Hong Kong - Day 5, 6 and 7

The jet lag is slowly subsiding and in the day time I'm dealing with the fattest headache because work hours should be when I'm sleeping in Asia. Food doesn't taste good right now because I'm still a bit disoriented. Boo. Since I can't sleep, I treat you to a recap of days 5, 6, and 7 of Hong Kong.

Dirty but interesting wet market.

Blue and white shrimps!

Apparently our relatives are really in the know about popular food places. We ate at several highly rated restaurants specializing in a single dish.

Like Mak's Noodle, famous for wonton noodle soup in a rice bowl sized bowl. It was so good. MSG goodness of course but still so good. And those gai lan greens were very young and tender. They basically only have about a few menu items all cooked by those two chefs in a small space the size of a closet. The items are: wonton noodle soup, dumpling noodle soup, wonton and dumpling noodle soup, wonton and/or dumpling soup by itself with no noodles, and the gai lan greens.

Yat Lok is famous for their roast goose and noodle dish. This restaurant has one Michelin star and Anthony Bourdain ate here. But then again he ate everywhere in Hong Kong and the people were proud. News articles with his image touting their special dishes were posted on these restaurant windows. The roast goose is ordered separately with either rice or noodles. Their specialty is the noodle dish though. I had to admit, that was one fantastic goose. I haven't had roast goose before this trip except for a few days prior. At that time, goose tasted fatty and gross. It was like all the fat parts of a chicken and none of the meat. However, Yat Lok's goose was leaner with a fatty taste but you don't really feel or see any fat tissue. It went really well with the noodle soup. I can see why Anthony Bourdain would eat here. I'm not a qualified expert to see why it earned the Michelin star though.

Bonus points: You can throw your goose bones right onto the table and they'll clean it up afterwards.

Day 5 ended with a tapas meal at a Western style restaurant. It was tasty enough but overpriced, with small portions, and felt very much like being in America. Here is the rack of lamb entree. Two piddly lamb ribs are considered an entree.

Our cousin took us to a fancy and well known restaurant called Ms B's Cakery for dessert. It is known for the cakes but they also serve food. Ms B's sits atop a high rise and was once the penthouse home of a rich CEO. The night time view of the city was amazing.

Top: Peach sangria with mixed fruit

Left: Lychee cake with Light and airy mousse

Right: Coffee crunch cake (my preference over the two)  

My favorite Asian dessert is tofu pudding with syrup. I've mentioned this a billion times before. On Day 6, we were fortunate to have a house made version, fresh in a wooden and metal container. Craving satisfied! 

Hello to blog reader Kay for meeting up with us and taking us to Crystal Jade, HK's answer to the Taiwanese chain, Din Tai Fung. I've never eaten at Din Tai Fung but I had my guest blogger Sherry post about it. You can read about her experience here. Both Crystal Jade and Din Tai Fung are chains known for the xiao long bao -- the juicy dumpling that eats like a bag of soup. 

Crispy tofu skin rolls with mushrooms inside were a noteworthy favorite for me. 

This assemble-yourself sandwich was a new hit too. You take a flat, square peking duck type of bun (right) and lay in a piece of ham with honey sauce(?), crispy fried tofu skins(?), and pieces of cucumber. It was surprisingly amazing. I was very wary because as you can see, I can't even tell what all the ingredients are, and a sugary glaze on ham sounds strange. It's good though, I tell ya.

 And on to the main event, the xiao long bao. We ordered 2 trays of 4 dumplings each. True to form, they were juicy soup filled fun pockets. That sounds dirty but hey, when in doubt about food writing, always use sexual innuendos to make your point. So good. I should have ordered 2 more trays. Maybe now I will have to go to Din Tai Fung in the US to get my fix.

Hong Kong - Day 4

As our family schedule wound down, we had more time to finally explore the cha chan tang (HK style cafe) and street food. 

I had a cafe version of a club sandwich for breakfast. Spam, egg, bread, cheese, tomatoes on toasted white bread without the crust. Mostly tasteless.

Cheong fun (rice noodle roll) for breakfast. Also tasteless.

Cheong fun wrapped around youtiao (rice noodle wrapped around Chinese oily donut). Also tasteless unless you put the youtiao alone into a bowl of porridge.

Odd spaghetti shaped noodles with a side of pork.

We're always curious about McDonald's food in other countries. Could not resist buying these chicken wings from McD's. From left to right: BBQ, spicy garlic, and regular. It came with a packet of Thai chili sauce which was pretty good. My favorite was the BBQ flavor. It was tangy and spicy.

That Christmas carol lyric, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire" always makes me want to try roasted chestnuts but realistically, in this day and age, where can you find it? In Hong Kong at a street stall roasting over coals of course. It's quite good.

I had to have my milk tea with grass jelly in Asia. It's not spectacular but still good.

We stumbled upon this street side vendor selling cold noodles in bags. The noodles were $3HK and each additional topping was another $3. I had spinach noodles with bean sprouts, marinated octopus, and chili garlic sauce. The best part was customizing your order and watching the lady mix it with bamboo skewers in the bag. It's not bad but tastes just ok. Pretty generic and not memorable. This was purely for the experience of eating noodles from a bag with a stick on the sidewalk.

Doughy takoyaki

Overall the street food in HK was not so great. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing memorable. Except for this noodle joint in an alleyway we ducked into. I had won ton noodle soup for about $3.50 USD. Twas good.

Phil had beef noodle soup which was super good for also $3.50 USD. Neither of us got sick from any of the foods mentioned. A successful day exploring HK street food ending with great cheap bowls of noodle.

Hong Kong - Day 2 and 3

We took a half day tour on Day 2 in Hong Kong. It was lame-ish. Do not use Splendid Tours. In case you cared, here's what HK looks like right now.

This is from Victoria Peak. It is winter, it is foggy and cold.

Side planking on rocks by the ocean near Stanley Market

So which bin is for the cum?

We had a traditional HK style breakfast at Kam Wah Cafe which turns out to be pretty famous. The breakfast was a set meal of noodle with your choice of topping, ham, sausage, egg, and a tea. I had ramen noodles with spicy pickled cabbage and pork, my egg was sunnyside up, and the tea was yinyuen which is half milk tea and half coffee. The food was just ok. It reminds me of the hodge podge I cooked for myself when I was younger and my parents worked a lot so I basically cooked up kitchen sink meals for myself after school. I appreciate the experience of having a traditional HK style breakfast which was served quickly and easily and all under $5USD per meal.

Kam Wah is really known for this pineapple bun. This is the best bun in HK according to CNN.  It does not taste like pineapple, only named so because of the bumpy appearance of the top. The bun is nice and warm and fluffy with a thick slice of butter wedged in the middle. If you wait a bit, the butter will melt and each bite has sweet fluffy bread and warm rich butter. So good. Well worth the calories. Treat cho self to a pineapple bun at Kam Wah Cafe!

I had stinky tofu for the first time ever at the night market food stall. Stinky tofu is fermented tofu, can be fried or steamed or prepared in other ways. 

Here it is up close. I will let the next 3 pictures show you my first impression.

Oh gawd, it tastes like salty dead people.

On the contrary, I also had fried baby pigeon and it was so tender and juicy. The meat is almost buttery. Tastes nothing like how you'd imagine a dirty pigeon to taste.

Luxurious abalone

Beautiful birthday buns

A big purpose for this trip is for a relative's birthday so here we are in our finest - birthday tripping. 

Hong Kong - Day 1

It is 5AM of my first day in Hong Kong and I can't sleep, as expected. Despite almost falling asleep at 8PM at the dinner table last night, suddenly my body doesn't want to sleep. I'm attempting to do something I've never done before, blog on vacation, only because for once I brought my cable and laptop to upload photos. 

Ya dig my digs? 

Many places are still decorated for Lunar New Year, like this display at the mall.

I fit right in here with the cutesy Asian-ness. Phil asked me, "How does it feel to finally be in a country where you're average height?" That jerk!

Totally. Adorable. Bathroom signs. 

My first bite in Hong Kong was a piece of this fried fish skin at a cafe near our hotel. Crispy, crunchy, fatty. 

Everything I've eaten today was good but here are some noteworthy items. This Chinese lettuce (called Celtuce) is not available in the US, that I know of. It looks like romaine but has a more fibrous texture, darker leaves, and sweeter taste. I've eaten this dim sum dish in the US a few times replicated with romaine and it is not the same. Absolutely my favorite new green and I'm going to eat it as much as I can here.

Stir fried noodles with soy sauce. So simple, so good. 

Braised goose feet with Chinese lettuce. It's like chicken feet with webs and fewer joints.

This pig had the crispiest skin, ever. I mean ever. Like if you think the guy you usually go to for your lechon for Filipino family gatherings was so good because he made the skin super crispy, well this is 70% more crispy than that lechon. And the meat underneath was tender and flavorful. 

Til next time, my friends!