KTV, as easy as 1, 2, 3!

A little after the day itself, but here’s a post all about my first birthday in China! Now I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22 - and at this mature age (and because I’m in China) a normal drunken birthday night out is off the cards. Instead, I went to the next best thing… KTV! 

Now I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before on here somewhere, but if I haven’t KTV is, simply, karaoke. But it isn’t the run-down, pathetically-depressing karaoke we’re used to in England. Oh no. In China (as well as Japan and South Korea I believe) it is an INSANELY popular alternative to a bar or club based night out; in fact, most of my Chinese friends don’t go to bars or clubs, they go to KTV for their big night out LOL. KTV clubs (are they called clubs? Dunno) are very frequent here, the best chain being Agogo with a better choice of foreign songs. All you need to do is book a room (depending on the number of guests) buy the booze and snacks (needless to say they have so WEIRD stuff available) and settle in for a long sesh of screaming until your lungs get soar. 

One of the stewards distributing our alcohol and snacks!
Lovely people. Strangely accommodating though

Delicious fruit platter. They have these in clubs too.
Such a good shout, I'm definitely going to miss these when I'm home

Left: the screen for choosing your songs. Slightly difficult to navigate in Chinese, but hey.
Right: the 'music video' for a Chinese song. It appears as though they use any film they want for the video for some of these songs. Here for example, is Donald Duck and co. 

Top left: Ana and I. Top right: Tina, Sunny and Cuby
Bottom left: Cletus and Nathan. Bottom right: Sunny, Cuby and I

Top: KTV in action
Bottom left: Jane, Angela, Tina, Sunny and Cuby
Bottom right: Cletus and I

Left: Ana and Mark
Right: Nathan and Kennis playing the dice game EVERYONE plays at every bar/club

Two birthday cakes! YES!

KTV clubs stay open until about 2am, which is about the same time as normal bars and clubs – in Fúzhōu at least. So we partied on there until then and in classic lăowài fashion went for street food afterwards. The perfect end to a night out! I love me some 炒面.

All for now!

xoxo

B-B-B-Bakery

One of the major cravings I’ve had since being in China has been for bread. Be it plain, toasted, in a sandwich (supporting delicious, delicious bacon) – you name it. Unfortunately, what I always assumed was ‘normal bread’ (that is, savoury) is not quite so readily available or greatly desired here. For some reason, in China the vast majority of bread you see will be sweet. In a loaf? Sweet. A normal-looking burger bun? Sweet. See a toasted sandwich? Sweet. After initially learning this lesson the hard way through trial and error, I can now semi-enjoy this sweet bread knowing full well what to expect. Don’t get me wrong, when it’s with other sweet things (like jam-esque goo), it’s pretty much cake-like and yummy. But what I don’t get is when it’s with tuna, sweetcorn, a chicken fillet, beef or a hot dog (the list goes on!) why does it have to be sweet?! JUST STOP PUTTING SUGAR IN THE DOUGH! IS THAT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK? 

Anywho, this post is on the traditional Chinese bakery and it’s sometimes delicious, sometimes disgusting contents!  A picture is worth a thousand words so it’s probably easier to just show you the typical things you’d find in a ‘bakery’ here. 

Don't let the savoury looking things fool you, even the garlic bread is sweet

No idea what some of this stuff is...
The orangey, stringy stuff you see on a few is actually beef, don't cha know

OK, so the top left is one of the rare savoury things you will find! 
It is actually normal pastry! Hurrah!
The bottom one is quite strange. It's savoury (with chunks 
of 'bread' and maybe meat on a toasted slice, but it has some
kind of sweet sauce on it)

Sweet bun!

Looks like cheese. Nope.
And that's sweet bread with the hotdog, obvs.

The outside of this thing was like what sushi is wrapped in - seaweed?
Inside: cucumber, that strange beef, and I can't remember what else

Desserts are another matter entirely though! The cake here I’ve found is quite different to cake back home; it’s hard to describe, but I guess I would say it’s more dense? Heavier? But delicious for sure! (They ain't got nothing on http://www.thepatchworkbakery.com/ though). These cakes below are from fancy bakeries. There are other - I guess I’d still call them - bakeries around that sort of operate as stalls, and these sell cake too, just not as prettily decorated you see. My fave thing to buy from these though is what I call ‘flat bread’; it’s a savoury, doughy thing kind of like a naan or pitta bread (but much more oily) and tastes so delicious!

So I bought this cake for our lǎowài Thanksgiving
The icing was kind of creamy and light, the filling 
was layers of sponge with layers of fruit (not sure what - mango?)
Really good!

Something sweet! Apologies for the darkness of the photo
- the bakery was having a powercut at the time

Green Tea Cheesecake!
Well it said cheesecake, but it wasn't. Nice though!

White Chocolate Mousse thingy
SO good!

下次见 (Xià cì jiàn)!

xoxo