Chapter 38. FOODIE HONG KONG

Day 2 lunch - Tsim Sha Tsui area

The heat was soaring, so we asked the uncle, "Got AC or not?". He candidly replied, "Of course got. No AC how to do business?'

Authentic HK cafe

Small coffee shops were all over the place. It's a cheaper and tastier alternative to the fast food restaurants. Only drawback? The menu is 98% mandarin & the waiter keeps rushing you for your order.

Milk Tea - HKD $14

Rice w Beef Brisket - HKD $28

Mixed Beef, Beef Brisket & Tendon Noodle Soup (Trademark Dish) - HKD $38

These 2 dishes were god sent. It was so slurpingly excellent we licked the bowl empty. I really love anything with beef in it. The soup base was overflowing with flavour and definitely deserved the "trademark" tag.

Mee Pork noodles

Yung Kee Restaurant

Look at all the roasted geese

Day 2 supper was especially reserved for Yung Kee. It's located footsteps away from Lan Kwai Fong and is well known for its roasted goose. Most of the internet forums have rave reviews for this restaurant.

I saw posters inside for roasted goose bak zhang. Wonder how that'll taste like.

Look at the all the customers

We were still full from dinner so we opted to "tapao" the goose back for supper. The place was so crowded for a weekday (Thurs), testament to its popularity among diners. We had to wait 15-20 mins for takeaway.

I was so happy ;o)

Roasted Goose (1/4 hind) - HKD $110

Bear in mind the goose comes with a high price tag. HKD $110 for just a quarter of a goose. But the meat practically melts in my mouth. The meat was succulent and juicy, (even when cold, can't imagine how good it taste if it's heated up).

Lan Fong Yuen

After packing our supper at Yung Kee, we'd initially planned to have some "drunken prawns", "nine big ghost" ( 九 大 鬼 ) at this "dai pai dong" called Lan Fong Yuen. According to the internet it is one of the oldest "dai pai dong" around central.

What I never bothered to check was the opening hours, which are early in the morning till the evenings and it was famous for its ( 丝 袜 奶 茶 ) esp for breakfast.

I imagine it would be so "HK feel" to sit on the wooden bench, wrap one arm around a knee and raise one leg while drinking the 丝 袜 奶 茶. ;o)

Dessert Store

許 留 山 has more branches around the Kowloon region than I have fingers. There are 3 outlets just in the vincinity of our hotel. (2-3 blocks radius) It's logo is "Healthy Desserts" and it serves ice shaven desserts coupled with fruits.

Aloe Vera in Mango Juice - HKD $18

Glutinous Balls w Mango & Strawberry - HKD $30

Very colourful

The shop deco and the desserts were full of zest and colours. The desserts were quite good and fitted right in with the warm weather. There were tons of different combinations on the menu. Check it out here.

Price was a tad steep but is expected for HK standard.

Day 3 - Breakfast

Weather was gloomy - raining again.

For breakfast we visited another one of the authentic HK coffee shops adjacent to our hotel. There are so many of them and everything looks so nice.

鱼 楠 粥 - HKD $27

车 仔 面 - HKD $20

I had the 车 仔 面 (little cart noodle), the GF had the 鱼 楠 粥 (Fish brisket porridge) while the housemate had the 艇 仔 粥 (little boat porridge).

All 3 dishes are popular delights among hongkies for morning breakfast and ... on our "to eat" list. ;o)

Fried economy noodles - HKD $8

The 车 仔 面 is just like regular noodles with lots of taugeh. I did not try the 艇 仔 粥 but it has a lot of ingredients (but cheap price) such as fish, lean meat, cuttlefish, peanuts etc.

The highlight was the 鱼 楠 粥 which was utterly delectable. The porridge was cooked till every grain melted into a watery paste. The fish brisket added a distinctive flavour and it was bursting with flavour. Perfecto!

So good that we had it again for breakfast the following morning.

Hong Kong island fish cake noodles

Unique deco

This shop is located at TST near Grandville St. We had our breakfast about 2 hrs ago and the stomach was still full. But it was too tempting to resist. (Had to try ..........)

Just ordered one

The decoration of this particular shop was quite unique, with a black & white polka dot theme. They were still very full so I just ordered 1 for tasting purposes. I had the milk tea to go along with it.

鱼 蛋 粉 - HKD $31 (Including milk tea)

The 鱼 蛋 粉 was quite nice, just too salty and we weren't able to finish it. I dropped 15 strands of hair by consuming half of that. ;o(

Milk Tea, Ying Yong (my favourite) & Horlick

Ying Yong is my favourite drink while in HK. It is basically a mixture of tea and coffee. It might be my imagination but Ying Yong from other countries don't taste half as nice as from HK.

Day 3 - Lunch

We had our lunch at the Jordan area. The shop had more of an upscale feel and served various types of dishes.

Rice with BBQ Pork - HKD $35 (inclusive of drinks)

Roasted Goose with noodles - HKD $49 (inclusive of drinks)

Just in case you haven't noticed, HK food is generally classified as CANTONESE cuisine. Noodles, BBQ meat, soups are few of the main dishes around. (Ku Lou meat is canton food)

It is true that these dishes can also be found in Msia/Singapore. But the hongkies seems to emphasize greatly on the taste and flavouring. So much that the dishes seems to taste better in HK.

(Might be the imagination acting up again)

有 骨 气 Steamboat

We were deciding either to go 有 骨 气 (TST) or 小 绵 羊 (Mongkok). Both comes highly recommended by a hk food forum.

Our table

We finally decided to go to 有 骨 气 because 小 绵 羊 is from china (i think) and we're here for HK food! Not china food.

Beef slices

Various types of balls

Apparently hongkies like steamboats (esp now raining season) and one actually has to book in advance to dine at 有 骨 气 . Luckily they managed to secure us an empty table.

There was the option to have buffet or ala carte. Stupid me decided to have ala carte. In the end the total bill almost totalled the buffet option. Half way through we requested to change to the buffet option but the manager refused.

He's a bad man. ;o(((((

Pork Ribs soup base

The soup was thick and "oomph" with flavour. I had imagined myself taking a piece of beef slice (with shopsticks) and rummaging it through the hot soup before consuming it. (like in TVB haha )

Frankly it didn't live up to its expectations. I had imagine the steamboat in HK to be so tasty that we'll shoot through the roof. I mean it was good, but just not good enough. ;o(

Total damage = HKD $485 for 3 ppl.

許 留 山 again (some honeydew concoction) - HKD $7

Herbal Egg (my love) - HKD $10

Hui Lau San + Herbal egg for supper.

By now (Day 7 of our trip), the pants are feeling slightly thighter. *sob*

Stanford Hotel room

Final day in HK, we had our breakfast at another coffee shop just next to the one yesterday. Found out later that it's actually 2 shops with different names, but sharing the same kitchen & workers.

Thick toast with peanut butter & milk

Yau Cha Kuai

鱼 楠 粥 again ;o)

With sad hearts we bid HK goodbye and headed over to Macau. I felt this HK trip was more for food than sight-seeing. (I'm not complaining). The only regret was:

To Eat List

1. Never tried 九大鬼.
2. Never tried "drunken prawns". (Pour alcohol/beer on live prawns till drunk, then cook them)
3. Never tried Dai Zai Hai.
4. Never tried Stinky Tofu (Heard the ones from HK is more foul smelling than from Taiwan)

Yummy yummy. Looking back at all the pictures sure makes me drool. ;o)


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