On April 15, my first Sunday back in China, our friend Mr. Mui took Hubby and me to yum cha at the Century Hotel located in the far corner of Daliang. It was our first time there but we have passed by the place plenty of times in the past and each time we did I was always left wondering what that huge castle-like building was for. Mr. Mui told us that it used to be the only 5-star hotel in Shunde. Some people still check in there but now it is mostly visited by the locals for their yum cha.
They still offer the usual yum cha fares but what we really like in this restaurant is their "xiao long bao". This dumpling is also called "Shanghai pao" although it didn't necessarily originate from Shanghai. Another name for this dumpling which I discovered in Hong Kong is "Steamed pork dumpling with superior soup". It is made of the usual ground pork with veggies and spices wrapped in a silky skin made of flour. But what will surprise you once you bite on it is the sudden outburst of "soup" inside your mouth (which most of the time is quite steaming hot). It is because when they make the dumpling they also put aspic inside it which melts when the dumpling is steamed.
We have tried many xiao long baos in many restaurants but most of them are very dry. There is no element of surprise when you bite into it and this "superior soup" inside the xiao long bao is what makes it very special indeed.
Beijing roasted duck is the national symbol of China. It was mentioned in the Complete Recipes for Dishes and Beverages Manual since BC400 and became the most famous dish in the Southern Song Dynasty. The skills of roasting duck were spread to Beijing in the Yuen Dynasty. By the Qianlong Period, the duck entered the imperial court food menus and is now served at thousands of Chinese restaurants around the world. (Source: The menu book at the Empire City Roasted Duck Restaurant, HK)
The first time I tried Peking Duck was around three to four years ago in our favorite Chinese restaurant in Melbourne - The Eastern Palace Chinese Restaurant. I loved it then and enjoyed assembling the "roll" using all the raw vegetables and the sauce/s that they served it with.
My respect for the "art of making the dish" grew even more when I watched an episode of Kung Fu Kitchen wherein an experienced Singaporean chef went to China to learn how to make the dish. It takes a lot of knowledge and skill in roasting and serving the ducks: from the cleaning of the duck to the proper way of removing the organs and intestines, to how they blow air into the duck's empty stomach cavity, to how it must be placed in a special oven for roasting, to how the roasting is timed to perfection and to how precise they needed to slice the meat and the crispy skin to bite-sized portions. Chefs who wanted to learn this dish will need to spend a few months to a few years in order to perfect the art.
I was just glad that in our trip to Hong Kong this year, we found a good restaurant serving this dish. It's the Empire City Roasted Duck at the K11 Art Mall in Tsim Sha Tsui. By the way, we had the duck for dinner two nights in a row!
the famous grotto on Boracay island (it's actually another tiny island by itself)
Ten years after my first trip to Boracay, I was able to visit it again towards the end of March this year. People who knew where I went thought: "Wow! Paradise!". But I didn't go there to enjoy myself. I was there on a mission - one that I would call a business trip.
The place has really changed so much since I last saw it. Only a few of the original establishments remained but there are a lot of new and better ones. I remember last time, Station 3 used to be the cheapest station where you can find all the cheapest accommodations and cheapest food. But now, if you ask me, Station 3 is only just a name because here now you can also find middle and high class hotels and resorts and expensive restaurants and cafes.
The notable changes I have observed were the improvement of the jetty port at Caticlan and also in the Boracay island side itself, the very new and modern airport, the massive growth of D'Mall - the only mall on the beach that I've been to so far, the existence of Boracay Budget Mart - the biggest grocery store on the island, and the many big high class resorts and restaurants on the beachfront. Well, ten years is indeed such a long time but I never imagined Boracay's growth to be that much.
Here are some of the things that you might enjoy when you go there...
 the first cup of cappuccino that I made correctly I've been a coffee-drinker since I was a kid. I think I have drunk more coffee than milk in my whole life. So it's quite possible that I have dreams of owning my own coffee shop. In fact, I have dreamed about it ever since I had my first cup of espresso many years ago.
This summer, Hubby sent me to a coffee school in Manila in support of my dreams of being a Barista and eventually opening my own shop. I must say I enjoyed the course so much. Aside from the joy I got in learning how to make espressos the right way, I also met many new friends.
After the 4-day course, I can say that now I can make decent espressos. But my journey has just begun. With more practice and with more patience, soon all my espressos will all be perfect and I will earn the right to call myself a Barista.
In the days leading up to the Chinese New Year, I was inspired to try cooking some Chinese dishes which I had never cooked before or cooked wrongly before. I'm not sure why, but it must be the spirit of the CNY that urged me to try out real Chinese cooking. I also got bold enough to make use of ingredients that I normally don't use in my cooking like: rice wine, mushroom dark soy sauce, dried mushroom and dried whole red chillies to name a few.
Here are some of the dishes I made. And well, CNY 2012 has already concluded several days ago but I'm still going to make some more dishes like the Sichuan style orange chicken so stay tuned...
 my version of General Tso's chicken  pork with broccoli (I used pork instead of beef)  chicken claypot rice (without claypot)  spicy fried noodles
Hubby celebrated his birthday a few days ago, and as is customary, I was obliged to cook some birthday noodles for him. In the Philippines, we believe that one must have noodles on his/her birthday so that he/she will have a long life. I believe we got this belief from the Chinese, although we are not too specific on which kind of noodles to prepare.
I was not able to make the noodles on the day of his birthday though because our house (building) lost its water connection due to some pipes being repaired. I just made it on the day after his birthday. This time I used flat egg noodles which I cooked with the traditional ingredients of meat, seafood and vegetables. In the Philippines, we would always call this "pancit canton". If we add some vermicelli to it then it will be called "bam-i". Don't ask me why, that's just how it is.
 Filipino-style pancit canton So what did I make on his big day? I made "dongpo pork" (braised pork or the Chinese version of "humba") for the first time. Luckily it was a success. I would never want to ruin a dish on my husband's birthday.  dongpo pork with eggs This year we also ditched the traditional birthday cake from the bakeshop because we noticed that all their cakes just taste the same (whether sponge or chocolate, they have the same taste). Instead, Hubby requested for a blueberry cheesecake which I happily made for him as well.
It's funny how, like the dragon, I wanted to spit fire during the Chinese New Year celebrations this year! My husband and I were so looking forward to doing some traveling during this holiday until....his company sent him to a work trip to Indonesia instead!
My mother-in-law is simply disappointed to say the least. Earlier on, we thought this might be the year that Hubby and I will be able to go home and celebrate this occasion with her in Malaysia. Wrong. It is always so hard to plan for holidays with Hubby's work. By the time they could announce the dates of the holidays, all the flights to Malaysia were already either fully-booked or overpriced. So we thought of going somewhere with a cheaper airfare. I thought I hit the jackpot when I found return flights to Cebu for less than 2,000 Yuan for the both of us (including taxes and fees). Wrong again.
Instead, we celebrated the CNY eve just like it was nothing because early in the morning on the first day of the Chinese New Year, my husband left for Indonesia. Talk about celebrating the new year with family! We spent it alone and apart. And as I am writing this entry, he is still there.
Sorry for ranting here in my blog, but I am just too disappointed for words. I still managed to make something "symbolic" for our new year's eve dinner though. I made my signature style steamed fish. They say fish symbolizes abundance. I wasn't able to make something "sticky" to symbolize family togetherness. Well, we could have eaten "glue" and it would still be the same!
 fish prepared for steaming  steamed fish garnished with lots of coriander leaves and spring onions
It's me again guys. I don't know if you're all still here, but I'm back. I must say that now I officially hate the months of October and November. They always bring me sadness and worry for two years now. Fortunately, things always manage to turn around in December and especially in the new year. I just hope that it won't happen again in this year's October and November.
While I was gone though, I never stopped cooking and trying out new dishes. Some of them I got from the websites of food bloggers that I just tweaked to suit my own taste and the availability of ingredients here in China. I have also discovered some new food and new traditions (at least to me anyway). Well, here they are...
For the past three months, Hubby and I also managed just one trip outside of China (together). He travelled to Indonesia on his own twice (much to my dislike and annoyance) and I travelled back home to the Philippines once. But the only trip we made together was to Hong Kong to celebrate Christmas.
In that trip, we stayed in Hong Kong island (Wan Chai) because our favorite hotel, The Minden, in Tsim Sha Tsui, was already fully-booked. We stayed at The Harbourview Hotel just across the Hong Kong Exhibition Centre. It was a nice hotel but they don't offer free breakfast and free internet. And because all our activities were in Tsim Sha Tsui, we needed to take the subway everyday. Not that bad though because we like the Hong Kong train system.
We still did the same things we always do when in Hong Kong: dine at the Outback Steakhouse more than once and Pho 24, have leisurely coffee breaks at Starbucks, window-shop and shop for real at the iSquare Mall, the Harbour City Mall, H&M and this time at Marks & Spencer. I was also able to hear the Christmas mass at the Rosary Church on Christmas day. One of the new things we did this time was to watch a movie in Hong Kong which we enjoyed and we planned to make it a tradition in every country that we visit from now on. The other one was to try Vietnamese coffee (sorry no picture) and the third was do grocery shopping.
We left Paris early this morning from the Gare du Nord taking the Thalys train back to Cologne. We were reluctant to leave as there are still so many things left to explore. But Hubby said that it's also good to leave some things out so that we still have something to look forward to on our next visit. So instead of saying "goodbye", we said "au revoir Paris!". Until we meet again...
Hello again Cologne! It was raining a bit hard when we reached Cologne at around 11.20am. It was nearing lunch time and Hubby wanted to go back to the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten because he wanted to enjoy their nice food perhaps for the last time in this trip. So, although the rain could soak us wet and I only have a small umbrella with me, we walked to the Old Town passing by the Cologne Cathedral. Today, I can definitely declare that there are 3 things I will never forget about this church:
1. Its huge size and the special mass I attended here on Sunday
2. Climbing its bell tower and almost fainting
3. Today I slipped and fell butt-first on the wet ground in front of it! (it looked funny but it's painful too)
Finally, with our wet bags and partially wet selves, we reached the Haxenhaus zum Rheingarten. As usual, they were quite full inside and even outside. We wanted to sit at the same table they assigned to us that night because it's a bit private and there would be lots of space for our luggage. But they asked us to sit in the middle instead because there will be a tour group coming later on. It was only then that I realized that this restaurant is really very much a part of Cologne's history and that they are indeed one of the stops for tour groups.
We did not order the pork knuckles anymore. Instead, we ordered the 1/2 meter German sausage with different side dishes. When I first thought about half a meter length of sausage, I thought I wouldn't be able to finish it. But I was too hungry and the dish was too good not to devour all of it.
After lunch, Hubby and I walked back to the Dom Hauptbahnhof. We had already bought train tickets going to the Dusseldorf Airport. I convinced him to get a train instead of a taxi to avoid the traffic and to save on the cost. While waiting for our train, I just stayed in Starbucks while Hubby went back to the church to take more photos. This time it had stopped raining.
The time came for us to board the train. It was just a normal train with no seat numbers. But when we were inside, we found that there's actually a first class section on the second level. We had a problem at first on where to sit, because there was no indication on our tickets if we were first class or economy, but then decided to stay in the economy section for convenience. It was quite scary at first because I didn't know all the stops and I was supposed to be the "leader" in riding trains. All my instincts were telling me though that it was the correct train. And it was.
We reached Dusseldorf Airport station in less than 30 minutes. We encountered another dilemma as to which stop of the "sky train" we were supposed to go down to. There was A&B and C stops. We chose A&B and luckily we were right. I must say though that Dusseldorf Airport has a real "sky train". It was like a short tram suspended in the air sort of like a longer and bigger cable car. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a picture. They also have a nice airport with lots of shops but we went straight to our gate after checking in.
Well, truly this is it! It's the end of our trip to Cologne and Paris for the year 2011. I'm keeping a positive mindset that we will be able to go there again next year or in the years to come. Au revoir!
 our gateway to exit Europe (truly the end of this trip)
Time indeed flies when you're having fun! I couldn't believe we've come to our last full day in Paris. And because it's the last one (for this year; I hope next year we can come back), it's jampacked full of activities starting from early morning.
I woke up early today even if we came back late from dinner last night because I wanted to hear mass at the Notre Dame. Last night I checked and found that they have a mass today "in the choirs" at 8AM or 9AM. I couldn't make the 8AM one so I just aimed for the next one. I just walked on the way there. Straight from the hotel and without passing by the Eiffel Tower, it still took me an hour to reach there! The first time we came, I didn't really notice how far it was.
I went inside the church because people were going in but there was no mass inside. I waited for 30 minutes and still none. So I just took pictures of the interiors. When I came out, I found an usher and I asked him where the mass was. It was actually still deep inside the church, perhaps behind the main altar. He said it was already over. It was a quick one which was only around 20 minutes. I was disappointed but there was nothing I can do.
I got out and decided to walk back to the hotel following the river. I thought I could not find my way back following the same route I took earlier on. Just after crossing the small bridge from the church to the other side of the river, I found a subway station and decided to take the train back instead to save time. Unfortunately, I got lost inside the station because of the renovations and the confusing signages. And when I took the first train, I took the wrong direction so I had to go down after two stops and transfer to the other side to get to the right direction.
When I reached the hotel, there was no more time to have breakfast so Hubby and I just ate the macaroons. It was a fine day with blue skies today. Finally! We walked to the Eiffel Tower and took as much nice photos as we can. We were finally able to produce nice photos with the blue sky as a background. I had also planned to climb the tower today after missing it yesterday. I was firm on doing it today because I had no other choice. Tomorrow, we will leave Paris early in the morning.
Hubby brought me to the queue. I chose the one for the stairs. There were lifts that can take you until the summit but the price is different and stairs are more challenging. At first, Hubby didn't want to climb the tower because he is scared of heights and he thought he might not be able to breathe. But later on he decided to climb it with me, having stood in the queue for so long. We climbed until the second level because the next levels after that were closed for "stair-climbers". I didn't really know the history of the tower or who built it and for what purpose it was built, so it was very educational to find lots of information there while climbing it. I was even surprised to find out that there's a certain connection with the tower and the Philippines because Gustave Eiffel (the man who built it) also designed a bridge in Manila around the time after the tower was built.
On the first level of the tower, there were I think 3 restaurants and on the second level a cinema and some more restaurants. There were also some kiosks selling snacks and drinks on each level. It was good because the climbers would really need something to quench their thirst and satisfy their hunger. It was a big job climbing that one! I didn't count the exact number of steps but Hubby thought it was around 699. The view from the tower was breathtaking! You can almost see the entire city of Paris from there. I was really glad I climbed it and shared it with Hubby.
When we reached the ground, we were already so hungry. So the first thing we did was to look for lunch. We didn't want to walk far anymore after the descent so we grabbed a table at the nearest restaurant we can find. This time it was the Boulangerie de la Tour Eiffel. So far in this trip, they served the best foie gras but unfortunately due to hunger, I forgot to take pictures of it. It was also so good it was gone in an instant. Then the very kind waiter suggested for us to order their special for the day which was "Magret de Canard" (marinated duck breast which was grilled to perfection). It was such a lovely meal and the waiter was so good to us, we ended up hanging in there longer than usual and even ordered coffee.
After lunch, we found a cheap souvenir shop next door. We were actually planning to head back towards the Notre Dame this afternoon to buy souvenirs from the small kiosks on the riverside because they were cheaper than the shops I've seen earlier. But this shop was also cheaper (even cheaper than the riverside) so we just bought all our souvenirs there. Hubby and I were both glad because we didn't have to walk far anymore.
We walked back to the hotel to keep our purchases there. There were still a few hours left for sightseeing so we went to the La Tour Maubourg station and took the train back to the Latin Quarter. We went down at the Maubert-Mutualite station and walked towards the Pantheon. We reached the left side of the Pantheon but there was a church that caught our attention. It was the St. Etienne Du Mont Church and what's special about it was the design of the main altar and that the remains of famous people were also entombed there including that of St. Genevieve, the Patron Saint of Paris and Blaise Pascal. I knew Pascal from one of my college subjects before (well, he invented the mechanical calculator) and St. Genevieve is a saint so it was such an honor to be inside that church. Hubby and I took pictures in and out of the church until the bell rang for a mass.
We moved to the Pantheon and admired its size and beauty. It is a burial place for famous French people including Victor Hugo. I had watched some of his literary works: the Les Miserables (play) and the Notre Dame de Paris or known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (movie). It must have been nice to go inside the Pantheon to pay my respects to him but when we reached there it was already about to close for the day. Well again, maybe next time.
We just went back to the church and attended the 6.45PM mass in French because Hubby wanted to take some more photos inside St. Genevieve's shrine. Finally, after the mass and after taking pictures, we walked back to the hotel once again and this time it's a much longer walk (about 4 to 5 kms). We didn't mind though because we wanted to take in the nighttime view of Paris for the last time on this trip. For dinner, we went back to the first restaurant we had dinner at - the Le Bosquet. I used to think they had the best escargot, but after tasting many escargots in different restaurants, I found that they were actually all just the same.
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