Hangzhou

Nestled by the banks of the West Lake is a place where au naturel is the keyword. Xu Jinqian has the details.

Longjing Manor by the West Lake in Hangzhou is not the first restaurant to advocate and serve "natural food", and it will not be the last, as healthy eating trends bloom across the country.

But for its thorough pursuit of "eating in accordance with the season and regional produce", Longjing is to be applauded.

This quaint and secluded complex has no main dining room, and its eight private rooms can accommodate no more than 80 at one seating. Everything served, from the appetizing soy milk drink to the signature scrambled eggs with chives to the vegetable juices, is guaranteed "natural" and untainted by chemicals or artificial flavorings.

"We believe the essence of the delicacy lies in the preservation of the original taste of the raw ingredient," says Dai Jianjun, the owner of Longjing Manor. Dai styles himself a custodian of traditional Chinese culinary culture.

To deliver the "taste of the raw ingredient", Dai makes it a rule that all food must be sourced from the farm instead of the local market, so the vegetables and rice are free of pesticides, livestock are reared without hormones, and even the cooking oil is home-pressed.

As a result, everything here tastes fresh and pristine. Most of the dishes are culled from Chinese home-cooking, like red-braised belly pork, stir-fried vegetables and chicken soup.

But Zhu Yinfeng, chef of the restaurant, describes working at Longjing as a "mission impossible" not unlike "undergoing a rehab program".

"I have to keep telling myself that it's OK not to use monosodium glutamate or other artificial flavorings considered indispensable in the industry. It's so hard that, at first, my hands were simply out of control. I worried constantly that diners would find my food tasteless," Zhu recalls.

"Luckily, the response was good," he says. Zhu now spends his time outside the kitchen tending to his bee hives for honey, learning about different kinds of vegetables in the field and making home-pressed camellia tea-seed oil.

At Longjing Manor, patrons are more than welcome in the kitchen, or on the farm where the ingredients are sourced, to supervise or to experience the whole process of preparing their meal.

The minimum charge for a meal set at Longjing is 1,600 yuan ($243), and there is no a la carte menu.

Customers make a call and indicate how much they are prepared to spend, and the kitchen sends out the buyers. The more you pay, the more luxurious the ingredients used in the meal.

"Customers can name what they want to eat, or how they want it cooked when making reservations so our buyers can source them from the countryside in advance. But again, it must be seasonal and regional, because we believe that's the healthy and natural way to eat, just as our ancestors did for thousands of years," Dai says.

(China Daily 03/27/2011 page13)