Slow-stewed enjoyment

Finding the right specialties is often very important to enjoying your food experience. So it was recently when a friend took us to a restaurant located on underground level one behind Wanda Square.

It had two entrances, one on ground level and another from the underground car park. Named Tang Tang Xiao Guan (唐唐小馆), it offers popular Chinese dishes and is frequented mostly by white-collar workers around the area.

Although the service was a bit slow, we enjoyed the food, mainly because my friend knew what the restaurant cooked best. The Tang Tang short rib (唐唐小排) was cinnamon flavored and so gently stewed that the meat easily slid off the bone.

The slow-stewed turnip (红烧土参), nicely presented in a terrine pot, was rich in flavor and had been made with far greater care than you'd normally expect from such an ordinary dish. The result was tempting, brown-reddish turnips that were tastier than you could imagine. Both dishes went well with rice.

An interesting cold vegetable salad was the so-called "fish smell grass" (凉拌鱼腥草), which is a Guizhou specialty. While original restaurants used the stems, Tang Tang uses the leaves, which were less pungent and more acceptable to the tongue in terms of the special flavor of the herb, which local people believe is good to relieve the body's internal heat.

The average bill is just 40 yuan a head but beware: the menu is only in Chinese. Although it's located underground, the roof is high and there is plenty of space between tables. It is busy at weekday lunchtime but much less so at weekends.

1-02, Bldg 16, Wanda Square, 93 Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang district, opposite Merchant's Bank. 5820-6380. 唐唐小馆,朝阳区建国路93号万达广场16号楼1-02号(招商银行对面)

Ye Jun

(China Daily 04/18/2009 page7)