Saturday, October 15, 2011

Shenzhen Airport - Lunch - Hainan Chicken Rice

We are heading to Shanghai. Breakfast has barely digested when we decided to have lunch before boarding China Southern flight to Shanghai. My friend told me the food on board was really bad.

We had hainan chicken in one of the many restaurants at the airport. In hindsight I am glad we did as the food served on board was a bun, some pickled vegetables and an unappetising piece of cake.


The chicken rice was quite decent. I can't remember how much it cost but it wasn't that much.

Breakfast at Solmar Restaurant - Goodview Hotel Tangxia

The Solmar Restaurant at the Goodview Hotel. Buffet Breakfast cost RMB98 (A$16) with 15% tax.

The food set up.

I had bacon, egg, sausages, baked beans and brocolli. 

The bread and pastry section.

My friend had tea egg, waffle, baked beans, sausage, bacon and pancakes.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Han Palace Chinese Restaurant - Goodview Hotel - Tangxia

click for website of Han Palace Goodview Hotel

The Goodview Hotel in Tangxia is nestled beside a lake (man made I was told but I find that hard to believe). I would say it is in the class of say the Marriott or Ritz. My room was 880 RMB which is about A$135. It is a BARGAIN for the luxury!

We had a huge lunch so we decided to have a simple and light dinner at the Chinese Restaurant in the Resort.

Slow cooked herbal chicken soup. This is probably the most expensive dish I have had on this trip. Cost RMB 399 which is A$61. Apparently it has been cooking all day.

 A serving of the herbal soup.


Deep fried pork ribs.

First fried rice I had in China.

This style of vegetable is very common. Greens are cooked in a soup which usually has century eggs added.

Dessert was sago and yam.

Hua Cheng Restaurant - Dongmen

This restaurant is on Le Yuan Lu (Street), also known as Seafood Street as the whole street is lined with seafood restaurants.

My friend chose a restaurant that he had been to previously. The live seafood is displayed out front.  I cannot tell what some of the seafood were as I have never seen them before.

 This is the famous Shanghai Hairy Crab. They cost about A$30 each.I believe they are so expensive because the entire crab is filled with roe. We didn't have this.

 Some sort of giant slugs.

Shrimps.

Mud crabs.

 Assortment of seafood.

 Some sort of bamboo clams.

Fish which I guess are cods and groupers.

 Slug like clams.

Lobsters and crays.
More seafood.

These slugs cost 78 RMB a kilo by the looks of it. That is A$13/KG.

This guy just walks around the tanks by stepping on the edges. He tops up and selects the seafood.

This is the restaurant across the street.

Looking down Seafood Street.

Pots of various soups.

The roast meat section of the restaurant.

The ready cooked food of the restaurant.

The Restaurant's business card.

The ever present peanuts. 

Again, preserved vegetables are served as nibbles.

The steamed chicken which is quite popular in Southern China.

The white stuff in the soup which I thought was tofu turned out to be coconut. It tasted quite good. 

Stirred fried chili bamboo clams.

I found this vegetable a bit difficult to eat. They did not cut it so you have a whole string of each stem which could be as long as one and a half foot!

Another type of clam but cooked in the same style as the bamboo clams above. We could have been a bit more imaginative.

The shrimps are simply steamed and they are very tasty.
 
Scallops in shell with black beans. They did not taste very fresh or very nice.

This meal cost us RMB240 which is A$40.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Buffet Breakfast - Royal Garden Hotel - Dalang Town, Dongguan

We stayed the second night at the Royal Garden Hotel. I cannot believe the size and class of some of this Hotel. It is a five star hotel and cost about A$110 a night including buffet breakfast. I am officially impressed.


Waffle, sausage, hard boiled egg, baked beans, greens and bacon. This is what my friend had.

The buffet selection.

Waffle, baked beans, eggplant, potato, bacon and fried noodles. This is what I had.

There is also a noodle station where you can choose your own ingredients and the chef will prepare it for you. I think Chinese food is a bit on the bland side as I found with this soup.

Chunmanyuan Restaurant - Pavillion Tower - Shenzen

I spent my first night in China in the Pavillion Hotel Shenzhen. The next morning we wanted to try the dim sum in the Chinese restaurant downstairs. It was full and the wait was 45 minutes. The waitress told us there was another restaurant in the tower complex next door. There was where we ended up.

Shenzhen is in Southern China so one can find dim sum and cantonese food. Most people also spoke or understood Cantonese.

This Dim Sum meal costs us RMB240 which is A$40.

Most restaurants do not supply paper or cloth napkins. Instead they provide wipes. I find that taking photos of this or menu helps me remember the name of the restaurant.

Steamed greens.

Braised pork with lotus root.

Preserved bamboo shoots.

Pork and century egg porridge.

Barbeque pork rice rolls.

Prawn rice rolls.

Braised beef and melon.

Shrimp dumplings (har kow).

Steamed egg sponge cake.

Tripe.

Glutinious rice.

The glutinious rice had a bit of black glutinious rice mixed in. This is something new to me and I must say it was a nice touch. Loved it.