Fuchsia Dunlop » Hangzhou http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:56:26 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Memories of Hangzhou http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/memories-of-hangzhou/ http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/memories-of-hangzhou/#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:16:07 +0000 Fuchsia http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/?p=543 On my last day in Hangzhou, a friend arrived at my hotel with some of that most precious of commodities – new season West Lake Longjing (Dragon Well) tea. They were some of the first leaves of the season, so new that they were not yet available on the market. I could lose myself in the scent of these delicate spear-like leaves. It is magical: green and gently intoxicating, reminiscent of fresh pistachioes. Back in London, their aroma is even more thrilling, because it takes me back in an instant to the shores of the West Lake, to its soft contours of willow and peach, to the sound of the waters lapping. (I stayed in a hotel by the lake, and every morning I walked out to its brink, looked out to the island, blurred by the mist or bright in the sunlight, and felt calm and happy.)

At home in London, I infuse the leaves in some hand-painted teabowls (gai wan), the water not too hot, inhale their gentle vapours, and sigh.

I’ll post more about the trip later – there is so much to say!

]]> http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/memories-of-hangzhou/feed/ 2 New Yorker article! http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/new-yorker-article/ http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/new-yorker-article/#comments Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:55:42 +0000 Fuchsia http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/?p=381 My piece about a restaurant in Hangzhou appears in this weeks New Yorker Food Issue. It’s the first time I’ve written for the magazine.

Below are some of the photographs I took while researching the piece;

 

 

This is one of the private rooms at the Dragon Well Manor restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The owner, A Dai (a.k.a. Dai Jianjun), with me on a fishing boat 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 One of the restaurant’s many small-scale suppliers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another supplier, with some aubergines (eggplants)

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Bao Laichun, on the way back from a foraging trip to gather wild kiwi fruits

 

 

  

 

This is me, with some fishermen on a VERY unstable fishing boat, just before the deluge… still scribbling away in my notebook, which was getting damper by the minute… 

 

 

 

   

 

 A delivery of chickens

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few hours later…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stir-fried freshwater shrimp (yum yum)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qian Lu in the garden

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