Tang gan si, or shredded tofu in soup. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

First to arrive,tang gan si, or shredded tofu in soup. The thoroughly enticing dish of thinly-sliced tangled tofu, looks like a mini mountain floating in a lake of boiling broth, adorned with small shrimp snowflakes. Its salty and slightly umami taste was right up my street.

The next dish to turn up wassan ding bao, or three diced bun. Now this looked more familiar to me, it's just abaoziI thought, a soft steamed bun with some sort of filling - a particular breakfast favourite of mine I might add. I was wrong however;san ding baois no ordinarybaozi. Steamed, stuffed with sliced pork, chicken and bamboo shoots and served. Ye Chun's soft dough is made even softer from the use of a traditional method of fermentation, which I'm told is a trade secret.