Xiao Tudou Restaurant 小土豆

I went back for shelter from the biting cold at my budget hotel in Shenyang and spent some time resting after a whole afternoon of exploring the Imperial Palace and Zhong Street. It was actually still quite early in the evening but I just wanted to keep myself warm for a while until it was time for dinner. Fortunately, there was no shortage in supply of restaurants near the hotel. I didn’t really feel like exploring Shenyang at night anymore as my feet already hurt from walking the whole afternoon. There was an interesting restaurant near the hotel named Xiao Tudou which served Northeastern Chinese food.

Xiao Tudou actually means “small potato” and it surprised me to know that it was actually one of their specialties. The reasonably priced restaurant was actually quite fancy when you look from the outside. One could have mistaken it for a fine dining restaurant until you look at the menu. I got myself a seat at the restaurant and ordered their signature dishes. One was their stewed pork which was very bony and difficult to eat. Chinese love meat close to the bone and this was definitely it. They provided disposable plastic gloves for you to wear while you struggle with your pork. The taste wasn’t really anything special though considering all the trouble to get to the meat it was tender though.

The dish where the restaurant gets it name was really that. It was a pot of stewed small potatoes with some vegetables. I made the mistake of ordering rice with this but I think I was justified in doing so. The vegetables were very salty as was the sauce it was in. The vegetable might be preserved vegetables which tend to be salty. The potatoes were nothing special either but the very salty sauce was seeping into the potatoes, only by eating rice can I alleviate the taste. I normally like saltish food, but this was really too much, I couldn’t even finish them. Maybe when you drop by here, you can skip the small potatoes instead.

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