November 10th, 2023
Day 3
Today is the day I go to Foshan! Foshan is located in Guangdong Province, and is where my nephew currently resides. My original plan was to arrive on the 10th, spend the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning in Foshan, go to Shenzhen by Sunday afternoon, and take off the next morning.
Since I am also a very cheap person, I bought a ticket that flies at 9 AM in the morning. Jinsha sent a driver to drive me to the airport. The flight was very normal, except for the fact that since the airport I flew from also had a military base in it, all window shades were shut during take off and weren’t allowed to be opened until we were in the air.
The moment I arrived in Guangzhou Airport, I can already feel the humidity and it is making me believe that my pant legs are wet with sweat. My brother in law sent his Sales Manager to pick me up, and we arrived at my brother in law’s office. He was waiting for me, so he didn’t eat lunch yet.
Restaurant Name: 洲记隆江猪脚饭 (风度花园店) (zhōu jì lóng jiāng zhū jiǎo fàn) [Zhou’s Longjiang Pig Feet Rice]
Address: 广东省佛山市南海区罗村花苑A区 (Guangdong Province Foshan City, Nanhai District, Luocunhuayuan A Building)
This dish is called “猪脚饭”, or Pig Feet Rice. I was going to have this at Shuitou, where I was last night; but since Jinsha invited us to that banquet the day before, I couldn’t try it. Luckily they have it in Foshan as well. It seemed to be that it is very famous around the South of China.
It is very salty, so eat with the rice they have on the bottom. Usually you only eat the pig feet, but you can also add a lot of other things like intestines, tofu, pig ears and etc. It is very good, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
After lunch, we went back to his office to chat a little more, and since Friday is the day where my nephew’s school ends at 3:40, I was going to pick him up.
My brother in law sells Mercedes-Benz in Foshan, so he has a fleet of vehicles that I can drive with. He used to drive the EQS sedan, but he got into an accident earlier that week, so I drove his EQE SUV to pick my nephew up. It is a very spacious vehicle, but it didn’t change my opinion on EVs yet. They’re boring.
After I parked the car in my nephew’s school, I walked up to the main entrance to look for him. I couldn’t find him in the lobby, and learned that since I got here a bit late, his class teacher took him back to his classroom. I walked up to his classroom and saw him. He was very excited to see me. We drove back to his home, and he snapped this picture of me with my phone.
We played until my brother in law got home, and him and I went out to dinner. I was still full from lunch, but he took me out anyway.
The place he took me to is a Guangzhou style barbecue. I am from the North, and we are known for our BBQ, so I wasn’t much excited about this one. However, I was about to be pleasantly surprised.
Restaurant Name: 暴龙美食·海鲜烧烤 (镇安店) (bào lóng méi shí hǎi xiān shāo kǎo) [Baolong Food Seafood Barbecue]
Address: 南海大道中星二花园北侧3-4号 (Foshan City Nanhai Avenue Zhongxinger Garden, North Flank #3-4)
There are some menu items that are largely the same as what we have in the North, like beef and lamb. The main difference is that we don’t marinate the meat beforehand, but the south marinates the meat. They look the same so I didn’t take pictures.
The other ones though, are very interesting. The first one is called 烤皮皮虾, or Roast Pipi Shrimp. We call it “Xia pa zi” in the north, and I think it is a seafood item that is only found in China. You can either use your hand and peel off its shells, or you can just swallow the thing whole. We didn’t want to use our hands, so we just swallowed it whole.
Starting from this day, I also began to translate everything directly as a funny gag. For example, for this Roast Pipi Shrimp, 皮 in Chinese means “Skin” or “Naughty”, so I just called it “Baked Skin Skin Shrimp” on Instagram.
The next one I had no translation. We call it 蛏子, a seashell type food item that has the texture of octopus. It is very new to me.
This one is called “烤花螺”, or Baked Babylon Shell. Or I like to call it “Baked Flower Sea Snail”. You need to either use a toothpick to pick the edible part out, or you can suck on the hole and hope for the best. It is baked with salt, so it is very flavorful. I like it.
After that, we drank 4 beers, and we called someone to drive for us back home.
Our family is interested in the EQS 580 Sedan from Mercedes Benz. We’ve already ordered one with top specs and it is still on its way to Foshan. To be completely honest, EQ is not selling well at all in China, or in any part of the world, that is. It is not attractive looking at all. However, because it is so rare to see one on the street, that’s why my family have decided to buy one.
Since the EQS is not selling well, the dealership group where my brother in law works offers three-day test drives for prospective buyers. It normally costs 999 RMB a day to rent out, but right now it’s free for me. I couldn’t register for the test drive because I do not have a Chinese ID, therefore my brother in law registered for me, just so I could experience the car fully before ours arrive. Since I drove his car to pick up my nephew, he drove the test drive car back to his home, and I got to check it out before going to bed.
I will talk more about the EQS later.