Salivate over sea slugs, sea cucumbers, sea stomach, sea urchin

Tag : Dried Sea Cucumber


COMPARED with urban eateries in the concrete jungle, the newlakeside Ocean Banquet restaurant in Changfeng Park is a pleasurefor the eyes as well as the gourmet palate. Especially if you likeNorth China delicacies like sea cucumber.

The high-end restaurant overlooks Silver Mattock Lake, and whennight falls, neon lights illuminate the scenery.

"The compelling beauty and tranquillity of the scene pushed me totake a crack at the dining industry," says Zhang Mai, Ocean Banquetco-founder who is also an entrepreneur and investor in publicinfrastructure projects.

Zhang's partner is famed Taiwan architect Ken Lin, who worked inthe United States for more than 10 years. Together they decided tolaunch a high-end restaurant featuring authentic seafood cuisinefrom northern China.

"The potential market for seafood in Shanghai in the longer term ishuge," Zhang says. "However, most of the seafood is imported fromsouthern China. We have rarely seen a place that boastscharacteristic northern China seafood cooking."

Dishes include steamed scallops with chopped celery, fried yellowfish with garlic sauce, and braised shark's fin soup served in apapaya. There's even snow frog fat in whole papaya.

It specializes in "four seas" cuisine, including sea cucumber, seaurchin, sea stomach, sea snail, abalone and everything a seafoodlover's heart desires.

Dried sea cucumbers are a northern delicacy comparable to sharkfins and sparrows' nests. Chefs of the Ocean Banquet prepareinnovative sea cucumber dishes such as stewed sea cucumber withshrimp and shrimp roe, braised sea cucumber with abalone and seacucumber soup.

The sea cucumber is an ideal tonic, says Zhang. It is higher inprotein and lower in fat than many other foods. It is used intraditional Chinese medicine to treat arthritis, high bloodpressure and gastric ulcers.

"The ocean water in the North China is colder, and so can producebetter quality sea cucumber," he says.