Le Méridien Shenzhen Bao'an 深圳前海華僑城艾美酒店 (Shenzhen, CHINA)

We are spending the next two days in Shenzhen with two other families from little nugget's primary school. For a change, Jelloman is calling the shots for this trip and she has handpicked Le Méridien Shenzhen Bao'an (深圳前海華僑城艾美酒店) as our hotel accommodation.



Located deep in the heart of Bao'an district, Le Méridien Shenzhen Bao'an is caught a bit in no man's land. It's not reachable by subway so our only mean of transportation is hired car service. 

While the wives and kids were busy hanging around the playhouse at Shenzhen Women and Children Centre (深圳婦兒大樓), us dads were already patrolling the lobby lounge of our hotel with our luggage ready for check-in. 

Check-in was very efficient and I gotta check out our room without much of a wait.

The spacious room was beautifully designed with European-style room furnishings to infuse comfort and elegance.

Less charming was the bathroom which was deemed a little too dark for an old man like yours truly.

We never did get the chance to check out this bath tub personally.

It was nice to witness some of the advanced technology (such as AI) that the hotel has decided to harness. Take the robots for example. They were doing a fantastic job sending delivery food from the lobby directly to the front of our room. Great work!

Our hotel package did come with two complimentary breakfast and it was a very good one.

Apart from the bacon and egg, sausages etc., there was an entire section dedicated to traditional Chinese breakfast food like congee, noodles and dim sum.

We had a pretty nice stay for two nights but would we like to come back some other time? Not likely. Transportation has been an issue throughout our stay and we spent way too much time traveling around on taxis. And we all know how bad the traffic is in Shenzhen.

Rating: ❤❤❤

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: 1159 Xingye Road, Seaside Community, Xin'an Street, Bao'an District, Shenzhen, China 

深圳市宝安区新安街道海滨社区兴业路1159号 

Tel: +86 (755) 2348-6666

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/4b/Neqg

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)

No Milkshake No Life Morning Queue (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

Little nugget’s assessment results are officially released before Easter so naturally he gets his break until the next assessment in May. But life is full of challenges and little that he knows, it will be time for him to tackle another obstacle ahead, which stands in his way in the form of an orienteering competition (野外定向比賽). Little nugget is no stranger to orienteering competition but since the upcoming event takes place somewhere which is uncharted waters for him, we decided to get him familiarized with the venue before the competition over the weekend.

Following three hours of hard work running around the park, we were all sweating hard. Little one wanted a nice meal as a reward for his hard work and I knew exactly what he meant by “nice meal”. The frosty shakes and tasty burgers at No Milkshake No Life!

Oreo milkshake – A no-brainer for little nugget. Boy, they still have the best milkshakes in town, hands down 🙌🏻  So rich and thick.

Caramel peanut butter milkshake – A no-brainer for daddy.

Always love the small bits of bacon for the mix of savory-sweet flavors.

Impossible meatballs – A small appetizer to whet our appetite a bit. The meatballs made with Impossible Meat were slightly grilled and paired with lime mayo, pesto and crushed peanuts. There was some spicy kick coming from the hint of tandoori in the meatballs.

Steak grilled cheese sandwich – The toast and steak were both ultra thin and they combined well for a pretty interesting mouthfeel. It was nice to try their curried fries for the first time.

Signature pancake burger – Little one’s favorite. This again came with some fluffy buttermilk pancakes playing the role of “buns” with grilled portobello mushrooms, bacon and fried eggs in the middle. The key was the savory-sweet honey sauce tying everything together neatly.

It’s always nice to come back here for their frosty shakes and modern Mexican/American fare. Too bad there weren’t more of these places in Hong Kong. 

Food Rating: 6.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop G01, G/F, Mei Kwai House, 13 Pak Tin Street, Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Shek Kip Mei

Tel: +852 9816-3818

Website: www.nomilkshakenolife.com

Opening Hours: 10:00am - 6:00pm (Tue - Sun)