Shenzhen tour day 3: yellow croaker for lunch

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It's our last day in Shenzhen, and for breakfast I decided to stay in the hotel room and finish the fruit I bought yesterday. I figured that I'd already consumed enough calories over the last few days and could use a break...

My Favorite Cousin wanted to take her parents to Xinrongji (新荣记), and it's much better to do this in Shenzhen compared to Hong Kong. So for second day in a row, we walked over to the Ping An Financial Center Mall (平安金融中心商场) to one of the restaurants on a high floor. The only problem was that, once again, we had to get ourselves into a private dining room with a much higher minimum spending limit. As a result I pre-ordered a couple of things last night.

A meal at Xinrongji usually starts with some seasonal fruits, and today was no exception:

These big blueberries from Yunnan were as tasty as I have come to expect.

These Indian jujubes (牛奶棗) tasted a little less sweet and, dare I say, slightly "bland" than ones I'm used to buying in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I guess these particular ones did live up to their moniker of being "milky".

Shenzhen tour day 2: Fujian chic

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After napping for a few hours in my hotel room, it was time to head out and explore the area nearby a little more. Foursheets had recommended that we check out Freshippo (盒马鲜生) while in town as it's part of Alibaba, and there happened to be an outlet inside Wong Tree Plaza (皇庭广场) near Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen. We spent a decent amount of time strolling inside the shopping mall and checking out all the shops and stalls selling a wide variety of food, then eventually made our way to the supermarket and picked up some fresh fruits.

For dinner My Favorite Cousin had, for some reason, wanted to try a restaurant serving Hokkien cuisine. Unable to rely on recommendations from friends on this, she ended up choosing Chic 1699 (远洋私厨) inside Ping An Financial Center Mall (平安金融中心商场) after scrolling through Diaping. We ended up taking one of the smaller private dining rooms that came with a minimum spending limit.

Our tea tonight was loquat flower tea (枇杷花茶).

Shenzhen tour day 2: the tide is high

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I decided to do a little bit of work in my hotel room after getting up this morning, which was why I missed grabbing breakfast with the family. Funnily enough, I ended up going to the same shop they visited nearby to have some Cantonese-style steamed riceflour rolls (腸粉). My Favorite Cousin and I had done some research on breakfast joints near the hotel while we were sipping on our whiskies last night, and Hong Li Cun (红荔村肠粉) in Times Square Excellence (卓越时代广场) seemed like a good idea.

Steamed riceflour roll with mixed vegetables with egg (罗汉斋肠粉加蛋) - once in a while I enjoy having the classic dish of mixed vegetables and fungus known as 羅漢齋, and it's not common for me to see it as the filling of steamed riceflour rolls. This would have qualified as a vegan breakfast... until I decided to add some egg to it. Pretty big portion for breakfast, and I didn't have reason to complain.

Shenzhen tour day 1: third time is the charm

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I'm in Shenzhen for a couple of days, tagging along with My Favorite Cousin and her parents as they explore the city a little bit. Having gotten a tiny little taste of the city's dining scene in the last 2 years, I'm actually eager to expand my horizons.

Thanks to a prior engagement, I missed out on lunch at a restaurant I was curious about. I did make sure that I arrived at Futian Station (福田站) via the High Speed Rail by late afternoon, and from there it was just a short walk for me to check into the Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen minutes later.

We took a short stroll around the mall at UpperHills (深业上城), mainly for me to show the elders all the EV makers displaying their models at just one corner. There were lots of people strolling around at dinner time, but My Favorite Cousin noticed that there were very few people browsing inside the stores.

For dinner tonight, I took the family to a place I've become somewhat familiar with. I have dined at The Bay by Chef Fei (东湾 - 由辉师傅主理) at Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen on two previous occasions, and I'm happy to return any time for their refined Chiuchow cuisine. Given that the others had already dined at a Chiuchow restaurant for lunch, this would be their second Chiuchow meal today...

As usual, there was a welcome drink.

Family in the 'hood

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A mere 3 hours after my big, 9-course lunch, I found myself seated at the same table as My Favorite Cousin at Neighborhood. Her parents have come into town for a few days on their way to spend some time in Taipei, and she wanted to take them out to dinner. Knowing my aunt's bird-like appetite and accounting for the fact that Foursheets and I would still be full from lunch, I asked My Favorite Cousin not to pre-order anything. In fact, I didn't tell The Man in White T-shirt that I was coming... because the last thing we needed was extra dishes...

Boiled artichoke / liver mousse / truffle - not surprising that My Favorite Cousin asked for this given her fondness for artichokes. Always happy to have chicken liver mousse to go along.

Grilled piparra pepper / Hokkaido salt cod - the first pepper I picked was pretty spicy! The others were more manageable but there really was a big variation in terms of the heat.

The Man in White T-shirt walked in and did a double take when he saw me. So now the jig is up...

Sea snails - the first of the dishes that the boss decided we should have. These were much smaller than the ones I saw him prep later for other tables...

Grilled local baby squid - always a crowd favorite, and My Favorite Cousin was really happy. Of course, we had completely forgotten about my uncle's gout condition...

Always happy to put these on bread...

Bone marrow / potato / caviar - another staple on the menu that warrants ordering.

Another dish that's more delicious on bread. Love having the melted richness get soaked up by the bread. So delicious.

Buffalo wings / Roquefort salad - another dish that the boss decided we should have. Always happy to have chicken wings and have the "Chicken Wing Beat" pop into my head again...

White asparagus / morels / trotter - these spears were pretty damn big! It's wonderful they came with young sugarsnap peas and a couple of sunny side up eggs.

The morels were stuffed with diced pig trotters, which is always fantastic! So happy!

Brown-marbled grouper head - Shirley had recommended this to My Favorite Cousin, and given how much my aunt likes fish heads, obviously we took it.

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Thankfully The Man in White T-shirt offered to disassemble it for us, because I'm not sure we would have done it properly.

It was sent back into the kitchen and came back as a paella. Unfortunately they also roasted it a little more, and the skin and other bits got too chewy for the elderly folks.

Tarte tatin - nice to see it back on the menu. Very tasty.

Mille-feuille

Canelés

I'm glad My Favorite Cousin brought a bottle of bubbly, because I had just the perfect wine for this crowd...

Krug Grande Cuvée, 168éme édition, ID 319031 - nice and toasty nose as expected. Good acidity balance on the palate, and obviously another couple of years' of aging meant the wine developed some maturity, so the palate got a little softer and rounder.

2010 Lucia, en magnum - started drinking about 1½ hours after double-decanting. Still got the fruit on the nose, along with minty, woodsy, and cedar notes. Drinking well.

Very grateful to The Kitchen NaziMan in White T-shirt for letting us get away with a small menu, as we really did not have the appetite tonight.