Banu Hotpot MixC World 巴奴毛肚火鍋 万象天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I can't believe we are stilling having our hotpot dinner at 11pm. We had such an action-packed schedule today and I'm sure some of us could fall asleep standing up right now. But everyone is just soaking up the vibe circling around the hot pot having a good time. No one is really worried about the kids going to bed late.



After all, Banu Hotpot (巴奴毛肚火鍋), a restaurant chain from Beijing that specializes in Sichuan-style spicy hot pot opens until 3am. At least this branch at MixC World (万象天地店) does. They have branches all over Mainland China.

Some of us including yours truly arrived here late cuz we had other business to attend to with the kids (more on that later) so we missed out on some of the fun but I wasn't going to miss these thousand-layered tripe (毛肚) for the world.

Luncheon meat, anyone?

Fresh bean curd sheets are my favorites. I love the fact that they remained slightly chewy even after soaking up the broth.

This place even has its own brand of cauliflower fungus (绣球菌)?

A few of us couldn't wait until we finished all the savory dishes before ordering desserts. This was by far the best dessert we had tonight – Glutinous rice balls (糖不甩). It was no ordinary 糖不甩, at least not the Cantonese version we were accustomed to. These ones were more like mochi with a crispy batter served with brown sugar powder and syrup. I thought there were some crushed peanuts there as well. Very interesting texture profile.

The business I attended to with the kids was a visit to the arcade game centre which was located in another building inside the MixC shopping area (which is HUGE). 

They were so happy to have collected so many game cards, just before they closed at 10pm! 

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: 2/F, Tower D, China Resources Land Tower, 9668 Shennan Road, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道9668号华润华润置地大厦D座二层

Closest Metro Station: Hi-Tech Park (高新园)

Tel: +86 (755) 8836-6877

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 3:00am daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/76/ALhi

OUR Bakery MixC World 万象天地店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

As a diehard fan of Seoul's artisan bakeries, I have been closely following the news on some of my favorite bakery shops from Korea for years. 

On top of my list is OUR Bakery, a top-notch artisan bakery chain originated from Gangnam, who have expanded rather aggressively amidst the pandemic. Last time I checked, they have opened a few stores in Shanghai and Beijing but little that I know, they have already landed in Southern China right here in Shenzhen.

While our plan was to have hotpot and arcade games (again) at MixC World (万象天地), I didn't expect to bump into an OUR Bakery café out of the blue.

Of course, I am coming in for a closer look.

While this SZ branch of OUR Bakery offers far less variety of bakery goods on the spot, the signature items are still there for the taking.

My breakfast for tomorrow morning...

Dirty choco (脏脏包) (¥29) – The signature bake here. This messy-to-eat bakery creation is a pain au chocolat covered in cocoa powder and filled with layers of rich chocolate sauce. Very decadent and heavy, but very tasty.

Injeolmi cream croissant (羊打滾) (¥28) – The flaky croissant came with filling of creamy injeolmi (Korean rice cake) custard in the middle that almost felt like mochi. It was finished with a sprinkle of soy bean powder on top.

These tasted exactly like they were in Seoul. Very nicely done! Although the price tags were a lot heavier than those of the local bakery shops, it was great to scratch this itch of mine. Yeah, I think it's time to check out the flight tickets to Seoul soon.

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥¥

Address: Shop NL167, Level 1, MixC World, Shennan Road, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道华润万象天地一层NL167号

Closest Metro Station: Hi-Tech Park (高新园)

Tel: +86 (755) 8696-5772

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 12:00am daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/3f/_Bgi

Gangyinzhan Gankeng Hakka Town 港飲站 甘坑客家小鎮店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

After spending an hour in the subway, we finally arrived at the front gate of Gankeng Ancient Town (甘坑古鎮). This was by far my favorite part of the itinerary and I was looking forward to spending some time here exploring the ancient town.

Little nugget also couldn't wait to learn more about the ancient history of this old town with his friends.

Although there was news that rain would be pouring heavily in Shenzhen this afternoon, we were lucky enough to avoid any rainfall throughout the day. But the weather was was indeed a little muggy and I was having drink after drink to keep myself from dehydration. 

Needless to say, as soon as I spotted Gangyinzhan (港飲站), I didn't hesitate going in for my tea break. They have it all here, Hong Kong style lemon tea, coffee and of course their award-winning pantyhose milk tea (冠軍絲襪奶茶).

The tea was really robust, aromatic and full bodied, and there was enough creaminess for the silky smooth texture. I like the glass bottle too. Yes, it's a little heavy but I can carry this around for a sip of milk tea. A perfect companion for my trip in Gankeng.

Price: ¥¥

Address: Shop No.101, Building 12, Gankeng Hakka Town, 18 Ganli Road, Longgang District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市龙岗区吉华街道甘坑社区甘李路18号甘坑客家小镇12号楼101号

Closest Metro Station: Gankeng (甘坑)

Tel: +86 (755) 17695962531

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

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/76/N9hi

Hakka Yu Zhuoyuehui Shopping Center 客語 卓悅匯店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

We had a very eventful morning to start off our second day. First, we took off to the Shenzhen Public Library and got ourselves some fresh air walking around the neighboring park.



The kids did some running on the grass.



Little nugget got some game cards from his gaming last night and he's hanging onto them like a treasure. Even during his running, he was holding his deck of cards firmly in his hand.

A few steps off the library was Shenzhen's Book City (深圳書城) which claims to be one of the largest in the world. Apart from bookstores, the venue is full of art-related boutiques, cafes and restaurants and I think we can easily spend a few hours of spare time. This is all attached to Children's Palace subway station  (少年宫站).

We had a long discussion on where to get our late lunch and at the end of the day, we decided to go up to Zhuoyuehui Shopping Center (卓悅匯購物中心) which is directly connected to Shangmeilin station (上梅林站). This move was necessary as some of us (all the kids included) wanted a few more arcade games in the mall before our journey to Gankeng Hakka Town.

We ended up playing and playing until almost 3pm! Most places have already closed until dinner service but fortunately, the moms have already set up inside Hakka Yu (客語). 

We ordered a bunch of stuff to share but most of the dishes were already long gone before we settled ourselves down. All in all, I thought a few of the dishes stood out for me. Hakka-style minced pork omelette pot (客家蛋角煲) and clay pot rice with preserved meat (臘味煲仔飯) were particularly disappointing.

Some dishes that I did take a photo of......

Pumpkin congee (南瓜粥) – Meh......

Steamed rice cake with osmanthus (桂花白米糕) – Actually tasted a little better than I imagined, especially with the fragrance from the osmanthus. 

Handmade whole-grain brown sugar bread (手工粗粮黃糖包) – I thought this was going to taste like Cantonese sponge cake but it was much more on the hard side.

After spending an hour and a half at Zhuoyuehui Shopping Center, it was time to call it quit. Somehow I felt like this was not the end of the story for the kids and it would come back to haunt us tonight with them requesting for more game time.

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: ¥¥

Address: Shop L4-26, Level 4, Zhuoyuehui Shopping Center, 126 Zhong Kang Road, Futian, Shenzhen, China

深圳市福田区中康路与梅林路交汇处卓悦汇购物中心四层L4-26号铺

Closest Metro Station: Shangmeilin (上梅林)

Tel: +86 (755) 8323-3233

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:30pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Mei Zhi Lian Haiya Mega Mall 米芝蓮港澳美食薈萃 海雅繽紛城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

With all the kids off to 星際傳奇 for Minecraft, I figured I should have enough Me Time to explore Haiya Mega Mall (海雅繽紛城) on my own. There were a number of eateries on the lower levels but following our Peking duck feast, I wasn’t keen to start any meal anytime soon. But a small snack at Mei Zhi Lian (米芝莲港澳美食荟萃) could be an option.

Mei Zhi Lian is a small food stall offering a small variety of street snacks from Hong Kong and Macau. They are raving about their eggettes left and right so I assume this is their signature here.

Mammy Pancake (媽咪雞蛋仔) have really set the bar high for eggettes in Hong Kong before Covid. They offer some of the funkiest flavors of eggettes and generally, provide good value for money. I said generally cuz just before the pandemic, their expansion was way too aggressive and without question, affecting their quality at the end (for certain outposts).

Unfortunately, the funkiest flavor they’ve got here was taro with mochi which didn’t excite me a bit so for nostalgia’s sake, I ended up getting the eggette with “runny chocolate”, the same thing I usually got from Mammy Pancake.

This wasn’t bad. The texture was more chewy than crispy, which was the way I like it. The chocolate wasn’t runny though. I am not sure how you make the chocolate runny in the middle.

Well, it was almost time to re-join the group. It’s been a long day, and I can’t wait to go back to the hotel and crash!

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Level B1F, No. 99 Jian'an 1st Road, Bao'an Central District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市宝安中心区建安一路99号海雅缤纷城B1楼

Tel: +86 (755) 13416246272

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

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/43/uNui 

Duck de King Haiya Mega Mall 金鴨季 海雅繽紛城店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

For months, Master Shifu has been telling me about the wide selection of Peking duck restaurants in Shenzhen and there are many of them. And based on his experience, Duck de King (金鴨季) is the cream of the crop out there despite its generally very long waiting time.

There are currently two branches of Duck de King (金鴨季) in Shenzhen and its Haiya Mega Mall (海雅繽紛城) location is supposingly very close to where we are staying.

Of course to make sure that we didn't have to wait in a long queue, we already rang up the famed restaurant to secure our VIP room.

This looked more like it! A little bit of privacy and more space to wiggle around for the kids.

Peking-style roast duck (北京烤鴨 一只) (¥238) – We didn't have to wait very long for the main event which happened to be our Peking duck but first, we needed to set ourselves up properly with the scallions, hawthorn (山楂) jelly and thin strips of cucumber.

All this happening while the chef worked very hard peeling the crispy skin off piece by piece. 

Followed by the duck meat.....

Each order of Peking duck came with two portions of duck skin and meat like this.

I thought the pancake (or Chun Bing 春饼 as they call it) was really soft and pliable so we could really taste the flavors and textures of the duck skin and meat along with the rest of the ingredients. 

Tofu soup with duck bones (鴨架豆腐湯) (¥38) – The second serving of the duck was the tofu soup which has been cooked with the duck bones and vegetables. This was one dish that we could probably do without.

Deboned duck web marinated with mustard sauce (芥末鴨掌) (¥68) – The duck web was silky smooth with an amazing crunch. It worked really well with the homemade mustard sauce.

Foie gras lollipop (櫻桃鵝肝) (¥98) – The ones in red color was dipped in cherry sauce giving the foie gras a nice, fruity finish. Less delicious were the ones in yellow color (mango?).

Kung Pao chicken (宮保雞丁) (¥58) – Won't mind a little more spicy kick, and peanuts (or cashews).

Steamed egg with shrimps (蝦仁蒸蛋) (¥48) – This paled in comparison with the steamed egg we had this afternoon. Perhaps, it's the shrimp broth, or the lack of it.

Peking-style double crisp (京味雙脆) (¥78) – Yeah, I made up this English name myself without the luxury of an English menu.

I am typically not a fan of thousand-layered tripe (毛肚) and manyplies beef tripe (百葉) but this mixture of noodles made with those two types of tripes really made my heart sing. And I thought the extra kick from the spiced sesame sauce really delivered a nice finishing touch to the dish. Very nice.

Fatty beef in golden sour soup (酸湯肥牛) (¥98) – The golden soup was actually more spicy than sour which in fact made the fatty beef pretty tasty. 

Fried rice with soy sauce (醬油炒飯) (¥39) – The kids loved it. Something to go with the steamed egg and meat.

Hailed from Shaanxi province (陝西), Duck de King has made a name for itself with Peking duck slow-roasted over burning fruit wood, resulting in the rich mahogany color and perfectly crisped skin. Not surprisingly, the duck skin and meat both came with mild smoky flavors from the fruit wood. This branch of the famed Peking duck restaurant is a little easier to book than their other location at Shenye Shangcheng (深业上城) but it's less convenient without a subway station within walkable distance.

Still got time for a few more rounds of Minecraft as they close at 10pm! 

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Level 5, No. 99 Jian'an 1st Road, Bao'an Central District, Shenzhen, China

深圳市宝安中心区建安一路99号海雅缤纷城5楼

Tel: +86 (755) 18126172271

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:00pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/31/-qIu

Qing Hui Restaurant Jing Tian 清暉小苑 景田店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

We are spending the next two days in Shenzhen with two other families from little nugget's primary school. Should be a lot of fun.

After taking the high-speed train from West Kowloon early in the morning, we arrived at Futian Station right on schedule. Two stations later (via Subway Line 2), we found ourselves at the Shenzhen Women and Children Centre (深圳婦兒大樓), our first destination of this trip. This is also known as the "Rainbow Building (彩虹大廈)" in Shenzhen.

A few of us didn't get the chance to have breakfast this morning so the plan was to grab an early lunch somewhere within the building first before we move onto our next event (also in this building somewhere). Since no one had any idea what to eat, we decided to simply enter the first restaurant in our sight with Qing Hui Restaurant, (or Qing Hui Xiao Yuan 清暉小苑) getting that honor.

One thing I always like about dining in China is that, they normally don't charge extra for their VIP rooms except a 10% supplementary service fee. We'll take that offer in a heartbeat.

Before we started taking on Qing Hui's authentic Shunde dishes, it was time to choose our beverages first. I didn't realize there was a herbal tea brand called Jia Duo Bao (加多寶) that tasted more or less the same as Wong Lo Kat (王老吉). I love this old school stuff!

Shredded chicken marinated in black truffle (黑松露如意撈雞) – The shredded chicken (手撕雞) marinated with a light truffle sauce, was paired with crispy crackers, peanuts and sesame. We decided to mix everything together like we were having "Lo Hei" (撈起), Singapore's favorite Chinese New Year dish. 

Handcrafted fish bean curd (鳳城手打魚腐) – The homemade fish bean curd was served up in a flavorful fish broth with what a few of us thought was chayote (合掌瓜). Not bad.

Qing-yuan style stirred bean curd (清遠撈腐竹) – Pretty decent.

Sweet and sour pork (菠蘿咕嚕肉) – Always a crowd pleaser. The pork was really soft and tender.

Stir-fried morning glory with garlic (蒜蓉炒通菜) – Very tasty and everybody was wondering what made the morning glory so nice and smooth. Could it be lard? 

Steamed clams with Huadiao wine (啫啫卜卜貝) – Pretty fresh and sweet. A tad too small in size though.

Baked sea eel with lemongrass (香茅焗脆鱔) – I have never had sea eel cooked with lemongrass before but this was so fragrant and irresistible. I thought the sea eel and spices really worked well with the steamed rice. 

Steamed egg custard with shrimp broth and seafood (滾蝦湯海鮮蒸水蛋) – Another dish that had me asking for more rice. The steamed egg was so custardy and eggy, while bursting with umami-rich flavors from the shrimp broth.

Shunde double-layer milk custard (順德雙皮奶) – Of course, a meal at a Shunde restaurant won't be complete with this as dessert. I couldn't believe how delicious this was. It was creamy and full of rich milk flavors yet not overpowering with its sweetness (like the ones served in Hong Kong). Just love the way that they were letting the natural flavors of milk shine here.

It was a very nice meal that was easy on the pocket. Afterwards, we headed downstairs for the main event, which was a much anticipated visit (for the kids) to Shenzhen Children's Exploration Museum (深圳兒童探索館). 

The name here could be a little misleading since it was more of a playhouse than a museum.

Some thoughts on our meal at Qing Hui Restaurant Jing Tian. I don't know much about Shunde cuisine but I do understand that many dishes are prepared in a clay pot because the locals like food served piping hot. And it was in full display with the clams and sea eel dish, both of which were fairly tasty. Could we get another chance for some more Shunde delicacies on this trip? I certainly hope so. 

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: ¥¥

Address: Shop L304, Level 3, 78 Jingtian Road, Futian, Shenzhen, China

深圳市福田区景田路78号妇儿大厦商场裙楼L304铺

Closest Metro Station: Jing Tian (景田)

Tel: +86 (755) 13925297338

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 2:00pm, 5:00pm - 9:00pm (Mon - Fri), 11:00am - 9:00pm (Sat - Sun)