For the past decade, the century-old Louwailou, meaning “a chamber beyond all chambers”, has been deemed by both local residents and tourists in Hangzhou more as a tourist attraction than gourmet haven.
The restaurant has much to be desired with its obsolete style and unchanging menu among the ever-diversifying eateries in the capital city of Zhejiang.
The restaurant was frequented by the likes of premier Zhou Enlai, Sun Yat-sen and writer Lu Xun who helped the restaurant flourish from a one-room eatery to a must-visit destination.
But now, the three-floor quaint-style restaurant that has been overlooking the majestic West Lake on the Su Causeway since 1848 is trying to have something more out-dated back on its menu to restore its former glory. The “old trick” employed by the grand eatery is re-introducing popular cuisines once favored by these political figures and literati.
To celebrate the approval of Hangzhou’s West Lake as a UNESCO site, Louwailou is introducing a list of 20 dishes named as the “old flavors of West Lake” to enrich its signature offers like West Lake sweet-and-sour fish or the red-braised pork nicknamed as the Dongpo Meat.
“Despite its ups and downs, Louwailou has always been like a dining room for natives to treat friends outside Hangzhou,” said Wang Zhen, the manager of the restaurant.
“Therefore, when news came that the West Lake has been officially inscribed on the UNESCO’s world heritage list, we, as the dining room, thought it’s time to share the best part of our gastronomy tradition with friends from all over the world,” Wang said.
The re-introduced 20 dishes include the dried vegetables braised with the pork, a gourmet dish favored by premier Zhou Enlai, ham with seasonal fruits and lotus seeds and chicken chest stewed with fish maw, a delicacy that was served for royals and the rich only because of its complicated preparation.
“Most of the dishes may sound and appear plain, but if you want to have a bite of the most traditional taste of Hangzhou cuisine, they are the ones,” Wang added.
But the skills required to prepare these dishes are not easily learned. Each of the dishes has been carefully selected by a team of eight retired but experienced chefs, some of them used to be the exclusive cook for national tops, in order to best “convey the taste of West Lake”, and then passed down to younger generations one by one.
“Like the West Lake, Hangzhou cuisine is famous for its ‘clean and elegant’ flavor,” said Wu Shunchu, one of the eight veteran chefs of Louwailou who has been cooking at the restaurant for more than four decades.
“By using materials grown in the southern area, and employing skills cultivated in northern area, Hangzhou cuisine perfectly combines the properties of Chinese gastronomy tradition,” said Wu, a 66-year-old Hangzhou native.
