How's New Years Eve for everyone? Hope it was a good one!
Most importantly, what is your new years resolution? If you still don't have one, it only concludes one thing: YOU are not a planner! BOO YOU!
I have a stretch of plans for this year. But one very recent ones would be the attempt to shed some weight.
uh-oh! a real TABOO for a foodie, don't you think?
Me and Crazieapple is running a competition to compete who can shed 5KGS the fastest.
I'm a hokkien lang, so naturally im kiasu and kiasi. Knowing that Crazieapple shed weights faster than she down her alcohol, i know im in for some real competition. So now im strictly on a carb free and alkie free diet. But who do you think will win?
To start off a new year, we would like to share our recent journey to the GuangZhou Province. Our itenary during the past few days is strictly eating and sleeping. It was somewhat a business cum pleasure trip (although no business were actually conducted there and then, but we were mostly entertaining or shall i say, being entertained)
Our host(s) has been more than gracious and has reside us in his Hotel in Zhongshan. Everything from food, and accomodation was paid for. While it would be perfectly fine for me to fit in a role as a pig (eat, sleep, eat, sleep) i did wish we went to explore some of the attractions, doing our normal tourist routine. After all it has been awhile since i've been to China (discounted my shanghai trip a few months back) but REALLY, i've never been to this part of town before and how i wish we could explore!
Turns out that i didnt even get to enjoy the usual pampering with some sexy massaeurs, after all this is what china is about right????
(okok, maybe china is more about history and culture) but i think you get my drift.
But there are some interesting culture i've observed in the couple of days, the ethics of eating in China
1. When hosting for a meal (be it luncheon or dinner) the host likes to order about 15-20 courses on average for each meal
2. All the food was served almost at the same time, we barely had time to breathe. For once my HANDS and MOUTH was full.
3. Apparently Cruelty was no concern of theirs as we had Sharkfin and few weeks old pigeon almost every single meal.
4. As with the seating arrangements, the most important guest often sit directly next to the host, and the host often have their back against the wall and faces the crowd. I'm seated on another table away from the host (so there you can judge my importance ) =P
5. There's often a resting lounge, and karaoke room attached to the dining room.
6. Connections are very important in business dealings at this part of the world. You think Malaysia is bad? China is more severe.
Time to bombared you with some of the foodilicious pictures we had. A picture speaks a thousand words so i promise i keep the description short and sweet
A quick stop-over at SUN-YAT-SEN's memorial park.
Me getting overly excited with "bing tong wu lou" 冰糖葫芦 in Shen Zhen.
Unlike the ones we usually get in Malaysia whereby they uses strawberry and cherries.
The ones we at used chinese hawthorn
山楂, coated with hardened sugar
Notice how bloated my face is? Can't help it, i stuffed myself crazy.
Our first day lunch was hosted in Shen Zhen. We had about 30 pax.
Started off with a huge platter of sashimis: lobster, salmon, and snails.
Everything was very fresh, and we were told that it was air-flown from hokkaido.
My personal favourite was the snail. It was mildly salted and has a really nice crunch to it
Fried baby Pigeons which seems pretty popular in China, I'm not complaining. It's really delicious
Herbal soup with Hua Jiao and some other herbs 花胶饨汤 (so non-specific hor?)
108 days old calf.
There were of course many more dishes after this, but my hands and mouth was working too fast to spare time for photo shooting.
Our dinner on the same day... few hours later. i think that pigeon i had earlier was still at my throat.
There was no time to digest.
I find this starter unusual but is it normal?
Steamed potatoes, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and sweetcorn
My potion of Braised Dried Abalone with superior broth. Absolutely divine in taste but slightly undercooked.
My very first comment to this dish was "what's that black shit?"
Pardon me for my language.
It is in fact sea cucumber which tasted really really good. and to think i related something so good to "shit" is definitely unforgivable.
Knowing that we are restricted with a long list of entertainment, i'm unable to release myself to check out some of the szechuan restaurant in town, but how i craved for some good szechuan food!
So, very unshamedly, we were hinting to the host how we enjoyed spicy food, and even gave a long speech about how Melbourne has decent szechuan food, how we can't find the same in Malaysia. And just when we were on verge on giving up in despair thinking we were doom to just eat abalone and sharkfin for the rest of the trip (i know, we brag) but much to our delight, we were served the Szechuan Spicy fish, soaked in hearty herbal soup, topped with generous amount of dried chillis, on the side the tofu noodles complement really well with the overall dish.
By the time i got to the Stir-fried foie gras (almost like a kung-po style) it was already cold and clummy.
Turns out no one knows that it was foie gras and left it almost untouched, and there i was smiling to myself with glee. "ALL to myself" i thought. ngek ngek ngek.. =D
Shark Fin soup which was slightly starchy comparing with Malaysia's version but don't get me wrong, this was very delicious.
The colorful palate that i did not touch. Beautiful presented are some greens, carrots, oysters, and bamboo shoots.
Another szechuan dish that the host pampered me with is the "sui zhu niu" aka szechuan spicy beef
The beef presented in a large ceramic bowl was covered with chilli oil with floating dried chillis. The beef was tender and soaked up all the necessary spicy essence, i'm in love.
Steamed Chicken with Garlic.
Wagyu beef topped with cheese with a weak attempt on food presentation.
Steamed bun
The next morning, we went to lunch at Zhu Hai City 珠海 (a neighbouring city of ShenZhen), at a restaurant called the "Jin Yue Xuan" 金悦轩 which apparently is one of the best cantonese restaurant in Zhuhai. The restaurant was packed. There was a huge seating lounge upon entrance and it was filled with people waiting to be seated (by the looks, their dimsums should be quite popular)
We were led to a room that was directly facing the ocean with a nice atmosphere. Naturally it was an enjoyable lunch.
Spicy Szechuan Chicken!!! No Prize for guessing right WHO ordered them =)
It was nicely fried, but if i were to be fussy, it wasn't spicy enough.
Wood ear 木耳 which was an addictive eat with the crunchy texture
My chopsticks were moving fast onto the 烧腊 Mixed platter of char siew, crispy pork skin, and roasted duck.
Everything here taste good! The BBQ pork was especially mouth-smacking with just the right amount of fats
Black Bean Sauce stir fried clams.
花胶饨汤. Only this time its with a slight milky base
Cheese mixtures Baked King Prawn
The cuteness in me =D
Dinner that night was held in his hotel
Cold platter of Salmon sashimi and abalone.
Getting prepped up for stir-fry shark fin. this is an interesting one, i've never had sharkfin this way before.
With a combinations of egg mixtures, fish roe, bean sprouts, spring onion
After which the sharkfin goes in.
The end product
As much as how the pigeon looks tortured, it was still delicious regardless. (I'm Sorry!)
The host knows our fetish for hairy crab, which unfortunately was no longer in season. But when he heard there's still limited supply few hours away from the city, he thoughtfully got his staff to drive down to buy it and deliver back on the same day.
As a result we got to devour in them!! 600gm of tender loving crab! yum yum
Can you guess which is the male, and which the female?
The roe is the utmost delicious thing we've had during the dinner. We can't help but feeling greedy. Crazieapple naturally had more than 2!
If you haven't guessed by now, the smaller one was the male and the latter female.
Taste wise? I'm thorn between two. For some reason the female roe was a bit harden whilst the male has a slight gooey texture. I know most people tend to go for the female ones as there are more crab roes, but i personally preferred the male as i thought it tasted better. BUT the Female has more ROE!
How? How?
EAT both of course =)
Augustdiners feeling happy and satisfied
Grain worm 禾虫was pretty new to me. We were totally con into eating this. The host insisted that there was no worms in the dish, when clearly there was a couple strands sticking out of the black steamed cake.
Turns out that 禾虫 is a popular dish in Zhong Shan as it high in protein and other nutrients. That being said, eating worms can come with a high price too. (no wonder when i made faces after having small bites, the waitress come to us and whisper that if we don't want it, she can have it later! haha).
Steamed Crab in clear broth with turnip.
Ending with a sweet note: Birdnest with pumpkin puree
Our penthouse apartment.
We celebrated x'mas eve in China by karaoke-ing
@ His presidential suite
Men's Smoking Area.
X'mas party necessities
Thank god for duty free shopping, we stock up good on some MOET VINTAGE on the way to China otherwise we'll be stuck drinking boring whisky (which is not our cuppa tea)
so it's moet night all the way for augustdiners. YAY
Us looking really tired because we just arrived Zhongshan barely an hour before the x'mas party.
To conclude, the food makes up to what could possibly be a boring trip.
Thank you for organizing such wonderful meals for us, tan sri. =)
