Melt in July 七月柿 Express (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

Located at the entrance of trendy Pink Street (粉紅大街) at Shenzhen Bay MixC (深圳灣萬象城), Melt in July Express (七月柿, literally means "July Persimmon") is a popular East-meets-West fusion restaurant with an intriguing food and dessert menu. Unfortunately, despite having it on my radar for quite some time, I’ve never gotten around to crossing it off my list.

But today, I finally had the perfect opportunity especially since I had a pickleball game scheduled at a nearby community centre.

As planned, the moment we finished our match, we headed straight to Shenzhen Bay MixC to satisfy our snack attack.

Under the same group behind Melt in July Farmhouse (七月柿 蕃茄食堂) which is known for its healthy eating, Melt in July 七月柿 Express’ food and dessert menu goes beyond just East-meets-West dishes. There are also comfort-food options that blend local flavors with a modern Korean twist. All in all, there are always more to this than meeting the eye.

Since we were all a little hungry after the game, we started with a quick savory bite.

Slow-stewed beef brisket pita burger (慢燉牛筋腩皮塔堡) (¥55) — The burger was made with pita bread, which adds a hint of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flair. 

Inside, there were succulent beef brisket, purple onion, and cabbage, all brought together with a Mediterranean-style sauce. Not bad.

Matcha tiramisu (抹茶提拉米蘇) (¥48) — The menu mentioned fermented bean curd (腐乳) as an ingredient, but it hardly registered it in the flavors. Instead, there was a sharp burst of soy-bean notes (“beany!”), paired with matcha and of course, coffee. Texture-wise, it was spot on. Soft, fluffy, and properly enjoyable.

Roasted long-jing tea Basque cheesecake (龍井焙茶巴斯克) (¥36) — This was a pretty ordinary Basque cheesecake, topped with a scoop of hojicha ice cream. Interestingly, the ice cream was decorated with long-jing tea leaves, adding a distinct tea aroma to the mix.

However, personally, I thought the flavors from the cheesecake, ice cream, and tea leaves didn’t quite come together as a complete package.

As usual, we grabbed some bread after our afternoon tea before heading off to our next event (a foot massage). It was a busy afternoon for us in Shenzhen, but everyone needed this after a pretty eventful work week. 

Food Rating: 5.8/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Shop B1-38, Pink Street, Shenzhen Bay MixC, 3213 Keyuan South Road, Nanshan district, Guangzhou, China

深圳市南山区深圳湾万象城B区粉红大街B1层B1-38号铺

Closest Metro Station: Houhai (后海)

Tel: +86 19128337786

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:30pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/57/94BM

BellaVista (Ulm, GERMANY) ★★☆☆☆

The fact that Ulm is the birthplace of Albert Einstein had nothing to do with us stopping for lunch here this afternoon. With the historic city right in the middle of Kempten and Stuttgart, it simply made perfect sense to stop by for food, gas, and a little bit of sightseeing.

Our friend AI told me that Ulm is a tourist city, but the tourism part didn’t really register during our visit as we were the only notable tourists in the city centre. After parking our car in the heart of Ulm, we emerged from underground looking for our lunch spot.

BellaVista is a popular café, bar, and restaurant in Ulm, famous for its rooftop terrace that looks directly at the Ulm Minster, one of the tallest churches in the world and the undisputed top attraction of the city. The restaurant sits on the top floor of a six-story building on the edge of a plaza right next to the church. It was the main reason I booked this place in the first place.

With the hope of getting a closer look at the Ulm Minster, we decided to sit on the terrace.

Needless to say, we began taking selfies the moment we sat down at the corner.

The food menu is very short, highlighted by a couple of salad bowls, ramen noodles, and the daily specials.

This was when my day took a wild spin for the worse. While I was going through the menu, there were a few (under 10) wasps and bees 🐝 circling around me and little nugget (Jelloman was away to the toilet). It’s safe to say my boy has never been a fan of little flying objects and when he was constantly interrupted by them, he got really irritated and a little upset. He started swinging wildly with the menu, and this probably got one of the wasps upset. It settled on my arm (but why me? I had no clue) and bit me.

When I first saw the wasp on my arm, I didn’t react immediately. Two seconds later, I was already bitten. There was obviously excruciating pain at the spot where I’ve been bitten, and it quickly started to swell pretty badly.

I quickly told little one to go inside the restaurant and asked for help. One of the servers came and sprayed some chemicals on my wound, and without consulting Jelloman, we moved indoors. I was then handed an ice pack to keep the swelling down.

So, yes I didn’t really get to enjoy this meal as much as I would have liked.

Yatai ramen (€13.5) — Both ramen options are vegetarian. This one came with enoki mushrooms, pak choy, leeks, sugar snap peas, and fresh coriander in a soy sauce–based broth. The broth was very strong, with a rich soy sauce flavor. We were joking that with the broth already pretty salty, the chance of the bottle of soy sauce being used was probably next to none. 

Fried calamari (€17.9) — The fried calamari (which was really squid rings) was breaded and served on a bed of salad made with garden greens, rocket leaves, tomatoes, and capers. There was a Parmesan aioli on top to add to the flavors. Overall the dish was fine, although I thought the calamari would have tasted better without the added batter.

There were a few firsts for me today. First time visiting Ulm, first time having Japanese ramen in Germany, and yeah — first time being bitten by a wasp. I have to admit, a lot went through my mind in the few seconds after being bitten, including whether the wasp was poisonous. I was reassured by the staff that as long as I didn’t feel anything wrong (such as dizziness), I should be fine.

A gentleman from the table next to us came over to check if I was alright. What a class act! He went on to tell me that during the summer it’s common to see wasps and bees everywhere in Germany and that being bitten by one definitely isn’t rare. He concluded with, “This is Germany. Welcome to Germany!”

Even with my badly swollen forearm, I decided to check out Ulm Minster. 

Despite its massive scale and cathedral-like appearance, it has never been the official seat of a bishop. Go, figure....

Food Rating: 4.7/10

Price: €€€

Address: Münsterplatz 35, 89073 Ulm, Germany

Tel: +49 731 6026966

Website: https://bellavista-ulm.de/

Opening Hours: 8:30am - 5:00pm (Mon - Thu), 8:30am - 4:00pm (Fri - Sat)

Dean and David Makartplatz (Salzburg, AUSTRIA) ★☆☆☆☆

I thought Sunday would be the hardest day of the week for us to find a dining spot, but it turned out that Monday wasn’t any easier. As the official “rest day” for some restaurants that open on Saturday and/or Sunday, Salzburg’s dining scene on Monday was at a standstill.

After our extensive tour covering many of the city’s top attractions, we returned to the same area we started — near Makartplatz — to look for our dinner venue. But we soon found out that more than half of the restaurants weren’t open due to their regular closures.

Uncle Van, a popular Vietnamese restaurant, was one of the few that opened. However, as soon as we sat down, we realized they had a special “queuing” mechanism—not only for tables, but for taking orders as well. Apparently, their kitchen was way over capacity, and our server told us to sit back, relax, and wait our turn to be served.

After about 10 minutes, we sized up the situation and didn’t take long to realize that all of our neighbors were still waiting for their turn to place their order. It wasn’t hard to estimate that the wait would be a long one so we knew better and decided to look for supper elsewhere.

So the search began again, and we finally found a branch of Dean & David at Makartplatz, just across the street from Mozart Residence (Mozart-Wohnhaus), for a quick bite.

Dean & David is a restaurant chain focused on healthy eating and drinking. With around 100 branches across European countries like Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, it’s a melting pot of different cuisines serving everything from fruit juices and salad bowls to more.

We started with a couple of juices… Then we ordered two chicken teriyaki wraps.

I used to have these kinds of wraps all the time when I was in Vancouver, but this one was a totally different experience. Inside the super thick wrapper, there were all kinds of vegetables, including carrot, zucchini, and greens mixed with some pretty bland chicken fillets. But what really got us puzzled were the patches of rice.

With a wrapper as thick as our car tire, and a lack of teriyaki sauce, the whole thing really didn’t taste like something you’d want to put into your mouth. I’m okay with eating healthy, but even then, the healthy dish has to taste decent.

I'm glad we kind of overachieved with our sightseeing schedule tonight. Tomorrow, we can enjoy a late start.

Food Rating: 3.3/10

Price: €€

Address: Makartplatz 3, 5020 Salzburg, Austria

Tel: +43 662 230895

Website: https://shop.deandavid.at/

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 8:00pm daily

GE Flavor (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

GE BAKE is a highly regarded Japanese-style soufflé pancake and brunch spot in Shenzhen, and it’s gained solid momentum over the past few years. Now that they’ve built a loyal fanbase for their signature soufflé and western brunch items, it’s time to expand.

Enter GE Flavor — a brand new all-day-menu restaurant focused on comfort food, from salads and pasta to more classic, shareable plates.

Naturally, for their first location, they’ve chosen MixC World (萬象天地).

It was 3pm in the afternoon and the place was absolutely buzzing. Why am I not surprised?

Beef and fig salad with Balsamic glaze (牛肉無花果黑醋沙律) (¥78) — The beef fillet was really tender. I thought the fresh pink fig, corn, broad beans and balsamic dressing did a great job cutting through the richness.

Grilled ox tongue with sancho and scallion (山椒葱絲烤牛舌) (¥78) — The ox tongue had that melt-in-your-mouth texture, and it worked wonderfully with the extra heat from the sancho pepper (花山椒) aioli.

Chestnut Mont Blanc (栗子蒙布朗提拉米蘇) (¥56) — The reason why we were here in the first place.

I saw this on social media last week. In the clip, the server uses a special handheld squeezer to spray chestnut vermicelli all over the sponge cake — essentially what they call a tiramisu on the menu. Unfortunately for us, the spraying of chestnut was already done in the kitchen so we could only see the finished product.

The chestnut vermicelli itself was fine although it definitely wasn’t the creamy Tanba chestnut (丹波栗) from Japan. That said, it wasn’t the chestnut that bothered me. What really threw me off was the sponge cake at the bottom, which came with crushed nuts and dried fruit.

That was just weird to me. When was the last time you had fruit inside a tiramisu?

Food Rating: 5.7/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: G/F Tower C, China Resources Land Tower, No. 9668 Shennan Road, Nanshan, Shenzhen, China

深圳市南山区深南大道9668号华润置地大厦C座

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

Tel: +86 18026962030

Opening Hours: 9:00am - 10:00pm (Mon - Thu), 9:00am - 10:30pm (Fri - Sun)

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/14/H8pM

Fufa Life 孵化生活 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

I’m meeting up with my favorite cousin for dinner tonight. This was supposed to be part of my birthday celebration, but it kept getting postponed a couple of times for various reasons.

My cousin was the one in charge of finding our dinner venue tonight, and she kept it close to her chest until last night when she finally pinged me with the address. To my surprise, it was a cafe/restaurant in my neighborhood called Fufa Life (孵化生活) that I've never heard of.

Hidden on the 1st floor of a commercial building, Fufa Life is a western-style café with a small food menu focused on salads, pasta and meat dishes. I was curious how she ended up finding this place and was told that she's been here a few times with her co-workers.

Carbonara ($188) — I’ve had a little too much celebration over the past few weeks, so we decided not to order too much food tonight. We kicked things off with a simple carbonara that was done right. The spaghetti was definitely al dente, and the sauce was clinging to the noodles perfectly. I also liked that the sauce was more savory than eggy — something a lot of local places get wrong and make overly egg-like.

Spanish suckling pig ($288) — We saw their suckling pig from the neighboring table and simply couldn't resist.

The meat here was really tender and juicy, while the crispy skin featured a blistered, crackling exterior that shattered like glass upon the first bite. Pretty nice.

It’s been a while since I last saw my cousin, so we ended up talking nonstop all night long. Little did we know, all of the other guests had already left and we were the only two left in the whole place. Needless to say, we decided we should meet and catch up more frequently in the future.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 2, 1/F, Sing Shun Centre, 495 Castle Peak Road, Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 9552-8199

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 10:00pm daily

P3 by pLeace COCO Park (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

pLeace is a popular casual dining and lifestyle brand that originated in Shenzhen in 2021. It’s known for its unique mix of fusion cuisine, artisanal coffee, and fresh baking, all in a stylish, light-filled setting.

I was still working on my list of the best Basque cheesecake in Shenzhen, and a few social media posts suggested that pLeace would be worth a try. To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with the chain before, and I have never dined there ever. So I figured — why not?

These days, you can find pLeace in almost every major shopping mall around Shenzhen. The one I chose to visit was P3 by pLeace at COCO Park, near Futian Station. From the look of it, it seemed like a spin-off from the main brand focused more on comfort food like pasta and salad.

Extra blue cheesecake (超濃藍紋芝士) (¥28) — It wasn’t labeled as a Basque cheesecake, but it absolutely tasted like one. What stood out most was the bold blue cheese flavor—it was fluffy and creamy, with a molten centre.

It was a mixed bag for me personally, but if you’re a true cheese lover, I’m sure it’s a fantastic treat.

I still have a few more Basque cheesecakes to try over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to wrap up my top 10 list.

Food Rating: 5.6/10

Price: ¥¥

Address: Shop B1-040a, B1F COCO Park, 268 Fuhua Road 3rd, Futian, Shenzhen, China

深圳市福田区福华三路268号星河COCO Park 一期负1楼 B1-040a号铺

Closest Metro Station: Shopping Park (購物公園)

Tel: +86 13316473021

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

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/57/6PnM

一樓半 Knock Cup One Avenue 卓悦中心店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

The food scene in Shenzhen is getting more exciting by the minute. I was scrolling through social media looking for ideas for where to have breakfast before my spa treatment in Futian.

Lo and behold, I stumbled upon a single, eye-catching dish that instantly got me hyped.

Located in One Avenue (卓悦中心), just across the street from where I’ll be having my spa treatment, 一樓半 Knock Cup is a modern bistro focused on fusion and charcoal-grilled dishes.

And the dish that really made my mouth water wasn’t a typical savory breakfast item. It was a Basque cheesecake!

Salted egg yolk black truffle Basque cheesecake (咸蛋黃黑松露巴斯克蛋糕) (¥45) — This was a little frosty and melty, like ice-cream.

Between two layers of truffled cream cheese, there was a thick slab of salted egg yolk “mousse” in the centre. It was finished with a rich, intense salted egg yolk ganache on top.

As I went through spoonful after spoonful, I realized there was another ingredient in the mix: duck meat. That added yet another texture to the savory-sweet dessert — very unique and innovative. No wonder it’s sparking a frenzy on social media these days.

This, by itself, is already worth a trip to Futian!

Food Rating: 7/10 (Based on the cheesecake only)

Price: ¥¥¥

Address:  Shop L151, East Zone, Level 1 One Avenue, Fuhua Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区福华路卓悦中心商场东区1层L151号铺

Closest Metro Station: Gangxia (岗厦)

Tel: +86 18588252694

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 12:00am daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/e8/JbMM

POCHI-ITO パスタ酒場 ポキイト (Fukuoka, JAPAN) ★★☆☆☆

We were down to our last meal of the trip and decided to return to the trendy One Fukuoka Building in search of one final adventure.

We headed straight to the B1F level, where iiTo TENJIN — a stylish food hall offering everything from gourmet salads to meats and bistro dishes is located. After checking out a few restaurants and bars, we finally set our sights on having supper at POCHI-ITO (パスタ酒場 ポキイト), a pasta and tapas bar focused on Itoshima vegetables and seasonal ingredients.

Tortilla (¥759) – The Spanish omelette was very authentic and very fluffy. Just the way I like it. Solid start!

But the wheels started falling off from here...

Pasta with pomodoro and Itoshima vegetables (¥1,199) – The seasoning was a little on the light side, which was fine as the pasta was nicely al dente. Definitely the most decent of the three pastas we ordered.

Pasta with lemon cream sauce, salmon, and green onion (¥1,529) – The sauce was a little lemony and zesty, and the dish came without the savory notes to balance it out. Didn’t finish this one.

Napolitan (¥1,309) – A bit heavy-handed with the seasoning. For me, a little salty without the usual sweetness from a Japanese-style Napolitan. And this is supposed to be the easiest pasta to make. 

Well, we didn’t want to have more Japanese food on our final night in Fukuoka and it obviously backfired!

Food Rating: 4.4/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: B1F One Fukuoka Building, 1-11 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka, 810-0001 Japan

Closest Metro Station: Tenjin

Tel: +81 (0)92-401-6060

Website: https://www.pochi-ito.com/

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

Cafe Terrace Camellia Hotel Okura JR Huis Ten Bosch (Sasebo, JAPAN) ★★☆☆☆

For our Christmas dinner, we decided to keep things simple and not stray too far for the celebration. Since we were spending the day at Huis Ten Bosch (豪斯登堡) and staying at Hotel Okura JR Huis Ten Bosch (JR 豪斯登堡大倉酒店), it made perfect sense to dine right in-house.

With four restaurants at the hotel, I knew we’d be choosing one of them. While teppanyaki sounded most interesting, Cafe Terrace Camellia (カフェテラスカメリア), the hotel’s all-day buffet restaurant, felt like the right choice, especially since mom and little nugget are both big fans of hotel buffets.

We didn’t really expect much from a buffet in Japan. From what we’ve experienced in the past, they can never match the variety in Hong Kong or Bangkok. And our initial assessment seemed to be accurate early on.

Not surprisingly, the selection for appetizers was somewhat underwhelming.

While a station dedicated to smoked salmon was drawing a small crowd, it didn’t really excite me. 

I had high hopes for the roasted beef found right next to the smoked salmon station. 

But unfortunately, the fillet lacked the flavor and succulence I was hoping for. 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

Dessert was perhaps the lone bright spot of the meal. Well, not quite. The variety was there but the quality really fell short.

I guess the real highlight of the evening was a couple hired by the hotel, delighting kids with twisted balloon creations including this festive Santa!

After taking a break from the action at Huis Ten Bosch since the late afternoon, it was time to head back into the theme park for their usual light show at 8:15 pm, followed by a special Christmas fireworks display at 8:45 pm.

Food Rating: 3.9/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: Hotel Okura JR Huis Ten Bosch, 10 Huis Ten Bosch Machi, Sasebo, Nagasaki 859-3243, Japan

Tel: +81 (0)570-041-489

Opening Hours: 6:30am - 9:00pm daily