Behind the scene of China food trod

Sigh... Trying to adapt to a new environment is never easy. The first day I reach Nanjing, I started blew out dark bits from my nose. I guess it is due to the road improvement works that have been in progress all around Nanjing, that the air quality is not that good. The first few days that I tried to get use to the climate here, my face got too dry and had to switch moisturizer.

But I was in luck as I was there for the spring; the flowers were blooming and the weather is starting to warm up.


NJUT's suburban campus in Jiangpu: Beautiful stone engravings


NJUT's suburban campus in Jiangpu: Decorated with flowers


NJUT's suburban campus in Jiangpu: Flowers blossoming


My inflight meal in Cathay Pacific...


双皮奶: Double skin milk, taste like a healthier version of creme brulee... Really yummy~!


O yeah, one thing I really hate in Shanghai is the queue. OMG!! They even enlist the help of volunteers, soldiers and security for crowd control in China Pavilion.


And this should be the longest queue I have queued for... a test of my patience... Two hours after I started queuing, I reach the inner queue and took this picture... The area look like those barn to keep the horses, but I am sure even horses are not made to squeeze in such tight places. I had a hard time tearing my eyes away from the dandruff off the hair of the person infront of me. I know it wasn't polite but I don't think my sight could travel anywhere else. =P Btw, the Q lasted for 3 hours in total. I was told that during Shanghai expo 2010, ppl had to Q for up to 6 hours to buy the tickets. Phew...


Amidst all the other big portion of meals I have taken, this is what my usual lunch looks like in NJUT. Only provided with one pair of chopstick... look like my brother would have a hard time finishing this meal. lol...


Oh yeah, not forgetting the instant milk tea available in supermarkets and roadside stalls. (O well, those famous franchise uses instant powder anyway, so why can't we just buy the powder and mix it ourselves? Good question~!) It only cost about RMB3.90 and includes one small wrapper of the milk T powder, the sago pearl/aloe bits ~! One hot drink in spring is soo refreshing... Aahh... (Pst, the brand ambassador is Jay Chou, but I 'accidentally' took pic of the side without his face)


But wait, not everything is nice here. This is like the worst one I have tasted so far and I was so angry with this shop. I was in Shanghai's big mall 正大广长 and my friend convince me that I should eat more shanghai food before I go back. So we enter into a shop call 老上海, thinking that old shanghai means the food is more authentic. Major disappointment!! Not only this piece of meatball looks so suspicious, it taste.. well.. like any pork mince without much love would taste like. COLD! RMB16 each, I should have just purchase more pork dumplings from 裕园！！Btw, it had a nice name to it, 狮子头 (lion's head). We also ordered a claypot, turns out the soup wasn't even properly mixed. One part was watery and the other had flour lumps. We walked out and didn't bother to take more pics. I really can't understand how they manage to attract customers? Perhaps they can do, since Shanghai is so crowded with tourists that come and go, wishing to try authentic shanghai food in some of the major tourist hotspot. So, remember, don't go there~! Unless they change their OLD chefs, that is!


Another failed misadventure is trying the street food~! This one is 小鱼锅贴. It is a crispy pancake layer with fish sauce. It taste nice, something similar to the popular onion pancake in Taiwan. However, it failed miserably because I had to stay in my toilet that night, sitting on the toilet bowl with my head resting on the basin. Yeah... too much detail... =P

So don't simply try street food if you have never tried it before. A lot of chinese citizens flock to these places since young, and there is totally no effect on them. For those who have never eaten not too hygienic food, you had better stick to cleaner restaurants and cafes~!

In order to fully experience their culture here, I had to humble myself. This is something I have not done in a long looong time, i.e. riding on a bicycle. Everywhere I go, I see ppl on bicycles and scooters racing alongside cars and buses.


So one day, while going off to run an errand, my friend invited me to tag along on the bicycle. Wee~! Quite a scary experience... lol... luckily Nanjing is not as crowded as Shanghai when I was out cycling or else I might appear in the newspaper headlines the next day. 'Girl go on head on collision with EVERYONE'. =P Eventhough I was tagging behind my friend, I had a hard time cutting across lanes and crossing the road. Luckily she has more patience than me.


Finally, one month quickly came to pass. Before I left, they treated me to dinner. And like all social event, drinking came into the picture. And I must say this is the most drink I consumed in a single event through my lifetime. Luckily I didn't get drunk. This wine bottle consists of a special wine with 60 vol% of alcohol~! My gosh, it is STRONG! I barely sip 40 vol% alcohol in Oz/Msia, and I upgraded straight to 60 vol%? I find it hard to believe that I was still awake after 2 glass. (Probably coz I stuff myself with lotsa food at the same time... muahahaha...)

It wasn't easy to be apart from familiarity for one month, so I am very grateful for the hospitality extended to me during this period of time.

Just wanna leave you with these words (I heard from a lyric, but it is meaningful nonetheless)...

能遇见是一种缘分，哪怕只是匆匆的一面.

Kudoz~!

China food trod ~ part 3

Trod... trod... trod around Nanjing to try some new food. Seems like there are a lot of food around the world that I have yet to taste. For example, tortoise meat, virgin eggs (basically these are eggs boiled in virgin boy's urine) or the half-hatch chicken egg... Gonna have a hard time trying to swallow that in!! LoL...

I will save my 'adventurous' spirit for next time... I m gonna stick to some food that sounds less scary.

木瓜炖雪蛤: 雪蛤 is derived from toad's lungs. Sounds disgusting... try not to read how they process the poor lungs before you consumed it. It is quite expensive delicacy and is used mainly for beautifying purposes. Even Taiwan's popular 牛尔老师 claims that 雪蛤 helps him sooth his once acne ridden face. However, if this is your first time trying it, make sure the chef is someone who is experienced in cooking this delicacy. It has a strong fishy smell that can only be reduced by ginger. So don't ever drink it cold, or else the fishy smell will resurface. Match it with papaya, it tastes sweet and soothing but the fishy smell is slightly hard to bear.


Hehe... This is not something new, but I just love this. I didn't know that KFC serves Portuguese egg tart in China~! For RMB5.50, it is the best that I have tasted in China.


榴莲往返~! Durian with black glutinous rice and santan milk. This dish did not originate from China, but Thailand, actually. But I missed durian soo much! This dessert cost RMB35 per dish... very expensive. But then I have to understand, since Nanjing do not produce durian.


拔丝香蕉: Malt on banana fritter, Once pulled apart, you will see these thin like spider webs... strand of malt. Give it a few blow and bite into it... aw... super yummy. =D


辣子鸡: This is a very popular Sze chuan dish. This dish is super loaded dried chilli with pieces of chicken and pinch of sugar and salt. One bite into this dish, you will like it. But barely halfway into this dish, start to feel the heat of the dish. Aw... aw... I really appreciate the hot tea after eating such a hot dish. *Slurp~!*


A very very special dish that I also fell in love with is a dish I tasted in a kung fu themed shop call 功夫庄. The whole shop is decorated like those olden day china style, even the bowls and plates are slightly chipped~! They have funny custom here, you can't order the dishes here. You just sit down and they will come along with different dishes and ask you whether you want it or not. But the dishes are very nice. The most unique is these rice ball. Each person is only accorded one of these rice ball.


Rolled into a ball encasing over juicy pork mince with a single egg yolk~! It is really very nice, wish I can have more of these. But like mentioned before, they only serve one rice ball each. So, savour it slowly...


Another shop that we visited is this shop that only serves mule. Braised mule, mule soup, cold slice of mule meat, etc.


This is the chef's recommendation in the shop, i.e. mule meat 火烧. Strands of mule meat seasoned match with a bit of cucumber sandwiched between pan fried 馒头. Yummy~! We were lucky to be able to eat there at non-peak hours. Delicious~!

All this highlight the end of my sharing my food trod around Nanjing. Don't forget to give these a try on your next visit~! =)

China food trod ~ part 2

I am back for the second update on my China food trod. There are soo many yummy food in China but after one year of low oil and low fat food in Oz, I couldn't stomach oily and/or spicy food... Bummer~! It was like my toilet became my 2nd bedroom when I consume fried stuff in China. =P


First stop: Dumpling~! This is one of the most popular pork dumpling shop in 裕园, Shanghai. I couldn't quite describe how to find it, though... there was quite some twist and turn. But the shop is right next to the lake in the middle. There was quite a queue to get the pork dumplings.


Ta~da~! The dumplings that I Q'd for. Nanjing pork dumplings and Shanghai pork dumplings are different. Nanjing pork dumplings are sweet while Shanghai pork dumplings are savoury, I like~! Just RMB20 for this much of pork dumpling~!!


鸭血粉丝汤 (duck's blood vermicelli)... When my friend first recommended it to me, I was slightly disgusted. The notion of eating blood is kinda creepy but then after drinking this soup. I have to agree, this is yummy. This is unlike pork's blood, it is very soft like tofu and no blood's smell. This had to be the best duck's blood vermicelli I have tasted in 鸭得堡~! Don't forget to give it a try~!


This is also another specialty ramen shop and this dish is 老头面. What is different is the pork skin in the soup. It is deep fried and then cook to a savoury soup base nestling the hand made ramen. Yummy? Yummy~! O yeah, don't forget to try it with their vinegar. My friends poured generous amount of vinegar inside and i was so shocked. The vinegar is unlike the black vinegar I have back home. Perhaps if I am a food critic with more robust vocab, I would be able to describe it. But I will try... the black vinegar that I was used to have one taste i.e. sour, while this vinegar... hmm... you could kinda roll it around your tongue a bit coz there is a certain mixture to the taste. I was tempted to bring one bottle back with me, but decided against it when I consider how many other stuff I am bringing back anyway.


Another thing I had to try is 烧卖 in Nanjing. In Malaysia, our siew mai consists of pork + prawn in thin wantan wrapping. But the siew mai here are different... Guess what? Scroll down~!


Stuffed with glutinous rice, mushroom slice and small pieces of pork!! I didn't realise this and ordered this along with my duck's blood vermicelli... end up, I couldn't finish it and had to take away.


This is my 2nd duck's blood vermicelli. It is from a very popular and ubiquitous franchise around town call 回味. It is not too bad for first timer, but the soup still loses out to 鸭得堡's duck blood vermicelli.


Yummy yummy 酸菜鱼米线. It cost around RMB15, shared between the 3 of us and still we were unable to finish everything. It is so nice~! Look at the fish slices, the texture is so smooth~! And the soup is a perfect match of chinese sour cabbage and spices without one overpowering the other. It is actually a small noodle stall outside Nanjing University of Technology.


燃面。Taste like Sarawak's mee kolok, except oilier and more spicier. Have to eat it with the radish pickles at the side to slightly wash away the taste of oil. But overall, yummy~!


And not forgetting, 糖葫芦！！！ I love this~! If you just have a major meal, eating syrup coated haw would help tremendously. But if you just wanna go in for the taste, other variation such as mixed fruit, haw and banana, etc would go down better.

China food trod ~ part 1

After 14 hours of butt numbing flight, I emerged into the cold spring air in Nanjing International airport in March. This was my first time being in China and alone at that. I guess almost everyone could guess I was foreign as I was merely wearing a cotton jacket, sleeveless T and jeans on a 10 degree celsius afternoon in Nanjing. In my defense, it was hot HOT HOOT summer in australia at that time~!

Before I could start my food trod around Nanjing, had to meet up with the future research team that I was here to negotiate with. In the first two weeks I was here, they still try to talk to me in english; but after that, they go full on chinese with me. At first it was very taxing for my brain, what with the constant translating going on inside, but in the end I conceded with listening to their chinese and then writing my reply in english. =)

But anyway, their hospitality is great. Took me around to taste lotsa different food in Nanjing as well as Shanghai. But too bad my stomach has been very difficult for most of the time, so I had to concede to watch extra carefully what I put inside my mouth.


夫子庙：A very popular tourist spot in Nanjing. This used to be
one of the hugest examination hall for scholars in Nanjing. Now it boasts of merchant shops with well-preserved architecture.


凉削面: Apparently this is a fave among the ladies, it is made of this huge block of flour concoction which they shaved into thin slices and mixed with vinegar, preserved vegetables and other spices. I was not very fond of this but there was a queue infront of the stall waiting to purchase it.


上海锅贴: Had this in Shanghai. I didn't have much patience to find a specialty shop for this, so simply had this in the first shop I could find. But it was good enough for me. It was hot with the juice oozing out when I had the first bite. Simply delicious~!


My lunch in Shanghai expo~! We were so lucky to be able to purchase a really good deal via 团购 website, which is something like groupon (US) and spreets(OZ). So the lunch only cost about RMB98 and consisted of one huge bowl of 水煮鱼 (fish cooked in soup of chilli, bean sprout and mushroom), cold dish of steam chicken served in spicy sauce 白斩鸡, 馒头 with diced pork and mushroom, corn cake and stir fried french bean. For two person~! Yikes!!


My first red bean 元宵 in Nanjing. The soup was thick but the red bean looks more black than red... lol... but it was alright.

Do bear with me, though as I cannot access blogspot in China and could not update my blog during that time. Will update my blog with more pics of the food I had in China, once I finish this report for supervisor... :(

Till next time~!