A Week in Guangzhou Part 2 - Roast Geese, Shopping and Dim Sum Wonderland!

功夫茶, 点都德

We had a late start in the morning after the hassle of flying yesterday, and spent a leisurely lunch at 点都德 (dian dou de), a popular yum cha restaurant. Was it a coincidence that my relatives decided to reserve a table for lunch, or was it the famed Chinese hospitality? I only casually mentioned 点都德 as a passing remark to them yesterday to solicit their opinion on the restaurant.  点都德, at least, had earned a contemplative look and a 不错 - meaning 'not bad'.

We had the usual multitude of dim sum baskets, and my personal favourite dim sum dish 红米肠 (Red Rice Roll) was excellent. My tai-tai grandaunt sidled up and asked how I felt about the food here vis-à-vis the ones at 唐人轩 (tang ren xuan); she clearly preferred the latter's to today's lunch, though both seemed terrific to me. Being surrounded by top-quality dim sum for years, it really had developed quite a discerning palate.  

Here was my first exposure to 功夫茶. The 'kungfu' doesn't refer to martial arts, but rather, the efforts and skill requiring in making tea. A couple of braziers (top picture) keep water at a constant boil. The 宜兴 (yixing) clay teapot contains tea leaves, which are steeped in boiling water for no more than a couple of minutes. The tea is then transferred to a clay pitcher (公道杯 - gong dao bei) to homogenize the tea, and distributed into the individual cups. 功夫茶 is used in tea appreciation, where the second brew may differ subtly from the fifth batch. Each cup holds minute amounts of tea, necessitating constant work on brewing tea, and hence the kungfu aspect of the term. I tried my hand at making tea like this, and boy, it's harder than it looks, requiring a practised hand to juggle the boiling kettles and the tea apparatus to keep things flowing (pun intended). 

点都德 

越秀区惠福东路470号, 广州市, 广东省

470 Huifu E Rd, Beijing Lu, Yuexiu Qu, Guangzhou Shi, Guangdong Sheng, China, 510000

With lunch settling in our stomachs, we turned our attention to our shopping of the day. Miss XS wanted to look at wedding items, and our accommodating cousin-aunt* brought us to where the good stuff are. (*Technically aunt by genealogy, though her age makes her within our generation, and I usually see her as a cousin.) 

And here is the best part about shopping in Guangzhou - whatever it is you're looking for, there's probably an entire district dedicated to selling it. From my previous trip, I remembered wanting to buy stationery, and I was brought to one such district. Imagine an area encompassing whole malls and streetside stalls, and all of these shops selling nothing but stationery. I had to remind myself to breath. It's just how Guangzhou, as a transshipment destination, rolls. Just off the top of my head, there's a district dedicated to yixing teapots, another one for tea leaves (!!!), and one for Chinese herbs that I'd been to, and probably hundreds more districts selling goods that I'd no idea existed. There are normal malls in Guangzhou where you can do your shopping like every other place in the world, but why suffer reduced choices at higher prices, when you can cut out the middleman and buy at wholesale prices? Luckily, the district for wedding supplies is close by, at 市二官 (The Second Workers' Cultural Palace) metro station. 市二官 metro exits directly (Exit A) into 好百年 (hao bai nian), a mall for wedding - and Chinese New Year - paraphernalia. 

And so, the shopping begin. And shopping in these places comes with a little recreational haggling. 

I'm giving you the largest possible discount already, because I'm treating you as my personal friend, the shopkeeper waved her hands at Miss XS in a show of sincerity.

You should treat her as your daughter, my cousin-aunt replied blithely, without missing a beat. 

It's been hours of shopping, but I've never had such fun watching other people shop. My cousin-aunt clearly brought her A-game wit with her today. The items are already at wholesale prices, but shopkeepers still expect customers to haggle. It's a time-honored attraction, and making them laugh can go quite a way in the procedure. The shopkeeper was no slouch either, whipping out her phone to show us her Wechat messages sent by her friends telling her what a good person she is, and afterwards, showing us her ledger of past sales to show us how much more she is charging other people. Eventually, we finally agreed on a price, and moved on. 

Wedding items aside, tailors and seamstresses inhabit the stores above. Beautifully-made dresses - perfect for the most formal events - are found no matter which direction you go, with most shop-owners happy to do alterations for free. We shaved about RMB100 off every dress Miss XS bought. For the guys, custom-made suits is a thriving business here. 

汇美婚纱婚庆广场 (hui mei huen sha huen qing guang chang) is a another strip mall nearby selling female formal wear. Exit the metro at Exit A, and facing Skyline Plaza Hotel (天一酒店), turn right and walk about 100m, until you see the sign above. From the entrance, head into the sheltered area where all the seamstresses are.   

One notable food stall in the area is 银记肠粉店 (yin ji chang fen). It's a celebrated cheong fun restaurant renowned online, and has a branch here across 好百年 shopping mall. Take Exit E, and you'll run across the store. 

The menu is pretty straightforward: the dishes at the top of each section is the best-seller. They were, as my relatives would proclaim, only 一般 - 'average'. The rice rolls were soft and silky, but could do with more sauce. I thought 燊意美食 [below] did rice rolls better, and their crowd of locals every lunch time seems to agree.

The other place we went to prior to dinner was 海珠广场 (metro by the same name). It's a wholesale mall for shoes, though we were more interested in decorative plastic flowers, and there are every variety under the sun to choose from. 

We finished shopping just in time for dinner at 食为先. Located at 华兴大厦 near Beijing Lu, they do a fantastic Baked Oysters with Garlic - reminiscent in the style of South East Asian zu bang. Also great were the Crispy Pork Ribs and Sweet and Sour Pork. I didn't manage to take pictures, mostly because after a long day of carrying shopping bags, I was too preoccupied with grabbing food off every dish that swiveled my way along the Lazy Susan, but trust me, they tasted great. Even the Roast Goose, which I thought came close to 海韵烧鹅海鲜酒家 (Ming Hui Hai Yun)'s quality - no mean feat, since Roast Goose was the latter's signature dish. 

食为先

409 Dezheng N Rd, Yuexiu Qu, Guangzhou Shi, Guangdong Sheng, China, 510000

With a day of walking and food under our belts, we turned in for a full night's rest. 

++++++++++++++++

And promptly awoke to a loud banging noise on our door at 230 in the morning. What in the world... 

Eventually it'll go away if we pretend no one's in, right? Well, it did, and then the phone started ringing. When we picked it up, a voice said hurriedly said 'wrong number' and quickly hung up. Then the banging restarted. Curses. 

I retained enough of my wit to keep the door closed, and looked through the peekhole. A lone woman, standing outside the door, asked "你点了火柴吗?" - did I ordered matches? I turned her away, and returned to bed, thinking no more of the matter. When we finally woke up at a more respectable time, and reviewed last night's strange occurrence in the cold light of the day, Miss XS had a thought: surely, it's a fire hazard to strike match sticks in a hotel?

We continued to be puzzled by it throughout the day, until we spoke about it to our relative, whose face cleared in understanding. He suspected that it was an euphemism for sexual services, and she probably got the wrong room. 

Any lingering lethargy we had from being awoken up in the middle of the night was chased away by a great breakfast at 燊意美食 (shen yi mei shi), a well-regarded noodle house. The Wonton Mee was a simple dish done to excellence here - Miss XS loved the springiness of the noodles, a type not commonly seen in Singapore. The wonton dumplings had generous fillings. The Beef Brisket Noodles too had flavorful soup, though we came to prefer the simple wonton mee's noodles over the thicker cut of guo tiao noodles. 

Just dumplings, ordered on a subsequent visit

As our food arrived, we tucked into our bowls. A while later, a fellow customer claimed the seat across us on the table and ordered both the porridge and the cheong fun (rice roll). I tried to concentrate on my own bowl of food, but my gaze keeps sliding over to look at the silkily smooth, glistening texture of his rice roll, and how it was stuffed to the brim with fresh shrimps. It was not just him. I looked around, and everybody had a plate of cheong fun in front of them. So I vowed to return, and try those dishes. The porridge (I ordered the 顺德折鱼粥 - shun de zhe yu zhou) was ”一般“, as my relatives would remark with a slight frown, but the cheong fun was as good as it looked. I had both the 牛肉肠 and the 鲜虾肠粉, though I wish the shrimps that they used were larger. 

We spent the afternoon exploring the area around 公园前 metro. 动漫新城 (dong man xin cheng) is a popular retail clothing mall that sells (mostly) women wear, but there are a couple other malls all linked to the metro, and it's worth a walk around the stores selling clothes or local snacks. Miss XS loved 动漫新城 so much, and, claiming that the few hours weren't sufficient, returned by herself over the next few days. 

动漫新城

Opens 10-10 daily 

We had dinner at 海宝酒家. The star dish was their Braised Pork, which tasted as fantastic as it looked. The thin slices conveyed the full well-seasoned flavours of the braised pork. 

We also liked the 让辣椒, slices of green lantern stuffed with minced fish paste. The Soya Sauce Chicken was another simple dish done to excellence here, and worth getting ordering for the smoothness of the chicken. We also had the Roast Goose, which was a little lackluster compared to the ones from the other two restaurants from previous nights. The goose here came stir-fried in a large wok, which may have contributed to it being a little more dry than the texture from other restaurants. 

海宝酒家Zhongshan 4th Rd, Yuexiu Qu, Guangzhou Shi, Guangdong Sheng, China, 510000

Miss XS remembered enjoying a soup from a streetside store in the area - 达杨炖品店/達楊原味燉品 (Dayang Stewed Soup). And so, off we went after dinner, in search of a mythical chicken broth braised in coconut shells and steamed until cooked.  

We had to wait in line for a bit, even though it must have been close to 10pm. It seems Guangzhou locals liked supper as much as Singaporeans. We cracked the top of the coconut shell open to an abundance of black chicken, goji berries and coconut chips, all for RMB19 each. 

达杨炖品店/達楊原味燉品 (Dayang Stewed Soup)

Map (English directions)

越秀区明路62号（近文德路）