4D3N in Shenzhen, China

Honestly speaking, I've never been a fan of China. (Not racism or anything) I just didn't like how crammed everything was, the huge population, the large crowds, the air, etc. But Shenzhen is apparently famous for their crazily cheap shopping, spas and services. And I just needed to get away from Singapore, so why not?

Plus, this was a really good excuse to eat whatever I wanted. On holiday to gain weight, sounds good. This was the second chance to prove that ed wouldn't hold me back from enjoying my holiday. Unlike my first trip in December to Australia, where ed's hold was so strong, I was determined for this to not be a repeat. I made a promise to myself-I would eat anything and everything I wanted. I would try all sorts of new foods and I would not restrict. And yes, that happened. I can't believe the ridiculous amounts of food I ate on this trip and I tried so many new things. It was truly enjoyable. Okay enough chatter, on to the photos :P

We had lunch on the plane! And I am surprised to say, it was good! I've never liked airplane food, but this was really good! I got the fish fillet with rice, tomato sauce and veggies. It came with fruit and bread. The bread was hot and fluffy, I finished it first! It didn't taste like normal stale, cold bread! I would have had a second one if there was :< And believe it or not, I cleared the whole tray. Even the rice. It was that good.

By the time we arrived, it was nearing dinner time and yes, I was hungry again! My Uncle who lives in Shenzhen would be our tour guide for the next few days, so he brought us to try a really famous hotpot which is apparently extremely popular there. The restaurant's name is “小肥羊”, which also means "Little fat sheep" if you translated it directly. I didn't realize until we reached the restaurant that this meant the restaurant specialized in lamb meat, which I have never tried in my life! I usually refrained from eating it due to religion, but my uncle and mum convinced me that it was good to give everything a try, and it was too good to be missed. Remembering my promise, I was actually looking forward to having something new! 

They are all famous for their extremely tasty soups, which are boiled for hours, with the addition of several herbs and spices, to make a mouthwatering broth. Their other speciality soup is the "麻辣烫“, which is a super spicy broth that is made by herbs, chilli oil and many other ingredients. It's a secret recipe though (; I've never tried this spicy soup before, as my mum always told me it was super oily and that terrified me. But at this shop, their soups were made from the natural oils seeping out from the red chilli, and I couldn't be bothered about how healthy or unhealthy it was. 

We ordered a set meal for 2 people for the 3 of us(their portions are huge!), which came with 2 types of soups(we chose the original and spicy flavour), marinated black fungi, soft tofu blocks, 2 plates of lamb meat(upper thigh meat and another section) and prawns. We ordered additional dishes: Assorted vegetables, mushrooms, potato(cut like french fries), and deep fried bean curd skin--->WHICH I ATE. SHOCKING, considering it's deep fried.

The left is original, right is the spicy soup. You could literally see the oils seeping out from the chilli, enveloping the entire broth and making it super red.

The two plates of meat were huge and extremely generous. They didn't skimp on the thickness of the meat either.

Added all the ingredients in!

My uncle specially recommended their roasted lamb skewers. The meat was tender and easy to chew, unlike most red meats I've heard which are tough. It was really good and there wasn't much fatty meat either!

Just one of the 10000 bowls that I had :P The soup was so amazing, I can't even remember how many bowls of it I had! We had to have our hotpot refilled about 5 times on both sides though xD

After a happy and filling meal! Definitely a must have if you visit Shenzhen!

DAY 2

Mum and I woke up late, and most of the shops open only around 9-10am anyway. We were anxious to start shopping, so we grabbed a quick breakfast at this restaurant near our hotel. They specialised in Shanghai dishes, and they had super interesting flavours of Chee Cheong Fun, which are Rice Noodle Rolls! 

1st flavour: Sweet corn and spinach cheong fun! A totally new combo, can't be found in Singapore! It was really good, the two flavors complemented each other perfectly and the sweet corn was incredibly sweet! This was only S$1.60!

2nd flavor: Scallop and king mushrooms! You can't really see them in the first photo, but this is how it looks like when opened! They were VERY generous with the mushrooms and scallops! For the amount of fillings they gave, this was a steal at only $2.70! 

After a couple hours of shopping, our tummies were grumbling again and our uncle brought us to a food court, Food Republic! Was surprised to see it in China. But comparing the prices there to those in SG, there was a huge difference! And the cuisines were much more local, so I had a huge variety of foods to choose from! 

I ordered this interesting looking bamboo glutinous rice with nuts and seeds, which came with bok choy and double boiled minced pork and longan soup! This whole set for only S$4.50!

My mum told me the rice would probably only fit till half the bamboo shoot. BUT NO! It was the entire shoot, the rice was amazingly tasty and there were all sorts of nuts and seeds in there! Sunflower, pumpkin, brazil nuts, red and green beans, and so much more I can't remember! I finished everything! 

 

And well, one day of spicy(麻辣) isn't enough right? My uncle ordered this 麻辣 fried saba fish! There were two huge sabas, drowned in the sauce, and I didn't manage to get a picture but there was a hidden bed of vegetables underneath! A huge amount! It was so delicious, we cleaned off every last bite of meat! And guess how much this was? Just $14 for such a giant portion which 4 of us shared!

We went shopping again, and here's dinner! Another extremely famous restaurant, known for their speciality abalone and prawn porridge! 

Snacks while waiting for the main dishes: Salted peanuts, fried shrimps, black fungi doused in vinegar. The curry-looking sauce is actually to be eaten with the porridge-it's extremely salty! But since I love salty food, I ended up finishing most of these starters x)

We ordered numerous dishes, which appeared and was finished before the main star was served.

Fried noodles 

Ah! Another Shenzhen speciality! It is steamed oysters covered with s mixture of garlic and other hers! It is super fragrant and you just pop the entire thing into your mouth. It's an explosion of flavours; salty, tasty, slurpy. I had 3 of this~ Too good!

Dou Miao-Beansprouts

Kai Lan

And yet another must-try: Pan fried eggplants, cut open and dressed in a similar garlic-herb mixture. It's really salty though! But really really good. 

This was fried saba fish and roasted lamb skewers again! 

The meat of the fish was extremely tender and peeled off the bones really easily! And it wasn't oily unlike most fried dishes!

Finally, the main dish! Abalone and prawn porridge! There was 600g of prawns and 600g baby abalone in this huge claypot!

A super huge bowl for 5 of us!

Expertly stirring the mixture-look at the generous amount of prawns in just a single scoop!

The aroma and steam rising from it was overwhelming. We couldn't wait to dig in!

Ended the meal completely satisfied and full! And since the main dish was porridge, it was very easy on the stomach and no one was bloated! Amazing! And for all we ordered, which fed 5 of us with a couple leftovers, the total bill only came to $80! For the crazy amount of abalone and prawns! In Singapore, where can you get seafood at such a reasonable price? 

We went to a massage parlour after this meal, and I can't even explain how great it was! We could have massages, and there was a free flow of desserts, food, fruits, ice cream and drinks! We could use the internet for an unlimited period of time, and spend as long as we wanted in there! But no photography was allowed to ensure privacy, so I didn't manage to snap anything! But it was so goooooood and I had so many desserts and fruits x)

DAY 3

We woke up super late as we had gotten back from the spa really late the night before, and we slept in till about 10.30! So we had brunch instead at a shopping mall! They were selling all sorts of interesting street snacks!

These were hammer-pounded pancakes that originated in Korea! The chefs were literally using a hammer to slam on the dough repeatedly, before inserting a filling in it and pounding it again. 

They had a huge range of flavours! From left to right, Lotus root paste, yam, red bean, jam and green bean paste!

Here we have red bean paste, pork floss, peanut and I forgot the last one :P

We chose the lotus root paste, yam, green bean paste, red bean paste and peanut! They were coated with either shredded coconut or ground peanut! ALL OF WHICH WERE AMAZING. The flavours of each were strong and dominant, and the pancakes were similar to that of 'muah chee' sold in Singapore! And this whole plate only costed S$2!

I posted this on instagram, probably the most memorable dish I had in Shenzhen! Steamed scallops with a generous serving of glass noodles and a fragrant garlic mixture on top! It was so good. I slurped up 3! The scallops were fresh and chewy, while the garlic mixture gave the whole thing a delightful flavour! It wasn't a gross garlic-taste-remains-in-your-mouth thing, there wasn't a strong garlic remnant taste in your mouth after. 5 of this too, only costed $2. 

We took a long train ride to a shopping mall, and by the time we reached, we decided to have lunch before beginning the shopping spree. At a restaurant called "Fairway", I think. Something like a fast food restaurant. it was probably the most uncomfortable meal of the entire trip though. There's wasn't any vegetables(I need my fibre :/), and about 80% of it was rice, while it was literally drenched in pasta sauce and a pretty big steamed fish fillet topped with pineapple. And I also ordered low-fat homemade soy milk, as it tasted really good. I must say though, that it was good. The pasta sauce, the fish, the milk. I realized how much I love sauces. I loved them before ed, everything I ate had to be accompanied with a sauce. During ed, they became a sin, a fear. But this time, I ate all the sauce with the rice and fish. I didn't manage to finish all the rice as it was such a huge portion, but I finished almost 3/4 of it. At first, I was wondering why I had ordered this, why didn't I order something lower calorie, something healthier. But I chased those thoughts away and just ate. This isn't going to do me harm; I looked around the restaurant and saw people eating the exact same thing as me and finishing their whole meal. It's normal. It's not going to make me gain 5kg instantly, that's what I thought the whole time.

The rice was hidden under the generous pasta topping. Not to mention the soy milk was pretty fresh and good! Liquid calories you say? IT WAS YUM.

\Probably the most expensive meal here though. It was $6.

We returned to the main shopping district for dinner, where we decided to just eat the street food available rather than being stuck in a cafe. 

Firstly, we had this vegetarian pancake. I have no idea what was in it though. It tasted like a crepe, and was really good! Only $1!

The shop seller was laughing at me for taking photos of the pancake and suggested taking the whole batch instead xD

WORST.THING.EVER. It's like some agar-thingmajig. We thought they looked interesting, and got the sweet corn, red bean and water chestnut agars. Big mistake. Literally, we took two bites and threw it away. It tasted like....bleurgh. It was S$2 for 3. ):<

Ah, amazing food to cleanse our tastebuds! Handmade paus! At the shop, we could see the workers painstakingly moulding and stuffing each one, before tenderly placing it into a steamer! Not to mention, there was a huge array of flavours to choose from! We wanted to try the flowy salted custard one, and the salted vegetables, but they were out of stock! 5 buns for S$1.20! Yes they were just bite size, but oh so filling!

We got the black sesame! IT WAS SO GOOD. The black sesame paste wasn't too little, and the bread to filling ratio was really good! The taste of black sesame was VERY prominent. I gobbled it all up and was so sad I only got to have one )':

Da sexy black sesameeee

Secondly, the lotus root paste pau! This was good too! Similarly, the taste was prominent and not too sweet! It was warm and the dough was so fluffy (: We ordered 2 of this!

Beautiful paste. I'm tearing. 

Thirdly, the steamed veggie pau! Just filled with a mixture of chopped up vegetables, and there was a lil bit of soup in there too! Something like 'xiao long bao' in SG. Pretty normal, but it was nice to have something savoury after 2 sweet ones!

Veggie lover needs her fibre.

Last but not least, we ended dinner with roasted squid on a stick! It was doused in a special curry sauce and like, pan fried to perfection. Haha. It was good, the squid was chewy and juicy, and the spiciness was just right. S$2 for 3 sticks.

DAY 4

Woke up late again, so we just grabbed a small snack since it was so close to lunchtime. This is a very popular snack shop in Shenzhen, I have no idea what its name is in English though. They're very famous for their roasted chestnuts! And the price as compared to SG's=TSK. The quality was very different too! They were selling 300g for $2, whereas in SG its like 500g for S$6 I think? The chestnuts were so easy to peel out of their shells, and the taste was...orgasmic. I don't know how to describe it. 300g wasn't enough, we regretted not getting more. Sigh. I would have gone back for this if we had enough time ): 

Only 300g )))))); *wails*

Then we headed for lunch! We just don't stop, do we? (; At the same food court selling the local cuisines! 

Not sure what cuisine this is, but we firstly ordered a set that came with rice(only one bowl bcos it was humongous and could feed us both), fried egg with bittergourd, double-boiled radish soup and a complimentary side of kimchi and bok choy. Then, we ordered another dish- a whole steamed fish with preserved salted veg and chili! Okay this is where the shock came- when the fish arrived, it was gigantic! It might not seem so in the picture, but the serving size could have easily fed my younger brother as well, who is a glutton. And we thought that the whole pot only contained fish! To our relief, when we parted the fish, we found a mountain of preserved veg underneath! Haha both my mum and I's favourite. Thank gosh we were hungry. We finished everything, it was delightful! The fish especially, was so tender and while we were expecting sliced fish, we then realized they gave us the entire fish! It was huge. And amazing. And only S$9 for this whole lunch. Impossible in SG. Definitely.

My final meal in the plane was dinner! I thought I snapped a photo of it, but I'm not sure why it disappeared. Oh well, it was good too! I had seasoned potatoes with chicken chop and broccoli with carrots. Once again, the fluffy bread didn't disappoint and the dessert; coconut pudding, was really good too! I cleared my plate, to my mum's shock. 

Hehe final shot outside the plane! Saying bye to Shenzhen, I'll definitely be back! 

The best holiday since I can't remember! The thing that made me happiest was being able to eat anything I wanted during the trip, and eating till I was delighted and full for each meal. I didn't have cravings to binge or anything, which was even better. I tried so many new foods, faced fears like sauce, deep fried food, but it was all so good and worth it! If I'm gaining weight, why not enjoy it? As quoted by one of my friends! But one drawback is that they definitely have too little vegetables and fruits here, which are usually my main sources of foods. Their staples are carbohydrates and protein. If there's such a thing as protein overload, it definitely happened this trip. I wouldn't survive eating this type of meals for a long period of time, but I guess 4 days was just right! No guilt or too much anxiety, and I'm hoping it stays that way (:

Back to hazy Singapore ):