Dried pork floss or (肉松) ròu sōng

Once in a while, we enjoy the barbecued pork by Bee Cheng Hiang , a Singaporean company with a prominently red and yellow brand, now visible on Xiamen's public buses.

Little did we know that Xiamen has its own brand of barbecued pork too - long lines of tourists would supposedly form outside the original shop on Gulangyu Islet.

Anyway, we stumbled upon one of its outlets in Zhongshanlu and bought a few packs to try.

Here's the packaging and logo, which I think proclaims its reign as an established brand ("old brand")

Here are the 3 colourful packs of dried meat floss we got:

1. The GOLD pack is probably their signature product, which is dried pork floss. (肉松) ròu sōng is kinda like dried pulled pork?

Mmm...we appreciated the lower price compared to Bee Cheng Hiang but we found this to be a bit on the sweet side.

2. The PINK pack contained "oil-free" dried pork floss, which we felt lacked flavour. If you're gonna eat the pig, you might as well take the fat, right?

In China, if you go around asking for "fat-free" (wu you) pork, then you're definitely going to encounter food scandals like the one revolving the lean pigs. 

The only way to get any decent food in China is to encourage traditional, pre-Mao farming practices or organic farming practices. 

la wei niu rou liu (辣味牛肉榴)

***Our favourite*** is the RED pack, spicy (辣味) là wèi beef floss which is unique to the Xiamen brand, since Bee Cheng Hiang sells only dried chicken floss and dried pork floss.

The dried beef floss was flavorful with a hint of spiciness that made it a nice snack to chew on while you're reading and etc. If you enjoy beef jerky, you will love this too!

The dried beef floss came in vacuum-sealed, zip lock bags, which were clever since we could conveniently seal it up again after a bout of snacking.  

Here's a glimpse of the spicy dried beef floss - it's really good. Give it a try!

 

Famous snack on Zhongshan Road

I was walking along the shops off the main stretch of Zhongshan Lu when I came across this lady who claimed that she's selling one of the famous snacks of Xiamen (Amoy).

She pointed to this newspaper clipping of herself:

I nodded impressively and noticed that the snack sells for only 1.50 yuan (yi kuai wu) that I thought, "Why not?" and promptly agreed to try it out. 

  Smiling with joy, she started preparing her "famous" snack, which looked like spring rolls:

She continued her cheery banter as she bustled about her cart. Smilingly, she said that hers was not an ordinary spring roll. 

Her famous snack had a sweet surprise: 麦芽糖 (mai Ya Tang) or maltose candy although it was softer than the lollipop kind - it's like a soft nougat? 

Do you see the shiny strips of "nougat" on either side of the spring roll? 

To be honest, I was a bit skeptical because spring rolls, Chinese and Vietnamese, are savoury and should, in my opinion, stay that way!

Anyway, I didn't want to hurt her feelings as the spring rolls were looking kind of tasty with crumbled roasted peanuts, freshly grated white radish and some chilli sauce:

The spring roll is nice on its own since it's freshly made - the maltose candy added a sweet touch to a savoury snack. In the end, it tasted like what peanut butter pasta tastes like :)

Seaweed Tofu Egg Drop Soup

One of the interesting bits about chain restaurants like KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in China is the "localization" of its offerings. 

 

Seaweed Tofu Egg Drop Soup

Here's a seaweed soup (with pieces of carrot and tofu) that comes with breakfast :)

The seaweed soup is actually a light and nice vegan meal for kids because the carrots, seaweed and tofu are soft enough for babies and toddlers to nibble on.

Hong Kong restaurant in Shanghai

Shanghai is an expensive city to live and visit thus we were praising the heavens when we found this reasonably eatery within a swanky mall when we visited in 2013.

Although the restaurant was crowded, the seating arrangement wasn't too bad and we had a comfortable and reasonably, cheap dinner.

Here's the menu from the restaurant called "Long Ji Hong Kong Restaurant".

Can you see the rows of chicken and duck? 

Spacious booths for family and friends

Here's what our table of four shared:

Curried fishballs 

(skip this, it's bland and blah)  

A platter of Hong Kong-style roast chicken/duck/pork with steamed rice

Stir-fried brocolli

If you're vegan, you can order this because it's stir-fried with only garlic.

...a bowl of wonton and seaweed soup

The total bill: 153 yuan = 38.25 yuan per person. 

Quite reasonable for a hearty and satisfying Chinese dinner in a home-style restaurant. 

Bao zhi (newspaper) vs bao zi (steamed buns)

One day, I made an appointment with a Chinese-speaking friend who agreed to meet me at the intersection of a busy street.

Since I had to find a landmark that:

a) I could tell her in Mandarin and
 b) she could easily identify, I decided on the news agent, which is a big, square stand that sticks out among the crowd.

Feeling pleased with myself, I told her: “Wo zai mai bao zi de dian qian mian den ni, hao bu hao? (I’ll wait for you outside the news agent, ok?)”

She said, “Mai bao zi? Hao! Zai jian!”

We both hung up and I happily waited for her. I saw her approaching me but she appeared not to see me waiting for her because she was furtively looking right and left. Then, I saw her pick up her phone - she was calling me.

I waved both arms to her before she could start dialing. She saw me and crossed the road quickly. I asked her why she was looking for me when I was standing right next to the news agent.

She said, “Wo zai zhao mai bao zi keshi wo zhao bu dao ah…”

I looked puzzled and pointed to the news agent on my left. “Zhe ge bu shi mai bao zi ma?”

She looked at the news agent with big eyes and then it dawned on her that this silly cow meant “newspaper” and not “steamed buns”.

“bào zhǐ! (报 纸 - newspaper) (jaw clenched tightly, lips curled for emphasis)
Bu shi bāo zǐ (包 子 - steamed buns) (smiling without clenched jaw)”.

Oops!!! I apologized profusely to her but she laughed it off because she had been looking all around for steamed dumplings while I meant a boring newspaper stand all along LOL