Caan by OUR Shenzhen Bay MixC 深圳灣萬象城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

When we first thought about coming to Shenzhen Bay MixC (深圳灣萬象城) for dinner, Korean food wasn't what we had in mind.

However, as soon as we saw the crowd lining up at every Chinese restaurant (no surprise for Chinese New Year), we had no choice but to go with our Plan B. Since Jelloman was circling around Zone B of the mall at the time, it made perfect sense to settle for something non-Chinese there, with Caan by OUR Bakery leading the list of candidates.

I have always wanted to try Caan's Korean-inspired comfort food, but I didn't expect to do it during the week of Chinese New Year.

Kimchi fried rice (¥45) — Always enjoy having Korean kimchi fried rice. This came with fried egg and sausage. Not bad at all but the presentation could have been a little better.

Salmon carpaccio (¥78) — The beetroot-cured salmon carpaccio was pretty tasty. Likely the best dish tonight.

Bacon cream pasta (¥65) — The kids would never say no to a carbonara.

Truffle fries (¥58) — Pretty decent.

Roasted spring chicken (¥79) — I didn't get to try this one, but our friends were raving about the tender and juicy spring chicken. It must be a very satisfying dish. I heard the salad was not bad as well.

After scrambling back and forth and wasting a lot of time in the process, it was a blessing to finally find a dining place within the mall where we could sit down for supper. Most importantly, it was the precious time we spent with our good friends, sharing stories and laughter together. That's what truly matters.

Food Rating: 5.6/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B115, Zone B, Level B1 Shenzhen Bay MixC, 3213 Keyuan South Road, Nanshan, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区粤海街道海珠社区科苑南路3213号深圳湾万象城B1层B区B115号铺

Closest Metro Station: Houhai (后海)

Tel: +86 18124700566

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 11:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/5e/OqaM

Dian Niu Yunnan Pickled Greens Hotpot Restaurant Joy City 滇牛雲南酸菜牛肉火鍋 深圳大悦城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We're back in Shenzhen this morning to celebrate the New Year with another family. It's "Red Mouth Day" today, so we are being very careful about what we say to others. After a fun-filled morning exploring Shenzhen Joy City (深圳大悦城), we decided to grab lunch there as well.

Situated on the fourth floor of the shopping mall, Dian Niu Yunnan Pickled Greens Hotpot Restaurant (滇牛雲南酸菜牛肉火鍋) is a Yunnan-style hotpot restaurant chain specializing in its Yunnan vegetables and beef.

Obviously, everybody went back to their respective hometowns during the New Year, so there were only a few souls at the mall and having lunch at the restaurant.

We opted for two types of non-spicy broths, trying to stay away from spicy foods to kick off the year.

While they were preparing the broths, I decided to grab a few condiments from the "sauce" station.

This turned into a bit of a vegetable feast, as half of the dishes were plant-based. For most Hongkongers, the meal would typically lean more towards meat and seafood, with vegetables likely towards the end of the hotpot meal.

Yunnan beef fillet (雲南黃牛肉) — The beef fillet from Yunnan cattle was pretty tender, but the way it was cut into small pieces and marinated made it a little less appealing, both for our eyes and palates.

Beef offal platter (牛雜雙拼) — The ox tongue certainly wasn't bad. I had trouble identifying what the other part was.

Beef marinated with litsea (木姜子牛肉) — This came with a nice extra kick and a numbing effect thanks to the litsea. Much tastier than the previous beef fillet.

Beef trachea (牛黃喉) — We first thought it was beef tripe at first glance, but the texture didn’t feel right. After checking the menu, we found that this was actually the cow's throat part. It was a bit crunchy but not a lot of flavor there.

Taro sheets (麗江七彩洋芋) — The taro was sliced into thin sheets which turned into something like potato chips when cooked. Pretty interesting!

There were a lot of vegetables (which I forgot to take photos of) including tofu in the set but mint leaf?

Every time we come to Shenzhen, we seem to learn something new, and this meal was a nice lesson on the ingredients from Yunnan. I'm not sure if I liked everything, but it was great for our education!

Food Rating: 4.8/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop L431, Level 4 Joy City, 61 Chuangye 2nd Road, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市宝安区新安街道宝民社区25区创业二路61号大悦城商业中心四层L431

Closest Metro Station: Lingzhi (灵芝)

Tel: +86 18948327800

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/2a/YlJM

3.3 Cafe Maritime Square 三點三冰室 青衣城店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We didn't do much on Chinese New Year day. Jelloman and I started the day with a movie, leaving little nugget a moment to play with his grandparents before we regrouped for a family gathering at almost 2pm. After some quality time with the older folks, it was time to head home.

This was when little nugget felt hungry and asked for afternoon tea. I don't blame him really. We ordered way too few dim sum for lunch and everyone probably didn't have enough to eat.

So, we sat down at 3.3 Cafe (三點三冰室) at Maritime Square (青衣城). I thought it was a little heavy having noodle soup with satay beef at this hour. Dinner wasn't far off.

While my son was enjoying his noodles, I was busy generating a new year greeting image for the year of the Horse. It took me a while to get things going but I thought I was getting the hang of it at last.

Price: $$$

Address: Shop G24-G25, G/F, Maritime Square 1, 31-33 Tsing King Road, Tsing Yi, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsing Yi

Tel: +852 2762-9818

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 9:30pm daily