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Venice of the East
About 60 miles from Shanghai, Suzhou is known for its canals and gardens, designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In China, it is known alongside Hangzhou as "Heaven on earth", and it is easy to see why as you wander down the sleepy alleys and stroll along its peaceful network of canals. On the bullet train from Shanghai, you can arrive in less than thirty minutes.
On this short trip, I paid a visit to Wumen Renjia, a restaurant with a long history and exemplar of Suzhou's delicate cuisine. The restaurant is housed in a grand courtyard with sprawling grounds, there is even a private dining area on a floating pagoda amid goldfish and waterlilies. Founded in 1986, it is now run by Sha Peizhi, who was interviewed by Fuchsia Dunlop in a recent article for FT.
She says of Suzhou cuisine, "Most dishes are very subtle, with flavours that are light and gentle. They are understated rather than fancy, like our gardens, with their naturalistic elegance. Of course, this means that Suzhou cooking is hard to do well because it relies on the finest, freshest ingredients; and some of our cooking techniques are rather troublesome. But ours is a very balanced style of cooking.”
We had some local wild greens, a light dish of local crystal shrimp, traditional lion's head meatballs, and the squirrel fish that placed Suzhou on the culinary map. The sweet flavours were balanced with the tastes of undeniably fresh ingredients, and all dishes were prepared as refined and delicate as Peizhi promised.
Below are some pictures of my brief but unforgettable day in Suzhou, including a mandatory stop at a famous stinky tofu stand- the best I've had- and that is a HUGE statement considering what a big fan I am.
Suzhou's Gardens of Contentment
