We woke up quite early, lazed around in bed checking our phones, reading etc. We finally got up around eight as we had to meet our Lost Plate morning food tour before nine am. We left at 8:45 – walked down the ally (Yay I saw a Jianbing maker so we’ll go get some tomorrow morning) and around the corner to meet in front of the fire station to meet Iris our tour guide. We had to wait a b it as another couple was supposed to join us but they didn’t show up so it ended up just being the tow of u, Iris the tour guide and our tuk tuk driver.

We jumped into the tuk tuk with Iris and were off to our first stop – a beef pancake place. The dough was hand rolled and flattened on a table off to the side until it was very thin than filled on the edge with a mixture of beef, leeks and onions and than rolled up and over the filling until it was a round ball. The ball was than flattened out and fired each side in oil. It turned out to taste fantastic and I could see how it would be very filling. They had been operating in this location for 70 years with three generations.

Our next stop was a breakfast beef stew place. Our guide found seats for us in the very busy restaurant and than waited in line for us to get a bowl of the stew.  She brought the one bowl over to share as well as some bread. We saw people tearing up the bread and putting it in the stew so I did the same. To be perfectly honest it didn’t look appetizing at all. It was a very gloopy consistency and looked bland. As soon as I took a bite I could understand why there were line ups every morning and why they ran out before noon usually as Iris had informed us. The stew had so many layers of flavours and the vegetables had a perfect tenderness to them. It was very spicy by itself and than there was chili oil added on top. Hubby found it way to spicy and I found it quite spicy but so flavourful.

Our next stop was to a cricket shop. Many people buy them as pets. Crickets are huge. I had no idea they got that big. They wanted to show us crickets fighting but we didn’t want to see that so they just had two jump around a little. From there we walked through a morning market and saw lots of lovely produce etc. There were some absolutely huge radishes, some kohlrabi, lettuces, squash, pumpkin (this looked like kombucha squash but they called it pumpkin) and lots of different nuts and seeds.

It was a lovely walk with some interesting people watching. Afterwards we met up with our tuk tuk and Iris jumped out and grabbed some snacks to take to the next spot as there wasn’t anywhere to site or park and have them there. 

Our final stop was for dumplings in broth and hand pulled noodles with beef and veggies. The noodles were fabulous but I was getting so full I couldn’t finish them. The dumplings were good but the broth was quite sour so I didn’t enjoy them as much. All in all it was a wonderful tour. After they dropped us back to our apartment we both puttered for a little bit and than after all that rich food we both had naps.

That night it was hubby’s turn to choose dinner but he couldn’t find anything he liked so we ended up at KFC at the mall which was tasty. It was the first place we had a little difficulty with having no Mandarin however there was a young guy that they pulled over who translated for us. The only word he couldn’t figure out was thigh so he had me type it into his phone and than he said “oh I know just what you mean”. He was so awesome and helpful.

We took a walk after dinner to see the Bell tower and than through a park with lots of snuggling teenagers to the Drum tower. We sat for a bit enjoying the brightly lit towers and hubby noted that maybe part of the Muslim market was behind the tower but we were too tired to explore more so home to bed we went stopping at the French bakery on the way back for snacks.