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Finding bargains at the Temple Street Market in Hong Kong
Last week we had an excellent day trip to Hong Kong to get our mainland China visas stamped. While we were there we went to two locations: Chungking Mansions (Which is described in my last blog post) and also the Temple Street Market. Today I want to talk about the market. It was my first time visiting it and I was more than blown away!
Getting to the market is very simple. From Jordan Station, take Exit A and turn right onto Jordan Road. Walk down and take another right onto Temple Street. Once you find the market, the entrance is marked by big temple-like gate, and the other side also has an identical gate that signals the end of the market.
It takes about 7 minutes to walk through the market at a brisk pace, but you will be surprised how fast time flies when you start seeing the deals you can get. It may take only 7 minutes to walk through, but by the time you get to the end I bet at least an hour will have gone by! More than likely, you will also have found at least one deal on fashion merchandise that you can smile about!
After I finished walking through the market I hopped on the metro back to Lo Wu station to cross the border into Shenzhen to return home. However, I didn’t come home empty handed! Here’s what I managed to wheel and deal out of the market:
I bought three high quality (100% cotton) t-shirts with brand name logos on them for an excellent price. The vendor lady asked for $204HK (USD $26) for the trio but I got her down to $140HK, (~USD $16) which is about a 30% savings, around $10 usd. Overall, I couldn’t be happier with my purchase, and I hope to return soon! Check out the walk through I did at Temple Street on my YouTube channel!:
Walking around Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong
So this last weekend it was time to do a visa run for our mainland China visas, so I went with a friend to Hong Kong for a day trip. We crossed the border at Louhu Station in Shenzhen into Hong Kong and planned to hit two destinations that day: Chungking Mansions (The Indian district of Hong Kong) and the Temple Street Market (The most famous street market in Hong Kong.)
From Lo Wu station, we went all the way to Kowloon Tong and transferred to the green line to Mong Kok. Then we transferred again to the red line and got off at Tsim Tsa Shui where Chungking Mansions is located. Upon arrival, we were bombarded with Indian men trying to sell us drugs. Over and over I kept hearing “Hash? Cocaine? Marijuana?” it was a pretty funny experience. We knew we were in the right place. Chungking Mansions is where I come in Hong Kong to buy all sorts of interesting things that can’t be found in mainland china. Mainly, I buy authentic Indian curry paste so I can make curry dishes like in Indian restaurants at home, and I also buy pinto beans so I can make refried beans (For some reason, pinto beans are just nonexistent in mainland China.)
Inside Chungking mansions we did a walk around which I filmed and found some amazing Indian food and some pretty cool deals. You can also get the cheapest hotels in Hong Kong in this area as well. I really love going to Hong Kong, because it’s such a culture shock compared to mainland China. It is really the feeling of being in a more developed country, instead of all Chinese people you truly see a mixing pot of people just like in America. I love it.
Here are the things I got from Chungking Mansions that day:
3 cans of authentic Indian curry paste: tikka paste, tandoori paste, and butter chicken paste. I can’t wait to try cooking with it at home! I also visited the Temple Street Market that day, and I will have a walk through video with the bargains I got coming next week!
Take a look at part one of our Hong Kong day trip below at Chungking mansions! Don’t forget to subscribe if you enjoy the video!
Making a delightful spicy chicken stir fry at home
Today after working out at the gym I needed a protein-jammed recipe and of course the go to food for that is chicken breast. So I created what I call a spicy chicken stir fry, behold it in its gain-fueling wonder.
So how to make such a delightful and tasty dish? Here are the ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 2-3 bunches of cilantro, chopped.
- 2 big bunches of celery
- 1 white onion chopped.
- 2 tablespoons of Chinese lajiao (Chopped pepper chile sauce)
- 2 chicken breasts
Take 2 frozen chicken breasts and boil them in water for about 10 minutes to thaw and partially cook them. While they are boiling chop up the vegetables. When the boiling is done, remove the chicken breasts from the pot and slice them into chunks. Then add some olive oil to a frying pan and heat it up for about 30 seconds. Add the chicken, and add the vegetables and stir together to coat in the oil. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, add a couple scoops of lajiao and mix well to get the lajiao well distributed. Transfer the stir fry to a plate and garnish with chopped cilantro. Eat and enjoy your daily protein. Please have a look at the recipe video below!
That’s all for today, but stay tuned for some interesting videos from Hong Kong, later this week!
Eating fried noodles in Shenzhen!
Today I went to another local laoban that we frequent to order some pidan zhou – Which I have already written about in this blog before, a few weeks ago. Unfortunately they were sold out of the zhou, so we had some chaomian (炒面) instead. Chaomian are high heat wok fried noodles with eggs, pork, and vegetables added along with some spices.
These people are very nice and we frequent their establishment at least a few times a week. Today I asked if we could film them cooking and if they would do a little quick sit down interview with us. They agreed.
Chaomian can be hit or miss in China. I have had great chaomian, and totally lousy chaomian. Of course you can guess that this particularly lady does the chaomian just the way I like them – with 2 eggs, pork, and vegetables added. The end result is an absolutely delicious dish you would very rarely find back home in America, and no, Panda Express does not cut it. Check out the video below to see the cooking, tasting and interview with the laoban.
Hiking Wutong Mountain outside of Louhu in Shenzhen
A few days ago I went with my expat American friend Loren and his brother to Wutong Mountain (梧桐山) which is a small mountain village outside of Louhu in Shenzhen. The village is home to one of the most beautiful mountains I have ever had the pleasure of hiking in my life. Wutongshan is a rainforest-esque climb chock full of bamboo, wild birds chirping, torrential waterfalls and an absolutely breathtaking view of Shenzhen and Hong Kong at the summit.
It’s not an easy climb, either. In fact, Loren’s brother had to turn back about halfway up the mountain because he was too tired to continue. When I came to Shenzhen about two years ago and weighed 50 pounds more, I also could not complete this climb. There are seemingly endless sets of stairs that just keep going higher and higher.
Probably the coolest part about the hike is the myriad of beautiful waterfalls you will experience (Provided you take the stair route – if you decide to just walk up the road to the summit base, you may not see any waterfalls)
There are points where you have to practically rock climb to keep going. Once you get to the summit however, it’s pure bliss and satisfaction as you observe one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen in China.
Overall, I have hiked this mountain 3 times all the way to the summit now and it is an incredible workout, full of breathtaking views and an amazing way to get into nature in Shenzhen. Check out the full video of our hike complete with music below!
Making Chinese style Philly Cheesesteak.
Sometimes, I end up missing foods from home. There are usually ways to replicate these foods by cooking at home, but usually you can’t get things 100% spot on due to a lack of ingredients here in China. I love a good Philly Cheesesteak, which is the steak sandwich from Philadelphia with steak strips, green peppers onions and cheese on a bun. Now, using all those ingredients except the bun (Which I replaced using shou zhua bing, a common Chinese flatbread here) I decided to make what I call a Chinese Philly Cheesesteak.
The ingredients are as follows:
- 200-300g of beef sliced into strips.
- A red onion, sliced
- A green pepper sliced into strips.
- Shredded cheese
- 2 shou zhua bing flatbreads
- Salt (Optional)
To make this is actually a very easy recipe. First, start buy slicing your onions and green peppers. Next, heat up a pan with some olive oil and add in the peppers and onions. Stir to coat in olive oil. Let them cook for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the beef into strips. After the vegetables have cooked a few minutes, add in the beef and stir it in. Let the beef fully cook, at least 5-7 minutes. After it is fully cooked, separate the piles of meat and vegetables in piles of half. sprinkle shredded cheese over each half and cover the pan, after turning the heat off. Let the cheese melt. Next, cook the shou zhua bing in a pan. Heat for 2-3 minutes on each side. Next, spoon the beef and vegetables and cheese mixture onto the shou zhua bing. Wrap, eat and enjoy! Check out the recipe from my YouTube channel here:
Walking around Laojie’s (Dongmen) food street in Shenzhen
Last night was epic! We took the MTR train from Dafen to Laojie (8 stops, about a 15 minute ride) which is home to some of the best shopping and food in Shenzhen. For my YouTube video channel I made a video sampling a few foods, and touring around the area.
Laojie is a beautiful place. Lots of beautiful women, amazing street barbecue and other foods, what could be sweeter? After getting off at exit D with a couple friends I met up with my girlfriend and we started walking around. I apologize for the low quality pictures, I was filming most of the time and I completely spaced out on taking some high res photos! These are all video grabs from this week’s video:
I hadn’t been to the food street that many times so we got lost for a couple minutes, but we found it pretty quickly. While walking there, we ran into an outside barbecue that was serving up youyu ( 鱿鱼 , squid), and yangrou (羊肉, lamb). We couldn’t resist the temptation and we all got a few skewers. The barbecue is well priced, too. You can get 4 skewers of squid for 10RMB ($1.50 USD) or 2 skewers of lamb for the same price. The squid was nice and chewy not overcooked, with lots of spices added. The lamb was delicious and fatty, and for me that’s great because I love animal fat. (Not in excess, of course!)
After devouring our skewers, we headed off to the food street. We got there around 9:45 which is pretty late for laojie. Although it is very easy to find street barbecue going until 3-4 in the morning in Shenzhen, Laojie is a bit of a different case. Around 10:00 it appeared that lots of vendors were starting to close down, but lots of people were still serving until we left (Around 10:45) I bought some lotus root (藕片) and some potatoes. There isn’t much to say about the potatoes except that these ones were actually a little bit overcooked (These were leftover at the end of the night) but still pretty tasty. However, they were a bit too salty. The lotus however was very good. Lotus has a really interesting texture and it is probably the crunchiest vegetable I have ever eaten. It’s somewhat comparable to the crunchiness of an apple.
After walking around a bit more and having some delicious leng mian (Cold noodles, 冷面 ) we decided to take the train home since it was early enough (The train stops around 11:30 and it was only around 10:45) and called it a night. Please check out the video of the food crawl below, and if you like it please feel free to subscribe to my channel 🙂
Chongqing noodles: Spicy and delicious!
Today while walking around Dafen my girlfriend Maggie and I stumbled upon a restaurant from Chongqing, a city about 1500 kilometers northwest of Shenzhen. The laoban was serving Authentic Chongqing noodles so we decided to have a try. I ordered ma la xiao mian (麻辣小面, pungent and spicy noodles) and Maggie ordered paigu xiao mian (排骨小面, pork rib spicy noodles)
The laoban was a very nice guy. He allowed us to film him cooking the noodles and even sat down with us and had a quick chat. In the video, he boils the noodles and adds them to the soup broth. He then adds a number of things. He adds some chili powder, lajiao, a little more broth, green onions and cilantro. Maggie ordered paigu which has meat in it, so he added some pork ribs to the dish as well.
Upon trying these noodles for the first time, here are my thoughts. The noodles were not too chewy, which I really like, very easy to eat. The sauce and dish overall is pretty spicy. You can taste a lot of chili oil in there and the bite you get from the lajiao is not a normal spicy. It has almost a citrusy sour flavor to it. It sort of reminds me of hot pot, but it’s not really the same thing. The greens (green onions and cilantro) do a lot to enhance the look and flavor of this dish as well.
That’s all for today’s entry but be sure to check out the video for this afternoon’s lunch on my YouTube channel:
Cooking up some Chinese style carne asada!
Today is Sunday, our day of rest. Of course for me, it’s always a day of cooking, too. Using my new Canon G7X I filmed a recipe for tudou niurou, 牛肉和土豆, or beef and potatoes.
The recipe itself is very simple, and the ingredients are few:
- 5-6 medium potatoes with the skins included
- 350-500g cubed beef
- Garlic powder
- Red pepper
- Cumin
- Salt
- 1 whole onion chopped
- Cilantro (optional)
- 2 teaspoons Chinese lajiao (拉脚) OR
- 2-3 red chili peppers chopped with seeds
Directions: Cut the potatoes in cubes and cut the beef into smaller cubes, like the size of what you would see in a Mexican style burrito. Add olive oil to pan and let it heat up for 10-20 seconds. Add potatoes, stir to coat in oil, then leave for 10-12 minutes minimum. While the potatoes are cooking, slice the beef and the whole onion. Also, add 2 teaspoons of lajiao or 2-3 chopped red chili peppers at this time. After potatoes have been cooking for 12 minutes, add the beef and spices. Stir, and allow to cook for 5 minutes more. After 5 minutes goes by, add the onion and some more spices if desired and cook for 3-5 moe minutes. Add in chopped cilantro at the end and stir it in. Serve and enjoy!
Check out the recipe on my cooking channel below!
Zhou: A traditional Chinese porridge breakfast.
This morning I went down with my girlfriend to yet another local laoban at Dafen. For breakfast we had pi dan shou rou zhou (皮蛋瘦肉粥), which is a delicious rice porridge with pi dan (The century old egg which I have mentioned many times in this blog), a few assorted vegetables and some pork.
Not only do I absolutely love this porridge, it’s very cheap! At only 3 RMB a bowl, that is about a half dollar US. One bowl is also very filling. This is a very traditional dish that many people eat in Chinese villages throughout the country. This specific zhou however is a little different – many villages will just do a plain rice porridge with nothing else. This one is a bit of a “designer” porridge as it has pi dan and meat and vegetables added.
Let’s talk about the taste of pi dan shou rou zhou. There are a couple words I can use to describe it. Light, creamy, smooth and delicious! Normal rice porridge is well, let’s face it, kind of a dull meal, but Chinese people generally would eat it with a side mantou, 馒头, which is kind of a bread-roll, and vegetables. I mentioned before this is like designer zhou, sort of a fancy kind. The addition of the pi dan is excellent because it gives the zhou a really creamy and delicious flavor and texture. My personal favorite way to eat it is by adding some lajiao to it:
Overall, zhou is one of those classic Chinese breakfasts that is filling, cheap, and delicious. That’s about it for today’s entry but I’d like to leave you with Episode 7 of my cooking show: Lemon Lajiao Chicken!
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