Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 4: breakfast with a view

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It's our last morning in Hangzhou, and although I was totally stuffed from last night's dinner and absolutely did not need the calories, I dutifully made my way to Charm, the all-day dining venue at Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at Hangzhou Centre. The kind people at the hotel had reserved a corner private room for us, and Chef Neal Zeng (曾东海) was in the kitchen to cook a few special dishes for us.

Before the special dishes arrived - and there would be four of them - of course we had other items from the kitchen as well as the buffet...

Lotus root with glutinous rice, honey, and osmanthus (桂花糖莲藕) - not as luxurious as the one I had yesterday, but I love it all the same. Would love to have it any chance I get.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 3: Taizhou in Hangzhou

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So… a couple of hours after our 20-course lunch, we once again headed out across the river for dinner. Wildyeast (暗香) is a name I have heard about for a couple of years now, although to be honest I didn’t have much of an idea of what cuisine they served. I had thought they were serving a menu that was more Western, but turns out they actually changed to serving Taizhou (台州) cuisine…

A 14-course menu had been set for us. Let’s see how it goes tonight… But first, the introduction of ingredients for the meal, something that seems obligatory by now.

Clay oven baked flatbread with ganba wild mushroom (干巴菌火烧饼) - "fire baked flatbread (火烧饼)" is a Taizhou snack made with cured pork (咸肉) and preserved leafy mustard (梅乾菜) inside layers of pastry. The flatbread is stuck on the inside of a clay oven and baked while exposed to heat from fire. Tonight's version also had some ganbajun (干巴菌), whose distinctive, pungent fragrance was front and center.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 3: lunch in the garden

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The night was uneventful, at least in the safety of my room at the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at Hangzhou Centre. There were a few more cars on the road this morning compared to last night, but the city is pretty much shut down since 6 a.m. I was so, sooo full from last night and was in no condition to have breakfast. However, since the hotel left me a bowl of jasmine and lime water chestnut purée (茉莉花柠香马蹄沙) in the room last night, I decided I should give it a try. I love any water chestnut dessert, and this bowl also had the added fragrance of both lime and jasmine. Very nice.

Lunch today was undoubtedly the highlight of our trip. In fact, it was the reason why I joined this little excursion. I had missed out on visiting Ru Yuan (如院) with DaRC two years ago, and it's been an itch I really wanted to scratch. I'd been waiting to bite into the restaurant's signature fishball since then. Now it was finally my chance.

The restaurant occupies a multi-story structure inside the Hangzhou Botanical Garden (杭州植物园), and is actually a short walk away from the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake. One can immerse oneself in the tranquility and serenity of the place.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 2: Jay-Z cooked me dinner

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It was pissing down pretty hard by the time we arrived at Sense for our dinner. We would be the only customers on this rainy night.

Chef Jay Zhao - who stylizes himself as "Jay-Z" on his chef's whites - hosted us in the restaurant's private room, whose decoration tonight reflected the feminine touches of Chef Jay's Korean wife. We would also be able to see some Korean accents in Chef Jay's cuisine, along with influences from Chef Jay's past - given the time he spent the in kitchens such as Restaurant André and Eleven Madison Park.

Visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites

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Since early 2007, I have been wanting to gear my future travels towards visiting more locations which have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are so many amazing places around the world to see!

Here is the list that I have already visited so far. Click on the links to see pictures from my Google albums.

Total count: 79 sites in 21 countries

Australia
Greater Blue Mountains Area - 1976
Sydney Opera House - 1976

Belgium
The Architectural Works of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement - 2018
Belfries of Belgium and France - 2018
Historic Centre of Brugge - 2018
La Grand-Place, Brussels - 2018
Major Townhouses of the Architect Victor Horta - 2018
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex - 2018
Stoclet House - 2018

Cambodia 
Angkor - 2001

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 2: ode to mountains and seas

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For our lunch at Song (颂) inside the Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at Hangzhou Centre (杭州中心四季酒店), we were hosted inside one of the restaurant's private rooms. It wouldn't be a meal with Mr. Chichi without a long menu, and today the menu went all the way down the back of the menu card... The poetic title was Ode to Mountains and Seas, A Summer Feast of Ningbo (山海颂•甬浙夏宴), as the restaurant specializes in Ningbo (寧波) cuisine. This was a deliberate choice to avoid direct competition with Jin Sha (金沙厅) at the other Four Seasons in town. Chef Neil Zeng (曾东海) - who was previously the head chef at Jin Sha - would be taking good care of us today.

We were meant to have started with something else that served as the first stanza, but the kitchen had other ideas... So let's go with the second stanza, entitled Terroir (越溪风物):

Marinated crab | ginegar | vinegar | soy sauce | liquor (招牌宁式十八斩) - I tasted more ginger and less chili. I also think this was less savory, maybe because the soy sauce-based marinade had just been poured tableside.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 2: journey to the Centre

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It's Saturday morning, and despite waking up in the luxurious, tranquil surroundings of my room at Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake, my first order of business was to do some work. Thankfully there were still some berries left on my fruit platter from yesterday, so I nibbled on those while staring at the screen.

Given all the calories I took in last night, and am due to consume later today, I honestly didn't need any hotel breakfast. However, we were told to try the dim sum items coming from the kitchen at Jin Sha (金沙厅), so I went down to West Lake Bistro (西湖餐厅) to check out the spread.

Hangzhou is well known for two things - Longjing tea (龍井茶) and osmanthus flowers. I've long loved the combination of both into osmanthus Longjing (桂花龍井), and happy to see it on offer here.

Four Seasons in Hangzhou day 1: back at the lake

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A couple of months ago Mr. Chichi asked whether I would be interested in joining him on a trip to Hangzhou (杭州). Well, I had missed the opportunity to revisit the city 2 years ago during my self-imposed travel ban, and I've been wanting to tick a few restaurants off my list. Of course I said "Yes" immediately. Later on I discovered that beyond visiting a few restaurants represented by the local PR contact, the trip was also sponsored bythe two Four Seasons properties in the city, so we would be immersed in luxurious surroundings during our stay.

My morning started with meeting The Great One at the airport, where she waited for me to check-in for our flight together. Then it was a trip to the CX lounge for some breakfast. It's been a while since my last bowl of the dandan noodles (擔擔麵), and I swear they've diluted the sauce. I also took a bowl of biang-biang noodles (𰻞𰻞麵) for variety. After all, this would be better than anything I would get onboard during the flight.

We landed in Hangzhou and were whisked to Four Seasons Hotel Hangzhou at West Lake (杭州西子湖四季酒店) by hotel car. As I would tell everyone repeatedly over the next couple of days - including the Four Seasons team who welcomed us - Four Seasons didn't exist in Hangzhou when I last stepped foot in the city. In fact, the only international hotel brand operating in Hangzhou in 1998 was Shangri-La.

Seafood and bongwater

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I got a message a couple of days ago... my friend Vlad would be in town for a couple of days. I am always looking to spend more time with him, so we made plans to meet up for dinner tonight - just after he lands. We figured they would appreciate some casual, local Canto fare, so I booked us a table at our new favorite neighborhod joint Lucky Ship (船嘉•福).

The owner behind this joint also owns a seafood supply business, so this is one of their strengths. Foursheets and I love this place for a variety of reasons. Besides the fact that they are very pet-friendly with their outdoor seating, We also love the daipaidong (大排檔) atmosphere as well as the classic dishes.

Chaozhou cold threadfin with rice (潮式凍馬友魚飯) - one would think that with the majority of Chinese in Thailand descended from Chiuchow immigrants, the cold "fish rice (魚飯)" would be more familiar to our visitors. I was wrong. But happily this turned out to be well-received. I do love it when they do it the new style, cut into pretty, bite-size chunks instead of having the fish served whole.

Birthday in the summer

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It’s no secret that Mr. Chichi is a superfan of Chef Vicky Cheng’s, and he’s been to both VEA and Wing (永) countless time… although I’m pretty sure he actually does keep count. He recently asked me to join his dinner table at Wing, and since I was kinda curious about how much more food Vicky gives him on top of a “standard” menu, I said yes.

We started, as usual, with a seasonal drink to suit the 24 seasons. Currently we are in Summer Solstice (夏至).