Iced desserts @ Tianmu Blue Bird Cafe 天母蓝鸟咖啡

The weather is starting to warm up and despite the few days of rain and cold this last week, on the whole, it is time to start shedding the winter jackets and trading for lighter jackets. And instead of looking for nice hot drinks to warm up with, I have started to look for ice cold desserts in anticipation of the hot summer months coming up.

The Taiwanese have a range of great iced desserts using shaved ice topped with all sorts of sweet options and this is one of my main counters to a hot summer. Tianmu Blue Bird Cafe is a Taiwanese owned and operated chain that has several cafe's spread over Shenzhen (深圳) and Dongguan (东莞). You can tell you are near the place a mile off with the smell of freshly baked cakes and cookies leading you with siren-like calls and your nose instantly takes over control of the rest of your body and leads you on. Arriving at the front of the cafe, the first thing you will notice is the bakery offering a variety of tempting confections. But this is not what I am here for.

The first item ordered was a mixed fruit shaved ice pudding. A small mountain of shaved ice is first placed on a plate and then topped with an assortment of fruits. And then the entire concoction is liberally doused in a sweet sauce, making a beautifully coloured and appetizing visual spectacle.



Unfortunately, that was all pure appearances. Only good to look at. For what the dessert cost, one would expect Tianmu Blue Bird Cafe to be quite generous with essentially an extremely high profit item. How much can some sweet fruity sauce, a few pieces of sliced fruit, and some ice cost? Yet, stingy they were. The fruits barely covered the surface of the shaved ice and the sweet sauce was not even enough to penetrate more than a few millimetres of the surface of the ice, leaving the ice on the inside completely plain.

The black forest shaved ice pudding was even worse. The picture below says everything. All you get for this desert is an oreo and some chocolate flavouring which I may add, tastes worse than the chocolate ice cream stick you can purchase at the neighbourhood convenience store for 1 RMB!



Dessert clearly is not their strong suit. Service is another of their problems. The staff are excellent but the person running the cafe is not. Someone I know personally recounted to me later that their family was there several weeks earlier and trying to figure out what to order since everything they wanted was not available or out of stock and the rest that was offered was not what they wanted have. This Taiwanese manager came along and ordered his staff to chase them away. Unfortunately, as he was yelling at his staff in Taiwanese, the person who recounted it to me was unable to explain precisely what was communicated. Only that several staff immediately surrounded the family and escorted them away, saying "if you do not order anything, do not stay here". Great customer service. My impression of Taiwanese run dining establishments has always been of the highest regard as the Taiwanese run their shops with the highest standards of professionalism and their customer service has been first class in my experience. I guess the Taiwanese have their black sheep too.

Will I ever go back to find out if they do anything else better, since they clearly cannot do dessert? I think not.
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Taiwan Lunch Box @ Chishangfanbao, Dongguan 东莞池上饭包

I was in Zhangmutou town (樟木头) in Dongguan (东莞) and chanced upon this Taiwanese diner's that had a decent crowd in there and decided to walk in for a quick meal. The area is in recent years, home to a few Taiwanese owned factories and obviously this diner's was catering to the Taiwanese customer base as Taiwanese factories tend to hire their own nationals for middle to upper management positions. So I reckoned that for this restaurant to survive, they had to serve up authentic Taiwanese food.

This restaurant serves the lunch box style fast food (便当). The food was served promptly with a glass of Taiwanese style flower flavoured tea. The meal arrived in a Japanese style bento box with loads of different bits to go with the rice.



The rest of the bits of vegetables were average but the deep fried chicken drumstick was excellent. Firstly, it was freshly fried and the spices used made it taste just like they make it in Taiwan. No wonder this place is well patronized by the Taiwanese. This is as good as it gets to their home town cooking.

The address:
Chishangfanbao, Xianwei Road, Zhangmutou Town, Dongguan 池上饭包，东莞樟木头先围路
Directions there using my Shenzhen Food Map



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Dumplings @ Dingtaifeng 鼎泰丰

In Taipei Taiwan, Dingtaifeng (鼎泰丰) is one of the highly regarded restaurants famous for their dianxin (点心), especially their dumplings (小龙包). Queues start at their Taipei restaurants early in the morning and you have to wait in line to enjoy a meal there, especially in their flagship store. I remember the dumplings fondly as one of the best I have ever taken. However, their ventures overseas have not been as successful. The main reason as I see it, is the towering reputation that puts huge expectation on the local chef to deliver the goods.

This is not the first Dingtaifeng restaurant I have visited in China and the previous branches I have visited in Shenzhen were hugely disappointing. The signature dumpling dish (小龙包) was badly made and soggy and the rest of the food after that was a downhill ride with no end. Dingtaifeng opened in a new shopping mall, the Yitian Holiday Plaza in Overseas Chinese Town late last year and I assumed it would be another in a line of mediocre jokes dragging down an illustrious name.

As I was dining alone, I ordered simply. The main event was a pleasant surprise. Instead of expecting to see soggy dumplings that were over done so that the dumpling skin was falling to pieces, the dumplings came freshly done and cooked to perfection. The way to enjoy the dumplings is to pick it up while it is piping hot with your chopsticks, then bite a small hole in the skin and suck out the soup stock from the dumpling insides. And having enjoyed the first sip of the dumpling, proceed to eat the rest of the dumpling. Unlike previous experiences with Dingtaifeng in China, the soup stock was sweet and fragrant and the pork filling was fresh and not overly done. The dumpling skin too had the signature elasticity that the Taipei flagship restaurant served. This is excellent and as close as you can get to the Taipei food experience. Bear in mind, my memory of the Dingtaifeng Taipei experience and taste might be a little cloudy as I was last in Taipei Dingtaifeng four years ago.



I also ordered their spicy dumplings in chilli oil (红油抄手). Like the xiaolongbao (小龙包) earlier, the spicy dumplings were well done. They have also added a single shelled shrimp to the fillings for each dumpling and the shrimp was fresh and sweet as well. At the same time, the spicy chilli oil sauce was more fragrant than spicy, allowing you to enjoy the taste of the dumpling and the fillings without having your tastebuds overpowered by chilli.



To top off my meal, I had the stewed pork on rice (卤肉饭). This was, in my opinion, unremarkable. But the amazing thing is that because it is unremarkable, it tasted just right to finish up the meal. The stewed pork was mixed with pickled raddish and the total taste is not overpowering but made the rice more interesting.



In all, this was a surprise. After suffering through a number of mediocre restaurants in China bearing the Dingtaifeng name, having a restaurant with the food served finally worthy of the name is a pleasant surprise. I would highly recommend trying this branch.

The address:
Dingtaifeng, Basement Two, Yitian Holiday Plaza, Shennan Road outside Overseas Chinese Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 鼎泰丰 深圳南山深南路华侨城益田假日广场负二楼
Google Map Directions


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Stewed Chicken Drumstick Rice @ A Little Flavour 一点味

A Little Flavour (一点味) is a locally developed fast food restaurant chain developed and owned by Taiwanese. They have managed to crack how to do traditional food in a way that makes the food consistent in portion size and taste, as well as providing a high standard of hygiene. The food arrives at each franchise outlet pre-cooked and in vacuum-sealed packs. The only items that are cooked on the premise by the local operator are the steamed rice and the vegetables. Everything else is air flown from their factory in Chengdu. The vacuum packed food is then warmed in a pot of hot water before being opened and served.

Decor-wise, each restaurant is a cafe that offers free wifi as well as a selection of books on a wide range of topics for people to pass the time. As you can see from the picture of the table top below, they also offer a number of table top games including Chinese Checkers. The enviroment is casual and friendly and they encourage diners to hang around and enjoy their assortment of Taiwanese tea house style beverages.

The meal I selected is their best seller and signature dish. The chicken drumstick was well stewed and tender so that the meat simply falls off the bone upon first bite. The vegetables which are prepared on-site are boiled and overall, the meal is healthy and balanced. For those that love chilli, you may also ask for a small dish of Sichuan chilli oil (辣椒油) seen on top left hand corner of the photograph to spice up the meal.



The address:
A Little Flavour, Baishi East Road, Kingkey Banner Plaza Basement 1 (next to Macdonald's), Nanshan District, Shenzhen 一点味 深圳南山白石路东京基百纳广场负一楼麦当劳旁边
Google Map directions



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