Jade Garden 苏浙汇

This was the poshest restaurant I have been to in years. We finally entered the Jade Garden or Su Zhe Hui 苏浙汇. The Chinese name doesn’t really directly translate to Jade Garden but it loosely translates to Suzhou Zhejiang Exchange or something to that effect. I’m not sure where they got that name but nobody uses that name in China anyway so it doesn’t matter, all that matters is the food. With the grand interiors of the restaurant, I expect great things from it. After all, they have numerous branches across the country.

The Jade Garden specializes in Shanghai and Jiangsu cuisine, this is their home ground so they better know what they are doing. Jiangsu and Shanghai food are quite similar and they lack the strong flavors which are present in Southwestern cuisine. The focus here is on the freshness of the food. The region’s food though slightly leans toward sweetness rather than saltiness in contrast with the rest of China.

Our local friends know this place best so we let them order. There were a lot of dishes since there were six of us having dinner. There was lotus root, a very Chinese dish it was covered in sweet sauce, I never liked lotus root and I can’t say I liked this one either. There was what appeared to be preserved radish, it was something like those preserved Chinese snacks which I love and I must say I liked this one too. Apparently, my friends also identified this to be their favorite one.

There wasn’t a lot in the way of meat, maybe it was just their taste. There was fried duck which was quite nice. There was also chicken which came in a massive bowl of soup, it was okay, but I think it would have done better if it followed stronger tasting food. Finally, there was sea bass, which I believe was steamed. I had sea bass before, and this was no different. The scales of the sea bass is tough but they can be fried to a crisp then eaten, but in this case it was still too tough for us to chew. The meat of the sea bass is likewise full of bones, which is typical of the fish, however, considering how tough it was to eat the dish, I still liked it.

Our host was extremely gracious and we were treated to the grand dinner we just had. We naturally offered to pay our share but he graciously paid for everything. I was very embarrassed having someone pay for my dinner when I don’t even know him. It seems it is very typical of Chinese people with guests to treat their visitors to a sumptuous dinner at a fancy restaurant. I cannot imagine how much this cost him. He hasn’t started working again since he came back from Singapore and it will take a while for him to recover from this. We really appreciate him for bringing us there and arranging everything. Such nice people.

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