Across the world: Guilin's tour

Nov 2010

I guess many of us are afraid of eating in China. But when it comes to certain time, we may not be able to control our mind. I was attracted by some of the food there. I believe it is due to different culture and some of their food look new to me. Sweet potatoes, yam, and bamboo shoot are very common. We can easily smell the bamboo shoot everywhere. The smell was unpleasant to me. But there is another pleasant smell that you can find, that is Osmanthus (桂花).

pic: Food stall at roadside

pic: A traditional way of running their business which saves them from paying the rental. :)

As I said, Osmanthus and yam are common in Guilin. It can be used to make various snacks and desserts such as Osmanthus cake, yam cake, yam stick. There are plenty factories manufacture similar snacks. It is hard to decide which tastes better as we are not local. Unfortunately the one that I bought (picture below) did not taste so good.

pic: Common souvenir pack for tourists.

pic: A dessert made from Osmanthus

Yogurt we find in Malaysia are normally flavoured with fruits such as strawberry, mango and etc. But I found a few special flavours there and I tried three of them, including red bean, oat, and Jujube.

pic: Dog meat can be found in many food stalls there. Do you have the courage to try it out?

We had a chance to shop at western street in Yangshuo. We found it strange that there were only two or three types of food and drinks in this market. The most popular ones were grilled tofu/beancurd, Osmanthus dessert, and leong shui. Unlike the night makets in Malaysia, we have various types of food like fried chicken chop, bun, cakes, sweet soup, and many others.

pic: I bought two pieces and the tofu were indeed soft and smooth. It was served with preserved long beans and home-made chilli sauce which brought the sour and spicy taste to the tofu.

pic: I felt extraordinary hot one day and I couldn't wait to buy an ice-cream to cool the body down.

There are two types of persimmon. The soft one is more common there. Our tour guide treated each of us one piece and showed us the way to consume it. First, we would have to tear the skin and then we can start sucking the juice. It was really really sweet.

Chestnut can be found easily but do not be surprised if they do not taste as soft as the "testers". Our tour guide explained the reason behind. She said that the chestnuts are normally half cooked so that the leftover can be re-cooked and sold on the next day. The chestnuts will turn darker day after day. So, be a smart consumer. If you really wish to buy the chestnuts, please choose the ones which look yellowish.

I would talk about the meals included in the tour package in the next section of this post. The food were normally oily. It seems like the people there are so generous in putting the oil despite the fact that the cooking oil is expensive.

Let start with the dinner on the first night, 30/Oct/2010. We arrived at 9pm but still we were provided with dinner. Should it be supper? :)

pic: Breakfast, 2nd day - 1/Nov/2010. Breakfast was provided by the hotel. I had the breakfast in a nice cafeteria. I felt so cool to have the meal at open-roof section. Guilin is well know for its vermicelli too. It tastes like lai fen/濑粉. It is one of the popular breakfast there.

pic: Lunch, 2nd day - 1/Nov/2010. After this meal, I started to realize that we had yam and glutinous rice in most our meals for the 8 days.

pic: Dinner, 2nd day - 1/Nov/2010. We found it difficult to eat the fish as there were plenty of bones in the meat. It was the same type of fish provided throughout the trip.

pic: Lunch, 3rd day - 2/Nov/2010. A welcomed meal served by Zhuang ethnic minority (壮家迎宾宴). It was a steamboat-like lunch and the chicken soup was really great.

pic: Breakfast, 4th day - 3/Nov/2010. We had the breakfast at Longsheng. We were provided with vermicelli, eggs, mantou, youtiao, porridge, yam, sweet potatoes, and 100% natural soy bean milk without added water (豆奶, 不是豆浆水).

pic: dinner, 4th day - 3/Nov/2010

pic: Lunch, 5th day - 4/Nov/2010. We had one of the famous dishes in Yangshuo, beer fish (啤酒鱼). The beer served as one of the ingredients for the gravy. Again, we had also yam and glutinous rice.

pic: Dinner, 5th day - 4/Nov/2010. The theme of the meal was ginkgo (白果宴). Also, we were provided with the noodles made from sweet potatoes. Yummy~~

pic: Lunch, 6th day - 5/Nov/2010. We had something new this time. I like the pumpkin to the max!!!!

pic: Dinner, 6th day - 5/Nov/2010. They have a special melon-type vegetable (right bottom corner) with a light smell of pandan leaves. I forgot its name. Unfortunately we couldn't find it in Malaysia.