After many weekends of being "grounded" at home (due to bad weather), we finally decided to go somewhere last Saturday. Armed with 3 umbrellas, we ignored the dark skies and went ahead with our plans to visit a nearby old town called Qibao 七宝, which means "7 Treasures" in Chinese. It is a small water town surrounded by traditional Chinese buildings and temples. This place is also most well-known for its street snacks.
At the main entrance of Qibao Ancient Town
Climbed up this little gazebo with daddy (the partially hidden kid on the right is me)
The main street where all kinds of goods, from food to souvenirs, are sold.
A canal runs through this quaint little town
People, people everywhere... This scene looked very familiar and reminded mummy about her visit to Venice many years ago :)
We took a boat ride on the canal. Again, this reminded daddy and mummy about the gondolas in Venice hehe... This boat ride costs RMB10 (RM5) each.
Our "boat paddler" was a very elderly auntie and we felt quite bad for making her do all the hard work while we just sat down there and relaxed...
Enjoying the scenery along our slow cruise
The 3 main bridges
Qibao is also known for its crickets (the insect). No wonder we saw them on sale at a stall there, priced at RMB15 (RM7.50) each! Mummy suggested buying one home but daddy thought she was crazy for wanting to buy some "noise" back haha.
This is the popular snack street. We saw a lot of interesting food here!
Local biscuits and cakes
Mummy, look... a giant candy! The famous White Rabbit candy originates from Shanghai.
An assortment of kuih-muih and rice dumplings
Some deep-fried seafood
Skewered meat and seafood
Charcoal black stinky tofu... no thank you! :p
More tofu snacks
Salted quail's eggs (this was sold in almost every corner of the town)
Fruity bowl
Roasted birds
Nuts and beans
Pickles and preserves
We are not adventurous foodies and did not try any of the food above (maybe next time). We only tried these few stuff below...
Banana bamboo
The bamboo was peeled by the vendor with a sharp knife. It was peeled like a banana hence the name Banana Bamboo. RMB6 (RM3) each.
Taste-wise, is had nothing to do with a banana. It is actually steamed glutinous rice with a mildly sweet citrusy (orange) flavour.
That weird-looking thing on the right says "Tiger's Foot" and mummy thought it was interesting and worth a try...
Tiger's Foot, RMB4 (RM2)... The base is made of "hard wafer" filled with red bean paste, covered with a mildly sweet starchy paste and sprinkled with roasted sunflower seeds and red dates. Unique but not very tasty haha!
Qibao is also very famous for its tang yuan (glutinous rice balls). The tang yuan here are huge! They all come with sweet or savoury fillings. We tried 3 different flavours... a meat one (pic above), a red bean one and a peanut one. RMB2 (RM1) each. These 3 flavours were the only Chinese characters that mummy could read from the menu haha. The shop owner was very unfriendly and unhelpful when we asked for suggestions. Hmmph!
Mummy noticed a big crowd and a long queue in this shop. Everyone was queuing up to buy this "steamed shepherd's purse with meat and mushroom rice ball" 千蒸荠菜香菇肉园子 so she also bought a few to try. RMB2 (RM1) each and mummy tapau-ed 5 home.
It was indeed very yummy (mummy re-steamed at home). The veggie and mushroom gave the kuih or 园子 a very strong and aromatic flavour :)
This dunno what kuih smelled good and looked delicious too. Mummy also tapau-ed 2 pieces back to try...
They turned out to be very ordinary-tasting red bean kuih. Cheh...
We enjoyed our outing here very much. It was a very nice China-experience for us. The best part was, it did not rain but drizzled for about 10 minutes while we were there. Will we come here again? Yes! :)
wei tak aci leh sekaligus bombard with so many photos...dont know where to start commenting liao
ReplyDeleteThe boat ride very cheap la rm5. wondering they slaughter tourist or not
ReplyDeleteNo slaughter la...fixed price one. Tix bought at a counter.
Deletethe river water smells or not ah? some place it smell wor
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, no smell at all even though it is not very clean :)
Deletegosh can see both daddy and Chloe's face bulat a bit already. Good food over there lah
ReplyDeletecricket....lol...ya buy noise ...funny la
ReplyDeletedidnt buy the pillow chang ke ? would love to see what inti they have inside
ReplyDeleteAlready bought some so din buy from here. Later I'll post. The chang here quite lousy one la, sure cannot beat yours :)
Deletewould love to taste the birds, Banana Bamboo and tiger foot but not the prawns
ReplyDeleteWow, lots of interesting food. I want that giant rabbit sweet! ha ha.
ReplyDeleteI want to go there too and try all those snacks and skewered meat!! QiBao is in Shanghai?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is located in one of the Shanghai suburbs.
Deletevery nice canal scenery but really crowded hor. Yeah I love the white rabbit candy too and 1st time see such giant candy kkk.
ReplyDeleteoh it is so lovely. I love the canal. Always see this scene in the movies :D the food is making me so hungry. eh..you know...people say that crickets chirping at home is good omen...hahahhaa
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely ancient town.. I wish I could go there someday!~
ReplyDeleteThis place is so beautiful and huge! Think I'll need at least a day here to cover everything, and also try all the food! Hehehe...
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a nice place but very small only. I think you can cover the whole area in under 3 hours haha...no need one whole day ;)
DeleteI lvoe all the food photos... looks yummy at this hour
ReplyDeleteRM1 for pau? cheap indeed
ReplyDeleteThat Banana bamboo is very cute and something unique!
ReplyDeleteOk...seriously tempted to visit Shanghai some day. Come and look for you? ahhaahah
ReplyDeleteWah...giant white rabbit candy..hehe. Nice photos...making me hungry already. :p Chloe is getting taller and slimmer hor. Gwen madam lidi and like not growing taller hehe.
ReplyDeleteWhat people will do with the cricket if they buy it home?
ReplyDeleteI love these chinese architecture. I saw some similar looking bridge in suzhou before. Unfortunately the river was dirty and smelly, and they are selling foods next to it.
ReplyDeleteWah...I love the giant rabbit candy. My favorite sweets when I was young.
ReplyDeleteWow!!! With so much food in abundance in China, I wonder why they still need to go to the extend of faking meat ykwim... i love all your pictures! sure feel like pinching the food out of your blog to makan! Hahaha..
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Chloe is still so sweet, willing to wear dresses and a feminine cardigan. : )
ReplyDeleteThose food really makes me drool. This is a very nice outing, I love shopping at street like this, so many goodies and snacks.
ReplyDeletemust go place, note it down first...hehe
ReplyDeletewow!! So much interesting food!! Drool! I'd be curious to try most of them. Also read your latest post. Lovely cake you made for fathers day. :)
ReplyDelete