Guangzhou Food Trip Part 2

Perhaps the biggest challenge faced by tourists is navigating through unchartered territory where the English-speaking population is close to nil and the places to see are too dispersed to visit by foot. While travelling may be considered less of a test of courage and resourcefulness in the United States or in Europe, getting around China (and not the more foreigner-friendly areas of Beijing or Shanghai) is definitely one for the create-your-own-adventure books.

We were very fortunate to be accompanied by someone whose passport has so many China stamps that she should probably already be eligible to participate in the PRC?s elections, so commuting, shopping, dining and sightseeing was no problem at all. And because of our tour guide?s frequency in this city, we were armed with a shortlist of Guangzhou?s must-try restaurants and dishes to order.

Roast Pork & Lemon Grass Tofu

On our first night in China?s third largest city, we were brought to Lemon House, a bustling and apparently perpetually packed restaurant a few blocks away from the famous Garden Hotel. Supposedly Vietnamese, Lemon House?s menu actually includes anything and everything Asian, from satay to curry to vermicelli. Of the ten or so dishes that we ordered, we were most pleased with the lemon grass tofu, which was salty, deep-fried and served crispy on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth velvety soft on the inside. It was a different take on the usual tofu dishes served in Manila where the tofu becomes tasty only after absorbing all the sauce it?s served swimming in. Other favorites were fried rice, roast pork and vermicelli, with pork and spring rolls so tasty that they could be served as separate dishes. We were less ecstatic about the chicken ? we don?t even recall what the dish was called or how it was prepared or what it tasted like, but what we couldn?t forget about it is that the meat was cut so grotesquely that every bite included shards of bone and marrow and God knows what else. We later discovered that most chicken dishes in this country, if not served in fillets, are done in this manner. Another struggle came in the form of beef curry, with meat so tough we reckon it?s got to be rhinoceros or buffalo or cement. We left the place with this dish practically untouched.

We tried a Chinese restaurant on the top floor of Tee Mall; and while we would have liked to discuss the place in more detail, we regret to say that we are unable to because we have no idea what the name of the restaurant is. The place itself is not bad, and the food is actually delicious, but we cannot say much given that the place has no English name. But if by some mysterious astral alignment you do end up there, we suggest the tofu, fried rice with crab roe and the asado siopao.

Star Hotel's Yummy Peking Duck

Our favorite Chinese haunt has got to be Star Hotel. Don?t let the hotel location mislead you, for we spent more or less 50 RMB (roughly 300 PHP or 6 USD) and left stuffed silly. On our first visit, we had a late Saturday brunch of dim sum (hakaw and siomai), fried rice, roast duck, spring rolls, shrimp-stuffed pasta and custard-filled pao. We liked the pao so much that we went back in the middle of the week, and tried more dishes like peking duck, xiao long bao and radish cake. The xiao long bao was served in an interesting fashion ? over a flame, like chocolate fondue ? but to our dismay, or maybe because our tastebuds expected Din Tai Fung quality, the xiao long bao tasted too much like unseasoned undercooked pork. While all other dishes were lackluster, we found the peking duck to be juicy, crispy and just plain yummy. As in Manila, peking duck can be ordered two ways, with the meat brought back in the kitchen and re-cooked, after the skin is sliced. We prefer Manila?s usual second way of chopped duck meat rolled in cabbage over Star Hotel?s diced and stir-fried version, which was pretty bland without a generous drizzling of hoisin sauce. Whatever it is, the duck, served two-way, cost us 100 RMB, or 600 PHP. Nowhere in Manila can one find decent peking duck for 600 PHP. But what makes this hotel truly a star is the pao, with piping hot sweet custard oozing out of the pao with every bite. If there?s anything worth going back to in Guangzhou, it is, without a doubt, the pao.

As a mid-afternoon snack, we would always find ourselves at Midas, a local bread shop scattered throughout the country. While the other items are a bit too Chinese for our taste (red bean mochi, anyone?), the spicy pork floss is a winner, with its creamy filling and generous sprinkling of floss on top. Not too spicy but with enough bite and heat to actually be considered ?spicy?, Midas? floss looks and tastes much better than Bread Talk?s.

Our gracious tour guide not only took us on a food trip through China, but through other Asian countries as well. Japan Fusion, a sprawling restaurant that has over 1000 tables, is apparently the largest Japanese restaurant in Asia. Who would?ve guessed this would be found in Guangzhou and not in Japan? We probably expected more from this restaurant because of its reputation, but this is where we realized that size does not matter. The food was good, but not what would be expected of the largest Japanese restaurant in Asia. One Japanese restaurant we did like was Tairyo?s Teppanyaki. Similar to Manila?s Kimpura, all dishes are prepared on a hibachi surrounded by hungry diners awaiting their ration from the Teppanyaki chef. All meat dishes (lamb chops, beef and chicken) were covered in cracked black pepper, so if your threshold for spice is small, we suggest you forewarn the chef about this. The sheer number of options for seafood lovers here is mindboggling, with dishes ranging from oysters to scallops to prawns and the must-try codfish. Coming from our conversations with Guangzhou locals, we found that this place is frequented more by foreigners because the food here is less compatible with the Chinese palate. This is especially a favorite among Filipinos, with the eat-and-drink-all-you-can set-up at 168 RMB (around 1000 PHP). Macau Street on the other hand, is a Portuguese-slash-Macanese restaurant located near the Garden Hotel and also frequented by foreigners. We had ribs, which were fun to nibble on using the gloves provided, but the meat was scarce and lacked flavor. The shrimp curry was delicious, but it tasted more Filipino than Southeast Asian (as in Singaporean or Malaysian) because of its excessive sweetness and lack of heat. We?re probably just biased towards spicy curry, because our friends loved it to the point of drenching two cups of rice each in the curry sauce. While we did enjoy the spareribs and roast pork, we left the restaurant feeling a little lightheaded, which we reckon came from MSG that was probably liberally mixed into the food.

In retrospect, while the restaurants we tried definitely had their own share of delicious and not so delicious dishes, we would not have been able to check out these local favorites had we gone to Guangzhou alone, illiterate and totally clueless. Our food trips in Guangzhou were definitely a level above the usual tourist adventure because we were brought around by someone who has already tried these restaurants and knows exactly what kind of food would be appreciated by Filipinos. And should fate bring us back to Guangzhou, we would know where to go and what to eat, only this time we?d need killer Charades skills to be able to ask the waitress for an order of custard-filled pao.

Lemon House: 1/F 11 Jianshe, 6 Ma Lu, Guangzhou

Full House: West Plaza of Tian Yu Garden (Phase II), #136-148 Lin He Zhong Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Tee Mall: 208 Tianhe Lu, Guangzhou

Star Hotel: 89 Linhe West Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Japan Fusion: 2/F, Metro Plaza, 358-378 Tianhe Bei Road, Guangzhou

Tairyo?s Teppanyaki: 2/F, Guang Yi Bldg, No.34-38 Huale Lu, Tianhe District, Guangzhou

Macau Street: 1/F, Goldlion Bldg, 138 Ti Yu Dong Lu, Guangzhou



How to get there: Guangzhou google map