I'd like to take a short break from my food posting to acknowledge with deep appreciation this Friendship Award given to me by VG of "My Household Capers". 
I'm sure the signs make perfect sense if you read the Chinese words... but the English translation was a bit confusing, don't you think?
Anyway, since it was my birthday, I got to choose what to eat for breakfast. CH had mentioned that there's a very nice Cantonese restaurant in the Super Brands Mall nearby... so that was where we headed...to Tang Palace Restaurant!
The place looked pretty posh - chandeliers, rich wood panelling, lush blinds and dim lightings... (and because of the dim lights, please excuse the rather blur photos)...
I was told this is an extremely popular place and there are always long queues. As we reached there before 11.00am and it being a weekday, we got a table without problem... but as you can see, the place was already pretty packed!
As there were only two of us, we couldn't really try that many items. First to arrive was the Pork & Century Eggs Porridge. Their food portions are extremely generous, much much bigger portions than our dim sum here, I tell you! The smooth porridge was excellent, more than enough for 2 persons and the robust tastes of their salted pork, century eggs and flakes of fried sole were so yummy!
These triangular pieces of Fried Pumpkin & Yam cakes were unique - shredded pumpkin & yam mixed with some flour and fried - the texture was crunchy, light and quite oil-less!
The Shrimp Chee Cheong Fun was not so good... the rice rolls, while smooth in texture, were too thick and totally overwhelmed the shrimps. We ate more flour than shrimps!
The test of a good dim sum restaurant lies in their Cha Siew Pau and the ones we had did not disappoint. The pau dough was light and fluffy and did not stick to our teeth and the cha siew filling was tasty without being overly sweet or fatty.
We made a good choice in their Braised Chicken Feet. It was another huge portion and the chicken feet were huge and spongily fluffed up. The addition of peanuts certainly gave an added zest and bite to the dish.
Similarly, the plate of Steamed Pork Ribs was huge - almost like a lunch dish! We could taste the yummy rice wine in the marinade which went perfectly well with the black beans and chopped garlic.
Ahh...what is dim sum without the obligatory Siew Mai, right? 4 big siewmais were sitting prettily in the basket and they were juicy and succulent - somehow, the pork there has a very different texture, as compared to here.
The price for our breakfast above came to about RMB120, about RM60+ ... quite reasonable, I would say.
We paid RMB150 each to take the ride to the highest Observatory Level called the Space Module at 350m high. Unfortunately it was a very hazy day and this was the blurry view from the top...
That's the Shanghai World Financial Centre - the unique building with the "handle" at the top! The shape & design of this building look very different when viewed from different angles!
We went back to the condo to meet up with CH before heading out for dinner. She has made reservations at The Zen Restaurant in Xin Tian Di - a fashionable pedestrian street famous for its night life. It's unique as it retains the antique walls and exterior of Shikumen housing of old Shanghai and married with the totally modern international cafes, galleries, bars, boutiques and themed restaurants which made this a thriving "in" place for visitors as well as locals. Many of the top-notch restaurants and cafes there are owned by celebrities and famous stars.
In fact, The Zen - where we had my birthday dinner, is owned by some HK celebrity (I can't remember who!). I love this rather ethereal pic with the "moving" lights...
Our table was decorated with this mass of peach-colored roses in the centre...
CH ordered the cold dishes... the first to arrive was this Cold Brinjals drenched in some kinda brown yummy sauce! Please excuse the rather unpalatable look of the photo (lack of lighting!) but believe me - this dish was far from unpalatable.
The exuberant captain recommended their signature salad - Pomelo Salad. I didn't find it very unique - it was just fresh lettuce leaves and pomeloes drizzled with some sweet-sour dressing, but it was refreshing though.
Their Spiced Fried Tofu was nice - smooth creamy tofu with a saltish spicy outer skin and topped with some fried dried shrimps - nice appetizer!
We had a whole Peking Duck to ourselves - just look at the shiny crispy melt-in-your-mouth duck skins! (Oh by the way, those crackers were there to absorb the oil from the duck skins; they are not meant to be eaten... even though they looked quite yummy...LOL!) All nicely cut for us to wrap...
... with these strips of cucumber & spring onions...
These were the flour pancakes to wrap the duck skins - quite different from those served here. Their dough is much thicker and had a more chewy texture.
We also each had a Baked Crab...
and this Vegetarian Dish - Braised Tofu & Gluten Puffs...
The meat of the Peking Duck was diced and fried... served in a "wrap-it-yourself" style, complete with lettuce leaves and sweet plum sauce...
We were too full to have any dessert - so no cake, no tong-sui or anything like that! In fact, we had to tapau the diced duck and vegetarian dish back!
And that, was how I spent my birthday, hehe! Very very different from previous years, I must say!
Are you one of those clever nifty people who can just do any repairs around the house with no problem at all? I am hopeless in such things. Any DIY task in the house will be made worse if I even just attempt it!
Recently, the sink in my bathroom was not draining water as it should. Most of you would probably know how to suck or dislodge whatever that’s blocking the water pipe. But me - I had to call in a plumber! The same thing happened when there was some leaking under the kitchen sink. That was even more terrifying, I tell you!
I had to call in a second plumber to properly diagnose the problem because the 1st stupid plumber told me that it’s probably due to a leaking pipe embedded in the kitchen wall and that they’d have to hack the wall, mend/replace the pipe and then re-plaster & paint the wall!!! Now, isn’t that just terrifying?? Thankfully the 2nd opinion was correct - it was just one of the water filters under the sink which was causing the leak. Just changed that and my water woes were gone.
Now, don’t you think that it would really save a
For a start, we should keep the manual of every appliance that we buy as that will be most useful to trouble-shoot and isolate the problem. Once that is done, it's so easy to order the necessary parts you require from EasyApplianceParts.com
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So now salvation is within my grasp... as far as doing home and appliances repairs are concerned. I just need to look up all the tips, information and advice resources from the Net and before you know it, I may be able to change that mouldy kitchen cabinet or repair my next leaking sink!
The interior was bright and cheerful with some chinese writings on a mirrored wall...
My friend CH made the orders at the counter, while I busied myself arranging the cutlery...
First item to arrive was Fried Meehoon. Plainly and simply done, with strips of carrots, taugeh and dried shrimps, it was a delicious start to our breakfast. It would have been a bit better if they had chilli padi too...
Ahh... this is their famous soyamilk... served in humongous bowls... it was hot off the pan, mildly sweet and full of soya goodness!
Of course the most perfect accompaniment to soyamilk (according to the chinese) is their Yu Tiao - or "yau cha kui" - fried dough fritters. The Yu Tiao over there is about at least a foot long... and here they served them to us cut up in half...
Then we had another one, with a spicy dried shrimp filling...
Onion Pancakes - a kind of flat biscuit-like pastry, sprinkled with chopped spring onions and pan-fried. Very fragrant and tasty!
With a full stomach after all the above items for breakfast, we then happily rode in the van heading to Hangzhou. On the way to Hangzhou, I must say the countryside was very pretty - quaint farmhouses dotted the scene, most of them nestling in fields of yellow flowers. Too bad the van couldn't stop for me to snap pics.
I loved the cold dishes... this was the Jellyfish - it was just simply tossed in some soya sauce, vinegar, sugar and sesame oil but it was so tasty! The texture of the jellyfish was a bit harder to what we are accustomed to but it was something deliciously different! There was added crunch and ooomph to the chewing!
Cold fungus - again another simple dish - it was just soaked/tossed in some kinda sweet sourish sauce. I really admire how they can use simple ingredients and simple methods, yet the dishes taste really delightful & appetizing!
Fried Tofu Skin - how much simpler can you get? Just rolls of beancurd skins fried to a crisp and they literally disintegrated in your mouth the moment you pop these crunchy morsels inside!
Ahhh... this was one of the delicacies which my friend CH said we had to try - guess what this is?
Maybe this angle will give you a better view?? Hehe... yes! It's Duck Tongues! They have been braised in some soya sauce and spices... the texture is smooth and chewy... quite delicious, I must say... when you try not to think that you're doing tongue-to-tongue with these!
We had a hot soup... this was Fish Soup, with slivers of mushroom, fungus, bamboo shoots. The fish strips were done really fine & thin... at first they were quite undiscernible until I took a closer look. There were even some small fine bones in the fish strips!
This is another famous Hangzhou dish - Longjing Shrimps. It's just shelled shrimps saute'ed lightly and topped with their famous Lonjing tea leaves. (Longjing is the famous green tea in Hangzhou). Actually, this dish was nothing to shout about - the shrimps were quite bland and I certainly didn't taste any Longjing flavour in them!
I had to have my vegetables and asked CH to order their local veg. What came to our table was this plate of delightful green veg lightly fried with taufu strips. I have no idea what the name of the veg is - it's like a cross between "thoong-hoe" and kangkong, with a wonderful fragrance - I like!!
Ahaa... here comes the star of the meal - Hangzhou's famous West Lake Sour Fish! The fish was extremely fresh, very smooth & tender and topped with the signature sour sauce and a sprinkling of fried garlic - absolutely yummy!! Everyone who visits Hangzhou must try this dish, I tell ya!
After the immensely satisfying lunch, it was time to exercise our legs - a walk round the pretty West Lake! It's indeed a very scenic lake, with lush willow trees and beautiful greens growing abundantly in the area...
I really love that beautiful red tree - so prettily unique amongst the greenery...
These corn cobs looked very nice - so many different colors! The dark-brown ones are what they called "glutinuous corn" and the lighter brown ones are those crossed with the yellow corn. We tried the lighter brown one and found it to be completely tasteless - it was good for exercising our jaws only!
More pretty scenes of West Lake...
We went on a cruise round the lake in one of these quaint chinese boats...
It rained when we disembarked from the boat and we had to buy umbrellas from the many enterprising vendors there - they were like shoving "yue san" (umbrellas) into our face at RMB10 each!
From the West Lake, we took a drive further in... into the Longjing tea plantations. Most of these tea businesses are family owned and home-based... these baskets of Longjing tea were just freshly picked that very day...
From the tea plantations, we headed to the Pedestrian Mall near the West Lake - here, shops selling all sorts of chinese crafts, souvenirs, food and everything else line both sides of the street...
This bronze statue of the Laughing Buddha marked the entrance to the Pedestrian Mall...
We went looking for snacks... McD was certainly not on our list...(although they do serve yummy pork burgers there!)
Ahh... finally, we entered the Food Street and were greeted by these... humongous piles of glutinuous rice heaped onto pineapple-halves...
Braised Pig Tails...piping hot in the pot...
Chinese satay - we tried a few sticks of their Lamb satay - very good!
These were steamed egg custards...
and huge Mantis Shrimps...
Pig trotters anyone??
Hmmm... guess what this huge pot of stuff is??
I'm not a fan of blood products, hehe... but I did try a piece of it. It tasted like pig's blood (an acquired taste) and the soup had pieces of tofu, fungus and some pickled veg in it...
...and Duck Heads too! I totally have no idea on how to eat a complete duck head like this - but I did try the Duck Jaw later on in a restaurant (will post about that later)...
I couldn't resist trying their Fish Balls... but they turned out to be nothing special. It was quite tasty but I think we have better fish balls here, hehe!
These were Pumpkin Fritters which CH bought... pumpkins, onions mixed in flour and fried... quite oily and tasted like our local cucuk udang...
The journey back from Hangzhou to Shanghai took slightly longer than 2 hours due to the evening traffic jams. By the time we reached Shanghai, it was way past dinner time - almost 9pm. CH called ahead to book a table at a Hotpot (Steamboat) restaurant and I was told the restaurant closes at 4am - still plenty of time to eat! Wow... it seems Shanghainese go for hotpot till 4am!
...and of course I must have my greens...
...and Balls - fish, shrimp, meat... all came on a bed of more greens!
We had these Fish Slices too - they don't look like fish, right?? Thick juicy slices of marbled-flesh fish - dunno what fish, but they were delicious after being lightly cooked in the hot soup!
A platter of various mushrooms added flavour to the soups...
Oh... they have a wide array of dipping sauces available - it's MIY - "mix it yourself"! We had a fun time mixing all the different types of sauces...
And a wide selection of soups available (unlike here you mostly get clear soup or tomyum)... to be safe on our tummies, we chose the Fresh Tomatoes Soup and Chicken+Mushroom Soup (sorry for the blur pic - the steam was getting in the way, haha!)
The Hotpot dinner was great in warming us up in the chilly night... we were practically burping our way home after that! Happily went to bed with warm tummies, haha!
