Traditional Fuqing and Fujian food 福清美食

I am so lucky to know a chef from Fuqing hence all I get to try all these traditional Fuzhou treats.

Fuqing is located by the sea hence the abundance of seaweed and fresh seafood.

The first item I tried was the famous Roasted Sesame Seaweed Cake 福清紫菜餅.

It didn't look appealing but it was so good that I asked for another one.

Best eaten hot when the filling is nice and warm and the pastry is crisp with a chew.

The seaweed and pork filling was so tasty but the pastry is quite chewy like a pretzel so you will get a jaw ache but it was worth it having two!!!!

The next snack was fried shredded taro balls which are made with grated/shredded taro dipped in batter.

The one I tried had fresh scallops in it which takes it to the next level.

Another popular dish I tried was the sweet potato dumplings 福清蕃薯丸.

These were traditional Fuqing sweet potato dumplings filled with meat and seaweed.

The meat inside tasted like a good quality meatball mixed with seaweed.

I found these dumplings very similar to Polish meat filled potato dumplings with a sweet tasting potato pastry.

It is interesting that they eat this in a soup style with rice vermicelli.

As well as sweet potato dumplings, they also have fuqing fish balls 福清魚丸 which are big and filled with pork.

I loved the fishy taste and it is served in a clear fishy broth.

海蠣餅 A Fuqing deep fried treat made with seaweed, julienne veg and oysters.

It is interesting how this is on the Japanese menu as well.

Another amazing soup was the 海蠣豆腐湯 which is a oyster and tofu thick soup with seaweed.

The oysters were so flavourful even though they were covered in potato starch to keep it silky.

The tofu was really tasty that I had it with rice.

You will find that the oysters in the Fuzhou area are much smaller compared to the ones I had.

I finally got to try the Fuzhou triangle cake 福州三角糕/Fujian Taro Kueh/芋粿 which is basically mashed taro with some flour.

Words can't describe how delicious it was because if you love taro then you will definitely like this.

The cake is crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, similar to Chinese Taro pudding without any meat.

I was surprised they also have buns 福州肉包 in Fuzhou which I managed to try.

They were soft and fluffy and the filling was surprisingly nice although I couldn't quite figure out the exact filling.

I thought I have almost tried pretty much everything for fuqing food but it turns out that they have sweet items as well such as the sweet potato gyozas/dumplings 福清番薯餃 which are filled with crushed peanuts.

They were interestingly nice as they were fried hence the crispy chewy pastry and then you have sweet peanut filling inside that is not overly sweet with a Chinese five spice aftertaste.

Braised noodles 港頭海鮮燜面 / 港头海鲜焖面

I don't know what these noodles are in English was it was delicious noodles with a bite in thick sauce with a strong seafood taste and creaminess from the Chinese cabbage.

On a sweet note, I also got to try this Fuqing cake 福清禮餅

It tasted like a mince pie in flakey pastry without the currants and fruit peel similar to an Eccles cake.

It was sweet but not cloying with cinnamon.

What intrigued me was that they use cinnamon as ingredients in Fuzhou!

地瓜甜包 Sweet potato parcels

Delicious fried chewy parcels filled with crushed peanuts.

Tesco Hot Cross Bun Café experience

When I heard about the Tesco Hot Cross Bun Café which is a popup only from April the 5th to the 10th, I just had to book it.

There are three slots: brunch, afternoon tea and fine dining.

I would ideally like to do brunch because of the roasted lamb hot cross bun but the timing was too early so I opted for the afternoon tea session which costs £10 per person.

In all fairness £10 is unbeatable for a unique experience because it's Tesco's first pop up and also hot cross bun themed dining experience.

The afternoon tea offers traditional afternoon tea with an Easter twist with hot cross buns served with a glass of prosecco and a choice or drink.

Plant menu available.

Overall, I was impressed with their savoury Tesco Finest hot cross bun finger sandwiches as well as scones.

As a curious foodie, we got half plant and half regular to try everything.

The cannoli was a surprise because it is made by a thin slice hot cross bun rolled and filled with lemon filling. 

If you have a sweet tooth, the Chocolate egg milkshake is a must because you can really taste the blended chocolate but tea is also essential with scones!

Tesco Hot Cross Bun Cafe:

46 Great Eastern St, London, EC2A 3EP

#tescohcbcafe

Purley Food Crawl

To be honest, I did not know there were so many eateries at Purley because I had only visited the big TESCOs nearby.

My first stop had to be BAXFOOD Caribbean because they had dumplings.

You can choose Jerk meat or tofu mushroom as filling so I got the tofu mushroom as not many places offer that.

Basically it was like a savoury donut sliced in half and filled with Jerk.

It was really tasty with the tofu puffs and mushrooms but I found it quite spicy.

Next stop was tea at The Next Level which is a lovely cafe.

It was bascially TESCO's finest tea that was served there.

Halal breakfast is also served with turkey rashers and chicken sausage.

Nearby was this interesting Portuguese tavern which has a good choice of sweet treats and savouries.

I decided to get the Mille Feuille which was surprisingly nice because of the egg cream filling.

For the savoury treat, I had the rissole de camarao which was exactly like a comforting findus pancake filled with creamy prawns.

Also they sell frozen limpets which probably taste nice if you know a good recipe for them.

Another Portuguese Cafe to try is O Farol which offers almost everything for a good Portuguese dinner to coffee and cake as well as a mini market where you can buy Portuguese groceries.

My first visit, I just had some green tea and a nutella doughnut which were both a great treat on an afternoon.

Also tried the limpets and squid on another evening and they were fantastic.

How can one not visit a greasy spoon, hence the visit Star Express Cafe.

The star of the show there was the potato pancake which was amazing like a potato rosti with a sticky potato filling in the middle perfect with fried egg.

Who doesn't love the pickled cabbage that you get at kebab shops especially when it is pink and pretty.

Purley Grill:

Also tried superfryer and had a battered sausage but it wasn't your typical sausage, it was mushy and tasted like a battered sausage meat.

Their chips were a bit dry.