A must-do today was the 灌汤包 at 老海家, having missed it two days in a row. Today 110% cannot miss out anymore...........'cause going there in the morning, no chance that it will be sold out or closed this time 'round!!
My chinese breakfast spread, the plain porridge was extremely fine and smooth.
The alleyway leading to the hotel entrance on the left side.
This particular Starbucks - most memorable for me!
The street adjacent to the main street of the Muslim Quarters with lots more good food!
These were Persimmon Cakes with different stuffings, freshly made, freshly cooked.
There was a shop along the main street that sold these in vacuum-packed which could last a week to 10 days.
Having tried both 贾三's shops and now this 老海家, must say this last one is the best of them all. Here you could actually see them making the dumplings at close range and the helpers were all females that do multi-tasking such as serving, making the dumplings and cooking noodle dishes etc. This place was definitely very "yin" (阴) or feminine. The 8-treasures porridge (八宝粥) was by far, the best of them all! The prices were also lower than at 贾三. This shop is more family-like while 贾三 veered towards commercialised fast food type of operations. The essence of 灌汤包 is all about the insides - the meat fillings and the right amount of steam retention in the dumplings that translate into 汤 (soup) that make these little things so lovable. 老海家's dumpling skins were thicker, some may like this, some may not. So just let your own taste buds decide.
After that dumpling sampling treat, was trying to check out the local CD stores for Bibi's records but no luck, also could not locate the music shop near the university area mentioned on some city guide which was said to carry imported western CDs. Eventually wanted to head to the computer mart for the Wii when along the way, a phone call came which had me scrambling to find a shop to top up the depleted SIM card value and to do an about-turn heading back to the hotel as my dear local friend had just finished the first part of the driving test and meeting up back at the hotel. I was late rushing back to the hotel, she was already waiting at the lobby for quite a while! We headed out for a lunch at the basement eatery just round the corner of the hotel which serve great value steaks. Thereafter she accompanied me to the computer mart to pick up the Wii. Prior to that was trying to locate a bank that would do foreign exchange of SGD to RMB. I was quite surprised that only Bank of China would take SGD, even ICBC could not do it and they were like the 2nd or 3rd largest bank in China! The procedure to do the exchange was very tedious, not only forms to fill which had to state reasons for exchange but also they were doing some checks on my passport as well. Finally a manager had to endorse the form before the counter staff could proceed. Lesson learnt: Do all your forex before you come here, use credit cards whenever possible because most places can only take Unionpay card or local credit cards only. I am not so sure if Visa card cash advance will work here using a foreign-issued card. My suspicion: it may not.
I was rather apologetic to my dear friend for having to wait so long while I was doing this.
After happily getting the Wii (minus the Sports disc which was the only game I wanted), arranged with her friends to go to Partyworld KTV for a singing session which I had no plan to sing anything but ended up breaking my long-standing fear of doing karaoke and belted out a couple of English ones that must be quite a torturous earful for those in the room. The rest of them were all well-seasoned K-singers, including 2 who were like professionals who had been vocal-trained who unbelievably belted out Faye's "Bored" amazingly well!
Brent and Dathy
This is Sophia, equally "crazy" fella but.........surely a friend indeed!
How can I put it? If you had to select a person to fight a war, you will not go wrong taking this fella with you.
These two were the vocal-trained singers!
Brent is from New Jersey, here on a 6-months teaching assignment which he had chosen instead of a well-paying job back home. His peers were rather baffled by his choice but I believed he had chosen wisely. I mean how could you give up an opportunity to immerse in the local life of the most populous country on this planet? The experience alone is truly priceless.
After the K-session, parted ways initially with them and the two of us were heading to Muslim Quarters for dinner when Sophia called to say that Brent would be joining us instead. Met Brent at the front of the Drum Tower and headed to 老海家 again for the same which I had in the morning. This time ordered different meat stuffings. It was Dathy's treat!
After dinner, she helped Brent flag for a taxi with the destination written in Chinese and informed to the driver. We then headed back to the Muslim Quarters where she picked up a packet of vacuum-packed Persimmon cakes and packets of Prune Juice powder for her secondary school classmate 李海, who is currently working in SG. That was to be my last night in Xi'an before saying au revoir very early next morning. I had grown to like this place very much, definitely THE CITY which had left me with the most impressions.
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