I once spent three months interning in Beijing, and if I had to describe the food at Baidu in two words, it would be: pretty awful.
Maybe it was also because I was eating at the company cafeteria all the time and simply got tired of it. Back then, I often dragged coworkers out to nearby restaurants so we could at least sit around a table together. The atmosphere was usually good, but the wait for the food was always too long, so when it came to meals, I was never all that satisfied.
People always say Hangzhou is a beautiful city full of beautiful scenery and beautiful people. Lately, I have not been so sure. I live in Yuhang District, which was only moderately developed a few years ago. Maybe it changed because Alibaba moved to Xixi, or maybe because the city got too crowded and housing ran short. Either way, high-rises have been going up everywhere.
And with them came the trucks. These days the roads are full of dump trucks and cement mixers tearing through the area, with dust flying all over the place. The environment has become hard to tolerate. I felt that especially strongly on the way to Qiandao Lake Home-Style Restaurant today.
Still, I have eaten at a few rustic local places, and this one stands out. The food is genuinely good, the prices are reasonable, and the owner is considerate. Five of us rode over on three little electric scooters, following the route below toward the restaurant.
There were five of us, and we ordered seven dishes:
- shredded pork with hot green peppers (spicy)
- stir-fried river snails in sauce
- bream with scallion oil
- water spinach with garlic
- scrambled eggs with Chinese chives
- dry pot potatoes
- one more dish that I can’t remember
The bill was originally 110 yuan, but after using Taodiandian, we paid 20 yuan less.
The shredded pork with peppers was indeed pretty spicy, but that did not stop us from finishing the whole plate. The snails were the small kind. Their tails had been clipped off with pliers, so with one quick suck from the front, the meat came right out. Back where I’m from, that is exactly why we call them “sucking snails.”
The bream with scallion oil was also very good. The only downside was that the belly had some fatty flesh that was not especially appealing. The dish itself was nicely done: the fish seemed to be steamed first, then finished with hot oil, topped with chopped scallions, and seasoned with soy sauce. I definitely want to try making it myself sometime.
The dry pot potatoes had a bit too much heat under the pan, and halfway through the meal it had nearly cooked down dry. At that point, our in-house master chef Long Jun stepped in without hesitation, grabbed the teapot, and poured in about 100 ml of water. It turned out great.
As for the scrambled eggs with Chinese chives, there is not much to analyze. I think it was the second dish to arrive, and before I had even managed to reach for it a few times, it was already gone. Hungry people show no mercy.
If there is one simple conclusion to draw from all this, it is just that Alibaba’s cafeteria—and the food options around it—are much better than Baidu’s.