Eating Out 7 - Ikea Restaurant

Ikea is one of our favourite weekend lepak places. There are at least 3 Ikea stores in Shanghai and the nearest one to our home is just a few Metro stations away. Every time we miss home, we will just head to this Ikea and imagine we are in Mutiara Damansara haha! After all, the sight, the smell (especially) and the Ikea feel are the same everywhere :p

Dining here is something that we always look forward to. Besides the usual Swedish stuff, they have localised flavours (rice sets) to suit the Chinese palates as well...

The dinning area is HUGE! 

Children's play area

We usually order this Family Set, which comes with 2 mains, a kiddy meal, a salad and 2 refillable drinks. RMB59 (RM30)

Ikea's most popular... Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam and mashed potato, RMB15 (RM8)

Salmon and spinach lasagna... we love this! (not sure of the ala carte price)

Poached salmon, RMB29 (RM15)

Hot smoked salmon (thoroughly cooked) with veggies and pasta, RMB23.50 (RM12)

Kiddy meal, RMB12 (RM6+)

Braised pork rice, RMB18 (RM9+)

Vegetarian rice, RMB16 (RM8+)

Mushroom rice, RMB16 (RM8+)

Assorted fresh fruit juices (blended on the spot)... RMB10 (RM5+)

Refillable coffee RMB5 (RM2.60)

Ice cream parlour

Quite pricey at RMB15 (RM8) per scoop... but very rich and delicious!

Clean plate every time we dine here.

Snack counters... we only buy 1 thing from here - the RMB1 (RM0.55) sundae cone. The hotdog sets are available here too (but we've never tried it). In Ringgit, all these are at almost half-price. Pretty cheap! Too bad, no curry puffs :(

Our must-have, even in winter! ^^

Colours of Spring: Gucun Park

Last Saturday, we spent half a day at a park again. It was a sunny (but cool) day... a weather too perfect to be wasted staying or going anywhere indoor :) Springtime is the best time for park-hopping so this is what we will be doing for the next few coming weekends (subject to good weather, of course).

We went to the Shanghai Sakura Festival in Gucun Park. Although the festival is still ongoing, we somehow felt that the timing wasn't quite right. While the white sakuras were still botak with unblossomed buds, the pinks ones were like "past their optimum beauty" already... they had more green leaves than flowers! Anyway, it was still a beautiful sight although we felt that last year's was better, even in the gloomy and rainy weather. 

Our second visit to Gucun Park

Entrance tickets cost RMB20 (RM10+) for adults and RMB10 (RM5+) for children

The park was jam-packed with PEOPLE!!! The following day, mummy read in a local daily... "A record 265,000 people visited Gucun Park to view the cherry blossoms over the weekend, park officials said yesterday". And we were among that massive 200k odd crowd. Crazy!

Canopy of pink sakuras... if only they were all pink (minus the green leaves)

Last year, we saw only the white variety. This year, only the pink ones were in full bloom!

Pretty in pink

Pink variety 1 (钟花樱）

Pink variety 2 (迎春樱）

Pink variety 3 (寒绯樱)... the flowers are droopy and face downwards

White variety... only a few trees had flowers on them...

... the rest had more buds than flowers.

There were a number of pink magnolia trees too

Magnolia... equally pretty in pink

Purple flowers

Yellow flowers

A sign with funny English. Could it mean "please don't step on the grass and don't pluck the flowers?"

Afternoon snack... picnic in the woods. We had cheesecake and biscuits brought from home.

Climbing up a treehouse

We took a train ride at the amusement park

Tickets for this train ride cost more than the entrance fee to the park, at RMB20 (RM10+) each. No discount or free ride even for infants! 

Animals are Cleverer than Me!

One of my recent after-school chats with mummy...

Me: Mummy, do you know that animals are cleverer than me?

Mummy: Really?

Me: Yes... a baby elephant can stand up and walk as soon as it is born!

Mummy: Oh, cleverer in that sense. Yes.

Me: And a penguin can go out and catch fish on its own when it is only 2 years old!

Mummy: At 2 years old, a penguin is considered old already... but nevermind. So what could you do when you were 2 years old?

Me: Me? (without even pausing to think) Break things lor!

Mummy: LOL!!!!!!

That's very true indeed! I was quite a destructive little menace back then and here are some of the things that "died" in my hands...

My favourite target was spectacles. The specs that belonged to daddy, mummy, Ah Ma and Yeh Yeh all ended up with the same fate... the frames were either bent or broken beyond repair *mummy shakes head*

Broken

Disfigured

Torn

Heh heh heh... digging daddy's wallet was just one of the many naughty things that I enjoyed doing!