Sunday, March 04, 2012

Tea in Asia 2011 Round Up

Our trip began back in November with spending some time in Hong Kong with Aunty. She found us a short tour to Guilin and then she brought us to Macau for a day.

From there, we bid our relatives goodbye and visited Taiwan for a week.

We spent the last leg of the trip around Shanghai. Since we joined a tour group, we were able to visit Wuxi, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou as well.

Here are all the articles:

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Saturday, March 03, 2012

Last Meal in Shanghai

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Our trip to Asia blew by so quickly. I wasn’t homesick at all. In fact, I didn’t want to go back. Not yet. I wanted to go back to Hong Kong.

But if my parents and Aunt IS could’ve chosen one last meal in Shanghai, the majority of the group would’ve wanted to have one more breakfast at the Ramada.

Dad started with a savoury congee, with some salted egg, youtiao, and pickled veggies as condiments.

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Dad’s second plate had some dumplings, youtiao, bread and an omelette.

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My first plate was filled was familiar breakfast choices.

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Mom had some toasted croissant with an over-easy egg, and a bunch of other pastries.

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I filled up with a bowl of wonton soup. The wonton soup wasn’t as good as the bowl I had in Nanjing, but it was comforting nonetheless.

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Mom and Dad were eager to eat the steamed custard buns again. They had been dreaming about them since the first breakfast.

The filling was apparently different from the first time. Mom and Dad were disappointed, but they still enjoyed these with a slight smile.

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There were salted egg yolks in the egg custard. I tried a bite but since I didn’t try any on the first morning, I had nothing to compare it to. Still, these were on a different level than the stuff we get in Ottawa and Toronto, where the filling is a fully cooked paste.

After breakfast, we grabbed our luggage and boarded the tour bus one last time. Our friends from Connecticut and America also joined us on the bus. Although they left on different flights, it made the ride to the airport much easier.


While on the long flight back home, I could’ve help but think about how much we saw and how much we experienced in the past month. I knew I was lucky to have travelled around Asia with little health issues, Mom made sure to remind me (she still does). Believe me, I know I’m lucky. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the chance to travel overseas again, but I’ll die happy knowing that I have already done so.


These are a few of my favourite images from the trip. Some of them aren’t strong photography-wise, but I like them because of the story behind the pictures. Under all of the images, I'll attach a link to the corresponding article which you can read.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Last Full Day: Hangzhou to Shanghai

When we woke up in Hangzhou, I felt sad because it was our last full day in Shanghai. Our flight was scheduled to leave for North America the next morning. I was determined to enjoy the last day as much as I could.

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It started with my first plate of food during breakfast. I found it funny when I saw spaghetti in one of the buffet trays. The taste was forgettable. So forgettable, in fact, that I’ve forgotten what it tasted like.

There was something intriguing that I picked up though. The layered flatbread was seasoned with a spice blend that was similar to the one used at the Muslim Restaurant that we went to the first day we were in Shanghai. Cumin was the predominant flavour. Although it was greasy, I enjoyed the idea of it.

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This was Dad’s first plate. Notice the differences between our plates?

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My second round of breakfast consisted of another over-easy egg, more bacon-like protein, breakfast sausage, bread and youtiao.

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My final round consisted of a bowl of wonton soup, and more youtiao with coffee. The small chocolate bownie-like snacks tasted more like chocolate cake. I ate one and then packed the other two away to enjoy at a later time.

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I also had a piece of sheet cake for dessert. Once we were finished with breakfast, we met up with our tour group on the bus and then we drove back to Shanghai.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Breakfast in Suzhou, Visiting Hangzhou

Breakfast in our hotel in Suzhou was less stressful than the last morning in Nanjing. There was plenty of food and the trays of food were actually refilled when they were emptied.

I took a stroll around the dining area to scout out all the choices. My plan of attack involved trying a small bowl of chocolate Rice Krispies, some stir-fried round noodles, getting an over-easy egg, and finishing up with a bowl of wonton soup.

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The chocolate cereal looked like the stuff from Kellogg’s, but I was in China so I naturally doubted that it was legit. The cereal wasn’t super sweet from the chocolate, but the cereal itself was a bit stale.

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Looking back at this plate is scary. The whole plate is filled with carbs. I love my carbs, but geez, I really need to take it easy! The stir-fried noodles were quite greasy. There was a bit of char and a bit of smokiness.

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The steamed bun tasted just like the yummy ones that the hotel in Nanjing. The meat-filled buns had a slightly sweet sauce surrounding the filling, which provided the bun with a bit of moisture.

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Mom really liked the cooked water chestnut. Tasting some minced water chestnuts in some versions of beef cheung fan have ruined water chestnuts for me.

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Mom said that the croissants tasted really good when toasted lightly and she was right. The over-easy egg was lacking some salt and pepper.

I asked one of the gentlemen working the dining area for some. He disappeared into the kitchen and came back with a plate full of salt and white pepper. With the help of some lightly toasted croissant, the seasoned over-easy egg was finished without any difficulty.

As for the tiny tangerines in the background, those were packed away for a future snack.

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The bowl of wonton soup was a comforting filler.

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I went to grab another plate of greasy noodles. Yum.

After breakfast, our whole tour group gathered on the bus and we spent a few hours driving to Hangzhou. We got stuck in some bad traffic on the way there. There was a bad accident involving a tour bus on the oncoming lanes. Everyone naturally slowed down enough to get a glimpse of the broken bus.

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Our bus driver pulled over near an intersection and to let us all off the bus. We were guided into the Sichuan Folk for lunch. Most of us weren’t hungry. We just sat on the bus for about five hours. It was a good thing that I stashed some of tangerines from breakfast. They smelled and tasted great on the bus ride over.

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There were a bunch of locals enjoying their lunch. It was a pleasant sight, since most of our meals during this tour and the Guilin tour were found inside restaurants that mostly catered to tour groups.

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The beer had a very eye-catching label. It also had a cartoon on the back.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Breakfast in Nanjing, Visiting Suzhou

Our hotel in Nanjing was pretty sweet. It felt and looked like it was a 4 star hotel by international standards, though it was probably a 5 star hotel under China’s rating system.

The breakfast at the hotel reflected it. Though there weren’t enough tables and seats to accommodate all of the tour groups eating breakfast at the same time, the food was pretty good. But some of the better breakfast choices, like the croissants, danishes, sesame balls, and youtiao, were the first things to be emptied and ignored by the hotel staff.

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For my first plate, I went with the tasty-looking round noodles, a muffin (for the road), a white breakfast sausage, hash browns with ketchup, and bacon-looking protein.

Of all the different stir-fried noodle options during the various hotel breakfasts (in Guilin and Shanghai areas), these tasted the best. The noodles weren’t over cooked and the seasoning was just right. I have to say that my standards of the stir-fried noodles at hotel breakfasts had dropped during my time Asia, but I was glad to see that this particular version rose above the others. There were shreds of sauce-drenched eggs and slices of sweet onions to keep the noodles from being so monotonous.

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Aunt IS’s first plate represented the Chinese breakfast options. Fried rice, stir-fried peas, some pickled veggies, steamed potato, youtiao and custard buns. The over-easy egg and slices of bread in the background were mine.

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Second round:
I had the aforementioned over-easy eggs with bread and steamed buns filled with meat. Someone had mentioned that they were good, so I gave it a try.

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Third round:
As you can see, I enjoyed the meat-filled steamed buns. The filling reminded me of a meatball with a sweet Chinese glaze – but in a steamed bun. Although I liked the buns, I didn’t eat these. No, no. I packed these up and stashed them in my bag for a later time.

The youtiao plate was empty. Aunt IS was one of the last people to get them (on her first plate).  After waiting a round, I flagged a hotel staff over and asked if there would be any more youtiao coming. He glanced over at the bare greasy platter and went into the kitchen. He brought back with a mountain of youtiao that happened to be cooling off. As he walked towards the platter, I noticed that everyone was eyeing the youtiao.

Mom said these were properly made. I totally agreed when I took my first bite. Although they weren’t hot, they were light and bready – perfect for dunking in sweet coffee. I shared these warm youtiao with the table.

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As I was enjoying my third round of food, I noticed that someone had a bowl of noodle soup. I didn’t see the noodle station when I scouted out all the options. That’s when I saw people in the back of the dining area, standing in front of the kitchen counter. I wandered over and saw that there was a whole condiment bar right beside the egg station. How did I not see this when I was waiting for my over-easy eggs? Tunnel vision.

By the time I was standing in front of the noodle station, my stomach was reaching the limit I had set since the whole Taiwan thing. I asked for some wonton soup instead of noodle soup. Gasp!

These tiny wontons barely had any filling. Now, I’ve realized how much meat we eat in North America but could you really call these wontons if there’s no filling? The cilantro leaf was larger than the filling of one wonton. There was something comforting about slurping the slippery wonton skins down with the MSG-seasoned broth though. The soup had a weird package taste, but it tasted good to me. Is that bad? I'd rather have a naturally flavoured soup like a bowl of shio ramen any day though.

After a very enjoyable breakfast in the hotel, we were brought to see the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. As we sat inside the bridge’s museum, we were given a brief history lesson before we went up the sketchy elevator to the observatory deck.
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