Shanghai Snacks@Dogma's biz trip

Demona: Dogma recently went for a biz trip to Shanghai, which in turn, became a food ventura trip also, exploring the culinary skills which Shanghai chefs have to offer to a kaki Malaysian. The Chinese food did not suit our tastebuds because almost every single dish was soaked in oil. I'm guessing that cooking oil must be dirt cheap in China. The meals contained so much oil, such that you could possibly "Piss Oil"... we've heard of real life stories of people who had oiled stained undies after meals. Upon hearing such responses, doesn't it scare you if you have these to eat everyday? Yikes!

Since the amount of oil added really does depend on the chef, we were curious as to how snacks eg: biscuits, kuih etc would fare in this aspect, besides taste.

a) Lou Poh Pheng (Wife Biscuit?)

Demona: Dogma brought these back for us to try out what Shanghai's LPP had to offer, since LPP is often bragged about, in Hong Kong rather than mainland China. When I picked it up, I could already see visible orange coloured oil stains. (Gasps!)

I took my first bite. Chewy. Very, very, very, very chewy. Almost near to the effect of chewing a piece of 'kuih bakul'. It was salty, without much of a flavour to it. The second bite was a torture. I could not take the 3rd bite anymore. Dogma did not want to eat it either. Quietly... shhhh... Mr.Shanghai LPP crawled its way into the rubbish bin.

Demona: I'm sorry, Dogma!

Demona: The many other individual packets of LPP still stored in the kitchen was left there, ever since. Until Dogma brought them home to his parents or to his boss, I think.

b) Thai Yang Ping (Sun Biscuit)

Demona: I had a great start to my first experience eating TYP from the Taiwan TYPs that were given by Mike last year. After having a horrible start with the LPP, I must say that my confidence level on Shanghai snacks had took a deep plunge. Part and puzzle of food venturing, you get the good ones.. and the bad ones also.

I sanked my teeth into the TYP. Crunch crunch crunch. Gosh, the sugar was not melted? Or was it meant to be taste like this? The sticky, chewy sweet filling inside the Taiwan's TYP or our own local Hiao Pia (a similar rendition) did not taste like that.

The pastry wasn't very good either. It was too crumbly, and you ended up eating the filling without any pastry left because by the time you take a bite, most of the pastry bits had already fallen off on to your shirt/pants (If you are a messy eater like me!)

c) Chocolate coated cake-like biscuit

Demona: This was the winner among the 3 snacks that Dogma brought back from Shanghai. Every thing-a-ma-jid that is coated which chocolate, can't go very wrong. Anyway, I've tried a Korean version couple of years back, and that fared better. The cake-like cookie was very chocolatey yet, not sickly sweet and the chocolate coating was semi-sweet. MMMMM...

This wasn't the best that I've tried, but it ain't bad either. It served more as a snack whenever I crave for anything chocolate, or had nothing left at home to eat and was feeling a bit hungry greedy for anything. "Itchy mouth", many would use to term for this expression.

Anyway, it was still a good effort by Dogma, having to carry these all the way back from Shanghai, for someone who hates to travel with a luggageful of things, like most girls. At least I've gotten a chance to try out their local snacks from the comfort of my own home.

Now to think of it, kudos to him! As I recalled he even carried back Shanghai........

RICE. *clapclap*

Beras pun angkut balik.