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Pork braised in brown sauce. [Photo provided to China Daily]
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The "four beauties" dish uses four precious ingredients－matsutake mushrooms, fish, water shield (chun cai) from West Lake, and crab roe. It originated from a recipe in a book by scholar Li Yu from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The thick soup is fresh and tasty, allowing the flavor of each ingredient to shine through.
One of the signature dishes is walnut cake, which is inspired by a traditional Chinese rice cake. It takes two hours to stew the caramel and integrate it with Hangzhou's famous walnut to make the cake.
Chef Yu says it's better to have the tasty dessert with Hangzhou's well-known green tea Longjing.
Guests can have a sip of the tender tea buds picked before Tomb Sweeping Day in early April, which is believed to be the best time to pick spring tea. The delicate fragrance is a perfect match with the sweet dessert.
As a symbol of the city, Longjing tea ("dragon well" tea) is also used in some innovative dishes. Cream pudding with Longjing tea sauce is like a potted flower, delivering the tea's bitter taste followed by bright sweetness.
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