维心日面

I've been on a ramen hunt for the past few months because I missing those Japanese style noodles.

Using dianping, I found this 维心日面which is highly rated near my office, at B2 around Lou Shan Guan train station.

The place stocked many japanese manga (comics) and magazines for customers and the menu is very japanese, only ramen and some sides and one or two pictures

The soup was quite good, I could taste the essence of pork cooking for 2 days but it wasn't salty enough.
But maybe it was modified to suit the local's taste.

The noodles were better than ajisen's, springy and the meat was delightful. The egg was the bomb.

I had missed those soft juicy soft boiled eggs with red yolk ever since I tasted them in Japan and I had researched on how to replicate those eggs and turns out that it was very scientific: The eggs had to be be fresh, boiled in a specific temperature for a specific amount of time, then another temperature for some time.

Overall, a little expensive for ramen, but it sure was close to what I had in Japan and I would definitely come back for my fix of ramen.


维心日面

长宁区天山路762号泓鑫时尚广场B2楼(近古北路)

Xi'an

 Xi'an is one of my must-go list in China because I wanted to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at least once in my life so this 4 day holiday presented itself perfectly. I bought the 1.5hr flight for 1300 yuan, which was considered okay for this peak travelling period.

I stayed in a hostel "Han Tang" which was quite nice and cosy and the staff were very helpful. No plans beforehand, I went out with an Irish lady I met on the first day, Terra Cotta warriors on the second day, climbed Hua Shan on the third day and visited the Shaanxi Museum on the forth before returning to Shanghai.

It was a nice cultural town, very touristy but very convenient because most of the economy depends on tourism. The government actually does a really good job taking care of tourist in Xi'an e.g. airport express buses, cheap official safe transport to attractions etc. Winter is the off-peak season so tickets were off-peak prices, saved me a lot of money.

One of the famous mutton dishes. Its all halal in Xi'an!

The City Wall

Big Goose Pagoda

The Halal Food Street

Its like attending a small China history lesson, learning about the Qin dynasty. The Terra Cotta pits that were exhibited were actually only small part of the guard post for Qinshihuang's tomb and the rest of the tomb is actually still intact, underground which is many times bigger than the pits we seen.

They said of mercury river which symbolises the seas and oceans and mechanical traps that protects the tomb. The tomb has actually very good feng shui, mountains and rivers, jade and gold (mining in the mountains), that's why he chose that place. There is also clay musicians, a zoo, acrobats, the other palace officials etc buried with him.

The famous kneeling archer

Pit no. 1

Yeah its crazy huge

So I went mountain climbing on the first day of the year

This part is crazy steep. You can't even see the bottom. I had to climb like climbing a ladder.

They named this Gold Monster but i think its really exquisite

Overall it was a really educational trip! One tick off my must-go list!

2013

Happy New Year everyone!

So it snowed heavily on 29th December, the last day of work. It was the first snowfall in Shanghai at -2 degrees.

I was travelling in Xi'An for the new year holidays so I was out of town for a little while and its the beginning of the year, the busiest period at work.

Will update soon, stay tuned.