Oh my. Finally in my second decade of existence. It's a bit weird thinking about it to be honest, especially since 20 feels a bit old compared to 19 (to add, I'm not a teenager anymore). We were supposed to go to the expo, but given that it was one of the hottest days of the year, we decided to postpone our plans for another day sometime this week. In any case, I still felt like I had a good birthday, (also in part to the emails and facebook messages from friends from at least 3 different places and multiple time zones which made me happy and extended my birthday into a 3-day long affair...thanks everybody!!!). Good food too, of course.
Noodles for breakfast.
Thanks to my mom who woke me up by calling at 6:50 am, i was up pretty early. In any case, at around 9 am my aunt and i went to this small noodle place near her house that her friend recommended for a big bowl of birthday noodles. Although it turned out that we went to the wrong place in the end, I thought this place was pretty good (and cheap).
Beautiful interiors, don't you think?
Also, the soup was boiling away outside.
My 15RMB (less than USD$3) bowl of noodles was nicely curryish and meaty in flavor--you could tell that the beef had been boiling in the soup stock for a while. The add-on stuff (fried egg, sliced beef and hong shao beef which was sweet-salty with star anise+cloves) went well with the soup stock and the hand-pulled noodles that one guy was doing at the front of the shop. I thought these noodles to be reminiscent of sate (different from malaysian satay) noodles in Manila which has a similar flavor profile--curryish and subtly smoky in flavor. I was satisfied to be sure, even after I found out that this was not the shop that my aunt's friend recommended. Comment though was that there was just a lot of msg in the soup (drank around 2 liters of water at home), but this is china after all.
Mussels and Muscles...and beer at Charmant.
Skipped lunch because was not hungry after all that water, and went to dinner with my aunt and her food-loving Malaysian friends at this Belgian restaurant. Honestly, the entrees left a lot to be desired, but the mussels, fries and fruit lambic (beer) was quite good, especially after a 40-minute treadmill session that afternoon.
Mussels.
According to my aunt's friend, Belgium is known for their mussels that are fresh, cheap, and abundant, which are steamed very simply with some kind of sauce/broth. The menu of the restaurant we went to had 7 kinds of mussel variations, and we ordered the white wine, beer and basil ones (honestly, not a lot of difference among the two alcoholic ones). Not much to say honestly--mussels were nicely prepared and quite simple, and their natural flavors went nicely with the sauces/broths they were cooked in. My aunt's friends were saying though (and I agree) that the mussels needed a little hint of citrus flavor from some lemon, just to reduce the seafoodish taste from the mussels. Broth was good with bread though. Mmm.
Skipped lunch because was not hungry after all that water, and went to dinner with my aunt and her food-loving Malaysian friends at this Belgian restaurant. Honestly, the entrees left a lot to be desired, but the mussels, fries and fruit lambic (beer) was quite good, especially after a 40-minute treadmill session that afternoon.
Mussels.
According to my aunt's friend, Belgium is known for their mussels that are fresh, cheap, and abundant, which are steamed very simply with some kind of sauce/broth. The menu of the restaurant we went to had 7 kinds of mussel variations, and we ordered the white wine, beer and basil ones (honestly, not a lot of difference among the two alcoholic ones). Not much to say honestly--mussels were nicely prepared and quite simple, and their natural flavors went nicely with the sauces/broths they were cooked in. My aunt's friends were saying though (and I agree) that the mussels needed a little hint of citrus flavor from some lemon, just to reduce the seafoodish taste from the mussels. Broth was good with bread though. Mmm.
Belgian fries.
So first of all, I'm not a fry person. Generally I'll eat them but will not eat much because I would worry about my skin. I thought these fries were excellent though, and a LOT better than the large fry in Mr. and Mrs. Bund (see previous post). What made these fries special was that you could tell they were freshly made, and had a nice crunchy outside crust that you don't normally get in regular fries. Whenever i bit into each fry, the combination of crunchy outer layer+hot inside=yum (they were not greasy too). In addition, they were sprinkled with some seasoning that made any kind of extra condiment unnecessary, although I did try them with mayonnaise and they were still pretty good, even if I dislike mayonnaise.
So first of all, I'm not a fry person. Generally I'll eat them but will not eat much because I would worry about my skin. I thought these fries were excellent though, and a LOT better than the large fry in Mr. and Mrs. Bund (see previous post). What made these fries special was that you could tell they were freshly made, and had a nice crunchy outside crust that you don't normally get in regular fries. Whenever i bit into each fry, the combination of crunchy outer layer+hot inside=yum (they were not greasy too). In addition, they were sprinkled with some seasoning that made any kind of extra condiment unnecessary, although I did try them with mayonnaise and they were still pretty good, even if I dislike mayonnaise.
Lambic beer.
Belgium is known for it's beer apparently, especially their fruit lambic (spontaneous fermentation, unlike regular beer). I had both the peach and raspberry flavors and thought them to be really refreshing in taste. Normally I dislike beer, but these lambics did not taste like beer at all--they were light and fruity in flavor; not the artificial flavor either, they tasted of fresh fruits that it was easy to forget they had any alcohol content whatsoever. Don't worry, I didn't get tipsy/drunk on my birthday (this is me with the raspberry beer). :)
Belgium is known for it's beer apparently, especially their fruit lambic (spontaneous fermentation, unlike regular beer). I had both the peach and raspberry flavors and thought them to be really refreshing in taste. Normally I dislike beer, but these lambics did not taste like beer at all--they were light and fruity in flavor; not the artificial flavor either, they tasted of fresh fruits that it was easy to forget they had any alcohol content whatsoever. Don't worry, I didn't get tipsy/drunk on my birthday (this is me with the raspberry beer). :)
Cha's Restaurant: caffeine and a sleepless night.
After that dinner, we decided to go for drinks at a very HK-style cafeteria. If I think about it, places like these are probably the closest equivalent to American diners and the like--even though we got there at around 9:30 and stayed to around 11:45, there were still a lot of people having actual meals.
After that dinner, we decided to go for drinks at a very HK-style cafeteria. If I think about it, places like these are probably the closest equivalent to American diners and the like--even though we got there at around 9:30 and stayed to around 11:45, there were still a lot of people having actual meals.
Front counter area--also my aunt and her friends were saying that the servers in this place were very authentically Cantonese like in HK (part of their training maybe?). Haha. Will let you extrapolate what that actually means.
Milk tea.
Was really good--smooth and without the bitter aftertaste you sometimes get in milk tea (like in xin wang, whose tea was tannic in flavor). It was done very traditionally (boiled tea+evaporated milk+condensed milk) and was a little strong, thus contributing to my 4-hour night sleep that night. Compared to my aunt's tea however, this was really mild--while mine was slightly diluted because of the ice, her "ice" was in fact iced milk tea (she had 2 glasses of this, and did not sleep at all that night).
Was really good--smooth and without the bitter aftertaste you sometimes get in milk tea (like in xin wang, whose tea was tannic in flavor). It was done very traditionally (boiled tea+evaporated milk+condensed milk) and was a little strong, thus contributing to my 4-hour night sleep that night. Compared to my aunt's tea however, this was really mild--while mine was slightly diluted because of the ice, her "ice" was in fact iced milk tea (she had 2 glasses of this, and did not sleep at all that night).
Horlicks (yayyyy!!!!).
Lots of people think I'm weird when I say how much I love Horlicks, a malty drink that tastes like the inside of a Malteasers candy ball thing. I suppose it's partly the good food memories that I attach to it (free with breakfast in HK when we ate at Cafe de Coral which was close to our hotel). It's also a comforting drink to be honest, one that makes me feel like everything is okay. Anyways, it was nice to have Horlicks on my birthday. :)
Lots of people think I'm weird when I say how much I love Horlicks, a malty drink that tastes like the inside of a Malteasers candy ball thing. I suppose it's partly the good food memories that I attach to it (free with breakfast in HK when we ate at Cafe de Coral which was close to our hotel). It's also a comforting drink to be honest, one that makes me feel like everything is okay. Anyways, it was nice to have Horlicks on my birthday. :)
Sleepless night.
Talked to people, watched Top Chef and had the general experience of tossing and turning in bed. Slept at 3 am, woke up at around 7ish, but was awake and unable to sleep for part of it. Ah well. At least I maximized my birthday for the most part (and the milk tea+Horlicks was more worth losing sleep over than a lot of other things...).
Talked to people, watched Top Chef and had the general experience of tossing and turning in bed. Slept at 3 am, woke up at around 7ish, but was awake and unable to sleep for part of it. Ah well. At least I maximized my birthday for the most part (and the milk tea+Horlicks was more worth losing sleep over than a lot of other things...).
Was a complete zombie for most of the next day, where we ate at the correct noodle place--see my adventure above--which was not dingy/sketchy looking, air-conditioned and also good. No pictures of that though.
2 comments:
hahaha!!! you had quite a birthday! you ate all day til what seemed like midnight! my manager was telling me about mussels in Belgium too which is why he wanted to go to Spring Hill for our next dine out coz he heard they have mussels and fries :p I looove mussels!
mmm yes i did. it was an eating day from beginning to end. not OVEReating, but still okay. :)
ooooohh. cant wait for you to go and take pictures!
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