It's Trevor James

And I'm at the famous West Lake here

Today we're going for a full on food exploration of this city

I'm so pumped

Let's go check it out

Hangzhou was first described by Marco Polo

As the finest and most luxurious city in the whole world

So I came here to try the food

If you're looking for amazing scenery

A vibrant nightlife

And delicious food

You definitely have to come check out Hangzhou

It's one of the most modern cities in China

And people use their phones to pay for everything

Before breakfast

I started off my day with a scenic walk through West Lake

An ultra picturesque heritage site

Where locals enjoy dancing

Practice taiqi

And enjoy the numerous pagodas and gardens

And after some fresh air

I made my way to try some of Hangzhou's famous goutie potsticker dumplings on the streetside

可以尝吗？ I can try them out?

你尝嘛，没事 Try them out, no problem!

这个是你们的锅贴？ These are your famous potstickers?

对，锅贴 Yep, potstickers

Look at this

They are all brown and crispy on the outside

Look at that

Oh yeah

很好吃的 They are really delicious!

可以吧？ You like them?

真的好吃 Yeah they are really good

Look at the juice drip from it

可以吃一个锅贴嘛？ Can I please have one more potsticker?

还有一个拌面加油渣可以吗？ And one banmian noodles with deep fried pork fat?

拌面加油渣是吗？ Banmian noodles with pork fat?

对 Yeah

还有一个锅贴 And one more potsticker please

再要一份锅贴是吗？ One more portion of potstickers?

对 Yeah

等一下给你哈 Wait a minute and we'll get them for you

可以用支付宝吗？ Can I please use Alipay?

可以 No problem

多少钱？ How much is it?

12块钱 It's 12 yuan

You just scan it and pay with the phone

And we got the food

The goutie are so good

And then I also have a bowl of banmian here

With these deep fried pork crisps

You gotta mix those banmian up

It tastes like soy sauce with some noodles

They are so juicy, packed with flavour

And that crispy brown layer is really to die for

And after breakfast

I made my way out to the source of some of the best tea in China

The longjing tea terraces

I got really lucky when a local lady offered to show me around the plantations

And how to pick the tea

我很期待看一看 I'm so excited to take a look

这里太漂亮 It's too beautiful here

这里太飘亮 It's really too beautiful

太漂亮了哦 Yeah very beautiful

很多茶叶! There's so much tea!

这是杭州的茶？ This is all Hangzhou specialty tea?

这样采这样采 Yeah and you pick it like this

在那边可以采茶吗？ We can pick the tea over there?

采采采 Yeah let's go pick some

太好了 Amazing

很多茶 There's so much tea!

我没看过这么多茶! I've never seen this much tea before!

我没看过 I've really never seen something like this

你没采过啊？ You've never picked tea?

这里可以吗？ Can we pick here?

This is so fun

哦，这样？ Like this?

对 Yeah

这个是杭州特色的茶叶？ And this is all Hangzhou specialty tea?

对杭州的茶 Yeah this is our famous tea

杭州茶叶 Oh Hangzhou tea leaves

噢，这样采 Pick it like this

It's beautiful

这个很好 This is really nice here

一会儿我们可以喝一杯吗？ We can try this tea out later?

喝一杯，到我家去喝茶 Yeah we can go to my home to have a cup

可以吗？ Really?

可以 For sure

太好了 That's just great

到我家去喝茶去 Yeah let's go drink some tea

现在是70？ How old are you now?

76

76真的吗？ You're 76?

我还骗你啊 Would I lie to you?

还是有很多力气 And you have so much energy

没问题 No problem

你几岁了？ How old are you?

我28 I'm 28

28

对 Yeah

你当我儿子好不好？ Do you want to be my son?

这个不好这个不要采 Don't pick that, don't pick it like that

这个好，把这个采一下 This is good, pick this stuff

这个长大了，不好采 Those leaves are too big, don't pick them

谢谢你 Thank you

这是我的家里 This is my home

你的家里很漂亮 Oh your home is very nice

解下来吧 Untie your basket

这个这个 Oh this?

解下来不要了 You don't need it

不用了 Oh ok

这个是我的老伴 This is my life partner

噢，老伴 Oh your partner

请坐请坐 Please sit down

可以吗？ Is that OK?

可以可以，坐坐坐 Please please sit down

谢谢你 Thank you

这个是？ This is?

龙井茶 Longjing tea

请喝茶 Please have some

谢谢你的茶 Thank you for the tea

绿茶 It's longjing green tea

好茶 Great tea

很好很好 This is great

你中文讲得很好嘛 Your Chinese is really good

还好还好一般 It's just alright

我听得懂 I can understand

你听得懂吗？ You can understand?

听得懂 Yeah, I understand

那就好 Well that's great

他的中文讲得满好的 His Chinese is really good

这个很好喝的很好喝的 This is so delicious

这个对眼睛好明目 This tea is good for your eyes

It really was special to get to drink tea with this local lady from Hangzhou

And after chatting for another hour

I explored the green streets of Hangzhou by bike

In search of one of the most famous Hangzhou restaurants in town

Waipuojia, AKA Grandma's Home

I got so lucky and I even had a chat with the chef

你好 Hello

你好你好 Hello Hello

很高兴认识你 Nice to meet you

很开心来到这里吃杭州菜 I'm really happy to come here and try Hangzhou food

杭州菜主要是什么味道的？ What are the main flavours of Hangzhou cuisine?

杭州菜主要注重的是清淡一点 Hangzhou cuisine is relatively clear and light

清淡一点 Oh it's light?

对，因为我们是个旅游城市 Yeah, because we are a travellers city

外地来的游客也比较多 And there are many outsiders

外地人来这里尝尝杭州菜? Oh so the travellers all come here to taste Hangzhou food?

对，所以注重比较清淡点 Yeah, so we make it fairly elegant and light

那我应该吃什么菜？杭州的特色菜,应该吃什么？ So what shall I try? What are Hangzhou's special dishes?

西湖醋鱼 Vinegar Xihu lake fish

叫化鸡都是我的特色菜 And beggars chicken

我听说还有红烧肉？对吗？ I also hear your braised pork belly is good?

对，还有红烧肉 Yeah that's really good

四川的是麻辣花椒，杭州菜有什么特别的？ If Sichuan has peppercorns and chilies, what does Hangzhou have?

杭州菜的话就糖醋吧 Hangzhou mainly has sweet and sour

糖醋？ Sweet and sour?

对，糖醋味比较多 Yeah, sweet and sour is a main flavour

有点甜 A little sweet

有一点偏甜，还有一点醋味，酸酸的味道 Yeah it leans a little bit towards sweet than it does sour

酸和甜的 Oh a little sweet and sour

对对对 Yeah

That sounds great

Right here this is the beggars chicken

It's cooked overtop of a lotus leaf and it's infused with a lot of spices

And it looks so tender

Over here, this is red braised pork

This is a Hangzhou specialty

Look at that

Look at that fatty layer of pork

With the lean layer underneath

And they give you these dried salted lake fish slices

This is doufupi

Tofu skin with vegetables

There is carrots

There is sprouts

There is mushrooms, wood-ear mushrooms

That looks good

This is cuyu, a Hangzhou specialty

Vinegar lakefish

This one is called Grandma's little beef

I really just want to go right in for this hongshaorou

Look at how fatty that is

Look at how fatty that is!

That red braised sauce

Oh wow

This is delicious because you have the fat mixed with the lean meat

And that red braised sauce is just bursting with flavour

你好帅哥，味道怎么样？ Hey handsome bro, how's the flavour?

味道很好吃的 The flavour is really nice

味道很好吃是吗？ Yeah, it's delicious?

嗯，这个红烧肉真的好吃 Yeah this red braised pork belly is awesome

真的好吃啊？ You really like it?

有一点肥，有很多汁 Yeah it's a little fatty and it has so much juice

那个红烧为什么这么好吃？用什么香料做的？ Why is the red braised sauce so good?

这个里面是我们直接用黄酒炖出来的，香料是没有的 We stew it in mulled rice wine and don't use a lot of spices

没有放香料 We don't use many spices

黄酒 Mulled rice wine?

对，用黄酒炖出来的，里面放了笋干和清鱼干 Yeah we stew it in mulled rice wine and add bamboo shoots and salted lake fish

噢，真的很好吃的 Wow, it's really good

And after chatting with the chef

I took a little walk around town and found another super special street food snack

Known locally as the pangzi shaobing

AKA the fatty flatbread

It's stuffed with fatty pork, chilies, and pickled mustard greens

Then rolled out flat and thrown in the clay oven

你好 Hello

这是你的特色的胖子烧饼对吗？ This is your specialty fatty flatbread?

对 Yeah

叫做胖子因为你要吃胖吗？ Is it called fatty flatbread because it makes you fat?

为什么叫作这个名字？ Why is it called fatty flatbread?

等一下胖子老板来了再说胖子老板马上过来 You can talk with the fatty owner in a minute and understand

胖子老板，胖子的老板 Oh the fatty owner, I see

谢谢你 Thank you

很烫 Oh it's so hot

好吃？ Is it good?

真的好吃 Yeah it's so nice

That is good!

Oh it's actually very spicy

这个是我们中国的特色 This is a true specialty from China

好吃胖子烧饼 The delicious fatty flatbread

好吃，胖子烧饼 It's really a nice fatty flatbread

It actually tastes a little bit like pizza

Quite spicy and fatty and crispy

No cheese but that is super delicious

That is ultra good

很开心认识你 Really nice to meet you

胖子烧饼，特别好吃的 The fatty flatbread was so good

好吃吧？ You liked it?

我刚吃了，很好吃的 Yeah I just tried it, it was great

为什么叫胖子烧饼？ Why is it called the fatty flatbread

胖子烧饼啊？因为人长得胖，难看，所以就胖子烧饼 Mainly because I'm so fat and a little hard on the eyes, so I called it the fatty flatbread

真的吗？ Really?

你在这里几年？ How many years have you been here?

做了很多年了，20多年了 I've been here a long time, more than 20 years now

20多年吗？ more than 20 years?

哇，那个味道很特别 That flavour is really unique

很特别啊？ Unique flavour?

对 Yeah

It was super nice to hear the owners thoughts on the fatty flatbread

And after a good walk

I made my way out to a pre-dinner meal

Enjoying Hangzhou's must try soup dumplings

At the famous and packed our zhiweiguan

It's so busy here

There is nowhere to sit

We have some beautiful beautiful Hangzhou xiaolongbao

These are soup dumplings

Packed with soup

And the secret is

You gotta take a little bit out first

那个是醋吗？ Is that vinegar?

醋醋 Yeah it's vinegar

噢，醋，我加一点，谢谢你 Oh, vinegar, I'll add a little

You gotta add vinegar to your xiaolongbao

These are so beautiful I think I don't even need to take the soup out

Just go for a little vinegar

And go right in for the kill

And it pops in your mouth

These are hundun

Basically like wontons in soup

Looks like there is some seaweed in there and egg

Looks very clear and hearty

These are cats ears

Noodles shaped like cats ears

Let's try that out

It's in a really clear broth

Chewy noodles

Really, the flavour is simple

There's not much to it

And to finish off the night and get completely full

I went to the famous Shenglihe food street

And found one of the most unique things I've tried in China

Firewood local lake fish

这个是你们的鱼？ So this is your famous local fish?