Jiangsu Provincial Government Restaurant: Straight From the Yangtze River

Margaux Schreurs | Mar 28, 2017 1:12 pm | Add a comment | 1340 reads

Jiangsu Province, often referred to in Chinese as “the land of fish and rice,” is a picturesque and bountiful province that borders the Yellow Sea. The bottom half of the province, where the Yangtze River gushes into the ocean from the bustling capital of Nanjing, is where the majority of its fresh aquatic produce and vegetables come from, and its because of this verdant topography that the cuisine of Jiangsu, or Su cuisine, is generally light and elegant, and characterized by clear soups and an abundance of river greens. Meats are traditionally soft, but not mushy to the point of being unappealing.

We recognized these elements come together in one dish often referred to as Lion’s Head, which, thankfully, has no relation to eating the king of the jungle. Instead, it’s a stew containing large meatballs and bamboo shoots or cabbage. The Jiangsu Provincial Government Restaurant serves the balls, arranged in a beautiful green pot doused in a clear soup with a single green leaf probably placed there for aesthetics. We sampled both varieties: ‘crab roe lion’ (xiehuang shizi tou), RMB 48 per bowl, and ‘Yangzhou (pork) lion’ (yangzhou shizi tou), RMB 38 per bowl. Both varieties were soft and succulent, and came accompanied by a clear soup to offset the heaviness of the meats.

Other dishes we were excited to try were the ‘leek screw’ (jiucai lousi, RMB 48), a fried mix of scallions and river snails, and the ‘smoked bean curd malantou’ (xianggan malantou, RMB 32), both of which take full advantage of Jiangsu’s fertile offerings. The malantou (a type of vegetable also known as Indian Aster) was unfortunately a little dry and not as moreish as the rendition found at Shanghai Xiao Nanguo, a popular Shanghai chain in Beijing, but we enjoyed the snails for something a little different.

What really stood out, however, were the soup dumplings. These comforting parcels of minced pork and abundant soup rarely go wrong, and in this specific case, really hit the spot. The dumplings, in combination with the friendly staff, are reason enough to consider a return visit, something admittedly, not often said about provincial government restaurants.

Jiangsu Provincial Government Restaurant
Daily 10.30am-2.30pm, 4.30pm-late. Jiangsu Hotel, 1 Ganshuiqiao, Andingmen Waidajie, Dongcheng District (6422 6633)
东城区甘水桥1号安定门外大街江苏饭店