Breakfast and wet market
I woke around 0600 with only one interruption around 0130. We left home around 0700 to go to Dennis’ aunt’s place.
Aunt took us for a little walk to a local eatery for breakfast. The local specialty here was the Tenghun (which is literally the same words as the Cantonese Cheongfan).
However, instead of the long shape of rice skin with meat or seafood as a filling, this was a roundish heap of rice skin filled with more of the same plus some vegetables and egg. The mass is then drizzled with a sesame sauce.
We then wandered to the nearby wet market for a look-see. It’s certainly tidier, dryer and less impactful on the sense of smell compared to the ones back in my hometown!
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Near the wet market.
-
- At the wet market.
-
- At the wet market.
-
- At the wet market.
-
- At the wet market.
We returned to aunt’s place to borrow their car for the day, taking it back to the apartment briefly before heading out again.
Temple and lunch
First stop in the car was Qinglong (Green Dragon) Ancient Temple, also known as Lau Ya Keng. We made a brief visit here before continuing out of town to our lunch destination at Antou.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- Qinglong Ancient Temple.
-
- Qinglong Ancient Temple.
-
- Qinglong Ancient Temple.
Antou is famous for its beef hotpot restaurants. I understand historically, cattle were reared here but now they are sourced live from further afield and slaughtered locally.
Just before sitting down around 1200, Dennis realised that we had left the bag of bamboo shoots at home, which we were going to add to the hotpot.
Aunt had lovingly blanched, peeled and sliced them for us, so we felt obliged to go back home to get them. The return journey, including Dennis’ climb up to the 5th floor set us back about an hour.
We sat down for lunch around 1300 and Dennis ordered for plates of beef (two lean and two slightly marbled) plus some meatballs (beef and beef plus tendon).
We made up our own dipping sauce from condiments at a buffet bar. Satay sauce appears to be very popular in the region, and we later on saw dumplings and kwayteow in the peanut sauce too.
The beef was melt-in-mouth tender and delicious. We took our time and felt that our host had over-ordered but we finished nearly all of the meat.
Back in town
Dennis dropped us at the Beige Buddha Temple around 1500 and headed off to return the car.
From the temple, we found our way to the city wall and then through the old town’s pedestrian streets. Like yesterday, it got humid late in the afternoon despite the otherwise very pleasant temperature. We were getting weary but had to wait a little for Dennis to come back for us.
Text continues after this gallery.
-
- View from Beige Buddha Temple.
-
- Beige Buddha Temple.
-
- Teochew’s city wall.
-
- On Teochew’s city wall.
-
- Around the old town area.
Once we had met up, he took us through some other areas of the old town. We caught a glimpse of his mother’s old house behind a dessert shop. In the alley leading to it, there was a well that’s still filled with water.
We finished the day with dinner in a vegetarian restaurant. Vegetarian food in this part of the world often consists of making plant-based products look like meat.
Why? It’s based on the premise that Buddhists here enjoy meat but want to have a clean conscience. It’s like people playing video games to get their enjoyment of violence rather than actually doing it to real people.
We returned home around 1900 and stayed up till around 2100 to continue our adjustment to local time.
Despite two big heavy meals, the food settled quickly and we were not left with sick bloated feelings at all.