November 13, 2023
Day 6
Today was supposed to be the day where I head back to Dalian by plane. Since I’ve canceled my ticket, today is the day I am supposed to drive back to Foshan. The three-day test drive ends at today, so I have to return the car to the dealership.
The test-drive is not offered by the dealership per se, the dealership partnered with a new rental business and invested a lot of money, therefore has a lot of unused EQS test-drive opportunities that needed to be used. Since I borrowed the car at the dealership, I have to return it at the dealership. If I borrowed it from the airport, then I need to return it to the airport.
I was just going to buy some bread from the convenient store downstairs from the hotel, but my parents told me not to do that. I’m in Shenzhen already, why not try something local for breakfast before rushing back to Foshan?
Since Shenzhen really doesn’t have anything local that the locals eat, I’ve decided to get Dimsum. Shenzhen is technically a part of Guangdong Province, despite the fact that nobody really speaks Cantonese here. But Dimsum is better than bread, so I drove to the restaurant in the morning.
Restaurant name: 点都德 (A8店) (Diǎn dū dé) [Diandude Dimsum]
Address: 深圳市科园路1002号A8音乐大厦4楼 (Shenzhen City Keyuan Road #1002, A8 Music Tower 4th Floor)
The restaurant is in a fancy “Music building”. It’s on the 4th floor, and it is fancy too. Since I will be driving back to Foshan right after breakfast, I put the car in a charging space and went upstairs.
One thing you should know about dining in Guangdong. Even though the dishes and bowls you use come pre-cleaned, but it is a local tradition that you wash your dishes and bowls with hot tea before using them. Normally you are supposed to do everything yourself, but this restaurant was fancy enough that the waiter was actually doing it for you.
I ordered a lot of stuff, because I want to try everything since this might be the only time I have dimsum in Guangdong. However, the waiter actually came and cancelled 3 items for me because he knew that I cannot finish. What a lovely guy.
The first dish is called “牛肉肠粉”, Steamed Beef Vermicelli Roll, or “Beef Intestine Pink” as I like to call it. It doesn’t have intestines, just to clear your confusion; but it is rather wrapped like a sausage with vermicelli wrap, which is why it is called 肠粉. It is one of the most well known food items of Guangdong Province, and this restaurant was pretty okay.
The second dish is called 特色蒸排骨, Special Stamed Ribs, or “Super Horny Steamed Ribs”, translated directly. It tastes like what it sounds like, it is one of the original menu items of the restaurant. It’s definitely something I’ve never had before, but I would not order it again though.
The third dish is called 金钱肚, Beef Tripes, or “Gold Money Stomach”. It is the stomach of a cow seasoned enough to taste like heaven. I love cow stomach, it is the single best part of a cow. The way this restaurant cooked it was a little bit too spicy in my opinion, but it was still cow stomach, can’t complain.
The fourth dish is called 红烧凤爪, Red Braised Chicken Feet, or “Red Braised Phoenix Claws”. It is one of my favorite Cantonese dishes of all time, and it’s hard to screw this one up because everyone knows how to cook it. I love it like always.
The fifth dish is called 虾饺, Shrimp Dumping. There isn’t a funny translation I could do, because it literally is just called a Shrimp Dumping. It is also one of my favorite Cantonese food too, along with the Phoenix Claw. I always order them together so I can inhale them together.
The food was decent, I didn’t hate it, but it definitely was not the best dimsum I’ve ever had. I would recommend it to people though, just for the general vibe that this restaurant has.
After paying for breakfast, I headed down to see how much charging the car did while I was having breakfast. It only charged 3%, and it costed me 9 RMB, which equals to about 1.5 dollars. After about 30 minutes of charging, it only charged 3%. I have to put the blame on the charging infrastructure of the parking lot, though, since it only had regular charging instead of fast charging, and I had to use a much smaller charger compared to the last one I used in Foshan. Adding only 3% of range wouldn’t do too much of a difference for me, so I sucked it up, paid the 9 RMB, and got out.
The drive back to Foshan proved to be as boring as driving to Shenzhen. It was 2 hours of silence. I did play music, but the car made 0 noise, which was very disturbing to me. Cars with Internal Combustions Engines, or ICE cars, had gears which needed to be shifted once every while. They make bumps and they make the ride less smooth, which reminds you that you are driving. The EVs from Mercedes Benz, despite being fast, was manufactured in a way that makes everything much more quiet and smooth compared to Tesla or Porsche. It was a battle to keep my eyes open, though.
After I got back to Foshan, it was already lunch time. I drove the car into the dealership and went upstairs to my brother in law, who took me to lunch again, to dimsum. I’m not kidding, I just had dimsum in the morning, and he drove me to dimsum again. It was okay, though, since we ordered some more food I didn’t get to eat but would have if the nice waiter didn’t cancel them for me earlier.
Restaurant name: 锦绣香江大酒楼 (jǐn xìu xiāng jiāng dà jǐu lóu) [Jinxiuxiangjiang Restaurant]
Address: 佛山市罗村北湖三路御花园假日酒店后面 (Foshan City Luo Village Beihu 3rd Road, Behind Yuhuayuan Holliday Hotel)
The first dish is called 干炒牛河, Pan Fried Rice Noodles with Beef, or “Dry Fried Cow River”. It is a well-known Cantonese delicacy and can be found in every corner of the street in Guangzhou. This restaurant didn’t do it justice, it was pretty dry. I mean it is called “Dry fried”, but still, you would expect some more oil in there.
The second dish is called 芥蓝, there is no funny name for it, as it is just a vegetable that is only grown in the southern part of China. It is bitter and sweet at the same time, and you can’t ask for more.
The third dish is called 烧麦, or Baked Wheat. There isn’t much wheat in there, it was mostly starch and pork, but it is a very classic Cantonese food item.
The fourth dish is just the Phoenix Claw that I had in the morning. Since I like it so much, I didn’t care if I had it at breakfast. I can eat nothing but phoenix claw and rice.
The last dish is just ribs. It is cooked similarly compared to the special one from breakfast, just without the twist. It was still delicious though.
After lunch, we went back to his office, and I drove his car to pickup my nephew. We had dinner at home, cooked by his grandma. We had Beef Baozi, that I do remember.
During dinner, my brother in law called me if I wanted to check out a CBA match. CBA is the Chinese NBA, and of course I had to say yes. Even though I watch some basketball, I’ve never seen a real life one. I am a much bigger soccer fan, and the last time I saw a in person live soccer game, it was with my brother in law as well. My nephew heard that we were going to the game and wanted to go too, so I watched over him finish his homework and walked downstairs to the parking lot, just as his dad arrived back with his Harley.
We were already late, so my brother in law drove. He is a much more experienced driver than I am, so I am confident that he can be there fast and steady.
We arrived late, and we got in during the second game. I don’t know the professional jargon for basketball games, but it is the 2nd of the four games of the entire match. We were watching Guangzhou vs. Qingdao, a city in Shandong. When we arrived, Guangzhou was up by 11 points.
Since this is my first in person basketball game, this is also my first time seeing cheerleaders. There’s a thing called “Cheerleader Effect” from the hit TV show How I Met Your Mother. This effect takes effect when you see a group of women and you think they are beautiful, but taken them apart one by one, they are less attractive. Coined by Barney Stinson himself, and it is the first time it has ever applied to my real life.
The cheerleaders, while in their group and from a far distance, looked hot. I was like wow, I have to come to more games. However, as I flashed out my shiny new iPhone 15 Pro Max with a maximum optical zoom of 5X, seeing their faces individually made me disillusioned. You can see for yourself. Cheerleader Effect, it’s a thing.
Guangzhou lost, surprisingly, in the end. It was a nail-biter. Everyone was waiting for a last second 3-pointer, and when the guy missed, everyone in the stadium walked away despite there are still a few more seconds left on the clock.
After that, we got home, and we all went to bed.