GUANGZHOU EATERY : A MUST TRY!

I have no idea how to get there, aside from the fact that it is on the other side of town from Tienhe where the action is these days in Guangzhou. Still catching her breath from the 'high' of the Asian Games, the city is resplendent as the taxi took us through mesmerizing streets and boulevards, all dazzled with lights. All of a sudden we stopped in front of this gigantic, 4-storey restaurant on Jiang Nan Si Lu. Front and centre is a large Chinese character 'eel', a dead give-away of the specialty la maison. At the entrance is the obligatory live fish tank but what catches everyone's attention is a long tank of eels after eels that hardly wriggle because they are packed so tightly.

The menu is a delight to navigate, and the photographs are among the best shots of food I have seen yet, a truly professional job. We over ordered, deliberately, so we can get a feel as to why it is so popular. It was a wonderful meal, not only on the eel front, but across the board. The notables were ; blanched eel in crushed ice with wasabi soy, sauteed crabs, fish jaws, even char-sui in their famous house sauce, and lastly, the special eel rice .... delish!

My Dad used to tell us the story of my great-grand-mother's favorite : 'eel rice' prepared at the table. The drill involves boiling, almost ready rice in a fish stock that her cook will let a few live baby eels in. The idea is to let them meander through the half congee/half rice concoction until they, too, are cooked. Supposedly this will yield maximum flavors, as well as medicinal effects for chronic coughing, if I remember correctly. I really doubt if it would sell today. While our rice was made in heaven, we certainly did not see any wriggly objects in it, thank God!