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Metropark Hotel Wanchai – Hong Kong, China

We took a trip to Hong Kong and we stayed in Wanchai as we had relatives in this area of Hong Kong. So, we booked a reasonable rate room at the Metropark Hotel. The location of the hotel was very convenient to all amenities, food, MTR and lots more!

We stayed in their Spacious Comfort Room and it was enough room for 2 people! We’ve been/lived in Hong Kong before, so we’re aware that space is limited. The bed we got was large, I’m not sure if it was a King bed or not, but it was wonderful! We go to a hotel to get clean and sleep, so it was nice that the bed was so big and comfortable!

The bathroom wasn’t a bad size, and there were tons of amenities that this hotel gives. The bathroom had a bathtub, with a shower in there. The bathroom amenities was plentiful as well, ranging from your standard shampoo, conditioner and lotions, they have tooth brush, tooth paste, shavers and more!

The desk was nice as there was still room to walk around, but offers space for you to use! A nice thing about this hotel is they offer a handy cellphone which offers coupons, and unlimited talk minutes in Hong Kong as well as internet! It came very handy when you’re lost or trying to find thing. This phone also tracks where you are and tells you if there’s coupons!

Other amenities, the room offers a safe in the room, coffee maker, kettle, mini fridge for their guest! They will replace things that you use, which was really nice! The closet was spacious, which was a great place to store everything! There was also a dehumidifier in the room, which was very useful! The annyoing thing was it turns off itself when it’s full, so I found it was useful to empty the water before you go to bed as some humid nights, it will shut off.

Our overall stay was very nice! The staff was friendly and accommodating as we requested a late check out and they allowed us. The hotel offers a shuttle to/from the airport at a small fee, which was very useful as we didn’t want to figure out which bus stop to get off at in the dark!

Metropark Hong Kong Wanchai

41-49 Hennessy Road,
Wanchai, Hong Kong
(852) 2861 1166

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Jiajia Steamed Tang Bao 佳家汤包 – Shanghai, China

We found this amazing tang bao location at Huang He Lu which is directly north of People’s Square, which is an amazing place recommended to us by our hotel concierege! It’s apparently very famous for not only their tang baos, but ji ya xue tang as well.

We of course started out with their regular Xian Rou Xiao Long which is their fresh pork buns which we think are made to order and then steamed to perfection! These were our favourite xiao long bao on the entire trip! They won first place in our books! The skin was super thin and delicate with lots of amazing stuffing and soup inside!

There were also 2 other flavours of these tang bao that we tried. One of them was their Hai Fen Xian Rou Xiao Long which translates to crab meat and fresh pork buns! These were amazing! When you bite into it, you definitely know there’s some crab/seafood in there – yet it’s not fishy or over powering! It was a great combination and something to drool over!

The last flavour of the tang bao we tried was their Dan Huang Xian Rou Xiao Long which this one translates to egg yolk with the pork bun! These were really good as well, yet not our absolute favorite, we still ate another 2 orders of this! 🙂 So, not our absolute favourite yet eating about 30 of them tells you something about this place! WE LOVE IT!

Lastly, here’s something that is special to this place and area. It’s Duck and Chicken Blood Soup which is also known here as Ji Ya Xue Tang. The chicken and duck blood was so soft and jello like, it was really good! The flavour of the broth was fragrant too! It’s not as gross as it sounds as I have some co-workers who think I’m nasty… but, they don’t know! 🙂

Now, with this blog post posted – this is our absolutely favourite place that we discovered on the trip! We highly recommend this place, and be aware it gets busy really fast!! So, be patient, you’ll love it!!

Jiajia Steamed Tang Bao 佳家汤包

90 Huanghe Lu, by Fengyang Lu

Shanghai, China

+82 21 6327 6878

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Bellagio Cafe 鹿港小镇 – Shanghai, China

We ventured to the Super Brand Mall in Shanghai and found a great place for dinner called Bellagio Cafe and it’s located on the 8th Floor of the mall and relatively easy to find! It’s closer to the IMAX, if it helps! 🙂

We ordered a bunch of dishes and shared it, Asian style! We first started with their Black Pepper Beef on Iron Plate which smelled and tasted absolutely amazing! The amount of pepper used was the perfect amount on beautifully tender pieces of beef!

We also tried Steamed Shrimp with Garlic and I know it doesn’t sound too appetizing, but it was absolutely amazing! The shrimp was really fresh and steamed to perfection. Tons of garlic on top of the shrimp – so luckily we all had at least one piece!

From there, with us being so Asian, we ordered some rice, Taiwanese Fried Rice, and it’s quite different from the fried rice that I’m use to! It is very similar, but different! Usually the main difference between Chinese fried rice and Taiwanese fried rice will be in the egg cooking format. Chinese will basically make scrambled eggs or an omelette first, while the Taiwanese will crack the raw egg into the fried rice and then mix it up.

A very traditional and popular Taiwanese dish is the Three cup chicken (三杯鸡) which is made with 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup rice wine and 1 cup sesame oil. This recipe will make TONS of chicken, so it’s nice to modify it and Bellagio Cafe definitely modifies it and adds other ingredients such as ginger and basil into the dish to make it extra special!

My husband actually has Hakka ancestors so it was neat to him to find a dish done in this style. When he saw Hakka Stir Fry Dried Squid an Celery he ordered it! It is exactly as it sounds! Most of Taiwanese cooking is derived from 3 simple ingredients, and this dish shows the simplicity of their cooking with rice wine, soy sauce and some sugar! This dish was so simple yet so delicious!

We actually ordered a dessert or 2 for this meal, and the most memorable dessert was their Mango Pancake which was a mango crepe that was really thin around some light cream with some mango inside. It was light and airy and actually kind of refreshing! We really enjoyed this and I ate up my husbands half of the dessert! 🙂

Overall, we loved this place and it’s a place we would recommend for Taiwanese food! It’s neat to see Shanghai has different types of Asian cuisine and it’s actually done properly! The food, service and atmosphere ranks top notch for sure!

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Yong He 永和大王 – Shanghai, China

During our stay in Shanghai, we switched hotels to be in a different location. We ended up staying near the Shanghai Railway Station, and near there is Yong He Da Huang for breakfast and loved the location of our new hotel as it’s close to public transportation, other hotels and lots of good eats!

Once you enter this store front, you’re in the main ordering area where they take your order and you can either go into the back and pick up your order for take out, or sit down and wait for dine in. We did the dine in as we weren’t on a schedule so we can relax. We ordered their Red Beef Noodle Soup 紅燒牛肉麵 with of course some Xiao Long Bao, and I was quite impressed with the bowl of noodles! It had tons of flavour and it wasn’t as greasy as it looks! The beef was tender, and the noodles were excellent! The xiao long bao was in the top ranking too! The skin was thicker than some of the other ones we had on this journey, but it was delicious!

The other items we ordered were some Dou Jiang (豆漿) as it’s “the” thing to drink for us – and for those who don’t know what it is, it’s soy bean drink! The other item that looks pretty funny in the picture is actually Chinese fried dough or You Tiao 油条 wrapped in a thin omelette, with some sauce. It was a greasy and interesting.

We really liked this place! It was pretty local yet in a touristy area, and the food was cheap and delicious! It was fun and convenient as it was a 24 Hour shop!

Hong He 永和大王

梅园店
中亚饭店一层，太平洋火车站店对面
021-63179503

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Xiao Chi Dian 小吃店 – Shanghai, China

A very cool little place that we went to is actually a street side restaurant, which typically are dirtier but local and delicious. This one that we went to was Xiao Chi Dian which directly translates to Little Eat Place, or something like that!

At this little eat restaurant, we ordered some Xiao Long which came to the table in a bamboo basket steaming hot! It was really good! These xiao long bao ranked really highly on our Shanghai trip!! Steaming hot, tons of flavour, great skin with a great filling! It was divine!

The main attraction for this visit actually was for their lao ya fen si tang 老鸭粉丝汤 which was recommended to us by our friends wife! This steaming hot bowl of glass noodles (粉丝) has some duck and tofu in the soup. The flavour of the soup has left us all speechless! So what if this place is a little dirty… the food really compensates for it!

Lastly, we ordered some Fried Pork Chop to share amongst us all! It wasn’t anything to rave about, but it was a great piece of fried pork chop! The pork was still tender and juicy and the crust was really crispy! They used Chinese Vinegar for a dipping sauce which was good, and it helped cut the grease!

Overall, we have nothing negative to say about this place. If I had to say something, it would be that there isn’t a lot of seating at all. They do have tables on the upper floor, and that’s where we sit. We did pretty much take up the entire upstairs… with just 6 of us!