I was recently introduced to this eatery house that serves AUTHENTIC Taiwanese food. The place was particularly famous for their Mi³-Tai²-Mu⁴, a sort of rice noodle. While I can understand why restaurants serving foreign cuisines change and adapt to suit the local taste buds, I appreciate and prefer restaurants that stick to the original favours and taste.

One of the restaurant’s signature dishes: Stirred-fried Mi-Tai-Mu. Yummy… A MUST try!! (RMB 16)

They have many ways to cook and serve Mi-Tai-Mu. This is the dry Mi-Tai-Mu and they do have Mi-Tai-Mu soup.  A simple but authentic dish. (RMB8)

The famous Taiwanese Lu-Rou-Fan – Stewed Meat Rice – (RMB 6). Don’t be fooled by this photo. The serving is quite small though. The braised tiny pork pieces spreading over the steam rice, and are sprinkled with braised meat souce which often accompanied with radishes and pickles. The tasty braised pork rice will keep you wanting seconds!

It’s fun coming here and listen to the Taiwanese owner blah-ing out Chinese terms in their Taiwanese accent.

Instead of “Lu-Rou-Fan“, they say “Lu-Lou-Huang“. Instead of “Yiu-Dou-Fu“, they say “Yiu-Do-Hu“.

“Yiu-Do-Hu“, (RMB 8): one of my favourite dishes.  A bowl of rice….  Some hot steaming braised tofu and I’m good… They are cooked in a braised souce made with special Chinese herbal ingredients. With a strong herbal scent, this tofu have a special taste that is like none other.

Another signature dish: Oriental stuffed chicken roll (RMB 16). Basically, it is minced chicken meat and some water chestnuts wrapped in bean curd skin and fried together – just the thing to get the stomach rumbling.

Try the Taiwanese Sausage as well (RMB 18). I could smell the sausage across the room before the waitress even delivered the plate to our table. The slices of garlic adds just a touch of spiciness to the dish.

The restaurant is very small and are only about 5 tables. It looks like Taiwanese style “xiao chi” and tea house. Couple of Taiwanese linger over some snacks at simple square dark wood tables as Taiwan channel news play on the wall mounted plasma tv. When we got there at 1pm, it was crowded and there were no empty seats.

The owner cum chef is a Taiwanese grandma.  Many Taiwanese dine there to fulfill their craving for authentic home-made dishes.

The eatery is named after its signature dish, Mi-Tai-Mu. The rice noodle is hand made and the ingredients are imported from Taiwan according to the chef. For dessert, you can try their Ice Mi-Tai-Mu, which rather unique. Unfortunately, we were not able to try this dessert as the restaurant have finished selling their last bowl.

Aside from these dishes we ordered above, the menu has O-ah-jian (Oyster Omelet), fried drumstick rice, fried calamari ball, braised egg, braised pork knuckles, variety of soups and more…

ALL food are served without MSG!!

Address: No.158 Zi-Teng Lu, Minhang.

Delivery: 34315456
Opening hours: 10:00am – 12:00am

Popularity: unranked [?]

I’m attending the 2008 China International Food & Tourism Festival (CIFT) which started today in Wenshuyuan Street, Chengdu. CIFT is sponsored by China National Tourism Administration, China Council of International Trade and Chengdu Municiple People’s Goverment. The festival themed “Food of Sichuan”will last for a month and is the longest in history. Food from other 12 districts are joining the food testing activities too.

Chinese steam buns stuffed with hot soup and meat and/or vegetarian fillings

Chinese sausage and dried meat.

Bugs… insects… I beg you won’t eat this! You have probably seen this in Beijing or Thailand.

More photos…

People in Chengdu are more relax and enjoy life more than Shanghainese and Beijingers. I was surprised at how modern Chengdu was with its skyline. I love to sit at the balcony in the morning and watch those peoples on their bikes going to work.

Since the Sichuan earthquake 4 months ago, Chengdu came into attention once again, not because of the quake, but a series of exhibition, forums and festivals to showcase its new image to the world and to help recover its industries that were effected by the quake.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Yesterday Ron and I went for Hong Kong Cuisine along Dingxi road as I need to go to my bank to get some stuff done. We have been to this place before and the grilled pork was not bad. The service was… well… no comments.

This time though, the very gruff waitress kinda got onto our nerves. Good service in Shanghai is really very very very rare.

We ordered some famous HongKong dishes and a bowl of fish congee. The picture in the menu was rather appetizing with slice fish, nuts and you-tiao (or Chinese cruller). The waitress taking our order immediately snapped “Oh…. There will be no you-tiao in the porridge”. Despite the small disappointment, we were prepared to let it go.

waitress: zhe ge mei you yiu-tiao de ah… (There is no chinese cruller in this congee)

me: wei shen me? (why?)

w: wo men yi kai shi jiu mei you de ya! (We never put chinese cruller in our congee when we started selling!)

me: na wei shen me zhao pian li mian you? (Why is it in the photo?)

w: <<<MEI YOU JIU MEI YOU!!!!!!!!>>> (DON’T HAVE MEANS DON’T HAVE!!!!!)

me: na jiu bu yao fang zhao pian ah!?!? (Don’t show it in the photo then!?!?)

w: …

Why bother to show the photos in the menu when you are not selling the actual stuff. It can be misleading and even if there are any misunderstandings, a polite explanation would have been enough. We find it ok if they have no more yiu-tiao, but they insisted that this ingredient was not included from when they started business!?!?!

Things in China are improving and some things here are way better than they are in other parts of the globe. Service line isn’t one of them! Lesson that we’ve learnt, never trust a photo in a menu and don’t have means DON’t HAVE!

Popularity: 53% [?]

This is what Ajisen Ramen’s fried mussels looks like in the picture:

This is what Ajisen Ramen’s fried mussels looks when it was served:

I still recall the first time we dined in a South East Asian restaurant in Raffles Place, People’s Square. The food and atmosphere was average. It was an incident that left a deep impression. A local couple ordered Indonesian pineapple rice and when it arrived, they complained loudly to the waiter that the dish was different from the picture in the menu. Finally the cook came along, apologized and took the dish back. I could not imagine this scene happening back home.

I saw this happened a few times in Shanghai actually. Initially I could not understand all this fuss until Ron and I had lunch at Ajisen. We ordered ramen and some fried dumplings. The fried mussels really looked big and delicious and we ordered this dish. And then the mussels arrived. What the heck! These tiny little mussels were not look appetizing at all.

Guess we finally understand how that couple felt. Being the “peaceful” type of people, we did not make a big fuss but quietly noted it down in our “Never make this mistake again” list!

Popularity: 24% [?]

1019 KangDing Road, near YanPing Road. If you walk from west Yan-Ping, you can’t miss it!

Facade of the restaurant

Native Thai cuisine prevails at this restaurant. For those who love Thai food, there’s a new Thai restuarant  along Kang Ding road, just few minutes walk from west Yen-Ping road.

The Interior.

Nicely printed menu in English with photos.

Chiang Mai Thai cuisine mainly offers native Thailand food. The selection of seafood dishes is fantastic. It has a quiet and warm environment and the lighting was comfortable.

We got there pretty early, at about 11 noon and we were the first customers. We ordered fried rice with shrimp paste and tom yam soup. For me, tom yam soup is a absolute must when trying thai food. To top it off, we ordered fried prawn cakes as appetiziers. It was a pity they did not have appetiziers combination, which is available at Thai House . But the prawn cakes were not available and we ordered fish cakes instead.

The service was actuallly quite good which is rare in Shanghai. They were very accomodating and polite. The food was good although we would have preferred it to be more spicy. While waiting for the final dish (fried fish cakes), we were served Satay instead. We though it was a mistake.  The Thai Chef explained that the fish cakes were not up to his usual standards and could not be served. The Satay was on the house.

All in all, the experience was pleasant and we would be back for more thai cuisine.

Thai fried rice with shrimp paste, sweat pork, fried egg and prawn.

Thai Satay

Thai Seafood Tom Yam Soup

Contact informations:

1019 Kangding Lu, Jing An District near Yanping Lu.
Tel: 5228-1588
URL: http://www.chiang-mai.com.cn/
caijiquan918@yahoo.com.cn
Open 11am-11pm
Delivery available within 3km.

Popularity: 30% [?]

There are certainly better place for Cantonese dim sum brunch, but when it comes to quality and affordability, we always choose Sweet Dynasty everytime. It’s quiet and not so crowded during brunch.

Hong Kong New World Building, basement.

They have 1 outlet in Shanghai, 3 in Taiwan, 9 in Japan and a main outlet in HK.

I first discovered this place whilst we were at the metro station at Huangpi South road years ago. It opened up next to Crystal Jade. I have been to this place many times and decided to blog about it today…

Sweet Dynasty is famous for its Cantonese desserts and congee. They offer a variety range of Cantonese classic staples like the radish pastries, cha-siu pastry, the famous crispy spring rolls and their radish cake are excellent with morsels of Chinese sausage. They also have a selection of Hong Kong style noodle and wonton soups, fried noodle, rice dishes and what classic Cantonese meal is complete without congee…? I especially love fish and pork ball congee. The menu has a whole 2 pages congee variations. The big draw for me is the large variety of fresh prawn rice rolls! The scallop fried rice and fried raddish cake in XO source are tasty too! These babies are seriously damn addictively good. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

Cha-siu pastry

Sesame ball with red bean paste filling. Ron loves it but I don’t because they gave me a tiring jaw exercise.

Fish and pork ball congee

Melon with scallop

We saw lots of tables ordered this deep-fried crispy chicken (served with a side of dipping salt) so we thought to give it a try… nothing special…

Deep fried noodle, super not nice!

Red bean pudding

Almond sweet soup

It’s almost a punishable crime if you go to Sweet Dynasty without ordering the sweet soup. The traditional style of cooking sweet soup is to use rock sugar which won’t affect your health.

Peep-a-boo at the open kitchen

Well designed interior

I love the ambience which decked out with Chinese classic theme. Advice to book ahead as this place fill up fast during peak hours.

Sweet Dynasty
B108-109, Hong Kong New World Building
No. 300 Huai Hai Middle Road,
Ruwan, Shanghai.
Metro: Huangpi South Road (Line 1), Exit no.2
http://www.sweetdynasty.com.cn/index.php

Popularity: unranked [?]

A Thai eatery house tucked away down a lane inside an old china apartment in Shanghai. You have to walk through some smelly alleys to find this place, but it’s well worth the trek! Authentic home style dishes served simply without much decoration. This 3-rooms apartment creates a homey ambiance with very minimal Thai decorations and some authentic servers who speak very simple English. They also have a notice board where you can pin up your photos.

Pad Thai – Thai fried noodles

Combination Platter (Fish cake, prawn cake, spring rolls & pandan chicken) Served with Thai Sweet Chilly Sauce.

For home-sick Thais, this restaurant is the best place to dine in! Bring some cash! Credit cards are not accepted!

Cheap and satisfying! You won’t be disappointed.

They do offer free delivery daily within 3km with no minimum order, from 11am to 12am.

THAI HOUSE
Open: 11am – 2am
Address: Rm.205, No.12, Lane 657 Wuding Road, near Xikang Road
Tel: 6215-6690

Rating: *****
Approx. RMB60 – RMB150+ per couple

Recommended Menu:

• ChiengMai Sausage(Sai our)
• Deep Fried Chicken in Pandan Leave
• Papaya Salad
• Green Curry Chicken
• Tom Yum Goong

Popularity: unranked [?]

A global outlet of a fantastic restaurant chain located at XinTianDi, Shanghai. Famous with their double boil chicken soup and xiao lung bao~ (little basket buns, with minced pork fillings encased in a bread dough and steamed in a bamboo basket). You’ve got to call and make a booking because if you are not… expect to wait for at least an hour! Since it’s a last minute decision, we got Leo (A Malaysian friend who used to live in UK) to call the manager of XinTianDi to make a reservation for us! (WOW~~) Guess what… we got a big table in a big room! But that’s other people’s table at 7pm, (we steal it) so we got just an hour to have our dinner there. Lively atmosphere, bright, clean and spacious.

DIN TAI FUNG
Address: Xin Tian Di Outlet – Unit 11A, House 6, 2F, Lane 123, Xin Ye Road.
Tel: 6385-8378 (Staff will be able to take your reservation in English)
Hours: Daily for lunch 11am-3pm, Dinner 5pm-10pm

2nd Shanghai outlet:
Unit 109, Peace Square No. 18, Shui Cheng Road, Hong Qiao.
Tel: 6208 4188

Rating: ****
Expensive!

Popularity: 14% [?]

Frankie’s Place Facade.

The interior.

Menu with English subtitles.

The famous Hainamese Chicken Rice

Singapore style prawn mee soup

Shun Kueh, a Singapore dessert

Milk tea named Teh Tarik

Frankie’s Place, a Singaporean Restaurant here in Shanghai. They cook very nice “cha kueh tiaw” too. A lot of variety compare to other Singaporean restaurant in town – Best Singaporean Restaurant I have ever had in Shanghai.

FRANKIE’S PLACE
Address: No.546 Huang Hua Road (off Hong Jing Road) 201103
Tel: 021-54761068
Rating: *****

Popularity: 39% [?]

PSI Company Dinner at JB Restaurant at XinHua Road and karaeok night.

Popularity: 10% [?]