Chinabites

Posted: Oct. 30, 2009

While exploring my neighborhood on the east side of Green Lake in Kunming, I’m always on the lookout for promising restaurants to list on Chinabites. Several months ago, while walking home along the Yuantong Jie, the street that fronts Yuantong Temple and runs along the southern face of the Kunming Zoo, I noticed a small entrance road for the Jinhaidi Hotel. Walking down the road to the gate of the hotel, I saw the tiny, unassuming Locked Spring Restaurant, my own poor translation which doubtless has something to do with the whole “It’s Always Spring in Kunming” theme. It was small, four modest tables within a clean, sparse and newly-renovated interior.

What can I say? Something about this little place really spoke to me. A trip in last night confirmed that this is a hidden gem in Kunming. Locked Spring advertises itself as a Yunnan / Sichuan restaurant (a common distinction for the area), and sports a menu of some local favorites mixed with a hearty dose of homestyle classics. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw “Pork Strips in Beijing Sauce”, the first time after six months of eating out in Kunming.

I ordered three dishes. The first was a carrot, cucumber, and glass noodle appetizer. The helping was generous for a mere eight RMB and I’m sure I astonished the waitstaff by devouring the entire thing before any other dishes arrived (I was hungry and the vinaigrette sauce was perfect).

Next up was the Japanese tofu.

Japanese tofu, by the way, is a bit of a misnomer. As a greenhorn back in Harbin, China in 2002, I remember being taken out for meals and my friends always ordering Japanese tofu. I thought that its exquisite, rich, silky texture was unlike any other tofu I’d ever tasted. I immediately wrote off that bland, boring stuff that passed for tofu in America as another sad Americanized cousin of a tremendous Chinese recipe. I later learned that Japanese “tofu” was in fact a form of egg custard. My apologies to American tofu. But I digress, the Japanese tofu at Locked Spring was one of the best I’d ever had. It was served on a sizzling platter, the outside of the “tofu” chunks seared to a light golden color. Crispy on the outside but melted like butter in your mouth with a single bite.

The only dish of the meal that fell short was the beef a la cumin, which I acknowledge is not generally considered a Yunnan, Sichuan, or even homestyle dish. I’d save ordering this one for a Xinjiang restaurant somewhere outside of Yunnan, the version of it they make here really doesn’t do the original article justice.

The service at Locked Spring was cheerful and friendly. They brought me a small, simple bowl of cabbage soup compliments of the house. The chefs were clearly well trained in the basics of homestyle cuisine, something that is sadly not commonly the case around Kunming. Located a stones throw away from the east side of Green Lake, Locked Spring is a great choice for a quiet dinner with the focus where it should be: on the food. I’ll be back again soon.