Ho Yummy

Jiangmen: Hotel Jinbao Street Eats

In our Jiangmen hotel, there was an “eating street” right on the second level of the hotel. Basically, it was a large restaurant but organized into several different storefronts that offered food from all the different regions of China. You can visit as many stalls as you want and everything is tabulated onto one bill. I ate here a couple of times while I was at Jiangmen and really enjoyed how this allowed us to sample several different restaurants/stalls in a single meal.

There were six of us one day for lunch so we decided to go to the eating street so we could sample a variety of different items. First up was a fried curry rice. It had an excellent curry flavour and was very tasty.

We had to sample some dim sum…after all, we were in Guangdong province, one of the birthplaces of dim sum! I found the siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) here to be ok but I’ve definitely had better in Vancouver.

The crab and seaweed dim sum looked pretty interesting so we gave that a try as well. This was actually so popular that I didn’t get a chance to try one myself. I’ll just have to assume it was quite tasty.

The braised pork with veggies went very well with rice. The oil had been rendered out of the pork so it wasn’t too oily.

The ja jiang mein was spicy and very tasty. The noodles were made fresh on the spot and you could really taste the difference.

The vegetables were served with preserved (i.e. 1000 year) egg. I really enjoyed this dish because the egg adds a different taste to the overall dish.

I expected the tan tan noodles to be the peanut sauce version that’s found in most Szechuan and Taiwanese restaurants in Vancouver. This version had no peanut sauce and had a clear soup base but was very spicy.

Now it was time for dessert. We all shared some almond pudding and some black sesame pudding. They were both very tasty but also very thick…meaning they were quite filling.

The glutinous rice with red bean is a popular dessert item for us when we go for dim sum.  The beans were left whole instead of ground up in a paste so it made for an interesting texture contrast against the gooey rice part.

We also had a thin pancake with red bean paste.  I enjoyed this quite a bit because it was nice and crispy …but not oily at all.

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Price: $ (I think all six of us ate for around $20 Cdn!)

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Jiangmen: Jinbao Hotel Dinner

We finally made it to Jiangmen, which is a medium-sized city about two hours by car away from Guangzhou in southern China. I had several relatives in Jiangmen, most of whom I’ve never met before so this part of the trip was pretty exciting for me and my family.

There was a nice restaurant in our hotel and we ate there for dinner one evening with my dad’s schoolmates. In China, it seemed pretty popular for people to reserve small private rooms when eating with a group of people taking up two or more tables. I guess this works out well for everyone because you can be as noisy as you want without disturbing anyone.

The first dish this evening was some vegetable soup with carrots and bok choy. My grandma actually likes to make this dish quite a bit…now I know where she got her inspiration from.

We also had a bunch of cold dishes. I didn’t try any of these because I was just recovering from a bout of food poisoning (from Shanghai). However, I was told they were quite tasty.

There was beef tripe…

…and chicken fingers. Parts of the bones were actually taken out, making the chicken very easy to eat.

My mom enjoyed these pickled cold cucumbers quite a bit.

Now onto the hot dishes. The free-range chicken was a pretty standard dish. It was nice and moist though from the soup that it came in.

The prawns were big but I found them to be undercooked, making the shells quite difficult to peel off.

I liked the light garlic flavour coming from these garlic chives with pork. The chives were nice and crunchy, which I always enjoy.

The roast pork and BBQ pork dish was very tasty. The roast pork was a bit on the fatty side but I think this was partly what made it so tasty. The skin was super crispy. I noticed that all the restaurants in Jiangmen served the roast pork with some sugar for dipping. I’ve never had roast pork like this before but it tasted really good.

By now, I was starting to get full so I didn’t try the puff tofu with lamb although it was very popular with the people sitting at my table.

The stewed beef with potatoes was another tasty-looking dish that I didn’t get a chance to try.

The steamed cod came with chives and ginger. It was simply made but pretty good.

I really liked these sweet dessert buns. They were filled with some sweet sugary poaste, sesame seeds, and peanuts.

One of my dad’s friends told me that this place was about average in terms of food but is always popular because of its nice surroundings and decor. I did like some of the more unusual dishes (such as the dessert buns) but did agree that some dishes could have been better.

Summary:
Food: 3/5
Service:4/5

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Shanghai: Street Food

So first of all, sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been maligned the past week with the flu. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

While we were in Zhujiajiao, we stopped by one of the street stalls that sold candy. My brother and I split some sticky candy that came on a stick. I think it was pure sugar and it was very sweet…but it was fun to mold the candy using the sticks. These sugar candies cost about $0.50.

Here is a picture of a lady making the rice “tamales” that we ate for lunch.

Here are some more yummy looking snacks that we were much to full to eat!

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Shanghai: Zhujiajiao Water Town

While we were in Shanghai, we had the opportunity to spend part of a day in one of the region’s water towns. Think of Venice…but Chinese-style. It was pretty neat to visit Zhujiajiao, which is one of the closer water towns to Shanghai. After a nice gondola ride around the town, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant recommended by our gondolier.

We ordered some stir-fried veggies with bamboo shoots. The veggies were chopped up quite finely but had a nice crunch to it.

The fresh lai mein with preserved vegetables was quite tasty. The preserved veggies were not too salty and went well with the noodles. You had to eat this dish fairly quickly though because the noodles got mushy after sitting in the soup for too long. The preserved veggies seemed to be a specialty in this town as we saw quite a few people making them outside of their houses.

These vegetables were cooked in chicken broth (similar to the first dish). They had quite an interesting texture…similar to grass but still very crunchy.

The deep fried peppery pork was very popular with my brother. Personally, I would have liked it if there was more of a pepper taste but this still went very well with rice.

This chicken soup was one of the best chicken soups I’ve ever had. An entire chicken was used to make this soup. Most of the fat was actually skimmed off the top so I didn’t feel too bad about having several bowls of this stuff. The soup obviously had a great chicken flavour and the chicken itself was juicy and tender.

We saw a bunch of these braised pork hocks on the street so decided to order some to try for lunch. It came with a lot of sauce, which went very well with rice. I’ve had a version of this dish back in Vancouver but this one was not as sweet as what I was accustomed to.

These rice “tamales” looked better than they tasted. Similar to the pork hocks, we saw a lot of these being sold on the street so we really wanted to try it out. Although the flavour was good, it was not strong enough and I also found the rice to be a bit undercooked.

We also ordered some dumplings at the recommendation of our server. These were filled with vegetables and pork. Taste-wise, there was nothing special about these.

I liked our meal at the water town because it was different from the usual Shanghainese fare we were used to. I also liked trying out the new variety of vegetables, which I’ve never had before. Our entire meal, which fed 5 adults, cost only $40. Not bad, considering we were stuffed full.

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Beijing: Military Hospital Restaurant

On our last evening in Beijing, we went to a restaurant right across the street from a military hospital.  I didn’t see too many people in uniform eating here though. 

Instead of the regular tea we were accustomed to in most restaurants, we were served some chrysanthemum tea.  It was very flavourful, probably due to the generous serving of chrysanthemum flower buds in the pot.

The first dish were the ubiquitous chinese gourds with pork.  :)  As usual, the gourds were fresh and crunchy.  I liked hos the gourds were julienned or shredded, which made for an almost salad-like texture.

The stir-fried veggies were simply cooked but very tasty.  They almost tasted like stir-fried lettuce.

And what meal is complete without sweet and sour pork? :)  This dish wasn’t too bad…I liked it because it was light on the batter.

We also had chicken with cucumbers.  I liked the cucumbers and even though the chicken looked a bit dry, it was actually quite juicy.

It took me a while to figure out what the next dish was my mom figured out that it was stir-fried jicama.  I’ve only had jicama fresh and uncooked so this was quite an interesting taste sensation.  :)  It was very crunchy yet creamy at the same time.  That probably sounds a bit odd but I enjoyed this dish.

The steamed tofu with veggies and mushrooms was very filling and went well with rice.  My dad and brother liked this dish quite a bit.

The clear soup was refreshing and had a light flavour.

For dessert, we had some deep fried cake (I think?) with taro inside and dusted with sesame.  Although it was a bit on the oily side, I liked the taste of this.  It was crispy and the sesame made it nice and toasty.  I also liked the light sweetness of the taro.

My favourite items at this restaurant were actually the tea and the dessert.  In fact, they actually went quite well together because the tea helped to cut through some of the oil in the dessert and made it easier for me to eat a couple of pieces of the dessert. 

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Beijing: Mongolian/North Eastern Chinese

Before I went to China, my hair stylist recommended that I check out a chain of restaurants called “Dong Bei Ren”.  Translated literally, this meant “North East People”.  My hair stylist said he ate at this place every day when he went to China and its food was very different from what was available here in Vancouver.  When I told my tour guide that I was interested in trying Dong Bei Ren, he recommended this other place that was closer to some of the sites we were visiting.  It was a small family restaurant but was very busy and I would argue the best restaurant we visited while we were in China (or at least one of the top 3!).

First came some stir-fried “wood ear” fungus, which is a famous dish in the north eastern region of China.  It had a slightly tangy taste and a light crunch.

Next came some lamb skewers.  These were extremely good.  :)  The skewers had a mild lamb flavour and did I mention they were really good?  The lamb was very juicy and had some very spicy curry seasonings.   Jenkins is not a huge lamb fan normally and he enjoyed this dish very much.  These were actually grilled just outside the restaurant and had a great charcoal flavour.  Just looking at this picture makes me start to drool. 

We also had some spicy pork ribs.  The ribs were dry roasted with chilli, garlic, and onions.  Similar to the lamb, the ribs were very spicy but extremely tasty.  I can take quite a bit of spice but I had to temper the spice with some rice.  One of the reasons we ordered this dish was because almost every table in the restaurant ordered it as well.

I grew up eating canned dace when I was little and this next dish kind of reminded me of those days.  This dace cooked with black beans and served with some veggies.

The hot and sour soup was not as thick as the one I usually have in Vancouver.  It was just the right amount of spiciness and the big chunks of swirled eggs were a nice touch.  I found it really easy to have several bowls of this soup because it wasn’t as thick as the hot and sour soup I was accustomed to…I guess it seemed less filling. 

I had never had anything like these thick potato rice noodles before but they were very tasty.  The noodles had a chewy, glutinous texture and the entire dish had a similar taste to fried beef rice noodles although the texture was completely different.

The minced pork and fresh cucumbers went very well with these noodles:

My only regret about this restaurant was that the chunky noodles came at the end, when I was completely stuffed already.  If anyone knows of a similar restaurant here in Vancouver, let me know and I would be the first in line.  :)  This restaurant was definitely very popular with the locals and was packed with people, all with tables full of yummy food.

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