Restaurant: Wah Shing Yu Kong in Cantonese or Hua Cheng Yu Gang in Mandarin
Cuisine: Chinese/Seafood
Last visited: April 17, 2010
Location: Shen Zhen, China
Address: I have no idea, but show a local and they will know
Price Range: $10CAD or less – about $60RMB

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: 1
Ambiance: 2, but it’s the experience!
Overall: 3
Additional comments:

• Most popular restaurant on the strip
• Most popular restaurant for locals
• Famous for fresh seafood, prepared upon order
• Serves the best seafood on strip
• Experience is better than food
• Be aware of purse snatchers
• Busy all the time
• Busiest restaurant I’ve ever been to – see video
• Bare minimum service
• Fight for your table
• No line-ups
• Self selection
• No non-smoking section
• No English – I don’t even think there’s a menu (print off these photos)
• Outdoor, backyard, front doors, upstairs, downstairs seating
• Open late

**Recommendations: Steamed tofu with minced pork, Razor clams, Steamed scallops with garlic and vermicelli, onion pancake

Video of me in China outside this restaurant

This is the busiest restaurant I’ve ever been to in my life. I took a photo of the restaurant name so if you plan to visit you can show locals (I’m sure they’ll know it). It’s located in Shen Zhen, China on their “restaurant street”. Every restaurant is identical and shares the same philosophy: Pick your own fresh seafood and they’ll cook it upon order. The whole street is filled with these restaurants and we actually had a local bring us to the best one on the strip. It’s this one! This is not a touristy are and it’s also popular for pickpocketers so watch your bag.

Outside? No luck with a table.

You can literally eat anywhere in the restaurant…sometimes even outside of it…on the street – literally.

Floor 1 – no luck with a table.

There is zero service pretty much and you literally stand by a table that looks almost finished in order to get a table. You’re curious why people from China can be so rude…because this sort of behaviour is common there – budge all you want, watch people eat, cut in line…NOBODY CARES. I budged, I pushed, I shoved…it’s the only way to the table.

The hallway to get between floors of the restaurant was like this the entire 3 hours I was there.

There are 3 floors, outside, and back patio…could not find a table for an hour and I had 3 people helping.

This back patio is as big as a beer tent in Europe…it’s MASSIVE and this was at 10pm and every table was full.

We arrived at 7pm and waited until 8pm to get a seat. By 10pm the restaurant was just as busy.

Step 1: Go outside, find server and select your choice of seafood by pound

Step 2: Select appetizers, sides etc. displayed outside restaurant (optional)

Yes, those are meal worms.

Step 3: Select meats (optional)

Step 4: Go inside restaurant to select snacks, appetizers, side dishes (optional)

This looked interesting – mini clams or something…didn’t get to try it though.

Everyone’s table eventually looks like this – plates of food come out and just pile on top of each other. (Not my table)

On the table:

Only in China do you get an ash tray, matches & tissues along side your complimentary appetizers – Salted roasted peanuts and spicy pickled radish.

This is the name of the restaurant in Chinese

And the dishes start coming out…

**Tofu with minced pork – 6/6

• I think this tofu was steamed and then pan fried, or other way around.
• It’s stuffed with the juiciest, tenderest, tastiest minced pork meatballs.

Sauteed Kai Lan – 4/6

• Sauteed Chinese broccoli or “kai lan” with minced garlic and a little chilie.
• This was very tasty, but extremely oily and greasy.

**Steamed Scallops with Vermicelli – 4/6 (Usually 6/6)

• Steamed scallops with minced garlic and vermicelli noodles topped with green onion.
• Juicy fresh scallops topped with tons of caramelized minced garlic and garlic sauce. The sauce is the best part – best eaten with the noodles.

• It’s savoury, sweet, and nutty from the garlic – love it!
• You can get this in Vancouver, BC at fancier Chinese restaurants.
• It’s actually better in Vancouver because these were overcooked.

Crispy Spring Chicken - 3/6

• They say they’re famous for this dish, but I thought it was okay.
• The chicken meat was a bit rough and drier in texture.
• The flavour was good, but also something I could find in Vancouver, BC.

Sauteed “Lai Lui” (“Peeing”) Shrimp – 3/6

• I don’t know the name in English but they call it in Chinese the literal transaltion is “Peeing Shrimp”
• They are sauteed in garlic, onions, and chili flakes.
• The flavour is delicious but it’s hard to get at the meat.
• There’s a lot of shell…I found it annoying.

**Green Onion Pancake - 5.5/6

• The green onion pancakes are pretty amazing in China.
• They’re fresh, made from scratch and upon order, but extremely oily and greasy!
• They make them different in China – the green onions are the stuffing rather than worked into the dough. They are LOADED with juicy sauteed onions which I loved.

• The dough is flaky and crispy and also very soft and chewy in the middle.
• You can find it at most Shanghainese and Taiwanese restaurants in Vancouver, BC.

See how greasy!!!!

**Pineapple Pancake – 3.5/6

• I’ve never seen these in Vancouver, it’s a dessert version of the green onion pancake.
• The pancake reminds me of Indian roti.
• This was good, but there wasn’t enough pineapple and it was again soooo greasy!
• The pineapples were fresh and juicy and because they were cooked under the heat then they got more sweet and less tart.

Country: China
Cuisine: Chinese/Street food
Last visited: April 15-17, 2010
Location: China
Address: all over
Price Range: $10 or less (more like under $1CAD)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Welcome to the 1st Follow Me Foodie post in China!  I’m going to show you what the real authentic traditional Chinese street food in China. This will determine whether or not you plan to travel and/or visit China for the food. This is REAL Chinese street food – extremely ghetto, extremely cheap…and perhaps a bit dirty. Dirt cheap + dirt-y…you’re in China…expect it.

I tried a few things, but definitely not everything. Some of it actually freaked me out a bit, but hey it’s part of the culture so what can I really say…? I’m not sure what all the names of the items are, (some are blatantly obvious as they’re still alive) but others I’m calling them as I see fit.

WARNING: Some images may be hard to look at – some of the food is quite barbaric from a Western/North Americanized stand point. The photos progressively get more intense and “not appetizing”.

Also see my post on Korean Street Food

On the table…err STREET:

Cracker Truck

• I was so excited to see this that I want to write “Cracker truck” in all capitals…how COOL is this!?? Seriously!

• I didn’t try any, because to be honest they looked plain and dry, but I was very excited to see it.
• It’s probably 12 for $1CAD

Dim Sum Stand

• Hard boiled Soy sauce tea eggs, soy milk, corn, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf, minced pork buns.
• I tried the corn…it was the worse corn I’ve ever had. It was 200% overcooked and tasted like pure mushy starch.

• Minced pork bun facial! These things are served HOT!

Steamed Minced Pork Bun

• I did try one, and it was pretty freaking delicious.

• Stuffed with flavorful juicy pork that was so tender it melted in your mouth.
• The pork is very marinated with garlic, chives and onions and soy sauce.

Jack Fruit “stand”

• I’ve just been informed that this is Jack fruit – thanks to my readers! (I thought it was Durian)

Skewer Stand

• Chicken skewers, fish ball skewers and sausage skewers with different kinds of Chinese sauces.

Bread/Pastry Stand

• Onion pancakes, meat patty cakes etc.
• I don’t know what’s wrong with the girl in the back…
• These onion pancakes are really popular. They’re quite oily, but thin, crispy and yet chewy.

Jack Fruit Stand #2

• Okay, so thanks to my readers…I am now informed that this is jack fruit! Thanks everyone! I thought it was a massive durian…still big though!

What’s inside?!

Chinese pastries! It’s pretty much variations of Chinese “wife cakes” or “lo po bang” -  flakey thin pastry stuffed with lotus seed paste, red bean paste etc.

Skewer stand: hot dogs, vegetables, meats, chicken, basically anything you can skewer onto a stick is served here.

I saw this at a corner store in China. It was similar to 7 Eleven in North America, but instead of just hot dogs you can also get quail eggs!

This was cool truck, it sold fresh sugar cane! The stick it into a machine and you can buy fresh sugar cane juice.

I want one in Vancouver, BC! This was so cool! It’s a Chinese fried noodle stand! You select your noodle, veggies and sauce and it’s cooked upon order. Served in a to go box and that’s it! It’s REAL Wok Box in China!! This would do so well in Vancouver…business idea up for grabs I’m telling you! $$$

Live land animals!! This was outside a restaurant in China – a Chinese restaurant obviously. I have no idea how you order it. All these animals are still alive in cages so I don’t know if they’re killed upon order or what…but it freaked me out a bit.

Yes, those are live snakes you see in front of those cages. I’ve had snake soup at Kirin Chinese restaurant in Vancouver, BC – but it’s definitely not found in the kitchen like this, I don’t even think it’s this kind of snake they use.

How do you even order this?! I seriously don’t know how often people would order an entire bird…this is a goose I think?…I can’t imagine how big the party would need to be. These geese are probably so old!

On to the sea animals…I think that’s turtles and eels.

Yeah…those are turtle alright …no I haven’t tried them. I’ll stick to the LIVE octopus from Korea (see video and post here)…that was easier to eat than this would be. Okay…so far back it looks ok…I’m a bit scared to walk any closer, but I want my photo!

Not appetizing. It was a whole bunch of meat parts – I don’t even know which parts, but it was all organ oriented with some feet and leg in between. This was like a midnight vendor…it kind of added to the suspense of strolling the China streets at midnight…I felt like I was in a Alfred Hitchcock film.