Lazy Su Restaurant (2nd visit) – Braddon – Canberra – ACT – Australia – August 2018

Tags

ACT, Australia, canberra, Cheezeburger, deep fried tofu, dinner with friends, Dumplings, jasmine tea smoked duck breast, Korean buffalo wings, Lazy Su restaurant, mapo doufu

A Canberra restaurant I love…

I find that no matter how many new restaurants open in Canberra, I always seems to return to the ones I love and one I particularly enjoy is Lazy Su voted the number 1 people’s choice restaurant in Canberra.  The interior is distinctly Asian with a Japanese-Korean pop culture theme…I love it!!On this occasion a few months ago I went with my friend Jon and a young Chinese friend we have become close to over the past year or so and who refers to us as his Aussie mum and dad – very sweet!  The menu is good for meat lovers, vegetarians and vegans and there is a good choice of wines and spirits.We started off with dumplings; vegan kimchi, tofu and shallots (more for me as neither Jon nor Peter ate any),  pork and cabbage Chinese style dumplings and Korean buffalo wings which the boys told me were spicy and delicious.The boys then ordered a soy braised pork dish with Korean pickles and shallots and a dish of jasmine tea smoked duck breast which was pan-seared with carrot and yuzu citrus purée and charred Asian greens.  Then they shared a Korean noodle soup which contained pork belly, egg and crispy noodles.

I ordered a cheezeburger which has vegan mince, black beans, mustard, vegan cheddar, cos lettuce, tomato sauce and charred leaks.  It was ‘really’ good but quite large so I need not have ordered Grandma’s Spicy Tofu (Ma Po Doufu 麻婆豆腐) with pickled mustard, eggplant, garlic, chilli and shallots.

I only like mildly spiced dishes and I forgot to ask the waiter how spicy this dish was…oh my goodness it made my tongue and lips go numb with the first big mouthful.  What a shame as it really was good but I couldn’t eat any more.Peter who was born in Sichuan in China and eats very spicy food regularly told us that to calm the tastebuds and numbness after a spicy dish you should eat sugar; haven’t tried this yet but I do know that milk, water and yoghurt do not work.  We did order some from the waiter but it took a little while to reach us and my mouth had calmed down by that stage.

We did order one more dish which was really tasty; deep friend tofu with an avocado sauce – wow so good.  I think even non-tofu lovers would enjoy this one.We were way too full for dessert so after an evening of good food and wine and lovely company it was time to say ‘goodbye’…until next time.

 

 

 

 

 

Yangtze River (Cháng jiāng) – Sichuan & Hubei Provinces – PRC – October 2018

Tags

Chang Jiang, Hubei Province, PRC China, Sichuan Province, Yangtze River

Cruising down China’s longest river

After a great week in Sichuan Province [more on that later], my friend Jon and I took the bullet train to Chongqing where we were picked up by our guide and driver and taken to dinner at a hotpot restaurant before boarding the Victoria Anne cruise ship for our cruise down the Yangtze River. Jon loves spicy food and said this was probably the spiciest food he had eaten in all our travels around China (and he had some seriously spicy food in Sichuan).

I hadn’t eaten all day so was famished; the food was sensational. One side of the pot was [for me] seasoned water with mushrooms along with some spices and a little bit of chilli and the other side was [for Jon] a meat stock also with vegetables but with lots of chilli. Our guide kindly made us a dipping bowl of oil, shallots, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds and sesame oil.  This fabulous concoction we used to dip our cooked food into before eating.  Jon added more chilli to his bowl and told me he regretted this as it was ‘so’ hot, but he still ate all his meat and some vegetables.I cooked and ate so much food; incredible noodles, bean sprouts, sweet potato, cabbage, three types of mushrooms, some tofu and delicious tofu skin.  What a meal!!Then it was time to hit the traffic and head to the ship.  Once on board we were asked if we both wanted to upgrade our rooms to suites; we did!  And really glad as the standard rooms were very small but the suites had a lovely lounge area with a little balcony.Usually non-Chinese are seated in a different eating area to the Chinese which I didn’t like so Jon and I asked to sit with the Chinese and we met some really lovely people.  We sat on the same table for each meal and enjoyed the company of a range of very friendly Chinese.  These two gorgeous little girls were our favourites – they spoke some English but loved it when I spoke Chinese to them.I had previously taken this cruise in 2013 and was lucky enough to travel through the five ship lift locks but we were told now-days passenger ships cannot travel through the lift locks.  This is a photo from 2013 looking out the back of our ship as we had travelled through the locks.  It was an amazing experience.Our ship sailed through three gorges; Qutang, Wu and Xiling over four days and three nights.   

(source: http://www.yangtze.com)

I really enjoyed the views from the front of the ship and also relaxing in the Yangtze Club with a glass of sauvignon blanc and my book looking at the villages along the shore.The views of each of the gorges was lovely and some better than others due to the time of the day or just plain bad weather.The crew put on a show each night which was lovely.  Wonderful costumes and great singing and dancing.

One day we took a smaller boat to a part of the river that could not take the larger boat; so beautiful!Such a wonderful relaxing time as after four weeks’ travelling around China, I think we needed this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lavender Gardens – Chaoyang District – Beijing & Bullet Train to Shenyang – Liaoning Province – PRC – September 2018

Tags

beijing, Beijing Blues Lavender Manor, Bullet train, Chaoyang District, Lavender Gardens, Liaoning Province, prc, Shenyang

When is lavender not lavender!!!

Before heading to China last month I read about places around Beijing that had the top lavender gardens.  I love brightly coloured fields so took down the details of the one I thought was the best (Beijing Blues Lavender Manor) and arranged a driver to take us there a couple of days after arriving.  It took us over an hour from our Airbnb and it really was out the back of no-where; a downtrodden old street with huge construction over the road and on each side of the entry gates.

This is what the gardens looked like on the internet …be assured they looked absolutely nothing like this.We hesitated as we arrived at the front gate because we were greeted by these two ‘people’…mmm not a great start.But because we had driven so far we decided to pay our 20 RMB ($4 AUD) each to go inside as I really wanted to see the beautiful lavender fields.  We started walking around the paths and the first tree we see is one with fake orange leaves and cheap umbrellas around the trunk.  Second bad sign.And then we were welcomed by some unusual little rope people along the pathway but no lavender yet…Then…in the distance we see a small field of purple but it was not lavender; they were some sort of weed and as we walked alongside we saw a chair in the middle of the field – guess this is in case you get tired and need a rest? But the ‘lavender’ had grown over so we decided not to stop!!As can be seen, this small field looks absolutely nothing like the internet photos but to add to our amusement there were a few other ‘interesting’ garden ornaments.

A lovely swing with artificial flowers…An old stone carriage that was impossible to enter…An interesting structure which I said looked like an outdoor toilet complete with more artificial flowers but no toilet!And I have no idea why rope Sponge Bob Square Pants was there but he was as were some unusual signs.No more ‘lavender’ but a farewell from some more rope people. We haven’t laughed so much and spoke of this experience during the next four weeks travelling around China!  Our next stop was Liaoning Province over north/east China and we caught the fabulous bullet train from Beijing but it was Golden Week (national holidays) which meant all Chinese are on holidays.  Most of them at the train station…What a great experience travelling in business class with huge chairs, complimentary snacks, water, Chinese tea and slippers…And travelling at speeds of over 300km/h checking out the cities and rapeseed fields along the way.