Food in Beijing (Recaps from 2019)

 清真黑窑厂街糖油饼

A bit of experiencing how local residents have their breakfast in the morning.

It took abit of convincing from Mr H. 

The 油饼 biscuit is well fried and very crispy.

But the toufu nao taste odd. The toufu is nice but the sauce is like burnt with slight bitterness.

The place is a bit unsanitary if you consider fellow customers spitting on the floor as a sight to behold.

Taste wise is not bad. But i lost my appetite after the spitting incident. >_<.

小大董  Dadong

When in Beijing, the number one thing you must try is the Peking Duck.

There are a couple of famous chain restaurants. 

One is Da dong 小大董 

The other is Four Seasons （my direct translation)四季民福

The condiments to pair with the peking duck is so much more. 

If you are wondering what are this cherries. 

Liver with shan za - very exquisite and It is actually molded to look like a cherry. But i didn't really like its taste though.

This is somewhat like a tasting platter. 

The deep fried beef/meat balls is stuffed with cheese. Quite interesting and nice as well. 

The skin of the goose is like very thicker than usual. Mabbe is the method of grilling that cause the skin to expand and turn crisp.

A plate full different sauce came with the set of goose we ordered.

Duck soup is very much like our peppery bak kut teh.

喜鼎海胆水饺 Xi Ding Dumplings

This place is highly raved by a friend on instagram.

But the dish that really blows me away was this garlic marinated prawn. The garlic pairs brilliantly with the briny prawns. On the menu, they described its salted red prawn.  

These prawns are marinated raw in special sauce and kept chilled. Super delicious. 

Second dish i love is the roasted pigeon which is roasted to perfection. The skin is crispy yet crunchy. The meat juicy tender and yet not overly greasy.

sea urchin wanton but it doesn't live up to its hype. Though it yummy. The other wanton that we order is the prawn wanton which i will rank higher than the sea urchin wanton.

The porridge is good for those with a weak stomach. Simple and bland.

Special thanks to the waitress for accomodating. They are really a little shy and took abit of convincing.

小吊梨汤

Soup here is served in a kettle. It is  apple and pear brewed. Not bad.

 The chinese dishes here are quite decent. 

Zha jiang mian taste like doujiang. 

四季民福 

Queue for this place is horrendous. 3 hrs wait at least. that is like dinner at 10 pm. We came earlier at 4 and still had to wait about 45 mins. 

The duck is less greasy than the other one we tried. The skin is crispy and nice but somehow i still prefer singapore peking duck from imperial. 

Interesting dish ordered will be the vegetable which while is a cold dish is refreshing with a tinge of sour and the deep fried potato gives it sufficient crunch. 

Duck pastry is pretty but the crust and filling inside is so-so.

The cold toufu with honey is interesting. 

Overall, i think i enjoyed the food in Beijing more as its more catered to my taste. 

Food in Shanghai (Recaps from 2019)

 蟹黄鱼面 Xi Huang Yu Mian

I can only loosely translate this to as crab roe and fish noodle store. Apparently, this is a very popular place with locals and this place is quite prominent in Xin tian Di. 

My first meal at Shanghai and i really like this crab egg squid ink noodle which is a perfect balance of saltiness and unami. 

Fried shallots noodles is also well balanced and yummy. 

I can't remember what is this dish is called but i think its quite unique and worth a try. 

We also ordered the signature dish which is the crab meat and yellow croaker noodle soup. The soup is a little bland and i don't like the fishy taste of this dish. 

Poached vegetables

White steam chicken.

Wantons with prawns and meat is also nice. 

南翔馒头店 Nanxiang Mantou Shop

One thing i learnt from this trip to Shanghai is to always always queue for good food.

This place took at least an hour and our brunch has now turned to lunch. 

A recommended place to eat for Xiao Long Bao and there are so much varieties that you can eat all the flavours if you can stomach it. 

糖醋小排 (shanghai signature) Sweet vinegar pork rib taste like coffee/ sweet pork ribs. Nice to eat but is served cold. The vegetable that came with is fresh and very crunchy.

The drunken chicken is heavily soaked is hua tiao wine but also saltier than usual. The textur eof the meat is chewier.

To identify which flavour that is being served, they have a cut out of a pig xiao long bao. This xiao long bao is juicy and very flavourful. 

The super duper big xiao long bao that you need to drink with a straw. Just imagine is like a soup. The flavours are almost similar to the original xiao long bao. 

Here's the crab meat xiao long bao. The dumplings are sweet and tasty.

新苑私房菜 Xin Yuan Private Kitchen

We are invited by family for dinner which serves authentic Shanghainese cuisine. I understand that its highly popular. 

The dishes are all very different from the typical south east asian chinese restaurant.

Its good to try but not my usual food i will go for.  

大壶春 Da Hu Chun

This place is famous for their buns.

This is the buns that they are famous for. They called it Sheng Jian Mantou 生煎馒头. Alot of people also paired it with wantons. The crispy underside of the shenjian bao is crispy and delicious.

I wanted to try this too. Typically i only see this with sweet fillings like red beans or yellow beans. The filling here is made of meat. 

玉蘭面馆 Yu Lan Noodle 

This is a chain noodle store that is supposedly famous. 

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  The space is pretty tight on first floor but you can head up the stairs for level 2 where there is more sitting arrangements. 

Of course the Nanxiang Xiao Long Bao wins hands up for this. But on its on considering the value and taste, i will give it a pass. 

I was super hungry so this taste really delicious to me. 

Tea at 江南第一 Jiang Nan Di Yi

An idyllic place in a historical water town in Zhu Jia Jiao. 

The river view comes at a premium but worth the price. 

Snacks (Mi Jian) to go with the Tea. Each person needs to order a pot of tea.

There's a variety of choices.

天辣餐厅 Tian La Chan Ting

Mr H favourite place and most memorable. The dishes get spicer through the course.

Spicy duck blood in marinate. This reminds of the pig blood and its a dish we cannot get in Singapore now. I love to eat this despite it being so spicy. It is a great fit of the metallic taste of blood (like pig blood) and the chuan spices. 

Sesame Lettuce as salad.

Frog mala.This is hot, numbing and spicy. Lucky there are 2 spicy lovers here. 

We also tried the pig brain, not featured here. Texture of it is like toufu and tougan. 

Cocktails at Peace Hotel 

Old Jazz Band at Peace Hotel belting out mainly classics from Teresa Deng. 

Followed by solo saxophone with the band 

The tables are charged by per person of 300 RMB. 

蟹天蟹地 Da Zha Xie

This is apparently the best place in china to eat the Da Zha Xie at Yang Cheng Lake.

The dazhaxie crab is fresh and when just out from the oven very scalding to touch and peel. Many steps are involved in eating the crab. 

Its quite a knowledge to order as well. 

You need to know what weight to order. The bigger size ones are better now as its the beginning of the season. and towards Dec a smaller one will do as the crabs are fatten up and are full of eggs already. 

We ordered a female and male. Apparently the "eggs" relates to the male and female organs. 

When peeling have to remove certain organs as well. 

The river prawns are fresh easy to peel but quite a pain to eat after a while. As you don't get much satisfaction due to its small size.

The ji jiao tou cook with shan yao is crunchy and nice.