How to read Chinese menu in Cantonese restaurants

Local Cantonese restaurants usually don't have English menu. Although some have photos attached, you might still confuse what the ingredients are. Here are some photos, hope that will help you to read Chinese menu.

Guangzhou to Vietnam by train

China has blocked blogger, while the communist Vietnam is very open mined to Facebook and Blogger. When talking about this to Vietnamnese, I can see proud from their faces.

Ok let's get to the point. From Guangzhou to Vietnam, you have to go to Naning first.
Guangzhou- Nanning   Slow train takes 12hours  trains for Nanning station
                                       High speed rail   4hours. Trains for Naning Dong(east) Sation. There are few      
                                         High speed Trains for Nanning Station too, but very few.


Tickets can be purchase on www.12306.com or download apps for ur mobile, apps search keywords:12306

When arrived Nanning, take the international train from Nanning station to Hanoi. from Nanning dong(east ) station to Nanning station takes about 40mins by taxi cost about 50 Yuan. Also have bus service, but I have forgot the route number. Just  Check on the station.

Nanning Dong (east) station --- 南宁东火车站
Nanning station  --- 南宁火车站
Hi, do you know which bus go to the Nanning Station.? ---您好，请问坐多少号公交到南宁火车站？

Just show the Chinese sentence to people on the bus station.

Tickets for Ha Noi can be purchase at the train station or purchase on Taobao.com
Fare: 218 CNY  soft sleeper.
Only one train on service everyday. Departs at 18:30 and arrives at 05:30 Ha Noi local time.

The train staff will wake you up at about mid night, then let you take all of your belongings for the borader control. That is the Chinese custom. Then take your things back to the train, and it moved about 30mins, you will be asked to take everythings out and pass the Vietnamnese custom. Which will cost you about 40mins. You can exchange currency here, where many people think has best rate in Vietnam.  it seems they only trade US dollar and Chinese Yuan.


How is Ha Noi looks like? I think it is very similar to the old town of Guangzhou, which is not interested to me at all. So I only spent one night and leave for Phu Quoc Island.

I got scammed by taxi drivers in Ha Noi, they always found new ways to scam people. It is very disappointing. I have just arrived then got scammed twice?! Although that was just worth about 20 dollars but I Really got bad feelings about this, and I don't want others to experience this again. so I reported to the airport police. What makes me feeling better was the policemen were very nice, and patiently helped me, treat me like a guest. While the Guangzhou policeman always treat everyone like a suspect. But very few taxi scams in Guangzhou, as you people use mobile apps to book and pay , fare calculation is controlled a third party.

seasonal dessert recipe

in this season, Guangzhou rains a lot. it almost rain few times a day, or keep raining all day long. the weather is humid and you will feel tacky and very sleepy all the time. so  in the season, Cantonese will eat something which helps the body to dehydrate. you can also drink a cup of coffee to achieve that, but for non coffee drinkers, I would like to introduce this recipe of dessert. 

red bean sweet soup

use your hand to measure

(serve 3-4 people) 

1. red bean              3  grabs

2. red ricebean        1 grab

3. coix seed              1 grab

4. rice                         1 grab

5. figs                        few (depend on your favour)

6. dates                    3-5 

7. jaggery                 1 (depend on your favour)

a. soak the fist 4 ingredients over night.

b. put everything into a pot, pour in  about a liter of water. 

c. cook until it was boiled. 

d. pour in a slow cooker and keeping cooking for about an hour. if you didn't have a slow cooker, use the same pot, and turn the fire to smallest after it was boiled, and keep cooking for about an hour.

e. put a slid of jaggery, and keep cooking until it was melted. 

Canton Fair

Most foreign people come to Guangzhou for the Canton Fair every year. there are two fairs each year, spring and autumn. I used to go there for work, but this year, I just go for fun and wanted to  get few packs of travel size soya source.  

I knew the Pearl River Bridge Soya source will give out free sample small packs in their booth.  that is my favourite brand of  soya source when I lived in England. in Guangzhou, there some even better small local brands, but Pearl River Bridge Soya source is the best exported one. last year, when I was travelling in Armenia, I could not found soya source in this country! I like cooking by myself, while without soya source, I can't make satisfactory food. I planed to go to Armenia again this year, so I must get some travel size packs!

I said I am a super fan of their soya source, the manager was very happy and nicely gave me a lot,haha¬lucky me!  ^_^ 

even happier than was given the travel size pack of skin care. 

this remained me the first day I moved to Oxford. when I set up everything in my new home, then I went shopping in the small supper market near by. when I was searching for soya source, a man kindly  recommended me to buy the  Pearl River Bridge Soya source. I smiled, and say: yes, I know it is good, I am Cantonese, this is one of our famous local brand. then he recommended me use this soya source and oxford source to fire mixed vegetable. he say the taste is incredibly amazing, and this is the local taste here in Oxford. I think, well, maybe it is good to have a try,oxford source in oxford. I always like to try local food. then I listened to him, and buy all the needed ingredients home and have them cooked by followed his recommendation. 

how it was taste? --- why had I listened to an England about how to make chinese stir fry?! am I stupid?   the oxford source taste weird! I should never trust what English means " taste  incredibly amazing ". 

information about the canton fair:  http://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en/

expats take your passports or ID, and paid about 400 CNY, you can register as a buyer, it is a permanent pass, don't forget to keep it for the next Canton Fair.

  

GM food in Canton

just read from news paper, 70%  papayas grow in Canton region are GM. authority said  fruit is not easy to be label, so these papaya would not required to be label as GM food. when you are buying papaya in Guangzhou, be careful about that.  

Chinese medicine

two weeks ago, my grandma broke her spine and was sent to the hospital. she is 80, and has Rheumatoid Arthritis, 2 years ago, she was given some pills by doctors to release the pain of her bone. some of the pills are steroid, after 2 years taken, which caused her osteoporosis, so now her bones are very fragile and easy to be broken. we took her to the chinese medical hospital this time. According to the doctor, Chronic diseases like Rheumatoid Arthritis, are better to use chinese medical therapy. modern western medicine are good at dealing with emergency situation, while for chronic, western drugs usually  cause some side effects when taken for a long time. 

SARS was a very horrible disease, which  happen in 2003 in the whole china and hk. in HK and Beijing many healed  SARS patients have sequela of Avascular Necorsis while in Guangzhou no Avascular Necorsis cases was found, as doctors here use both western mix chinese medical therapy. 

Compare with the north, Cantonese are more conservative, when getting sick, many people still like use traditional chinese medicine. so there are many chinese medical hospitals in Guangzhou, the 1st hospital of the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine  is the best in south China. 

Address: 16 Jichang Rd, Baiyun, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

for illnese of bones, the Foshan hospital of chinese medicine is the best chinese medical therapy of bones in southeast asia.

Address: 6 Qinren Rd, Chancheng, Foshan, Guangdong, China 

Chronic and Sub-health are better to go to see a traditional Chinese physician, as chinese medicine is more moderate and considerate.  Chinese medicine has a history of 2000 years, it has more clinical experiences than the modern western drugs which results are usually tests on white mouse, so it is relatively safe, I think. 

if feeling a small problem or a bit of under the weather, many cantonese will go directly to a herbal tea shop to buy a cup of herbal tea first before going to a doctor. 

you can find many herbal tea shops on the street in Guangzhou. there are varieties of herbal teas to solve different problems. 

here are some common herbal tea menu

龟苓膏-Turtle jelly, main ingredients: Turtle, Smilax glabra. use for: Acne, Eczema, Mouth ulcers ... some skin related problems. 

廿四味- 24 herbs, contains 24 main ingredients, but different stores have its own secret 

recipes. this herbal tea tastes very ugly! extremely bitter, but very effective when you were 

on the beginning of your cold. 

五花茶 - five flowers tea, main ingredients:  Lonicera japonica, 

Chrysanthemum,Sophora japonica L,Kapok flower,Plumeria. use for: Diuretic, Heatstroke, and  Eczema.

火麻仁 - Hempseed shake. main ingredients: Hempseed. it looks and taste like milk shake. use for: Constipation, and make hair more shining. 

茅根竹蔗水 -  Imperata cylindrica root and Chinese sugar cane drink.  use for: Heatstroke, in dry season you feel dehydrated. 

罗汉果茶 - siraitia grosvenorii tea. use for :Cough and phlegm, and deal with dehydrated and good for liver.

酸梅汤 - sour Chinese plum soup. use for: Refreshing, Loss of appetite, Heatstroke, Indigestion

we usually call these herbal tea 凉茶 (cool tea), which means they are served to  against the  uncomfortable feelings caused by the humid weather. the Canton province only have 2 months winter in a year.  the effect of herbal teas are very modest, if you was just passing by a herbal tea shop, in the summer, i suggest you try a  cup of sour Chinese plum soup, that is the entry-level. if you really feel sick, must go for a doctor. 

herbal tea shop

Recipe：Cantonese dessert---Papaya Tremella fuciformis sweet soup 木瓜炖雪耳

My mum's little papaya tree harvested 4 large papaya recently. we gave some to friends and left one for me. but the papaya is too big too eat it in one time, so I have to think about use it to make some dessert. today I made Papaya Tremella Fuciformis sweet soup.  

Ingredients:  serves 4 people 

Papaya  some,  diced 
Tremella Fuciformis   1/2 bloom
Sugar    1/4 cup of cube sugar 
                1/2 piece of jaggery sugar     if you cannot found these sugar, you can use white sugar

few slices of ginger               

all ingredients can be found in supper market, both Chinese and Thai supper market. 



how to choose Tremella Fuciformis:
avoid to buy those are extremely white. the one showed on the first picture is the good quality one. my friend brought from Taiwan.   

You can found the left one are much whiter than those on the right. It is might be treat by  sulphur dioxide. it is really difficult to buy non sulphur dioxide  treated tremella fuciformis in China, (food security has been a problem~). so I suggest to sock the  tremella fuciformis  and leave it over night. I allergic with sulphur dioxide, so I have to make sure it was erased before cook.  

sock it over night, and you will see their volume has enlarged a lot.

wash them again then put into the slow cooker along with the diced papaya. 

add some water in about 1L, when choose the mode of making soup. 

for those use fire stoves: strong fire cook until boiled, then turn into small fire and keep cooking for about 30 mins .

cube sugar

jaggery sugar

add sugar in and raise the temperature and cook the soup until the sugar was melted.  

serve in hot. or 

put it into fridge after the soup to cool down to room temperature. 

 most of people will use cube sugar, but I would like to add half jaggery sugar.

why? different sugar actually taste slightly different, you can do some experiment, and try to found out what fit your favour.  But I think this combination tasted better. 

 tremella fuciformis is quite equivalent to bird nest,  both of them full of collagen, which is good to skin and lung!!!!  while its price is just 1/10 of bird nest. 

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