There are many legends about Longjing Thatched Cottage and its founder, Dai Jianjun: for example, when European Culture Television wanted to choose a restaurant on each of the five continents to represent the future direction of the world's food culture, Longjing Thatched Cottage was selected as the representative of Asia; A Ph.D. in anthropology from Yale University followed Dai Jianjun for a year and a half to write his story...... Dai Jianjun has a set of ideas and values about ecology, farming, diet, and healthy living, and Longjing Thatched Cottage is one of them.
Longjing Thatched Cottage is a paradise-like garden restaurant, originally a deserted West Lake Commune nursery, Dai Jianjun took over it and relied on his own ideas and drawings to build a garden, from the desert to lush vegetation and complete architecture, it took four years, and the final garden landscape was praised by guests. This large garden covering an area of 27 acres has only eight private rooms, which cannot be received without reservations, and the number of dishes that the restaurant can serve every day is limited, because all the ingredients and oil, sauce, vinegar and other seasonings are entrusted to small farmers to make their own products.
When it comes to the purchase of ingredients, Longjing Thatched Cottage has three standards for food ingredients, one is local, the second is seasonal, and the third is that no pesticides and fertilizers are used. The choice of local food is not only to maintain the freshest taste of the ingredients, but also to maintain the meaning of the water and soil, so Longjing Thatched Cottage only buys ingredients from places within one day of the itinerary; The current season refers to the procurement of the best ingredients for seasonal growth according to the 24 solar terms; And all the ingredients used in the restaurant are organic and pollution-free. Therefore, some of the dishes in the cottage can be eaten for one season, and some can only be eaten for ten days. The restaurant is very strict about the quality of procurement, and some special vegetables must be picked before the dew falls in the early morning, such as cucumbers in summer, which will become bitter if picked at noon.
Longjing Thatched Cottage is most proud of their purchasing diary, from the opening of the first purchase in 2004 to the present, every day is kept in the restaurant's wooden cabinet, each record has a photo and the farmer's signature. Caotang has cooperated with no less than 16,000 small farmers, and more than 5,000 households have been supplied all year round. Therefore, all the food that can be tasted in the restaurant is very fresh and full of original flavor, and each dish is not as amazing as a farmhouse dish, but it can stand up to scrutiny behind it. The beauty of the so-called food lies in the ingredients.
Dai Jianjun is an idiot, and the dishes in the thatched cottage include not only well-made farmhouse dishes, but also dishes that he has excavated from ancient books or history and have now disappeared. For example, the record of scaly fish in the "Suiyuan Food List": "Hangzhou takes Tubu fish as the top grade, and the meat is the most tender. "The sting is near, the spring rain disturbs the soil in the pond, and the microorganisms in the water are active, and the Tubu fish at this time is the fattest. At this time, a "Tubu face" of Longjing Thatched Cottage is to use Tubu fish as an ingredient, this dish only takes two pieces of the most active gill meat of the fish body, and dozens of Tubu fish of the length of the palm are needed to make a bowl of dishes, which not only pays attention to the kung fu of the hands, but also pays attention to the heat, to be just right, its taste is fine and the taste is fresh and tender, which is amazing.
Golden cicada silver feather can be described as the head dish of the grass hall, choose three years of Shaoxing hemp duck, go to the dirt and palm, with eight to ten golden cicada flowers called the Jiangnan Cordyceps sinensis, put a little salt, and cover the peach blossom tissue paper, steamed for four or five hours, after opening the lid, the meat is crispy and tender, the soup is extremely fresh and slightly bitter, very hard work.
The very popular vegetarian dish "Shede" is selected in season with seasonal vegetables, the grass hall is very particular about this dish, only take the most tender cabbage in the middle, 30 catties of vegetables can only choose a plate to serve, but the rest of the leaves are not wasted, the grass hall will be divided into files, such as the insect scars of the leaves for breeding poultry, the yellow old leaves for composting, the fresh leaves made into staff meals, and the employees laughingly call it "reluctant".
The production of Caotang is simple and simple, with a sense of returning to the basics, but it is better than the ingredients, and its seasoning is not very high-end, and diners who like light will feel salty, which inevitably produces a feeling that it is not worthy of the name. Dining in Longjing Thatched Cottage is not free to order, the kitchen arranges the menu according to the season, the available ingredients and the number of diners, the service is not lost, a little stiff, but each dish is fully explained when served, and some dishes will be served first and then taken down and distributed into the bowl after being introduced. Reservations should be made 2-3 days in advance on weekdays and at least a week in advance on weekends and holidays.
The garden scenery of Longjing Thatched Cottage is very elegant, usually diners will come early or leave later, drink tea and laugh outdoors in the Thatched Cottage before and after dinner, or stroll in the courtyard, or go to the study house of the Thatched Cottage to sit. If you're planning to visit, you might want to spend some time exploring outside of your meals. However, the garden view restaurant is cold and windy in winter, and it is not easy for people to be comfortable, so the infirm should pay more attention.
