Shenzhen Day 3

Fill your tummy now before you proceed because the food just gets better and better!

The third evening Nancy and Yangmeng brought us to a Hakka restaurant. We were like wide-eyed country people because all we knew about Hakka cuisine upto then was stuffed tofu, pork belly slices with yam, that sort of dishes. If that's you too, be ready to see some of the best food we ate on this trip:


Boiled chicken with special sauce

If the chicken's good, the best way to cook it is boil it! This chicken is corn-fed so it's extra flavorful and smooth. I normally like my plain boiled chicken, well, plain. But the sauce was so so yummy, I could've had 3 bowls of rice with it. To tell you the truth, I was secretly making sure the lazy susan was rotated with the chicken infront of me all night. When there was only one piece left, I nonchalantly asked "Nobody wants this? Ok, I'll take it, don't waste...".

On the way out of the restaurant, I stopped by the section where roasted meats and boiled chicken were displayed and as casually as possible, asked the guy what brand of soy sauce he used. He said,"Hai tien" (Sea sky) and added that he blends the sauce with other ingredients. Just then the manager came forward and he stopped talking. I thought briefly of bribing her... In Macau, I bought a bottle each of Hai Tien Superior and Premium soy sauce, carefully placed them with the new clothes I had bought and prayed the bottles don't break when the luggage is checked in because thanks to the terrorists, we can't even bring soy sauce in our hand-carry (everybody does that don't they??). What a travesty! I used to bring fermented beancurd too. Hmmm!


Assorted braised meat

This was another perfect rice companion. On that plate, there's belly pork (called "5 flower meat: 1st layer of meat, followed by 2nd layer of fat, 3rd layer of meat, then 4th layer of fat and lastly a 5th layer of skin), pig tongue,tendons and chicken feet laid over fried and braised tofu balls. Tasty but I think nobody beats the Shanghainese at stewing/braising meat.


Pork tendons with veg


Stuffed brinjals, bittergourd and tofu

Typical Hakka dish. Yum. Would be better if they served a chili padi dip.

Boiled kale with a blanket of ice

Very refreshing! It didn't need any sauce because it sorts of cleans your palate for the other dishes which are more imbued with flavor and sauce.

Pumpkin cakes

The first (and best) pumpkin cakes I ever ate was in Shanghai. Like a first love, you measure all others by that first impression. These ones failed.



This is the restaurant but I can't remember the location...

After dinner, Nancy and hub (such a nice couple!) drove (Yangmeng's the craziest driver I know! Zipping in and out of the lanes and cutting in within 5" of the other cars) us to Snake's Mouth, an area of intersecting highways that radiate in all directions into the horizon, to different places and cities. Amazing, what China has done in the last few years. We were there to see the new bridge that just opened on 1st July this year which connects Shenzhen to Hong Kong. It only takes 15 minutes to get to HK from there! Because it was so new, even the locals weren't sure where the bus would stop in HK so we opted to take the regular transport, subway train.