Pretty FengHuang 俏凤凰苗家牛肉粉 @Comicity 动漫星城, Guangzhou, China

Address: 广东省广州市越秀区吉祥路1号


Pretty FengHuang at Comicity has one disadvantage because of its location in the mall. Not noticeable but the food quality and taste are impressive. It's located at a level below 遇见小面. We had been strolled at Comicity for few days and passed by this shop with less diners. I just stopped to view the menu to check out their specialty. They are specialized in beef and pork menu.

I was attracted to its sour soup beef vermicelli dish. Finally the next day we decided to give it a try.










This is my favourite, 帆爷酸汤肥牛粉. One of their top 4 signature dishes. The taste was really impeccably delicious, sourness of the soup was appetizing. Ingredients were generous and colourful, had mushroom, tomato, and broccoli.




My friend had 苗家红酸汤牛肉粉, one of their signature dishes too.




The next day we came back here again for dinner. And I had this 黄酸汤肥牛粉. Full of peppery taste and hot soup, less sourness but not a bad choice as well.




The map to Comicity 动漫星城:

Mihimihi法式旗舰店 @BeiJingLu 北京路步行街, Guangzhou, China

Address: 533, Huifu East Road, BeiJing Lu, Yuexiu Qu, Guangzhou 广州越秀区惠福东路533号
Business hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm


Ever since we discovered the most happening area in Guangzhou, BeiJing Lu 北京路. We shopped there almost everyday. This Mihimihi alone has 3 branches in this area. But this particular branch caught our attention because of the queue line.

They have three signature menus, French crispy puff, Japanese Souffle pancake, and fruits tea.




They have different flavours of French crispy puff: Original, Matcha, Strawberry, Chocolate, Durian, and Mango.




The open kitchen concept is great, customers can view the process of making souffle pancake.






We ordered the original cheese flavour of souffle pancake, RMB18.




Can't deny that they are good at branding. We tried both French crispy puff and Japanese souffle pancake. However, I am not impressed with the taste though. The cheese taste of its souffle pancake was rather bland.

I just found out from Google that Mihimihi has arrived at Sunway Velocity in Malaysia this year. But the branch in Malaysia serves only French crispy puff.

遇见小面 @Comicity 动漫星城, Guangzhou, China

Address: 广东省广州市越秀区吉祥路1号


I usually shopped at Comicity 动漫星城 in Guangzhou. The other day I found this place has the picture of noodle on the menu that caught my eyes. So we decided to try it out. It was quite full during peak hours, best to visit after lunch or dinner hours.

The service was good. You can place order using WeChat and pay by WeChat pay as well. But the sad thing is that they don't accept Alipay here.


This is the picture that caught my attention, it looks so irresistible.



The menu:




















They have 14 branches in Guangzhou, 4 branches in Shenzhen.




I had the signature dish, noodles with peas and minced meat in spicy sauce. It tastes great, the texture of the noodle is springy but spicy though.




The map to Comicity 动漫星城:

樂叔老西關名小食 @宝华路 Guangzhou, China

Address: 宝华路59号侧十五甫三巷


I went to Guangzhou again not long ago. That's the reason I was absent from my blog. Honestly speaking, visiting China during festive seasons (Mid Autumn Festival + China National Day) is really a bad idea. The MRT will be very crowded, the sightseeing places will be packed with tourists too.

I was planning to bring my friend to try out the famous fish skin dish from 陳添記 at 上下九街. I got quite stunned to see the long queues at each branch. Starved and we just randomly chose one to dine in. We got a seat at this 樂叔老西關名小食.




The congee 艇仔粥 is a must have in Guangzhou. The one we had here also not bad. And they have the fish skin dish 爽鱼皮 too. The texture is crunchy as well, no fishy smell at all. But the look might be a bit gross, it looks like snake skin to me. I got very nostalgic to see this glass bottle coke. Coca-Cola in glass bottle always tastes better than the ones in aluminium can and PVC bottle.




The fish skin dish costs RMB25 and congee RMB10. The food price in China is quite high. Generally MYR15 above, even at hawker stalls. Compared to my visit to Guangzhou two years ago, they are getting more advanced now. The cashless payment is very prevalent. All vendors are using Alipay and WeChat pay. I hope we can adapt to the change in Malaysia too. I just started to use Boost app last week. 
 

真功夫 Real Kungfu, Guangzhou

Real Kungfu is the fast food chain established its first branch in Guangzhou. Now it has branches across more than 30 cities in China. Its fast food concept is similar to McDonald's or KFC, the difference is that they focus on steamed foods which is more health conscious.

What's good about this fast food restaurant is that they are available early in the morning too. Generally the malls in Guangzhou open at 10am, even the restaurants. So while we were waiting for the time to pass in a mall, we decided to have our breakfast here. The breakfast menus are attractive though the variety is limited, price range from RMB 7 to RMB 14. If you are interested to view their breakfast menu, click here. They will switch to lunch menus at 10:30am.




Our breakfast, porridge with century egg, glutinous rice chicken, steamed buns, and hot soy bean.




Pork steamed buns + porridge, only RMB 12.




Generally all the porridge / congee in Guangzhou taste delicious. Porridge is always a good choice for breakfast. But it digests fast so it's good to have it with submenu, such as buns or glutinous rice.




The glutinous rice chicken in lotus leaf. The taste is acceptable, above average. The portion is slighter smaller than I thought. This glutinous rice chicken + porridge costs RMB 12.50.




I will definitely patronise again in the future. Just that... their lunch menus are slightly expensive for me. If you go on budget, you can get your meal done at Family Mart or 7-Eleven.

ShunJi Icehouse 顺记冰室 & BaoHua Noodles 宝华面店 @BaoHua Road 宝华路, Guangzhou

Address of ShunJi Icehouse 顺记冰室：85 BaoHua Road, Liwan, Guangzhou


I forgot to take picture of the front shop as the road was quite congested. After the fish skin salad at Chan Tim Kee, we wanted to try out the famous Nanxin Milk Desserts Expert 南信牛奶甜品专家. Unfortunately it was too full. So we diverted to Shunji Ice House 顺记冰室 which sells also desserts.

Menu on the table top. Wide variety, it took us sometime to decide what to have.  




We chose traditional double skin milk 传统双皮奶, coconut ice cream 椰子雪糕 and mango ice cream 香芒雪糕. Paid on spot and waited the food to be served.




Come to think of it, a small scoop of the ice cream at RMB13 is quite pricey actually. The ice cream texture was soft, the taste was above average but the portion itself definitely not worth for the price we paid. The double skin milk was good but quite plain in taste, perhaps it would be good if we ordered the double skin milk with red bean paste.




Address of BaoHua Noodles 宝华面店：117 BaoHua Road, Liwan, Guangzhou

Followed by ShunJi Icehouse, we went to BaoHua Noodles 宝华面店. In fact, we were superb full. As it was our last visit here, I forced my mum to try out the famous noodles here.  The signature dishes are the fresh prawn wonton noodles, pork knuckle noodles, and white radish stew. I didn't really want to order the white radish stew, the waitress told me it's their signature so I agreed to it.




My mum's wonton noodles. The portion was very generous, my mum could finish the wontons by herself. But the broth was rather salty for us.




I was stunned the huge chunky white radish was served. We were definitely not able to finish it all.




My pork knuckle noodles. Slurp! The pork skin was chewy, I liked it. If I entered this place with empty stomach, I think I could enjoy savouring every bite of it. Just that the noodle is not to my personal liking, it is made with alkaline water. Although the noodle chewiness was good, I detest the alkaline taste after a few bites. Broth was extremely tasty, it was stewed with assorted ingredients such as scallops, shrimps, pork bones, etc.




There's another good place for quick stomach fix in Guangzhou which I'll blog next. So stay tuned.

Fish Skin Salad & Congee @Chan Tim Kee 陳添記食家, Guangzhou

Location: BaoHua Road (长寿路站 ChangShou Road subway station)

This post will be more favourable for those who can read Chinese because the map and address are all in Chinese. I spent sometime to search online the famous foods in Guangzhou, listed the most popular ones. 陳添記 Chan Tim Kee is one of it. Based on the Google map, it is not that hard to locate. In actuality, when you walk on 宝华街 BaoHua Road it could be problematic to search the streets because the road is so busy and crowded with people and vehicles.

I accidentally found 陳添記 Chan Tim Kee in the alley when my mother and I stopped for a while to take picture. Immediately we walked in to have our brunch, the weather was extremely hot that time.




The menus are all in Chinese. But fret not, most eating places in China provide pictures in menu now. You can just point which you want to order. But you would not able to know the ingredients because no translation.




The take-away counter is here. Enter and get a table if you want to dine in. I didn't know the procedure to order, I placed order and paid at the counter first.




This is the signature dish of 陳添記 Chan Tim Kee, Fish Skin Salad 爽鱼皮 'shuang yu pi' (RMB 22). The fish skin was swift boiled and subcooled in water, making the texture more crunchy when chew. Tossed with seasonings, peanuts, spring onions, celery leaves, ginger, and sprinkled with sesame seeds. It is worth to try, the taste not fishy at all. But it was overly salty for us, perhaps the seasonings was overdosed. By looking at the fish skin closely, don't you think it looks quite similar to snake skin too?




In Guangzhou, there is one dish you must not be missed: Congee 艇仔粥. I like their congee too, but there's another shop selling better congee than this around this area. I failed to locate the shop though, vaguely remember it's on the road side, opposite a mall and they mainly sell congees.




The soybean milk was tasty too, not diluted.




The map, 宝华路 ＝ BaoHua Road, 长寿路地铁站 ＝ ChangShou Road Subway Station. The logos indicated herein the locations of Chan Tim Kee 陳添記食家. They have two outlets here.




The business hour starts at 9am, ends at 10:30pm.




Chan Tim Kee 陳添記食家 is near to Shangxiajiu Commercial Pedestrian Street 上下九步行街.




Most of the good foods in Guangzhou are concentrated in this area, LianXiangLou 莲香楼, BaoHua Noodles 宝华面店, ShunJi Icehouse 顺记冰室, Nanxin Milk Desserts Expert 南信牛奶甜品专家, MeiMei Fried Food 美美炸物, XinLian Rice Noodle Rolls 新联肠粉店, Kin Kee Noodles 坚记面店, YinJi Rice Noodle Rolls 银记肠粉店, etc.

We only managed to visit LianXiangLou 莲香楼, BaoHua Noodles 宝华面店, and ShunJi Icehouse 顺记冰室.  Couldn't stuck in any more food and it was only last day in Guangzhou. Next time I'll spare two days here to hunt all the foods here.

Guangzhou Attractions, 28 May - 02 June 2016

I have been travelled to Guangzhou for 2 times but never really been to the sightseeing places before. Last year bought the "cheap" tickets for two, decided to bring my mother along as she never been there too. Though AirAsia had the free seats promotion, I got the KL - GZ return tickets below RM600 for two (not inclusive of baggage allowance). The connecting flights were expensive, decided to wait. Wait till the near date, the price got higher and higher. At no choice, I had to get it confirmed. Flying my mother from Bintulu to Kuching, then flying together to KL. At last I got all secured. Added up the total airfare spent, it's not much different to get it on the normal days too. Suddenly a week before the day, AirAsia sent me message to inform on the retimed schedule. I was so frustrated as the revised arrival time showed that we only got one hour connecting our GZ flight. One hour transit time is apparently not sufficient for international flight. After the live chat, waiting to be called by the responsible department, nothing happened, live chat again, finally the staff called and got it solved 5 days before the departure time. Caused me to spend extra for hotel room at Tune Hotel since we have to stay overnight.

As our stay in Guangzhou was quite short, done some study and shortlisted a few sightseeing places to visit and also the famous food to try.


Chen Clan Ancestral Hall 陈家祠（陈氏书院） 
This building is under maintenance. Built between 1888 - 1894. It was used as an accommodation for Chen clan juniors who come to town for imperial examinations. At the same time, it was also a place to worship ancestors.




This is the entrance, also the exit. The amazing wood carving on the screen doors and beams.




The wood carving is so marvellous. Each panel entails different stories. You can find the art works every way here. Now it has turned into a museum.




The corridor to gathering hall and back hall.




The courtyard.




This is the gathering hall like what you have seen in HK and China dramas. It was once used as a place for meeting.




Memorial tables of ancestors in the back hall.




Shamian Island 沙面, this is one of the places that is worth to visit. There are many statues here which you can take picture with. The buildings were built during colonial period, so structure designs and pavements also very European feel. We didn't linger long here, too exhausted after the long walk.




Found a Starbucks Cafe on Shamian Island. Wanted to give it a try, but the cafe was quite packed.




Sacred Heart Cathedral 
This church is really worth to visit. You will have a feeling of yourself situated in Europe. I didn't enter the cathedral as the mass was on-going, and they controlled the number of visitors to enter. I was quite surprised there were so many Africans in Guangzhou.




The cathedral was completed in 1888 after 25 years of construction. If I go back to Guangzhou next visit, I'll go to this cathedral again and enter to see the stained glass.




Statue of the Five Goats at Yuexiu Park 五羊石像
If you are interested to know the legend of 5 goats, click here.




Canton Tower 广州塔
We didn't get the ticket to observatory floor, but we enjoyed our dinner at McDonald's there.




We stopped here for quite sometime to enjoy the Sunset.




The unique building across the Zhujiang River is Haixinsha Plaza.




Liede Bridge 猎德大桥




Will blog the food we had in Guangzhou next.