27/07/2025: In one word, absolutely! The portion is large and the price is very low. I have been to Milan many times from France. This time I came to eat this Northeastern cuisine, which is authentic and delicious, which made our trip to Milan a perfect end. This is the most worthwhile trip to Milan. I also packed up the big sauce pork ribs to continue eating in France, hahaha.
06/05/2025: Restaurant from the north east of China, where the extreme cold influences the food, that needs to be hearthy, warm and nourishing to face temperatures that drop below 20•Celsius The Chinese Tie Guo Dun (铁锅炖) or “Iron Pot Stew”, is a Dongbei “dish” centered on a deep cast iron pot, whereby soup, chicken, pork, vegetables, noodles, and corn cakes are thrown in and cooked all together. It’s similar to Sichuan’s Gan Guo or “Dry Pot”, or like hotpot with less volume of soup.
Similar to hotpot, you first choose a “stew base,” a harthy stock to broil your order of meats, vegetables, noodles and whatnot. The bases include pork,chicken-mushroom, goose and fish.
We went for the signature free-range chicken. A whole free-range chicken—gizzards, liver, hearts and all—is cooked long and slow in an already rich stock with ginger and spices. That soup is tumbled into a massive cast-iron pot in the center of the table, along with the foodstuff you’ve ordered.
Here are a few things ordered: goose claw, greens, black ear mushrooms, tofu skin, potatoes, rice cake, oyster mushrooms, tea tree mushrooms, and spare ribs, mountain yam and potato tagliatelle.
One must-order is the corn cakes (玉米饼), an essential item of the whole ensemble. These corn cakes are affixed to the side of the pot just above the simmering line of your stew.
The catch about ordering them is that you can only do it once, before the pot is covered to stew. So be sure you have enough of those before the lid goes on.
The mealy corn cakes are crisped on the bottom with a fluffy center, making them an ideal vessel to soak up all the stew. Oh, and every time a pancake is placed uon the pot, the server bellows idioms of well wishes. Eat the pot stuff with a raw garlic and chili dip.
Definitely worth trying.