Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

I walked around a bit today during my lunch hour in Sheung Wan. It's an old neighborhood on Hong Kong island with a lot of character.

Grand Millenium Plaza

I passed a lion dance troupe on the way to work. They're practicing for a performance. Today (February 19) is the 10th day of the new year. There are 12 animals in the Chinese  zodiac, which are paired with one of five classical Chinese/Buddhist elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). 2013 is the year of the water snake. 

Lion dance troup at Grand Millenium Plaza

At lunch, I walked to Shun Tak Centre on the harbourfront. From Shun Tak Centre, you can take high-speed ferries (or helicopter!) to Macau and other cities in the Pearl River Delta. This is the view of West Kowloon district across the harbour, taken from the footbridge by Shun Tak Centre.

Hong Kong Harbour

Shanghai, Zhujiajiao, Nanjing, Suzhou

上海，朱家角，南京，蘇州之旅

My family is originally from Shanghai - Zhujiajiao (朱家角) water town in Qingpu (青浦) district to be precise. (Well, further back another few hundred years we are from Manchuria but for the past 700 years Shanghai has been the family "ancestral town".) My aunt and cousin still live in Shanghai, and my brother and his girlfriend were visiting from the US so we made a short trip up there to visit the old hometown.


Jon and I only went for two days because of work, but the others went for four days. They also went to Hangzhou to the West Lake, which I went to back in 2008, I think.

Anyway, not much to say about Shanghai - modern, polluted, expensive, lots of good food, and lots of photo-taking opportunities.

Here are the photos from Nanjing and Suzhou first as Blogger seems to have a photo limit:

Jon taking a photo of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing.

Sun Yat-sen is considered to be the father of modern-day China. Personally I find it a slightly creepy Communist propaganda tactic to put their embalmed leaders on display (Lenin, Stalin, Mao...). Sun Yat-sen's body is not on display but his marble sarcophagus is. I guess you never stop working in the service of the people, even after death!




The Nanjing massacre memorial. (An estimated 300,000 people were killed by the invading Japanese forces.)


KFC street advertising in Suzhou

Our gluttonous, gourmet banquet in Zhujiajiao. I love Shanghai food - my mom makes it sometimes at home. My favourites are the Dongbo pork belly and the bamboo, but frankly, I love it all!

You can rent these boats to go up and down the canals.

Making pork belly wrapped in bamboo leaf.



Despite it being a bit touristy these days with souvenir shops, new cafés and art galleries, Zhujiajiao is still home to quite a few people.



You can see many more photos here.

Eating out in Taipei

Jon and I visited Taipei this past weekend for a quick pre-Christmas getaway. The last time I visited Taipei, I was less than a year old, so this trip was essentially the first visit not only for Jon but for me as well.

We only had two and a half days, so we mainly wandered around the city, snacking and eating nonstop. Our hotel was in Ximending (West Gate), the main shopping and hangout spot for young people; the area reminded us of Shibuya in Tokyo. We also visited some other parts of the city, including Yongkang Street, Shilin Night Market, and Xinyi (for the giant Eslite 24-hr bookstore).


Overall, I enjoyed Taipei. I would definitely go back for the great food (especially local Taiwanese, eastern Chinese [i.e. Shanghai, Fujian, Chiuchow] and Japanese) and the relaxed café/coffee culture (local family-run cafés, not Starbucks, dominate). Shopping-wise, I can see why people love to go crazy in Taipei, but many of the home goods, tchotchkes, clothes and accessories can also be bought in Hong Kong for pretty much the same price. Chinese-language books are a bargain for Chinese readers (not me, unfortunately) while English-language books are at the same unfavourable rate Hong Kong bookstores use.

Souvenir shopping tip: Taiwan pineapple pastries (fenglisu/鳳梨酥) are famous and crazy-good. The best place (recommended by bloggers and guidebooks alike) to buy these super-yummy little shortcakes is at Kong Kee in Ximending (opposite the East Dragon hotel). Staff here are friendly and speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese. You can try before you buy, i.e. free samples. The fenglisu's shortcake-like crust is crumbly, buttery-rich but not too sweet, while the inside pineapple filling is light and slightly sticky. It's like a lighter, airier version of Fig Newtons. I never really liked pineapple pastry as the ones I had before were very dense and brick-like, so authentic Taiwanese fenglisu was a revelation. Beware though, good pineapple pastries are very addictive...

Some of our stops included:

Jolly Brewery and Restaurant - A Taiwan microbrewery (not brewed on site due to municipal restrictions) that doubles as a sports bar and Thai eatery. Their home-brewed beer are respectable and reasonably priced (a 6 x 100ml sampler of their six home brews was NT$240 [US$8] if I recall correctly). I liked the sweet malt of the Scotch Ale (7.2% a.c.) while Jon preferred the lighter Weizen and the Pale Ale. Worth a visit for beer-lovers: don't expect amazing beer but it's not bad compared to all the Heineken, Carlsberg, and other supermarket beers that are served almost everywhere else.



Shilin Night Market - The mother of all Asian night-markets. A must-visit for foodies and everyone else. The temporary market building opposite the Jiantan metro station mostly contains some food and a few desultory amusement stands/games such as shrimp fishing, balloon shooting, etc. Oyster omelettes are one of Taiwan's classic dishes but Jon and I much preferred the Chiuchow version - the Taiwanese version had some transparent gooey stuff which was a bit too slimy in texture for our liking. (I later found out that it was tapioca starch.)

While the Taiwanese share the same intense foodie mania with most of the rest of Asia, they really up the stakes in craziness. Famous street dishes included the small sausage in big sausage, small bun in big bun and giant fried chicken steak (a gargantuan breaded fried chicken meat steak that's famous for being bigger than one's face and ridiculously cheap at NT$50/US$1.50).



The "big sausage" is actually a delicious mixture of garlicky, spicy glutinous rice stuffed into a sausage casing. The "small sausage" is a sweet, porky Taiwanese sausage. A relish of Chinese pickles, cucumber and a spicy soy-based sauce combines to create an AMAZING street snack.

Delicious sausages...mmm...the neon sign says "Small sausage wrapped in big sausage"



A bunch of victorious food maniacs who have lined up to buy the Giant Chicken Steak! (Seriously, Jon and I wanted to get this but we were stuffed from Din Tai Fung and the line for this was at least 30 people long.)


Din Tai Fung @ Yongkang Street - While I've never been that impressed by Din Tai Fung's food (especially after being served a drunken-chicken dish that had actually gone bad/rotten at their Shanghai Xintiandi branch a few years back - an unpardonable offense that I have neither forgiven nor forgotten!), the restaurant's xiaolongbao does have a cult following throughout Asia (particularly China, Korea and Japan). So I was willing to give DTF another chance, especially as all reviews indicated that the original branch at Yongkang Street in Taipei was much better than the other. Verdict? The xiaolongbao was good, but nothing special. I've had way better xiaolongbao in Hong Kong at Faye's Nouvelle Cuisine (aka Xiaonanguo/小南國) and amazing xiaolongbao in Shanghai (particularly at the xlb ground zero aka Nanxiang Mantoudian/南翔饅頭店 where these buns were invented). Anyway, I guess the food there is OK but not worth the 30-minute wait (Japanese tours bring huge groups here a LOT so be prepared for a long wait and very antsy crowds)

Crowds at Din Tai Fung.

OMG! Buns! Xiaolongbao! Steaming pork juice spurting into your mouth!

Shredded chicken, bok choi and Korean vermicelli in chicken broth

雞絲白菜韓國粉絲（金華火腿瘦肉清雞湯）
Shredded chicken, bok choi with Korean potato vermicelli in a clear broth made from two whole chickens, lean pork, and salty Jinhua ham.

The fat is skimmed off the top of the soup so this dish is almost fat-free but still very flavorful. The soup is a simpler, homemade free-style adaptation of Chinese "superior stock" (上湯). This dish is all about the soup. Soup is important in Chinese culture - it's comfort, medicine, culture and history in one steaming pot.

While I don't cook traditional Chinese food often, sometimes I like to experiment. This noodle soup turned out very well: it's my own customized mix of Shanghai vegetable noodles and Cantonese/Hainan chicken soup. The great thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever toppings or accompaniments that you like. The only drawback is that making the soup requires time and patience, but you can make ahead and put it in the fridge or freezer.

Soup recipe:
1 x chicken carcass (old chicken)
1 x old chicken (for soup)
chunk of lean pork (about 200 g)
a few thick slices of Jinhua ham (more if you're splurging)
several sprigs of spring onions
3 to 4 inch-long chunk of fresh peeled ginger
sea salt or other good quality salt
shiitake mushrooms or oyster mushrooms (optional)

1. Rub in a good amount of salt into the chicken and pork (pretend you're exfoliating /giving it a facial). Rinse chicken and pork under running water briefly to get rid of any dirt and "frozen" flavor (you should be using fresh chicken too if possible but I am too cheap and lazy to get fresh sometimes and it works out ok, but if using formerly frozen then make sure you thoroughly rinse the meat so you don't get the "freezer chill" taste).
   NB: For the chicken, you can remove the skin and most of the fat in advance (leave a few bits of fat to give the soup flavor). If possible, keep the (thoroughly cleaned) chicken feet and head/neck: the collagen/gelatin gives the soup more umami flavor and that lip-smacking unctuousness. I usually remove the skin and fat from the neck and the butt area, deskin most of the chicken torso, but leave the harder-to-remove skin on the wings and drumstick areas.
2. Chop chicken into bits so that both birds can comfortably fit into your pot. I get the butcher to do this; otherwise if you have whole birds, you can put one bird in at first, then put the other bird in at step 4. Using whole birds makes the removal process easier later.
   
3. Clean and slice spring onions in half. Remove any withered parts. You can remove the roots if it's easier than cleaning the bottom.
   
4. Put meat, ham, spring onions and ginger into pot. Salt generously, depending on how much of the salty Jinhua ham you put in. Bring to a boil, then turn to low heat and simmer until the meat and bones are almost falling apart. Skim off fat, scum and other stuff floating on the top at regular intervals.
   
5. When soup is done, remove as much of the bones and meat as you can with tongs/spoon and then pour through a large strainer into a large bowl or container.
   
6. This soup will freeze well or keep in fridge for a week or two. Once chilled and solidified, it's easier to remove the top layer of chicken fat. It should be a clear jelly once chilled due to the gelatin/collagen.
   

Chicken and bok choi noodle soup recipe
Shredded chicken meat
Fresh mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, shimeiji, etc.)
Bok choi or other vegetables (Napa cabbage, choi sum, spinach, etc. would be nice)
Chicken stock (see above recipe)
Korean vermicelli (or rice noodles, mung bean vermicelli, pho noodles....)
dash of salt/soy sauce/rice vinegar/lime juice

1. Put chicken stock in saucepan. I tend to stretch the use of the chicken stock by using a 50:50 chicken stock and water combo (in this case, add enough salt to make up the taste).
2. Add your chosen noodle and toppings. I used mushrooms and the leftover soup chicken meat, which was a bit tough but I didn't want to see it go to waste, together with bok choi. I used Korean potato vermicelli because I like its texture and taste but feel free to experiment.
   
3. If the soup is lacking a little je ne sais quoi, add the following to taste: salt, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice. (I think the slight sourness of vinegar or citrus juice really helps this soup, though).
   
4. When toppings are cooked through, serve this dish in large bowl, piping hot.
   

Preserved pig's head
Nanjing Road, Shanghai, China

Burger and fries in China

Room service at the Hilton Shanghai, China

Shanghai and Hangzhou (March 2008)

My family's hometown is in Shanghai. Hangzhou is a daytrip by car away. It's one of the most beautiful cities in China, with the famous West Lake (of West Lake beef soup fame)

Cheung Chau Bun Festival (May 2007)

More about the Cheung Chau Bun Festival here.

Chocolate Pretz

Bought at a convenience store in Guangzhou, China