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~!

Review: I am number four

Popcorn ready! Water Bottle ready~! Iphones all set to silent mode....

I was so excited to be watching a movie after such a long drought. lol... Despite the advertisement, I was sure that the movie's initial review that I came across in rotten tomatoes could not all be true...

I am number four is a story about an alien who comes from an elite group of alien from another planet. There are nine of them, 3 have been killed and now the killers are after him. The killers were also from the alien planet and came to earth to hunt them down. Although each of the elite aliens were assigned a guardian, he is of the few who grew up with special powers. As the story progress, it went considerably downhill. He fell hopelessly in love with a girl in a place call paradise while on the run. It is like a hopeless mix of twilight and transformer without a backbone.



Why am I so mean? Let me take an example, halfway through the movie, while number four is running away from both the killers and the police force and may I say supposedly recovering from the pain experienced when his guardian of many years was killed infront of him; he saved his lady friend and they ran away together. I guess it should be a no brainer that they should go somewhere safe? No, she brought him to the school's basement where they proceed to develope some photos in a roll of film. I just don't get it. Here the film is emphasizing the fact that many people died for him, let me be honest, for what?? That big WHY was not emphasize in the story. And many times I find it really hard to feel really 'into' the movie because the handsome number four can barely show much emotion on his face. It was like watching Jay chou in Initial D but at least Jay chou was funny.



During the fight, number 6 - a trained and totally cool-headed personality came into the scene. Now that is someone I would rather opt for being the main character. Her looks (those eyes~! LoL), her personality was everything an action movie's main character should have. And she was the main save in it for me. The action was alright, and I expect nothing less from director Michael Bay but the story line is terrible. It makes me wanna retreat myself into another drought of movie nights.

Personal rating : 3/5 stars
Image: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464540/

The land below the wind...

Ever since MAS introduced their direct flight from KK to Perth three times a week, we decided to choose KK as our stopover in Malaysia. But what ever could we do with only just one day and one night in KK? Hehee...

First stop: Sutera Harbour~!
Sutera Harbour resort hotel boasts of 6 stars standard, so we just had to check it out. Upon arrival, we felt the full atmosphere of beach paradise. Everyone was smiling as they welcome us into the lobby and serve us ice cold lime drink. It was really refreshing, and I totally forgot the existence of the local lime drink, it is the mixture of a preserved plum, lime, sugar and salt... so yummy~!


*The lobby*


*Night view of Sutera Harbour Magellan*

The Sutera Harbour hotel management must be huge~! Nestled around a well preserved beach are 3 buildings, i.e. the business hotel, the clubhouse and the resort hotel. Although the room was not as special as Empire's hotel, it was spacious and beautiful~!


*Our room*

And in total, I've calculated at least 4 different pools in the area. The resort's pool comes with a waterfall along with a bar pool and a small beach enclosure; the clubhouse has the lap pool and the pool with the slide (I found it too late!! didn't manage to get a dip~!)


*Club Pool*

5 o'clock and we jumped excitedly into a taxi, headed out to catch the best of Sabah's seafood~! I have heard soo much about the seafood in Sabah. Seeing that Sabah has better beaches than my hometown, the water are almost crystal clear with school of fishies right under the surface. Though I prefer the crystal clear of the beaches in Perth, I don't get to see school of fishies, what I see are jelly fishies... >=P

This is the restaurant that the taxi driver introduced us. I have to say, the best part about seafood in Sabah is the freshness. They are truly not much cheaper than anywhere else.


*Seafood restaurant*


*Creepy fish*


*Stir fry pumpkin shoot - RM15 *

沙白 --> now that is something I have never tasted before. I was gonna opt for something familiar like la la (yes, it is call la la!! lol...) but they ran out of it and they introduced this to me. And all I can say is.... Why have I never tasted it before?? It was so nice, especially when cooked with spring onions and ginger with a hint of hsiao shin wine. Yummy~!
Hint: You don't need to know the names of the seafood you wanna order. Just follow me, point and say 'I want that~!'. Universal~! lol...

*沙白 - RM25 (RM25/kg)*


*Fish head - RM42 (RM6/100g)*


*Crab - RM40 (RM5/100g) *

All the dish amounted to RM138 for that night.
Hint: there were only two of us, so it was kinda amazing we can stuff everything in~!



Would definitely come back here another time, not for shopping but for the beaches and the food. There are also other specialty food that I definitely love, like tuaran mee RM4(the shop in tamparuli serves the best tuaran mee~!), ngao chap/ mixed beef noodles RM9 (Menggatal ngao chap has many franchises and it tastes good) and the DURIAN ais potong/popsicle~! (NOT for the weak stomach~!) Till the next time~!

Help those affected by the flood

Please help those who are affected by the latest hit of flood in Queensland and Vic states recently.

You can make a donation as directed by the following website or if you could, call them up or keep them in mind in your daily prayers. Sometimes all it takes is one small action to make an impact in their lives.

http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/

Review of 2010

2010 has ended and 2011 have greeted me with full heat blast to the face. Summer~! Hot hot... lol...

I am grateful for what had come to passed in the last 12 months and how far I have gone and grown from 1.1.2010. It has been a pain when my mind reflects on my disappointments and failures for the last 12 months, but right now I wanna be thankful and happy for the various new experience I have gone through.

1) My first conference trip to Adelaide

Dinner at Hilton Hotel Adelaide. Was so lucky to have met a few new friends as well as coincidently meeting a long forgotten acquaintance.



2) Friend's visit and trips all over Perth

I love friends' visits, gives me more excuses to go around Perth looking all tourisy and stuff~! lol...



3) Catamaran experience

I am such a sucker for water sports!! Each time I return from these adventures, I have those annoying patches of itchy rashes~! But it is worth the adventure and fun~!

4) FOOD and LAUGHTER~!




Although my tummy gets rounder and rounder (it is futile to resist good food, I know) with each gathering, I guess it is inevitable as food brings ppl together~! As the saying goes 'the way into a man's heart is through his stomach', it can be amazingly TRUE~! ;P

After graduation, I came to full realization how hard it is to meet or even recognize ppl who used to be important to us, so let us treasure each and every moment together. Happy new year 2011~!!