Our best meal in Wuzhen - Lamb noodles

We were blown away with how picturesque Wuzhen was ... especially as the sun set :-)


But we were hungry ... thus had to make our first stop, a lamb noodle place recommended in the guide book we found at Tong-An Hotel.


Wuzhen lamb noodles - Springy noodles, incredible broth, tender chunks of lamb, hot and steamy on a cool spring evening ... Ah, this is truly magical! Price? 25 RMB (14 AED = RM$12).


So good, it deserved a picture of its own ... the Wuzhen chilli bean paste, spicy, full of flavour, and perfect!

Wuzhen - Tong An Hotel

Tong-An Hotel, located in Wuzhen which is about 2 hours drive from Shanghai Pudong Airport, is described as typical Jiangnan building complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Hotel: Wuzhen Tong An Hotel (乌镇同安客栈）
Add: 129 Xizha Dajie, Xizha Scenic Zone, Wuzhen, Zhejiang
地址: 乌镇西栅大街129号
Tel: +86 573 8731 555
Located: Eastern side of the Andufang ferry, in Xizha Scenic Zone.

Great entrance, excellent service, average breakfast, and really nice room with a four-poster bed. We enjoyed our stay here very much.


Traditional meets modern ... We like the Tong-An Hotel!

View from our room, at night-fall :-)

Check out safety warning number 8, which is posted on the hotel room door ...

Be careful to your safety when you take bath. Please don't take bath right away after you have held wine or have finished quick-motion.

Qatar Airways - Flight to Shanghai, then Wuzhen in China

Flight: QR 888
Departure: Doha, Qatar @ 1:00am
Arrival: Shanghai, Pudong Terminal 2, China @ 2:40pm
Plane: Boeing 777-300ER

What we loved most about this flight, besides the price, was how child-friendly the staff were (Spongebob Squarepants giveaways, baby food, friendly cabin crew .. Excellent!).


The drive from Shanghai's Pudong Airport to scenic Wuzhen takes between 2-3 hours.

Wuzhen is located in the center of the six ancient towns south of Yangtze River, 17 kilometres (11 mi) north of the city of Tongxiang. Wuzhen displays its history through its ancient stone bridges, stone pathways and delicate wood carvings. The town also has a rich cultural background, according to Wikipedia.

Wuzhen is divided into 6 districts. These are: the traditional workshops district, the traditional local-styled dwelling houses district, the traditional culture district, the traditional food and beverage district, the traditional shops and stores district, and the water township customs and life district. Following an east-west-east circuit created by these six districts, visitors can witness reenactment of traditional practices and cultures. Again, this is info taken from Wikipedia.

The art of making Soya Sauce!


I enjoy "suin-mui" or preserved plums, the shop on the right only sells such sweets!

Steaks at Meat Co - No longer our favourite!

Located: Souk Qaryat Al Beri, Abu Dhabi
Tel: +971 2 558 1713
Opening hours: 12pm - 11:30pm/12am
Map: Google

A great looking wine cellar does not make a steakhouse good ... Not at the very least.


Why were we so dissapointed at what was probably our "first" favourite steakhouse in Abu Dhabi? Lets start with the service! Our waiter had an indifferent attitude, despite the fact that it was hardly a busy evening at the restaurant. For a restaurant that used to pride itself in great (and different - namely, fun) customer service, this was unforgiveable.

Even our bread came late ... Very late. In fact, it came at the same time as our main-course, and only cos' I reminded our waiter!

Next ... the ambience. Meat Co's menu is priced similarly to large hotel steakhouses, such as the ones I recommend below, but we found the environment to lack "special" - It was warm, and as we sat on the ground-floor, we had to put up with the screeching door as it rubbed against the floor everytime it opened and closed!

Worse of all ... the food. Not only on this occasion, we found our steaks to be over-cooked, despite L ordering "Medium rare". We were surprised that our Wagyu choices were not juicy, and not sufficiently tender. Dissapointing! On a plus side, I liked the onion rings!


My wagyu, prepared "medium".


The last straw ... The price! Whilst Meat Co prices their steaks similarly to other hotel steakhouses, it does NOT even include sauces and side-dishes. These are all priced individually.

Hey, its not all doom and gloom.. We have no problems recommending some really excellent steak-houses in Abu Dhabi!
(1) Rodeo Grill, Beach Rotana - Tourist Club Area, beside Abu Dhabi Mall
(2) 18 Oz - One to One Hotel, The Village - Al Nahyan area, Abu Dhabi

Ah .. at least even on a dissapointing evening for steaks, we had the pleasure of enjoying the sunset from Souk Qaryat Al Beri :-)

Abu Dhabi ... Travellers welcome :-)

Yum Cha Buffet - Tim Sum at Shang Palace

Where would one find such a nice toothpick dispenser such as this (The "S" logo may be a giveaway) ... Yes, at Shang Palace.


This isn't Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, nor Manila, its the Shang Palace at Abu Dhabi :-)
Located: Between the Bridges, Qaryat Al Beri (Further down the road from the Fairmont and The Souk)
Map: Google
Tel: +971 2 509 8555
Time of timsum brunch: 12pm-3pm, last orders being taken at 2:30pm.

What impressed us once again ... On a previous visit, Emily's level of service was impeccable, but this time round, the restaurant manager, Jason Chin, did Shangri-La proud by extending us what could only be described as personal, professional and the most memorable level of service. Exemplary!

Yum Cha tim-sum buffet
Sun-Thurs, weekdays: AED88++ without the dessert buffet, or AED 108++ per person (Inc. tea & Sofra's dessert buffet)
Fri, Sat, public hols: AED138++ (Inc. tea & Sofra's dessert buffet).

1st course ... Braised hot and sour soup with seafood (We also had a sweet corn soup with beancurd, but I finished that before I could take a shot with my Nikon D80 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 set-up).


Chicken puff pastry sprinkled with sesame seeds ... A respectable halal-variation of Char siew soh. We found the porridge a wee bit bland though, Minced chicken congee with preserved egg.


Steamed barbecued chicken buns aka "fake" char siew pao ... Probably my favourite timsum of the afternoon, we shared 5 between the two of us!


This was when we received a BIG surprise! Here is the dish that the chef and manager made for us, simply because they knew we love Yong Tau Foo and missed the version from Ampang!! Fried tofu stuffed with minced fish paste, with an XO-style topping, in a delicious braised-style sauce. Perfection!

Other dishes we enjoyed on this 2 hour eat-fest :-) included ...

Steamed glutinous rice with chicken wrapped in lotus leaf (Pretty good), Prawn dumpling "Har kao" which were fresh but I found the skin to be not-translucent enough, and a portion of Deep fried seafood spring rolls with seaweed (Simply average).

We then moved on to a plate of Shang Palace fried rice with minced seafood (I have had better!), Wok fried egg noodles with vegetables (Average again) ... and Wok fried rice noodles with beef and vegetables, sort of a kon chao ngao hor which was very tasty!

Phew ... and we weren't done yet! Time for Yau-char kuey and Fried prawn in batter. We preferred the steamed tim-sums at Shang Palace, as the batter overpowered the dishes unfortunately.


The end is near ... Phew. We were stuffed by this point!

Here's our Deep fried shrimp roll, with bean-curd skin ... "Fu chuk kuen". And finally, the beautifully created Mushroom and scallop wrapped with chinese leaf.

There were three chinese desserts on the menu. We only had room for two! Baked egg tarts were decent, and finally the Almond jelly with mixed fruit cocktail.

As it was the weekend when we were there, the meal included any selection of desserts from Sofra Bld's excellent selection. We only had room for these!

View from the courtyard outside the Shang Palace, looking towards the magnificent Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and the Sheikh Zayed Bridge (Inaugurated November 2010, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects).

A parting shot of the courtyard at the Shangri-La ...