Elaine's Tender Loving Cakes: DAY 2 TRIP TO GUANGZHOU

We had our breakfast at the 30th floor of the hotel. The Chinese buffet basically is the same everywhere in China. There are bread, hard boiled eggs, hot milk, plain congee served with its usual condiments of preserved vegetables, boiled sweet potatoes and sticky rice and cheong fun etc. The Chinese seems to require these carbo to sustain them for the day's work.

After breakfast we made our way to the Pedestrain Street of Shangxia Jui Lu. This is another popular shopping centre. We were early otherwise the place will be teeming with people- "People Mountain People sea" is how you would describe the place. The goods sold here are cheaper (anyway there seems to be a sale everywhere) but the quality in Beijing Road is better. Here you can get good "AA" bags. There are bronze sculptures depicting old China and culture scattered along the street.

The three sisters.

The western influence.

The famous Man in Chicken selling olives.

Here is the person in flesh. He would stand upright and play a tune with his pipe whenever he had done a sale.

The shop selling the "Kam Wah Ham". I did not get the whole leg but only a small piece for RMB68. cheap. There were people lining up to buy their sausages (again on sale).

After shopping, our cousins took us to a popular Tea House for Dim Sum. The place is big and spacious and the environment is tranquil and peaceful.

The center courtyard of the restaurant. This restaurant also offer wedding dinners.

Our cousins booked a room for us. Here in China, to book a room , you will have to spend at least RMB1,000.00 above. This is their sales charge. So our cousin keep ordering and in the end, we had more than 10 dishes.

We were first served with the soup - its GREEN/HAIRY MARROW, BLACK EYE BEANS AND PORK RIBS. Its refreshing after a hot day in the sun.

The most memorable dishes are:

Fried Milk - I think its consist of egg whites as well. Its fluffy and there are pieces of fresh prawns as well.

This is Roasted Duck with Yam. The yam pieces are steamed and served alongside with the Roasted Duck and not as a yam paste on top of the duck as it is usually served in Malaysia.

The Buddha Bowl is purely vegetarian- bits of celery, water chestnut, carrot and gingko. You can see gingko trees aling the roads of city.

This is Milk Tarts and Egg Tarts. It is creamy and flaky crust is a contrast of texture.

The flavour of the milk is not over powering.

The much craved for - DOUBLE LAYER MILK CUSTARD. This is either srved cold or hot. This is the hot version and they use water buffalo milk for this. Again the milk flavour is not overpowering. We also the the Har Gow- prawn dumpling and they are huge- and you can see the whole prawns inside!.

After such a heavy lunch, we do not feel like walking/shopping besides the ladies wanted to do their hair for the wedding dinner. So we went back to the hotel. However we were a bit let down by the hair styling. Anyway, we did Malaysia proud as we were probably the best dressed guests of the night. The guests all seems to be casually dressed, but they can really drink! The brandy and whisky are served on the rocks most of the time for them!

The restaurant is in a shopping mall and the decor is really RED! There is no stage for the groom and the bride to give toast and besides this does not seem to be the practice over in China. They just go around the tables to toast and there is no shouts of "Yam Seng". The strangest practice here is that the bride does go around the tables to serve "bride's tea" in disposal tea cups and angpow is given onto the tray!