useful words --- china travel

when I was travelling  in  Iran, that was my first time in middle east, I cannot read their character at all. I usually asked my friend write some words in Persian in a paper, so I can communicate with local people.

recent days some of my foreign friends say they also found many local don't speak English, they found problems when want to ask for direction . So I made this form for them. hope it does some help to other travellers.

   

how to use?

print in a A4 paper then fold it like this:

download PDF here: https://www.ipage.com/controlpanel/FileManager/m.cmp?cmd=dlfile&p=china%20travel%20useful%20words.pdf

Local Restaurant Guangzhou --- Dao Xiang 稻香酒家

Dim Sum

is a very traditional Cantonese breakfast cuisine. in the past, Dim Sum only serves in the Tea house (茶楼)  in the morning breakfast time ( everyday before 10 a.m.), as tea used to be a must have drink in the morning, and dim sum usually serve with tea. in the past, tea house all most means restaurant. nowadays, only retired people have time to enjoy a cup of tea and few pieces of dim sum in the morning. so many restaurants begin to serve all day dim sum. 

Dao Xiang is one of my favourite dim sum restaurant.

Address: 706-708b, 7th floor, Tee Mall.  

there are hundreds of categories of Cantonese dim sum. here are some of the most popular kinds: 

(the EU has announced a new law that requires restaurants tell customers if there food contain a ingredients known to trigger allergies. if you allergy with something and are travelling in China, you have to pay attention on your food, as restaurants in China would not label ingredients on menu. here i only mentioned main ingredients, as all the restaurants have their secrets. Oh, be caution that most Cantonese food are cooked with peanut oil, if you were allergy of peanut, there might be a risk. )

 虾饺
Prawn dumpling
main ingredients: prawn, pork, rice flour, ginger

烧卖
Pork steam dumpling
main ingredients: pork, duck egg, flour, crab roe

 香茜饺
Parsley steam dumpling
main ingredients: Parsley, pork, carrot, rice flour, crab roe

牛肉丸

Steam beef ball

main ingredients: beef, dried tangerine peel 

 春卷
Spring roll
main ingredients: fish, prawn, scallion, flour

 蛋散
Egg pastry
main ingredients: egg, flour, sugar,lard,sesame seed

蛋挞

Egg tart 

main ingredients: egg, flour, sugar,lard

 萝卜糕
radish pancake
main ingredients: rice flour, radish, pork

 马蹄糕
Water chestnut pancake
main ingredients:
Water chestnut,sugar

红枣糕

Dates jelly

main ingredients: Dates, sticky rice flour

 香芋蒸排骨
Steam pork ribs with taro
main ingredients: taro,pork ribs,pickled soya bean

凤爪
Steam chicken feet
 main ingredients: chicken feet

牛柏叶

Omasum

main ingredients: Omasum

 咸肉粽
Traditional chinese rice-pudding
main ingredients: sticky rice, peanut, mung bean, pork,egg yolk, mushroom.

糯米鸡

Chicken sticky rice pudding 

main ingredients: sticky rice,chicken, mushroom,egg yolk

猪脚姜

Ginger pork foot

main ingredients: ginger, pork foot, egg,sweet vinegar 

肠粉

Steam rice roll

main ingredients: rice flour, meat (choice are very: pork, beef, prawn...)

travellers ---- Bruno Catalano

Life can often leave you feeling a bit lost for purpose, perhaps even empty inside, but there’s a great way to regain your clarity on what matters in this world: go traveling.

sources: http://www.visualnews.com/2013/06/05/travelers-bronze-statues-in-search-of-themselves/

local restaurant Guangzhou-- for vegetarian --- hotpot season

introduce my favourite vegetarian restaurant in GZ.

in this cold weather, surely go for a hotpot!

素和敬

SU HE JING vegetarian restaurant

地址：广州市越秀区东风东路750号广联大厦三楼（羊城晚报社斜对面、东方丝绸大酒店旁）

Address：3rd fl,Guanglian Dasha. No.750 Dongfeng dong lu. Yuexiu District. 

22% off for Buddhist 

every Thursday members enjoy 40% off.

customise your mixed sources 

coconut milk, tomato soup hotpot 

can you believe it? it looks like real prawns! also taste exactly like real prawn!

Cantonese soup

Rice and soup are very important food in my life,especially soup. I can't imagine how others survive without them. Our soup is very different from other places of China. it contains fresh fruit, meat and herbs. the combination of ingredients are different according different seasons and weather. the climate of GZ is very special, it is extremely humid in spring and summer, very dehydrated during November and December. Cantonese like to use food to help the body adapt different weather. most Cantonese family have soup with dinner everyday. if our mum don't have time to make soup, there are lot of soup shops in the old town and most Cantonese fast food restaurants also serve soup.

herbs are used to make Cantonese soup

a lot of families have their secret ingredients, experienced house wifes know how to combine herbs for different seasons. for lazy kind, there are preserved packages can be found in super markets. all most all the chinese super market in London sell Cantonese soup package. when I was travelling, I usually take few packs with me. in Iran, the weather is extremely dry, especially in desert, I felt really uncomfortable, feeling dizzy, my skin is dehydrated and have no appetite all the time. I felt much better after having some sweet soup. can't imagine how Iranian live without soup in this extreme weather condition. 

   

  

 many people from the north feel sick when they firstly came to GZ. yesterday a foreign friend told me, she found blemish on her face since last week she arrived GZ. so I made some soup for her and hope to ease the symptom. 

I made apple,corn and carrot soup for her, this soup suit for this season. considering foreigners might don't like the smelt of herbs, i didn't put any herbs in it.

ingredients: apple x1

                  corn  x1

                  carrot  x1

                  ginger   x 3slices

                  pork     300g

put everything together then add in water until all the ingredients are covered. 

most cantonese family have ceramics soup cooker. if you have a rice cooker have soup mode, the process is easy -- just press the button and wait for its done. 

Stockpot：large fire until it boiled, then turn into small fire and boil about 30 mins

 

All about Guangzhou and Cantonese

Guangzhou -- my homeland.
Cantonese -- my mother tongue

I always introduce myself like this: I am from south China, I am Cantonese. The reason to do so, is for defending my culture. I want to tell others, in south China, there are people living a completely life and speaking a different language. You may think Cantonese is not Chinese, which is wrong, in contrast, Cantonese is the real Han language. It is the language the ancient Chinese speak. The current official language Mandarin is a language which mixed with Han and nomads  from the north. oh~it is a long story...

last month a couchsurfer from Iran email me and consult about tourist information of GZ. instead of giving him information of GZ, I suggest him visit another 2 cities near by. Guangzhou has becoming more and more modern and international. All the big cities in China look like the same: tall buildings, crowed traffic and light pollution at night. Globalisation this evil concept has been affecting the city to makes it losing its identity. So when he asked what I recommend to see, I just can't answer. I don't know how many historical has remained and survived. I also have to search online to look for the answer. So I am thinking maybe I can write a blog to share some of the information I know. something about GZ and Cantonese, at the same time promote my beloved Cantonese culture.

what a good idea! hope I will up writing and updating.