Hong Cai Tai Hotel in Beijing

To be clear, this was a restaurant rather than an actual hotel (a bit like Saravana Bhavan, I suppose). Either way, my local colleague took me to an outlet of this place to try some food from Hubei province, like this river fish with tiny bones that apparently was a favorite of Chairman Mao's. And yeah, I liked the food here, including some delicious vegetable thing laced with bacon, as well as even the simple lotus root soup that had been stewed for hours on end. Apparently soup is a requisite part of Hubei food, but otherwise is relatively similar to Hunan food in its spiciness.