China on a Shoe-String Food Budget and Mid-Autumn Festival

We have been in China for three weeks now, and H and I are just about settling in. First week here was crazy! We had to find an apartment, buy the bare necessities (cutleries, plates, pots, pans, linens, toiletries, etc.), subscribe for internet, open bank accounts, get ourselves Chinese sim cards and do a full medical check-up as part of the process for our alien resident permit. Most of the time, we were assisted by a representative from my H's workplace; even so, it was not easy to have everything you want to know or ask about be translated by a middleman. After many miscommunications and lost in translations, we finally feel more at home now.

Moving to a new home is certainly not cheap or easy, let alone moving country! H and I are currently living on a tight budget since we spent a lot for deposits and fees for this and that. Good thing with China, food, especially vegetables, are cheap - a kilo of tomatoes, potatoes and carrots for just a dollar or even less! So if you know how to cook smart, a budget of $3 - $4 to feed two people a delicious meaty and healthy meal should be sufficient. Here are some of my budget home-cooked meals.

 Chinese Sausage Fried Rice topped with Shrimp

Duck a l'orange served with Mashed Potatoes, Hyacinth Peas and Carrots

 Lazy One-Pan Dish of Rice, Fish Fillets, Bok Choy and Tomatoes Topped with Spring Onions

Chilli Garlic Chicken Drumsticks with Carrots Served with Steamed Rice 

Pork Strips Cooked in Tomato Served with Bok Choy and Steamed Rice 

Chilli Pork and Onion Sausages Served with Potatoes and Carrots 

Pan-Fried Chicken Breast Served with Diced Green Bell Pepper, Eggplant, Tomatoes and Onions on a Bed of Steamed Rice

Eating out is not exactly expensive either. If you look for small, almost stall-like restaurants you will be spending similar to what you would be spending when you cook at home. Down side to eating in these small cafes: they don't have English menus; you can always just point at pictures on the menu that looks appetizing for you or if you feel adventurous, you can point at a random menu item and hope for the best! So far, I have never been disappointed with my choices. 

Make-Your-Own Noodles

 Noodles with Liver

 Zha Jiang Mian

Beef Stir-Fry served on a Bed of Steamed Rice

Duck served with Cabbage and Steamed Rice

 Braised Pork Belly and Rice

If it were up to H, we would be eating out everyday, but I oppose to that. Don't get me wrong, I love eating out, but I also like to know what goes into my food. So to make it fair for both of us, we balance our meals by sometimes dining out and sometimes having a home-cooked meal by yours truly!

On a different note, we were lucky to be here in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival. I wanted to experience how locals would normally celebrate this occasion, so I did some research. Apparently, a lot of families would go to the park and appreciate the moon while eating mooncakes and fruits. So that's what we did. It was definitely a nice cultural experience going to the park for the festival. We opted to go to the less crowded Central Park, and witness families spending quality time with their kids. There were also many kids playing with their lanterns. We really enjoyed the whole moon-gazing event, but for next time, we would prepare a bountiful picnic basket that is not limited with mooncakes and fruits! Most families brought picnic baskets wafting with scrumptious aromas of yummy food that made H and I so hungry; H ended up running to the nearest convenience store to buy some food to compensate for our lack of preparation.

 Riddles on pieces of papers were posted all over our apartment lobby. If you solve a riddle you get a fruit or mooncake as a prize.

We were early birds at Central Park with our fruits and mooncakes.

Families dotted around the park enjoying their picnic while appreciating the full-moon.

Full-moon

P.S. As for my baking affair, it would have to wait for a while. There are still things (more practical things) that H and I have to invest on while we are on this budget crunch. So just be patient with me, I will be baking soon!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Travel Food Blog: England

After days of no access to blogger, twitter and facebook, I am finally back! Before I came to settle in China about a week ago, I was in England to visit my in-laws. As you may know, I have been baking scrumptious treats while I was there, but aside from baking, I was also enjoying good old British food.

So what is British food? More specifically, what does the English cuisine have to offer to the food industry? Well, I went for the cliché... Chips, pies and everything fried!

Fishcakes with Chips and a Tub of Gravy

Doner Burger and Chips

Classic Fish and Chips

Steak Pie and Chips with Sausage and Curry Sauce

All food from the above photos were take-aways from the good old CHIPPY!

Steak Pie... yum!

More pies...

Steak and Kidney Pie

Shepherd's Pie

Cornish Pasty

Sausage Rolls and Pasties

Sausage Roll

One of my favourite processed food - Fish Fingers!

Semi-full English Breakfast aka Fry-up (when eaten during dinner time)

It was really difficult for me to stay healthy while I was in England. I did pretty well the first three days, but the junky goodness widely available eventually took over the best in me!

So to compensate my full-fat diet...

Crumpets with Fresh Blackberries

Sunday Roast - Roasted Lamb's Heart served with Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Parsnips, Mashed Carrots and Swede, Yorkshire Pudding and Gravy (not in photo)

A popular Liverpool stew - Scouse

Fennel, which I turned into a simple orange and fennel salad

Venison with Gravy, Pickled Onions and Beetroots

Radish

Passion Fruit

For some sweet treats - Fudge

Last but not the least, I wouldn't have left England without a nice Champagne afternoon tea. My cake stand was a scrumptious spread of ham and cheese sandwich, chocolate eclair, chocolate cake, vanilla slice and a scone served with strawberry jam and clotted cream.

That's all for my great British feast!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Travel Food Blog: Dubai

H and I are now in England to visit his family, but before coming here, we had an almost twenty-four hour stopover at Dubai. We took advantage of the opportunity, and looked around the city and joined a desert safari tour as well.

Two of my friends from university, E and M, are both living in Dubai, and they showed us around Dubai from morning until the afternoon; it was really lovely and generous of them. I don't think we would have enjoyed exploring the city as much if it weren't for them. They took us to see Burj Al Arab, Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa, the gold souk, a mosque, and even took us for a boat ride along Dubai creek. It was so much fun!

We had our lunch at a Lebanese restaurant at the food court in Dubai Mall. I was completely salivating because I've been looking forward to taste authentic Middle Eastern food for the longest time!

Here are some of the salads that the restaurant offered. It looked so green and enticing.

I ordered a tub of moutabbal, which is made out of pureed eggplants. It tastes very similar to baba ganoush. The addition of pomegranate seeds to the mashed eggplants definitely gave this dip an extra yummy goodness!

For my main meal, I had lamb kofta served with parsley salad, parsley pizza and chips. Although, I'm not sure how authentic this combination of a meal is to Middle Eastern cuisine as it had chips, but it sure was tasty.

My H had lamb shawarma.

E, M, H and I really enjoyed the Lebanese feast with buckets full of interesting and fun conversation. Unfortunately, all had to end as H and I had to go to the hotel where we will meet our desert safari tour group.

While we were waiting for our tour guide, I indulged with an ashtalieh overmoze. It's a milk-based dessert with almost similar texture to a panna cotta. I'm not sure how this would traditionally taste like or how it would traditionally be served with, but this version I had was absolutely divine! The pot of milk had a nice hint of orange blossom; the honey, bananas and ground nuts gave a nice texture and flavor to this treat. 

The desert safari tour was extraordinary! H and I had so much fun, and really enjoyed the whole experience. We had an hour ride of dune bashing; after which, we were taken to a campsite in the middle of the desert where we were able to enjoy different Middle Eastern culture like camel riding, henna tattoos and shisha. We were also greeted by yummy vegetable fritters, chicken shawarma, tea and coffee.

This is a picture of the campsite. We had our buffet dinner here while being entertained by belly dancers and tanoura dancers.

The buffet dinner in the middle of the desert was something I would do again. The buffet spread included salads and hummus for starters.

Rice, three kinds of curries and an array of grilled meat were also part of our dinner feast.

We definitely enjoyed our day trip in Dubai. It was just a day, but we were overwhelmed with so much cultural experience. Dubai is definitely a place I would want to visit again!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte