Shen-zam!

Piping hot creamy oozy salted egg custard centre.

When my sister returned with 3o dresses after a shopping trip in Shenzen, I knew I had to visit this wondrous place at some point. Two weeks later, she had booked us on a trip. Yes, she was going again. So couple of days ago Rafs, Sista and I boarded our Air Asia flight into Shenzen. Sista had planned our trip for maximum shopping time- our hotel was directly across the shopping centre! Seriously. Railway Station Hotel looked pretty dodgy from the outside but it was surprisingly decent. The beds were extremely firm! And the sheets, very clean and crisp. The only thing I would have to gripe about is the manky carpet. Yuck. This was the first time in my life that I've ever used the paper slippers they provide in hotel rooms. The carpet was just screaming "FUNGAL INFECTION!!!". Anyway, we basically spent the following day in Lao Wu shopping centre. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same restaurant. Sista had already checked out the eating places previously. She is surprisingly efficient when it comes to things she is passionate about. The food here is so much nicer than the stuff we had in Beijing, probably because we were in Guangzhou after all. Dim sum was lovely. Very fresh and refined. Even better than some of the places in Hong Kong.

"Chan Village Noodles" - culinary genius Chans! Well done!

We discovered a dish here. Like proper tourists that we were, we pointed at the table next to us and ordered. It was called "Chan village noodles" which consisted of hand cut rice noodles stir fried with pork ribs, garlic, soy sauce, chilli and spring onions. I'm sure there were other ingredients but I could only decipher those flavours. It was just so simple and deliciously comforting. The other thing Sista and I were surprised by were the superbly light and crisp crullers. Wow! I am not a fan in KL so I didn't even bother trying it here until Rafs kept insisting how wonderful they were and she was right. I especially love the steamed custard and salted egg bun. They were so good I nearly cried! I just could not get enough of it. I wouldn't say the food was dirt cheap. Around Crystal Jade pricing but so much better! I'm still not sure what the name of the restaurant was but in English it simply states "Laurel Group Restaurant". What a totally decadent trip! The only sight seeing we did was the view of lush green mountains from the window of the restaurant. I would definitely go again with my girlfriends. Great shopping, good food and cheap mani & pedis, its a great girlie weekend!

Click here for a review from another Laurel Group fan.

Clockwise from left to right: spinach dumplings; soft and fluffy mashed yam buns; Shanghai dumplings; my favourite salted egg yolk bun; steamed century egg layer cake;

steamed pork ribs