spices. In fact, it was a real case of ‘the spicier the better’. The massive increase in domestic and international tourism in China has resulted in a number of adaptations to the original Huoguo, with many hot pots having their spiciness toned down to suit the palates of the uninitiated and inexperienced; those people whose stomachs would be at serious risk if they were to eat the original thing.
Nowadays, a typical Huoguo bowl comes with a partition: one side is red and hot, while the other is a white and mild broth with hardly any spices. This type of Huoguo goes under various names, such as ‘Hong-Bai’ (Red & White), or ‘Yin and Yang’, as the bowl resembles the Taoist symbol. Moreover, many waiters and waitresses will discuss the required degree of spiciness with their customers, as if they were asking how the customer would like their coffee.
The foremost and original Huoguo ingredient is meat (in fact, the traditional Mongolian hotpot, which is slightly different from what I’m describing here, is almost entirely meat-based), wafer thin slices of either lamb or beef, although nowadays you can put almost anything in a hotpot. Popular options include prawns, squid, fish balls, tiny eels, boiled quails eggs, different types of mushrooms, cabbage, cauliflower and other vegetables, as well as thin noodles. The noodles usually go in last and are drunk with the remainder of the broth as a soup.
Types of Huoguo:
There are different types of Huoguo restaurants. The cheaper ones, which can be found all over the smaller streets of Sichuan’s cities and towns, as well as Chongqing and its environs, are generally run in two ways. Your first option is a buffet, where you pay a fixed price which covers the Huoguo itself and as many ingredients as you wish to put in: you just go up to the buffet table and take whatever you want, and you can repeat this process until you are ready to explode.
In the second type of establishment you take a basket and fill it with your choice of ingredients, all of which are stuck on skewers, and cook them in your hotpot. When you ask for the bill, the waiter counts the empty skewers and you pay according to how many you have taken. Some skewers are marked, so that for example a skewer with prawns will cost more than one with seaweed. It is always cheap, but you might want to establish the price first before going over the top. A spicy chilli oil or sesame sauce dip will accompany the food.
The more upmarket Huoguo restaurants give you a wide choice of soup stocks, such as fish head, hot and sour, extra hot, etc. and a wide range of dips. There is usually a menu card on which you tick the ingredients and the number of portions you want. These menu cards can be a bit daunting if you don’t speak Chinese, but you can always point to what other tables have ordered!
Beware of the Beer Girls!
A common feature of Huoguo restaurants in Sichuan are the ‘beer girls’ (pijiu xiaojie). As soon as you sit down, you’ll be mobbed by skimpily clad girls, most of them in cowgirl outfits complete with mini-skirts and boots, fighting over the right to plonk bottles of beer on your table. Each girl represents a different brand, and before deciding on which beer to order, ask about the price first, as these can vary considerably, depending on the brand and type. Also make sure it’s ice- cold (bing pijiu), as lukewarm Chinese beer and a Huoguo are not a good match. Come September, it gets increasingly difficult to persuade the Chinese that a beer has to be cold and once winter has arrived, you can just about forget it.
Huoguo In Chongqing
My Favourite Huoguo Restaurants:
Chishui, Guizhou Province:
A big modern Huoguo restaurant near the Chishui river. The only pure vegetarian Huoguo I’ve ever had. The friendly owner understood my question and prepared a spicy broth from vegetable stock. The ingredients were incredibly fresh and varied.
Leshan, Sichuan Province:
The street Huoguo in any of the small side streets, all of these are of the ‘grab-a-basket and pick-and-choose-your-skewer’ variety. Choose the first one that grabs your fancy and join the locals for some serious noshing and beer drinking.
The hottest!
Anshun, Guizhou: I had this Huoguo at the night market, it wasn’t my favourite, but the hottest by miles. We realised we were in trouble when the cook dropped a great lump of solidified chilli oil into the pot and we watched in disbelief as it sank beneath a sea of floating chillies and Sichuan peppercorns.
Guijie, Bejing:
If you’re in Beijing and fancy trying a Huoguo, the restaurants on Dongzhimen Xijie, known by the locals as ‘Gui Jie’, are the best place in town. There are loads of restaurants to choose from, all of which stay open until late at night, and even in 2006 it remained an authentic Beijing-er eating area, though you can find expats and tourists as well. Beijing people are extremely fussy when it comes to food, which is why the quality of the ingredients here tends to be excellent. Moreover, some of these restaurants are taking the hotpot to new culinary heights, with three or four different stocks in one pot!
It may look like Pork, taste like Pork, but it sure isn’t! In a country where nearly every part of an animal is eaten and where nearly any animal is seen as edible, it comes as a surprise to find so much good quality vegetarian food.
Shaoxing City 绍兴市 and around. The city of Shaoxing 绍兴市 is situated in the middle of a maze of waterways in Zhejiang Province. It’s easily reached by bus from Hangzhou, the capital of the province, or from the important port city of Ningbo.
If you are heading to the beautiful Buddhist island of Putuoshan, then Shaoxing makes for a great stop-over en route from Hangzhou.
Some of these bridges are endowed with unique architectural designs, such as the Song Dynasty ‘Ba zi’ Bridge 八字桥. The local residents claim that bridges constucted in this style resemble the Chinese character for the number 8 八.
Shaoxing City and around: Dredging the canals
When we were in Shaoxing (2001), a number of canals were undergoing draining and cleaning, and the houses were being restored. It should all look very attractive now.
Shaoxing City and around: Dredging the canals
As for sights, the city is also home to several old residences that once belonged to famous people from different periods of Chinese history. They range from the Ming dynasty painter Xu wei, to the writer Lu Xun, and to Mao’s second in command Zhou Enlai. All the residences are built in traditonal Jiangnan style ( the classic white houses with gardens and patios).
Traditional Bridge and Teahouse Outside Shaoxing
Shaoxing City and around: Outside Shaoxing
Finally, it’s worthwhile to visit the pretty scenery around the East Lake (Donghu), just a few kilometres outside the city. The typical thing to do here is to hire a local wooden boat with black awnings, rowed by an oarsman who uses his feet, rather than his hands, to push a long heavy wooden oar.
Foot Rower Shaoxing
The enchanting countryside near Shaoxing is a maze of patchwork green fields, intersected by hundreds of waterways that are full of busy river traffic. There are also a number of old villages in the area worth visiting, such as Anchang, that are recognised for their traditional style architecture and bridges.
Foot Rower Shaoxing
Places to Stay:
We stayed at the comfortable Shaoxing Fandian, where discounted rooms went for 200 yuan.
There are few pleasures more enjoyable in China, than reclining in a bamboo chair sipping freshly brewed tea from a porcelain cup in an traditional, old teahouse. Whether you are just people-watching, reading a book, planning your next destination or chatting with friends, it’s one of those memories that will stay with you, long after you have left China. Teahouses are commonplace throughout China; Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities all have their own, and many are extremely fashionable, but it is in Sichuan where you will find the genuine article. Many Sichuan teahouses have managed to retain the timeless atmosphere we associate with Ancient China and continue to form part of people’s daily lives.
Teahouses in Sichuan can range from the humblest hovel to a restored Qing mansion, a converted old theatre or a Buddhist or Taoist temple. The simplest teahouses are often set in rickety, old, wooden buildings on the verge of collapse, they…
