"Thin Biscuit" Dinner

'Thin Biscuit' direct translation from chinese which means "Popiah" over in Penang. Well, we are used to having popiah as a side dish in Penang. But here in Dalian, they have a restaurant to serve 'Thin Biscuit' as a main course !


Here is the shop name. It is actually quite close to my apartment. Just across the main road.

They server you Black Rice Tea when you enter the shop. This tea is brewed from Black Rice. It tasted a bit burnt. But quite nice actually.

Here comes dish number 1. Some been sprouts. "Taugeh" or Tou Ya (Dalian slang)
Some spring onions with prawns. The prawns are fried with the shells still on it. Very hard...
Some long beans...
And these are the 'Thin Biscuit'. We will later use this to 'bandage' the vegetables in it and eat it.

I complaint to me work mates that I am having lack of meat here in Dalian. So they ordered "Mutton Sticks" (which is more like penang satay). It smells so good and the taste... mmm... superb.

This is how you 'bandage' the vegetables in the 'Thin Biscuit'. Hahahaha

Sorry for all these Food Blogs these few times. I am so busy in the office. The only time I get to see Dalian is during meal times.... So for these few days.. FOOD FOOD FOOD !!!

Low Budget Lunch

Today's blog will be very short. Not sure what to write about my Low Budget Lunch. Seeing is believing... Here.. Look at it for yourself.

This is RMB 5.00 (RM 2.50). This is a meal I have for lunch everyday near the office. For RMB 6.00 I can get 4 side dishes. As you can see, the above is only 3 side dishes. And the selection of side dish are always the same every day. 80% are vegetables.. the rest, a bit of meat.

Hmm... Everyone LOVES it... As these are the only food we can get around the office.. We have to stick with it... Sad eh ?

Now, you know why I need to spend more to eat something special at night... As my lunch is so sad...

Seafood Restaurant in XingHaiSquare

Ever wanted to take a look how China Seafood looks like ? Well, I had a chance to taste some last night. (Camera Phone pictures again. Taken secretly as they don't allow picture to be taken on their 'products')

One thing really nice about Seafood restaurant in China, they labled the price properly, let you choose the product (FRESH) and they will cook them fresh.

Anyway, browsing through the selections. They seems to have a lot of variety. All types of clams, fresh fish, shells.... and....

HUK ?? What are these ? According to a work mate these are "Deep Sea - Ocean Worms". WORMS ?? Well, they are very alive.. swimming around in the bucket... Yewww.... I don't think I am gonna taste any of these.

The orders are keyed into these wireless device. I was really scared to take this pic.. Because from another angle, it looks like I am a pervert. A friend of mine from Xiamen (in pink) was making the order. I don't have a clue what to eat. Too many to select from...

Hmm Dinner was served. Scallops ! And it is HUGE. check the size of it compared to my plate.

Here is another nice one. Roasted Goat Rib. It smells so good and the meat is so tender.

hmm... Snails. I have tasted them in a Japanese restaurant before. And this time, it is even larger. Nearly 5 inch in length, these Water snails are boiled and served directly from the pot. They are so fresh, you can even taste the mud these things are wriggling in all day. Hehehe.

Did you notice the plate of goodies on the top right on the snail picture ? It is actually China's version of Roti Canai :D. They called it "Hand Tear Biscuit" Direct translated.

We also ordered Soup and we ate all these with Rice. I was actually quite full after all these. Darn, it is really good. I don't think I will come here alone as I sense the bill is really expensive. My friend from Xiamen paid for it. I did not even have a chance to split the bill.

Anyway... A good, fancy Seafood Experience...

Dalian's Japanese Set Meal. Bento.

I love japanese food. In Malaysia, a set meal (bento) with Sashimi, rice, chawanmushi, miso shiru and udon will be quite expensive. Let me share with you the Bento here in Dalian. I went to one of the most expensive Japanese Restaurant here in Dalian. Just to try out the difference in Price. The restaurant is called "Kappo Shimizu"

As I can't take pictures in the restaurant. I took some using my Handphone to be able to show you guys. Do ignore the picture quality.

Here is the Bento set I ordered. It is written in Japanese, so I can't tell you what is the name. But it came with all these.
- Shashimi (The empty plate on the top right, out of the tray)
- Rice (bottom left)
- Tempura
- Miso Shiru (bottom right)
- Udon - Eel (Left)
- Chawanmushi (The tall cup)
- Fruits
- Pickled Vegetables
- Some seafood clamshells.

When I drink my Miso Shiru... Surprise !! It has a Crab in it ! Wow. This must be expensive !

And when I thought the surprise it over, A tray of assorted seafood came. Here is the picture of the Large Fish Roe (I ate 1/2 already). The tray came with Squid/Octopus strips and some vegetables.

And, the surprise is not over yet. The final part of the meal is a Steamboat. And these are the goodies in the steamboat :
- Huge Prawn
- Clams
- Mushroom
- Tofu
- Lots of Vegetables
- Noodles.

I was already so full. Can't really fit all these in my stomach anymore... So I tried to finish everything except for the Vegetables...

Finally.. the bill.... RMB 110 (RM 55) !!! Not bad huh :)

f-Pod Nano (China's Fake iPod Nano)

I always wanted an iPod Nano. 4Gb of music space, super thin and lightweight. Power packed with a colour LCD for games, picture viewing and whole lots of fun. But at the price of RM 1k... It is not really kinda affordable.

Picture : Real iPod Nano from Apple

Well, anyway. My basic needs were just an MP3 player that is able to hold at least a few hours of music, looks cool and lightweight... and... CHEAP ! (I don't print money in China you know... )

Then, My dream came true.

Here is the look and feel of the Fake ipod nano. Looks the same, have the same metal back. The real iPod have a chrome back, this one is just a stainless steel. It is packed with 512MB. (White one is 256MB)

And the front panel, instead of Shiny black. The china one is matt-black. I think it looked cool in matt colour as it does not have finger print marks all over it. The earphone looks exactly like the real one from Apple too.

This is what you get when you buy the f-pod. The mp3 player, ear phones, Charger-USB, USB cable, Manual and CD with softwares.

Let's check out the functions. This is the menu. Don't expect it to look the same as Apple's menu. It has it's own menu and it is quite user friendly actually. I am a bit disappointed with the speed of the response. But it is kinda ok.

For music, it can play mp3, wma and a few other major audio. Sound quality is good and with one look, you can see the song that is playing, the EQ mode you are in battery status. Quite good. And the one I like most is the Reply function. You can choose A-B, which lets you select within a song, to mark a point the reply would start and stop. (Anywhere in the song, chorus, 2nd verse... anywhere you like).. And you can set how many times you want it to repeat too.. I'm Lovin It !!!

Next... This f-pod can play MP4 too ! It comes with a software for you to convert Almost ANYTHING to the AMV format to be uploaded to this f-pod. You can select parts of movies from VCD/DVD. Your favorite mp4 or wmv movies to be uploaded.

It is also packed with a Photo viewer. Letting you view pictures on the go. Just drop in your favorite pictures, and you can show off to your friends anytime, anywhere.

E-Book !!! I have just loaded my TXT version of Harry Potter 6 into this f-pod and I can read them anytime I want. But what is stupid is, you can launch E-book WHILE listening to mp3. Only 1 at the time. No multi tasking.

Last but not least. GAMES... You can play tetris on this little thing. It is kinda entertaining.. But then again.. No multitasking... :(

Other than all these features, there are the setting mode which allows you to choose from over 8 languages, LCD brightness, auto lights off time, auto off time and all that...

A good buy? For RMB 320. I would say YES !!!

My first home cook meal

I woke up quite late on Sunday morning. So I guess I should just cook a simple meal before I go out.

First of all, let me intoduce to you a new member of my kitchen. A cute little rice cooker. It is only RMB 38 (RM 19) !!! Cheap, quality is not bad, and multi functional little rice cooker. It even comes with a steamer, I can now steam buns, bread and all the food I have frozen in my fridge.

I actually bought 2x McD Fillet O Fish and 2xApple Pie to be frozen. So that I can steam it for a quick meal. Heheheh.. Good Idea eh ?

Jeng jeng jeng.... This is my first, simple meal of porriage. (Don't laugh at me. I got nothing much to cook in my kitchen yet). I prepared the porriage with some bottled side dished. Salted Duck Egg, Fermented ToFu and Pickled Vegetables. Let's take a closer look at the bottled goodies.

On the left, Fermented ToFu and on the right, pickled mix vegetables. Let's take an even closer look of these...

Here is a piece of fermented tofu. It has some kinda smell actually. Some people hate it. But for me, as I have been eating this since young in Malaysia, I am used to it. Hmmm... it smells so good. And I tasted it later on, it is quite good. Superbly cheap here.. RMB 3.60 per bottle. (RM 1.80)

These are the pickled mixed vegetable in the bottle. It has lots of stuff : Cabbage, Lettuce, Peanuts, Carrot and some others I can't figure out. It is not too salty and it is surely a must for porriage.

So. What a sad lunch I had on Sunday morning. Will buy more stuff and have a healthier meal next time.

Traveling about in Dalian

Traveling about it simple in Dalian. You can find all types of transportation options. When I say all types, i really mean all types. Even the taxi have 2 wheels, 3 wheels and 4 wheels category... See what I mean down here. (I reused some contents from my webpage www.johnsonlam.com )

Dalian is a very very busy city during rush hours. Cars are everywhere. And you can see Taxi almost everywhere. It cost around RMB 10 from my place to the Office.

This is the 2 wheel taxi. It will only cost RMB 2 from my place to the office. It is nice to take these during Summer or Autumn.. But during Winter/Spring. It's just too cold.

This is the 3 wheel taxi. It is only 20 cents cheaper than the normal 4 wheel taxi. I never took these before. I felt it is so unsafe running about in 3 wheels. And it is also slow and smells of engine oil.

This is their LightRail system. Electric powered. Fast, quiet and driven by lady. (Should be the safest) Only RMB 1 to get to office from my place. BUT. It is very very packed during rush hours. And, if there is a traffic jam on the track, the Train can't move. Hahah

This is the Prepaid card for All Public transport in Dalian. It is like Touch and Go.. You need need to BEEP on the Bus, Train or Taxi and your fare is automatically deducted from the system. Very efficient.

These are wooden restored tramps. I can use my card to pay for these too. It travels different route of the city. I can take these to the beach. Which I will do that much later one day.

These are trains I can take to go to Beijing, Korea and other places in China. I will also try to take one of these to Beijing somewhere around June. I heard that it is a 8 hour journey... Darn.

This one. I will never get a chance to ride in it. Married couples ride this long long long limo to their Wedding Lunch.. They seldom do dinner here. All lunch.

OK then. See ya later.

My Daily Breakfast Routine

Breakfast... Every morning, I wake up at 6am here. At 6am, you can already see the sun and the sky is as bright as Malaysia at 8am. Anyway, just 3 days staying here, I already developed a routine. Share with you all here.

I walk into my Kitchen. Sigh. Here are the only items I have for now. I will put on the Pot with water and let it boil. (At the same time, I will go for my shower, brush my teeth and all that).

Here are the items in my fridge. I will stock up more when I have time to go shopping again. Here are the current items (Eggs, Beer, Gatorade, Blueberry Jam, Bread, sausage, Coke, Sprite).

Here is the items in my Food Cabinet. As usual, bachelor's best friends are Instant Noodles... hehehe.

These are the items I have for breakfast. (2X Eggs, 1 Cup of Ovaltine, 1 piece of bread and 1 Banana). This will last me from 7am - 11am. Where I have my lunch near Dell.

Ok then. Time to go to office.

Around my apartment

Today, let me show you all around my apartment. I will take you on the road (downhill) to where I can find shops, food and also Transport to work.

Time to go out from this scary and dark stairs... and get outside...

Told you all my apartment is near to a FREE GYM. Hahahah... Here are the GYM set. Complete to give a good workout to every part of the body.

Take a closer look at the 'sets'. You can do Push Ups... Body Twisting... Bicep and Tricep workouts.... Sit ups... and Running... It is far more complete that those we have in Youth Park Penang...

But there is one problem. It is so cold !!!! Anyway, let's walk on.

I need to walk downhill thru this Heating Factory. I don't know the real term for this building/factory but basically what it does it during winter (or cold nights below 0 degrees celcius) This factory will burn Coal and boil a huge amount of liquid (I think is water) and these will be pumped in pipes to the apartments nearby to heat up the air. (Central Air Heater)... Something like that.

Here is another view of the Factory. This is provided by the government and I think we need to pay some fee... A small fee to keep warm during winter.. Kinda worth it as I heard it heats up the temp to nearly 30 degrees. (That's average malaysian weather). hahahah

After passing the factory, it is very near to the main road now. There are a lot of shops on both sides of the road. Hair Saloon, Food Stalls, RMB2 shop, Internet Cafe, Hardware shops.. and all types all stalls. It is really easy to get things at this part of the town.

Here are some stalls, selling magazines, Camera items, cheap stuff like key chain, torchlights, food (BBQ Meat, Buns, Fried stuff, cakes, fruits and so on)

Well, we are here at the Train station now (Like our LRT in Malaysia). Only RMB 1.00 (RM0.50) to get to anywhere. Very comfortable and affordable. Taxi to the office from here will be RMB 20.00 (RM 10.00).

Alright.. Going to office now..