A Week in Guangzhou Part 1 - Roast Geese, Shopping and Dim Sum Wonderland!

Roast Goose, 海韵烧鹅海鲜酒家

吃在广州 ("Eat in Guangzhou") is a familiar saying in China, but strangely, few in the English-speaking world thinks of Guangzhou as a food destination. It's a shame, considering that Guangzhou is the birthplace of dim sum and yum cha. Singapore has excellent dim sum restaurants, but Guangzhou's quality left me astonished. Being from in a Chinese-majority country, I thought there were few surprises left for me in Chinese cuisine, but yet, somehow every dinner in Guangzhou was spectacular, and some of those dishes were completely novel to me, incorporating ingredients, cooking styles or presentations that I'd never seen before. And I can't speak about Guangzhou cuisine without mentioning their roast geese. I still remember my first bite of roast goose; it's been several years, but I remember it perfectly, clear as if it was yesterday. It was the moment I knew I have to return to Guangzhou one day just for it. 

As good as the food is, shopping is just as magnificent. Being a port city, Guangzhou serves as an entrepôt connecting China's factories to the world. Vast amounts of China-produced goods flow from every part of China through Guangzhou before being shipped internationally. Whatever it is that you're looking for, no matter how niche, you can probably find it here, selling at wholesale prices. We spent seven whole days in Guangzhou, but still, I left reluctantly with the vague notion that my holiday wasn't quite long enough.  

This is Guangzhou in a nut-shell: if you can't speak Mandarin or Cantonese, Hong Kong is more tourist-friendly. But if you do speak passable Mandarin/Cantonese, Guangzhou offers a better dining and shopping experience. 


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Our first order of the day after we crossed customs at Baiyun International Airport was to fill our tummies with dim sum. My grandmother's cousins* live in Guangzhou, and they had a table waiting for us at 唐人轩 (tang ren xuan). 

* Calling them "my grandmother's cousins' is genealogically accurate, but they're not actually as old as that term confers. They are slightly younger than my parents, and their kids (my 'uncles' and 'aunts') are in my age group, and are as close as being within two months in age. It was a genealogical conundrum that necessitated a refresher course every time I go to Guangzhou, but after 26 years of life, I think I've got a handle on it this time. 

They have been gracious enough to guide us around Guangzhou every time we visited, and over the years, I'd learnt to trust their tastes in food. The tai-tais of the three families meet for dim sum several times a week. Over the years, they have accumulated a wealth of knowledge on where to go, and more importantly, what to order. The dim sum restaurants lauded online ain't half as good as the restaurants they recommended, and my soliciting their opinion on a popular restaurant that I read about online is more often than not, met with an indifferent shrug alongside a '一般' designation - meaning 'average'. 

Here they agreed: 唐人轩 is on their short list on the best dim sum around Guangzhou. 

This dish - the 金沙红米肠 (Red Rice Roll) - is my favourite dim sum dish. The rice roll is coloured red to resemble intestines (the point of that exercise escapes me, but then again, like my struggles with genealogy had indicated, I'm not that bright), and is wrapped around a layer of crunchy dough batter and fresh shrimps. It's the modern take on a traditional dim sum dish that involves rice rolls wrapped around dough sticks. This modern version comes with two sauces, and each section is meant to first be dipped in the soy sauce, then the thicker peanut sauce. Over the course of my trip here, I ordered this at every opportunity. I'm sure everybody else was sick of it by the end of the trip, but not me; I retained my ability to scarf down half the plate at every lunch, an impressive feat considering that there's usually about 10 of us at the table. After trying similar versions from every renowned dim sum restaurant, I finally agreed with what my relatives had been telling me from my very first day - 唐人轩 makes the best Red Rice Rolls around. 

One good point about having someone more experienced with the dishes order for the table is that the food has been vetted by them, and some of those dishes aren't something we might normally order for ourselves. 岭南姜汁糕 (Ginger Pastry) is one such dish, and while I'm sure this dish is widely available in dim sum places, it isn't something that piqued my interest. The ones here are addictive; mildly sweet and zippy slices of gao infused with candied ginger, and immensely chewy. These came only with the mildest touch of spice, and even people who can't tolerate spicy food can indulge.

Guangzhou has expanded my horizon on how fine 肠粉 (rice rolls) can get. The quality is generally excellent in most restaurants and even street-side eateries here, and the 鲜虾肠 (Prawn Rice Roll) was soft and silky. Each slice of rice roll was rolled so thinly, it was translucent. The traditional dim sum dish 烧卖 (Siew Mai) was excellent too. Each was filled with huge juicy chunks of pork and prawns, and topped off with a full-sized prawn and a scatter of flying fish roe. 

Like most dim sum restaurants in Guangzhou, 唐人轩 runs off-peak-period promotions. Coming in before 10.30am or between 2-4pm can net you a discount as high as 50% off. As a result, it's perpetually packed at all hours of the day, so be prepared to wait about half an hour for a table.  

Because the dim sum was spectacular, I had high hopes for dinner when we returned a few days later. The kitchen didn't disappoint for dinner either. Their signature dish is their Roast Pigeon, each half about the size of a palm, and fresh and juicy. There must have been something special about the cook in charge of their ovens, because their Roast Pork was spot-on too - a combination of soft, juicy meat with a crispy, shatter-in-your-mouth pork skin. 

Miss XS was enamored with their Brinjal dish: the sliced brinjal was arranged to form a loose ring, and breaded and fried, and finally served over a sweet tomato/chili sauce. I'd never seen something quite like this done before, and perhaps if more vegetable dishes were done as well as this, I'd be a lot more fond of vegetables too.

唐人轩

中山四路199-231号, 东鸣轩4楼

199 Zhongshan 4th Rd, fourth floor at Collectibles Centre (Mall)

北京路 (Beijing Shopping District) was our nearby shopping destination after lunch. Half historic road and half shopping district, it's a curious mix of sight. Preserved areas of roads, unearthed from previous dynasties, were demarcated at various points on the road and preserved in glass. On both sides of the road, bustling businesses make quick trades with passers-by. There are many local brands selling clothes, and we stocked up on Apple phone cables (RMB10) at Miniso. Restaurants and cafes congregate on another major road perpendicular to Beijing Road, and you can't miss it! 海底捞 Hotpot, a luxurious hotpot restaurant that made waves in Singapore when they reach our shores several years ago, has a branch here. Hey 茶 (喜茶) is here too, a bubble tea shop famous for their cheese froth topping over the milk tea. It's so popular, even Singapore popped out fake stores - Hee Tea in Chinatown Point, with an identical logo to boot - a caricature of a male sipping from his cup.

Hey 茶 does cheese milk tea so well, my friend who just returned from Guangzhou had told me in no uncertain terms to seek them out. Depending whether you read it in Cantonese or Mandarin, the Chinese character can be pronounced as 'Hey' or 'Xi'. Business is so good over at Beijing Shopping District that Hey 茶 has morphed into a multi-storey outlet with its own in-house bakery churning out batches of artisan pastries, so you can enjoy your cuppa over fresh pastries. We enjoyed both the hot Cheese Oolong Tea and a Cheese Green Tea. Cheese and milk tea doesn't sound complimentary flavours, but trust me: they meld beautifully together. 

高第街 (Gao Di Jie) is a small street parallel to 北京路. It's a wholesale centre distributing women intimate apparel. The stores make the majority of their income from distributing their wares to retailers, though they still make opportunistic trades to interested passers-by. Workers pull along huge carts as they comb up and down the streets, bringing cargo to and fro the stores. 

If you're around this area, check out Mihimihi, located right across the entrance (pic, above) to 高第街 (Gao Di Jie). Crowds of customers throng the pavement outside this store, waiting for their turn to purchase their pâte à choux. The original and chocolate cream fillings are the most popular flavours.  

After a walk around Beijing Lu, dinner time came, and we headed to 海韵烧鹅海鲜酒家 (Ming Hui Hai Yun Restaurant) to meet the rest of our extended family. This is an old family favourite haunt for dinner. Like its Chinese name proclaimed, the signature dish is their Roast Goose. Sigh. It tastes like a step-up from regular roast duck - the subcutaneous fatty tissues under the roasted skin burst into deep fragrance as I bit into each cut. It tastes like what roast ducks aspire to be. 

They have deep-fried pork slices that tasted so wonderful, I might have eaten half the plate on my own by the end of the dinner. The surface is uniformly crisp, and the pork slices are tender and fragrant. 

We were also universally impressed with the steamed fish, and if I was a better blogger, I would have sussed out the actual name of the fish. The meat was surprisingly firm, an attestation to its freshness. The fragrance of the meat needs nothing but a simple soy sauce to accentuate.  

We also love the Egg Tarts with its flakey skin, and which are always served warm from the oven. The other Chinese dessert accompanying the egg tarts above is called bok (4) chang (1) in Cantonese, something which doesn't have a Mandarin translation. (I wondered about the translation out loud, which led to a few contemplative frowns around the table as my relatives tried to think of a suitable Mandarin name.) Anyhoo, they're dense, chewy Chinese pastries; the savoury option is filled with minced meat, and the sweet version is filled with crushed peanuts and sugar. It's a very addictive snack, and dense and filling. 

The pork with cauliflower (above) is a little of a revelation; who knew vegetables can be so tasty?  Half the plate had been picked over before I could snap a photo of the dish - it was that popular. 

Soup-wise, Miss XS enjoyed the Lotus Soup for the powdery texture of its lotus, which apparently only develops in lotuses harvested in the winter months. The other soup we normally order is a yam-based coconut soup, a savoury version of the Southeast Asian dessert bo bo cha cha. It was interesting enough to try, though I would usually reach for the other dishes above. 

Over the week in Guangzhou, we returned a few times for dinner, and once at 10pm for supper. The XO 酱炒萝卜糕 (XO Fried Carrot Cake) was the best carrot cake I've had. Each individual carrot cake had sides so crisp, I suspect they individually fried each cube. The carrot cake was held in a bowl-like structure fashioned from a single piece of deep-fried popiah skin, with bits of cai bo (preserved turnips) thrown into the mix. I'd regretted not snapping a quick photo - I'd not seen carrot cake presented so picturesque, or had one cooked to such fragrance before. The 米粉 (rice noodles) was also recommended by our relative, although they were out when we went. 

We used to stay in the hotel, and I initially thought that we ate at the restaurant out of convenience, but turns out, it's the place to go to for the best Roast Goose in Guangzhou. Well played indeed.

海韵烧鹅海鲜酒家 (Ming Hui Hai Yun Restaurant)

3rd floor of 富豪酒家 (Fu Ho Hotel)