Fujian culinary delights in the heart of Xintiandi
FUJIAN Banquet is a new establishment in Xintiandi that is serious about creating a complete dining experience of Fujian cuisine.
Located on the top floor of Xintiandi Style, the restaurant is decked out with a tasteful choice of furniture and careful seating arrangement, providing both maximum comfort and privacy. The interior is equipped with soft lighting that creates nice ambience.
Fujian cuisine is distinctive for its sublime seafood and mountain delicacies. An emphasis is placed on soup eating, precisely applying various kinds of seasonings. Many Fujian people emigrate out of town, so the province’s cuisine has become popular in Taiwan area and Southeast Asia.
Fujian Banquet offers an authentic experience with many well-known regional dishes. I opted for the tasting menu for four people, priced at 1,299 yuan.
It starts with typical Xiamen snacks — Xiamen sandworm jelly and Ngo hiang (five-spice meat roll). The local snacks are not to be missed when you travel in the region, commonly found in food markets and at roadside stalls.
The tasting menu includes three main dishes. The steamed glutinous rice with mud crab is a signature dish definitely worth trying. Glutinous rice serves as an aromatic base for the roe-rich mud crabs from Fujian. The crab paste melts into the rice, and combines with spices and a mixture of seasoning to create an enticing fragrance that’s an ultimate treat for seafood lovers.
Ginger duck is another famous dish that originated in southern Fujian and spread to all parts of the province. It’s a medical Fujian dish where duck meat is slowly stewed with ginger slices, rice wine and Chinese medicine.
If you go to the province, you’ll find restaurants and snack bars love to cook the duck in pottery jars right next to the entrance so the fragrance floats down the street.
Here, the ginger duck is perfectly executed. The taste of ginger is fully absorbed in the duck flesh.
The unusually named “Buddha jumps over the wall” is another local speciality worth trying. The slow-simmered soup comes with many ingredients, including costly ones like abalone, sea cucumber and scallops, priced at 399 yuan for an individual portion.