Globetrotting!

Hi everyone! Hope you've all been well!

I apologise for the lack of updates as I am currently in Europe (even tough I've been putting up posts for Shanghai, wee bit behind. Sorry!), and driving around with my family, merrily eating our way through Switzerland, France, Spain and next Italy!

We've had truckloads of chocolate and cheese in Switzerland in the mountains, where I've also had my Mont Blanc chestnut dessert fix, hoorah!

In France we've been spoilt with home cooked French meals by our host, from beef bourguignon, cheesy lentil gratin, tarte tartin and of course croissants and brioche in the morning.

In Barcelona we dined on croquettes, paella (negra and seafood, mmm!), jamon galore, and had some of the thickest and most delicious hot chocolate I've ever had at the market. And of course feasted with our eyes on Gaudi's masterpieces.

So as you can see, I've been a bit busy and been left with very little time to catch up with everything I have! I may skip everything I"ve been meaning to upload and share the food I've been having in Europe....when I have a spare moment.

2 weeks left of driving and eating, here we come!

Shanghai - China - Xin Ji Shi

When I want to search for restaurants to eat at overseas, or want to search for reviews (if urbanspoon doesn't have any or doesn't exist for the country), I always type "restaurant name blogspot".

It's so difficult when you've been put in charge to organize which restaurants you're going to with a group, when you've never been to the city before!

Xin Ji Shi was recommended by a friend and also by my mother who had been there on a recent visit to Shanghai with my dad, which also came with a plethora of specific dish recommendations as well.

So I went to google it, as you do and came across http://www.goingwithmygut.com with an absolutely marvellous and tantalising review of the place. On top of that, she mentioned at the end of her post that she was compiling a list of Shanghai restaurants for friends that were planning to go and was offering to share her list.

I promptly jumped on her offer and within the day she responded to me with a comprehensive list with review links, addresses and phone numbers and of course a brief blurb about the place.

The world of food bloggers really can be such a wonderful place.

Xin Ji Shi is located in Xin Tian Di in Shanghai, which is a very trendy and nicely done up shopping and eating area. It's been made to look even slightly European, with cobblestones and brick walls. However, when you do walk into Xin Ji Shi, it feels...like a clean, but traditional and homely type place. This ain't no hole in the wall, but it's not screaming out to be noticed either (which can be typical of some Chinese places I know in Melbourne...)

Our group was seated in a semi outdoor area, it wasn't in the warm confines of the building exactly, and there were outdoor heaters but it was still covered on all sides around us.

Whilst I decided to keep my drinking until a bit later in the night, my friends got into some Chinese beer and I sipped on Chinese tea. While nibbling on the delicious roasted peanuts in what I assume is seaweed salt. Or something of the like.

English menus! Pictures! Godsend! The menu naturally was quite generous in size and it took a little while to make a decision on what to eat, but it's nice to feel like the English menu hasn't been skimped on in size because the restaurant might have been too lazy to translate it (as some places do!).

One of the things we had been recommended by my mum to have was the sea cucumber, which I would have liked but at 90 Yuan a head, it was a pricey little number. When I reported this to my mum she was quite surprised, so there must have been a recent price change. Darn!

But nevermind that, we have plenty of other things to eat! Jaime and I love beef tendon, so we were quick to order it, but we were both quite surprised with what we were presented with. I'm typically quite used to getting beef tendon at yum cha, which is usually steamed, a little bit saucy, hot and almost gelatinous in texture, or jelly like anyway.

This beef tendon was chilled, thinly sliced, a little bit chewier than I'm used to and with a delicious spicy kick at the back the throat. We were amazed and very happy with the change, it was so refreshing and almost palette cleansing to have...for a meat dish.

Another dish Jaime and I both quickly decided we needed to order? Jellyfish. Again, I'm used to having it at Chinese restaurants, usually served with duck, long and noodle-y looking and devoured chilled. This was a little bit warm, served in a vinegary, soy sort of sauce, fan shaped and exceptionally crunchy. I don't know how many species of jellyfish you can eat, but I do wish I knew what this one was in particular, we again, both loved this and found it a perfect starting dish to share in size and lightness.

I have no idea what these are.

Seriously.

We tried to ask for vegetables and tried to ask for bok choy. The waiter responded 'Ah, bak chee!' and well, this isn't like any bok choy I've ever seen!

However, this was another surprise which we liked a lot. They were served in a very vinegary sauce that completely cleaned up your palette and were very crunchy and refreshing. I only wish I knew what they actually were....anyone have any ideas?

On to the mains! Oh my goodness. This was one of the chef's specialities, grandmother's recipe pork belly. Or something like that.

Urgh. I haven't had pork belly this decadent in a long time, it was just delicious. There was so much fat on the belly, the pieces just wobbled around on your plate, but the meaty bits were gorgeously cooked and just the perfect texture to bite through. The sauce it was cooked in was so comforting and hearty and just....easily one of the favourite dishes of the night. Also possibly one of the most sinfully delicious dishes I have ever eaten. I just don't have words to describe it!

Next up was fried prawns and chicken in dried red chillis. Whilst this dish looks intimidating to those who don't like spicy, the chillis are really there more for looks and don't add much spice to the dishes. When you managed to fish up a chicken or prawn under the bed of chillis, they were both cooked well, although maybe slightly drier than I like, but that's just me being picky.

Whilst normally soup is served first at most Chinese restaurants (back in Melbourne anyway) for some reason our soup came out last, maybe we needed to make it a special request to have it first?

However, it was actually a good thing for our twice cooked chicken soup to come out last. It was a beautiful chicken broth, that was absolutely bursting with flavour and didn't feel oily. I normally don't like having plain chicken soups as I find them a bit boring, but I easily had two or three servings of this. It was actually the perfect thing to have after all the fatty pork...it felt like it was helping us digest. Or so I like to tell myself.

All in all it was a wonderful meal, every dish was well seasoned, delicious and interesting to eat. I think we managed to pick an interesting mix of dishes as well, which tends to help a little.

I loved how Xin Ji Shi was bustling, but didn't feel that way, we felt like we had our own little corner of the world, but were being well attended to with friendly and (generally) smily waiters who tried very hard to understand my friend's broken Mandarin and speak to us in his broken English. We got there eventually.

And although dinner was over, the night was still young!

We ended up at not one, not two but three roof top bars (and another club afterwards) at the 'Bund', which is the area by the river, which is absolutely glorious at night.

The trendy bar scene tends to be a bit older, the crowd are usually expats who are in their 30's and 40's, who aren't that interesting to us, but when you're with a few of your best friends, who really cares who's around? We had an excellent night, filled with merry making and dancing. And who needs more?

Although if you'd like a bar recommendation, I would probably suggest Bar Rouge, which seems to like lighting everything on fire....

Xin Ji Shi

Xin Tian Di Unit 4, Building 9, 169 Taicang Lu

Shanghai, China

Shanghai - China - Shanghai Dumplings

So back in March (yes, that behind, shhh), I went to Shanghai for the first time in my life. The only other times I had been to China (Hong Kong is not counted as it's such a different scene), was a school 'camp' trip to Shenzen, but it was all the touristy type parks and a second time was in Beijing with my dad for business meetings and a networking event.

Whilst I found Beijing interesting, I was not in love with the city, I found the people overall quite crude and rude, inhospitable and the culture of 'if you're not top dog you'll be eaten' quite prevalent.

Understandably I was a little bit nervous to be going to Shanghai because of this, as this time I was travelling with friends and none of us knew how to speak Mandarin, so was a bit concerned about how we may be treated and not be able to find anywhere we wanted to go!

Ah! But what a vast difference Shanghai is! Shanghai is clean, buzzing, HUGE and I find the people much more relaxed and friendly, there is an overall more comfortable vibe in the city.

I was in Shanghai to meet with 4 of my very good friends from Asia and two of us got in earlier than everyone else, so decided to go explore the city a bit.

After a bit of bantering with the concierge who didn't seem to understand we just wanted a suggestion of what to see, not be immediately directed to a tour, we both grabbed a cab and hot footed it to the old town.

It's a very touristy area of Shanghai, but it's still a pretty little area, with old style architecture and food vendors everywhere.

We were both quite peckish, so we slipped into the closest dumpling store we found (of course, being in Shanghai and all), which was also insanely busy, but upstairs was much mellower.

My friend Jaime was convinced the English menu we were presented with was much smaller than it should be, but I really couldn't be fussed and was just grateful that most of the dishes came with pictures!

I wanted some vegetables, so we got this 'celery and mushrooms' in the menu. What a delightful surprise these were! The celery had a very strong mustardy flavour to it which I absolutely loved, and it was just so crunchy. A nice way to clean up the palette.

I then insisted we had to get these, as the novelty was so intriguing to me. Dumplings you drink out with a straw?! Mine was sadly a bit deflated, although Jaime's came out nice and perky. The soup was scalding hot, so you had to be very careful when drinking with the straw. The soup itself was...well...porky. And really fatty tasting. So gooooooood. But so bad. And the inside of these dumplings is literally all soup.

When you broke them open you just had a thick skin left to eat afterwards!

Of course, we had to have some shanghai dumplings, we got a mixed set and these came in three different flavours (although I don't really remember what they were). There was one spicy one in particular that was super tasty, but otherwise the dumplings themselves were pretty average. The skin was exceptionally thick, but I suppose it's a touristy joint, so the average tourist wouldn't really have a clue....

Alright, the next 4-5 pictures may gross a few of you out a bit, just warning you now. :)

When we finished our meal, we proceeded outside the restaurant where I noticed a few other food vendors, and was absolutely fascinated by these skewers. I chose one and Jaime chose another.

And then we had to wait a few minutes while they pushed them off the skewers and refried them so that they were nice hot and crispy.

I will truly eat most things and could not resist giving these a go. I'm not sure if they were chicks or sparrows, but as they were quite soft all over and lacking bones, I'm assuming they were chicks. They were quite delicious though. Sorry.

Jaime got some soft shell crab, which was covered in a thick batter which was insanely crunchy and delicious. We had two whole crabs, so one each, and I absolutely devoured mine, greedily licking off the salt from my fingers afterwards. Yum.

We finished off with wandering around the Yu Yuan gardens which are gorgeous, filled with little bonsai-esque cherry blossoms which were all gently blooming in shades of pink and magenta.

And then before heading back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our friends, I randomly decided to get a green tea soft serve ice-cream. BEST GREEN TEA FLAVOURED SOFT SERVE I'VE EVER HAD. The matcha flavour was so strong and intense without being bitter. Every bite was delicious green tea goodness. And it was so super cheap!

So whilst the dumplings were a little lacklustre, I did find myself finding Shanghai (or my first impressions were) more enjoyable and accommodating. And a whole lot cleaner. Was seriously looking forward to tucking into some good dumplings though...

Manila - Philippines - Kai Neo Japanese Cuisine

One cuisine I always tend to enjoy indulging in, because it is both plentiful, usually of decent quality and surprisingly cheap while in the Philippines is Japanese! (Surprisingly I didn't eat at any Filipino cuisine restaurants on this trip...sorry if you were looking forward to that!)

Kai is a trendy, 'fusion' spin on traditional Japanese cuisine, they were originally based at the mall in Greenbelt 2, but once the sparkling new Greenbelt 5 opened, they closed down and re-opened not too far away. I had been at the old Kai, and I feel they've done quite a good job with redesigning the new location better.

The neutral tones inside, with the slightly dimmed lighting, casts a cool, minimal and laid back vibe through the restaurant. There's a small little sushi bar in one corner, but otherwise the tables for four are all very nice and cosy.

I was accompanied by 3 other friends so we ordered a small smorgasbord to share between the 4 of us!

This dish is apparently the favourite of one of our other friends (who was not with us that night) who is a regular here, wasabi oysters. The batter around the outside was quite thick, but at the same time was quite light and very crunchy, whilst the oyster itself was still quite fresh. I didn't find the wasabi taste came through immensely, but still enjoyed this dish to start with.

Spicy tuna, essentially, tuna sashimi with some chilli sauce smeared over the top. Frankly could have been a little spicier for my tastes, but to be fair the tuna sashimi was quite excellent!

I can never pass up miso eggplant, wherever I go, and it's always interesting to see the variations that turn up for it!

Kai's interpretation was a small (my only complaint really) serve of elegantly sliced eggplants, that were not overly oily and not over dressed with miso paste either, with a lovely soft texture that was not mushy. Very much enjoyed that these were lovely and hot when they arrived at our table as well!

Soft shell crab tempura, I honestly don't have a great recollection of what this was like, but I think I do recall picking on it quite a bit.

On paper, this beef dish with quail egg on top, sounded like quite a treat, but I was immensely disappointed (considering it was under the 'meat' section) that it came out looking so tiny! Where's the meat on that thing?! Not the easiest dish to be split between 4 people and I do wish the staff might have said something!

But on a positive note, the beef was sensational. Mmmm.

These were so good, we ordered one serve, demolished it and ordered a second quite promptly afterwards! I absolutely adore scallop sashimi, especially when it's done well and is icy cold. I love the sweetness and how absolutely smooth and velvety the texture of it is. It's even better when it's resting on half a wheel of lemon, but alas they did not do it at Kai.

And since we didn't feel like we had enough, we went back to the menu and ordered a couple hundred grams of stone grill kobe beef (I think? I didn't order!), which probably turned out to be too much. Ah well, always eating with your eyes first before your stomach non?

The stone grill, was very much in the Japanese or Korean barbeque vein, where you cook the meat yourself, which I don't normally go for. However, I did think our tiny little stone grill was absolutely adorable, and on a plus side, as it was not smoky at all, we did not all have to smell like we just walked out of a chimney afterwards.

It was quite a lot of fun cooking the meat, after rubbing the stone grill with a piece of fat we were given (!), the slices were intensely thin and only needed a very quick searing on both sides before they could just be popped into your mouth and enjoyed. Not the most tender meat I've had, but really very tasty.

You might have noticed we didn't have any sushi rolls while we were at Kai this time, I've had their 'fusion' rolls before and have not been impressed, so have stayed away from those and delighted in the other areas which I think they do a bit better. The four of us really quite enjoyed our night and really did end up polishing off everything we ate.

Oh and they have always done, and still do, a fantastic lychee sake-tini. Who needs a better reason to come back?!

Kai

Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center

Makati, Philippines