Tao Tao Ju One Avenue 陶陶居 卓悦中心店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

We’re back in Shenzhen for another arcade-filled weekend! Right after breakfast, Jelloman headed off for her spa session, leaving little nugget and me to enjoy some bonding time at the arcade.

We hung in there for over two hours until we finally called it a day. As we have already agreed this morning over breakfast, we met up at One Avenue (卓悅中心). As usual, I had already secured a table remotely, so the wait was minimal (more on that later).

Signature Hong Kong-style milk tea (招牌港式奶茶) (¥22) – As always, silky smooth and rich with deep, robust tea flavors.

Tao Tao Ju’s Jumbo prawn dumpling (陶陶居大蝦餃) (¥36) – A staple for us whenever we visit Tao Tao Ju, delicately made with flawless wrappers.

Tao Tao Ju’s crispy pigeon (陶陶居脆皮乳鴿) (¥52) – I’ve never tried their roasted pigeon so time to cross it off my list. This was pretty tasty and succulent. Not as juicy as the one from Dagefan (大鴿飯) but more than did the trick for me.

Steamed rice roll with shrimps and egg (鮮蝦韭王滑蛋腸) (¥36) – The combination of scrambled eggs and shrimp worked surprisingly well with the silky rice rolls. Not bad at all.

Pan-fried turnip cake (香煎蘿蔔糕) (¥26) – Little nugget’s favorite turnip cake in SZ. A touch more diced cured meat and mushroom would have been perfect.

Sautéed broccoli with beef (西蘭花炒牛肉) (¥58) – I told little one that he seemed to be losing a bit of weight of late, so I recommended a protein boost for him. Surprisingly, he didn’t even ask for a bowl of steamed rice to go with it.

My friends have been asking me how to get a ticket at Tao Tao Ju remotely to shorten the wait. I know it’s not on Tao Tao Ju’s official app.

This is how it’s done.

(1.1) Fire up your Dianping app.

(1.2) Type Tao Tao Ju or "陶陶居" in Chinese in the search criteria box.

(2.1) If you don’t have Dianping app installed on your mobile. Fire up your WeChat.

(2.2) Go to the “Chat” page.

(2.3) Enter “陶陶居排队取号” or Tao Tao Ju in the search criteria. Do not go to the app (小程式) page and try this on the restaurant’s official app as the function isn’t available there.

(3) Either way, a list of Tao Tao Ju restaurants will be displayed with ones closest to your GPS location showed at the top. Click on the one you want to make reservation for.

(4) Click “Queue up 排隊”.

(5) Select the table size (1-2, 3, 4, etc.). You can choose to receive notifications.

Hope this helps! 

Food Rating: 6.8/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address:  Shop L233, East Zone, Level 2 One Avenue, Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华路卓悦中心商场东区L233号铺

Closest Metro Station: Gangxia (岗厦)

Tel: +86 (755) 8299-8870

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 9:30pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/39/WOi

Minxin Laopu Lingnan Tiandi 民信老鋪 岭南天地店 (Foshan, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Little nugget is joining the school exchange program this weekend to experience the vibrant culture of Guangzhou. And us? We decided to take on the role of enthusiastic fans, tailing our little celebrity idol (偶像) starting in Foshan (佛山) this afternoon.

Everything went according to plan. After dropping him off at school, we immediately took the rapid train to Guangzhou South (廣州南). In just about an hour, we have already arrived at the outskirts of the city.

Our next order of business was to track down the Foshan metro platform to head towards Lingnan Tiandi (岭南天地) station. Thanks to a conveniently interconnected underground transit system, we had little trouble finding it.

Following another 30 minutes in the subway, we finally made it to Lingnan Tiandi, a stylishly revitalized district blending century-old Lingnan-style houses with chic cafés, boutique shops, and modern restaurants. Since little nugget and his classmates won’t arrive for another two hours, we decided to get a head start on exploring the area.

We wandered through the maze-like alleys of the district, we soon found our first dining stop of the day: Minxin Laopu (民信老鋪) — a renowned eatery from Shunde (順德) specializing in the iconic double skin milk (雙皮奶).

Shunde Double skin milk (順德雙皮奶) (¥18) – They even have a mini museum in Shunde dedicated to this dessert, so you just know it's serious business.

I loved its lightness and silky smooth texture. It's a little more custard-like than others I've had, and more on the sweet side but I can live with that.

Deep-fried milk custard (炸牛奶) (¥29) – Another signature dish here. The milk custard was nicely wrapped in a flaky, golden crust. Like the double skin milk before it, it was a touch too sweet for me personally, but no complaints from the sweet-toothers in the group.

A few of us also tried other versions of the double skin milk, one topped with lotus seeds and lily bulbs.

And this one with chestnut, mom’s personal favorite.

We still have a ton of ground to cover before we could start our ambush on little guy. Time to finish up our sweet treats and run!

Food Rating: 6.3/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: 13 Wenhui Lane, Lingnan Tiandi Commercial Centre, Liangyuan, Foshan, Guangzhou, China

佛山市良缘路岭南天地商业中心文会里13号

Closest Metro Station: Lingnan Tiandi (岭南天地)

Tel: +86 (757) 8203-4933

Opening Hours: 9:30am - 11:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/c7/SJp

Jiufen Xingyu Restaurant 九份心宇食堂 (Jiufen, TAIWAN) ★★★☆☆

Just as I was making my way down Jiufen’s steep, winding staircases wondering where to grab supper, I spotted Jiufen Xingyu Restaurant (九份心宇食堂), not far from A-Mei Teahouse (阿妹茶樓).

Like A-Mei Teahouse and some of the other eateries nestled in this nostalgic mountain town, Xingyu Restaurant evokes the charm of a traditional inn or tavern (客棧) with its rustic, old-world décor.

As expected, the outdoor seats were in high demand, so I opted for a table indoors and decided to keep my visit brief and easy.

The menu sticks to the basics — simple Taiwanese snacks and homestyle dishes, nothing too flashy. But sometimes, that's exactly what you need.

Beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) (NT$220) – It hit me that I hadn’t yet had a proper bowl of Taiwanese beef noodle soup on this trip, so this one was a no-brainer. 

The beef was a touch on the chewy side but the flavorful broth made up for it. 

The thick noodles soaked up the essence of the broth reasonably well there.

Fried eggs with preserved radish (菜圃蛋) (NT$130) – A comforting dish I always enjoy. The soft scrambled eggs were complemented nicely by the crunchy bits of preserved radish, adding both texture and a hint of savory depth.

That should do it for me for my only meal in Jiufen. Time to head back to my seaside room and enjoy the rest of the night.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$

Address: 2/F, 35 Shuqi Road, Ruifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan

Tel: +886 2-2496-0852

Website: https://instagram.com/jiufen_xingyu?igshid=MzMyNGUyNmU2YQ==

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 8:30pm daily