Hong Kong Eats: My Favorite Restaurant (food, HKFall10)

This place has been my favorite Cantonese restaurant for the last 15 or so years even back when it was known as 新兜記, a smallish sized restaurant in Jordan mostly catering to the late night crowd and was cash only. In its current incarnation as 新斗記 (roughly phonetically: Sun Dau Gei), it moved to a much larger, brighter space still in Jordan, and is often packed and sold out of food items early in the night. This was the only place we went to during my short trip to Hong Kong where we said immediately that we had to revisit before I left. The pictures below include dishes from both visits.

I almost always get preserved eggs with ginger when they're available. These were good.

Their barbecued roast meats are supposed to be good, but every time I asked them about roast goose they said they were sold out, including the time we were one of the first tables for the night's service! My guess is they have to be specially pre-ordered for a large group. We did get one soy sauce braised squab to take home. It was meaty and flavorful, but came out a bit salty, probably because it had been soaking in the sauce on the ride home.

Pea shoot leaves cooked in broth (上湯豆苗) was very tender and the dish was filled with vegetables.

The chinese broccoli with ginger juice (薑汁芥蘭) was unique because of what they did with the vegetables. The harder outer layer of the stem was practically all peeled off, leaving essentially the heart of the chinese broccoli, like choy sum (菜心). I guess they really like tender vegetables there.

The soy sauce based stir fried goose intestines (豉油王鵝腸) were good, with that soft crunch (爽) texture that Chinese people really like. There was just a little too much corn starch in the sauce, making it a little too goopy for our tastes, but it wasn't a deal breaker.

The thing that separates this restaurant from others is not its Cantonese dishes, but that it's a place that offers good quality Cantonese dishes along with a fresh seafood collection that's comparable to seafood specialty places right off the water at Sai Kung (西貢) and Lei Yue Mun (鯉魚門). Everything was fresh, alive, and swimming, including a large fish tank of fish, as well as a whole mess of large prawns (花竹蝦), fresh abalone (鮑魚), mantis prawns (賴尿蝦), giant razor clams (大刀蜆/聖子王), and many more.

Giant razor clams sauteed in black bean and pepper sauce (豉椒炒聖子王) was tasty with that perfect clam texture that gives you a bite but tender enough to not be chewy.

A look at the marvellous array of fishes in the fish tank. It's important in Hong Kong for fresh fish to be swimming, whereas in NYC even whole head-on fish put on ice at Greek restaurants is already a big deal.

Look at this behemoth of a fish. That red-orange fish next to it is already a decent sized fish.

The prized catch of the day was this napolean wrasse (蘇眉) which retailed at HK$80/tael, or approximately USD$7.7/ounce. Ours came in at roughly 2.5lbs, and cost about USD$300. The need for fish to be swimming to be considered truly fresh in Hong Kong is a big factor as to these astronomical prices. It's much more perishable than any flash frozen fish, and you only get one chance to cook it right. If you mess up, you can't just go grab another. Another factor in the price for this specific fish species is its scarcity.

Napolean wrasse steamed Cantonese style. This is the preferred method to cook fresh fish in Hong Kong, and brings into focus not only the flavor of the fish but the texture, the preferred texture being a smooth, silky, firm flesh that gives way when you bite into it.

Our super expensive fish opened up. Like I said before, the chef really can't afford to mess this up, so they usually err on the side of undercooking it slightly, and let the customers spoon the hot soy sauce and oil onto it to finish it off. It was delicious and had the perfect texture. The fish's cheeks and lips were also tasty.

For those who do not want to spend a fortune on a fish, the other specialty of the house is the made to order roasted suckling pig. It's not exactly roasted to order, but there is a guy who continuously roasts them throughout the night, so they're probably fresher than roasted suckling pigs you'd get elsewhere. They come in different sized orders with the basic (例牌), quarter pig, half pig, and whole pig. I recommend getting at least half a pig because it's more likely that you'd get a fresh one made to order.

Here's our cute half piggy. There is a good amount of meat left underneath that skin, and it's pretty tasty too, though on one of the occasions we ordered it there were pieces of meat that seemed underseasoned. As the seasoning rub gets applied from the underside, meat closest to the bones had the most salt.

The key part of Chinese style roasted suckling pig is the skin. This skin was extraordinary both times we had it. When they sliced the skin off, notice that they took care to remove the fat as well, so that you can focus on that crisp piece of skin. The genius here is that it's not only a crisp piece of skin, but that it's also begun to puff up, so that it kind of melts in your mouth as well.

Here is the pig roasting master himself. He's important not only to ensure that the pig gets cooked through, but he also continually bastes the pig and pokes holes in the skin with a needle to allow it to aerate and develop that puffed up melty texture. They told me that he roasts up to 30 pigs a night!

Now that the restaurant is much more accessible than it was in its past life, I strongly urge everyone to go give it a try. Even if you only go to have the suckling pig, I think it's worth it. The place does get packed quickly, so if you're also interested in the many seafood options, I suggest you make some reservations and get there early.

Hong Kong Eats: Lunch at Yung Kee (food, HKFall10)

I've heard more and more complaints over the years about Yung Kee. Too crowded, too many tourists, inconsistency, and a general decline in quality, especially on the non-VIP floors. While all of those things may be true to some extent, I still think it's worth a stop for its signature goose and preserved eggs.

Starting off with the preserved eggs with pickled ginger. One of my favorite things to eat, but it's not for everyone. Yung Kee prides itself on the gelled center of their eggs, and it does add a nice texture component to the creamy yolk.

This isn't the same roast pork that you get at your local Chinese takeout. This plate cost about HK$130(=USD$16) and was filled with sweet, tender, meaty pork. This is how Chinese barbecue really is. Not the best, but still very good.

The signature roast goose. I haven't been able to find any goose in NYC, so this was quite a treat for me. We asked for one that wasn't too fat, which may have been why there were some pieces that were a tad dry. However, the goose was full of flavor and the skin was nice.

Hong Kong Eats: Din Tai Fung in Causeway Bay (food, HKFall10)

I love xiaolongbao. More commonly known as soup dumplings in the US, they are one of my favorite food items ever. Din Tai Fung is a fairly famous restaurant that specializes in xiaolongbao, having originated in Taiwan and with branches all over the world. In fact, one of their Hong Kong branches was awarded one Michelin star in the most recent Hong Kong and Macau guide. I had been having a craving for good xiaolongbao and so we went to their Causeway Bay branch and was not disappointed. The restaurant is huge and has a pretty big menu which we sampled by ordering a whole bunch of stuff in addition to the xiaolongbao.

Chilled chinese cucumbers in a lightly spicy dressing was crunchy and refreshing.

Ham in aspic is hard not to love. It's pork and broth jelly. This was good but not the best version I've had.

Jellyfish and daikon is a great combination of textures with more refreshing flavors. Okay, the appetizers have whetted our appetites.

The signature xiaolongbao, fresh from the steamer. These were probably the best ones I've ever had in terms of execution. That being said, I've never been to Shanghai, so it's also like someone claiming to have had the best pizza without having been to New York (specifically DiFara) or Italy. While Northern Chinese dumplings tend to favor a thicker skin, Southern Chinese style dumplings are all about thin and delicate skins. To explain how thin the dumpling skin was on these, every time I held one of these in mid-air with my chopsticks, the meat would visibly sink down and drag on the dumpling, causing me to worry that it was going to break. And yet it never broke. That's amazing execution.

One bite off the top to see the innards. More evidence of the excellence in execution was how soft the top was. The top, which is the bundled part of the dough from all the folds, becomes tough very easily and is a good indicator of how fresh the dumpling is. This is the crab roe version, as can be seen by the orange specks. The broth was hot and flavorful. In fact, both my mom and I preferred the regular version because it had more of the broth.

In addition to the soup dumplings, we also ordered some of the bigger buns to give them a try.

The inside of the large pork bun. This was above average, but I would say to save your stomach space for more xiaolongbao instead.

One of the mains we always order at Shanghainese restaurants is the lightly stir-fried fresh water shrimp. These were okay, but I never have high expectations for this dish in general. Maybe the shrimp that we grew up loving just aren't the same anymore. It's kind of like how it's hard to find true Shanghainese yellow croaker.

My mom loves hot and sour soup so we ordered a big bowl to share. It's good and satisfying and full of ingredients. There wasn't as much corn starch as one would often get from US Chinese takeout places, but we did detect some MSG.

One thing that they do well in both Shanghainese and Taiwanese cuisine is a fried pork chop. So I ordered the pork chop over egg fried rice. The pork chop was indeed wonderful. Juicy, tender, well-seasoned, and not greasy. The egg fried rice was not that good, however, so I would probably get it over noodles next time.

In all, a wonderful meal of small dishes that completely satisfied my craving for soup dumplings. My guess is that we were fortunate to eat at a very off-peak time (3pm) and so everything was freshly made to order. The restaurant is really big so I can imagine them having to do some stuff ahead of time to serve people in a timely manner when the restaurant is full. However, if you catch them at their best, theirs is an amazing specimen of xiaolongbao.

Hong Kong Eats: Cheap eats (food, HKFall10)

This post isn't really about any particularly special cheap eats, but rather to show that there's good cheap food around where I live in Hong Kong and that I had regular everyday meals and didn't just go to specialty places. All of the places mentioned here are on Belcher Street, and because this area is a little older and not directly on an MTR line, stuff is naturally cheaper here.

First up is Fukuda Yakiniku (福田日本烤肉店), one of those Japanese Korean BBQ places. The set lunch is really cheap, priced at HKD$38(=USD$5) for certain main course meats and HKD$48(=USD$6.5) for more expensive meats. The set lunch includes side dishes, rice, soup, and jello for dessert.

A good selection of side dishes to start, and the grill where we would grill our own meat selections.

On this day we had deboned short ribs and marinated pork neck tenders. Again, the flavors and meats aren't going to blow your mind, but everything is more than serviceable for the price.

For something that has more of a Hong Kong feel to it, there's noodle soup (粉麵). Our preferred place to go was Boat Dweller Fish Balls (水上人魚蛋粉). Again, this is pretty common stuff in Hong Kong.

Assorted meatballs over ho fun (四寶河) had fishballs, beef meatball, fish skin dumpling, and fried fish cake pieces. I thought their stuff was definitely better than average, and the average price for a bowl of noodles like this was about USD$2-3.

In addition to fish balls, they also have serviceable brisket. I think this type of "brisket" (坑腩) is closer to short ribs than what we would normally call brisket, but either way was beefy and tender as expected.

My favorite thing there was the fried fish skin, which is definitely something I haven't been able to find in the US. Fried crisp and greaseless, these are like really addictive fish-flavored chips.

Last but not least is the corner congee shop (卓記粥店). So old school it has no English name, and no doors for that matter.

Huge hunks of turnip cake are fried fresh in the morning, at HKD$4(=USD$.50) per piece.

Stir-fried thin noodles in soy sauce is a common part of a traditional Chinese breakfast. This plate also cost HKD$4(=USD$.50) and is simple but tasty.

Another very popular Hong Kong breakfast item is fried crueller wrapped in steamed rice paper (炸兩). Fried crueller is essentially fried dough, often served with congee. Even though they don't wrap it till you order it, the crueller was not as crispy as I would have liked, which probably meant that they weren't freshly fried by the time I got there. But who cares, this plate cost HKD$6(=USD$.80).

My favorite congee is preserved egg with pork (皮蛋瘦肉粥), and their version is pretty good, with a nice congee base. Before 5pm, it comes at the discounted price of HKD$10(=USD$1.5).

***If you are squeamish do not read this last part***

For decent quality food, this place is ridiculously cheap even by Hong Kong standards. So what's the catch? Well, let's just say you probably wouldn't want to see the vats in which they cook and transport the congee. Also, on my third and last visit of my trip, a waterbug crawled onto my elbow (probably came across the wall from the outside, as there are no doors there). After violently shaking it off, I actually finished eating. Normally I'm pretty squeamish when it comes to these things, but given where I was, it wasn't particularly surprising and I was just unlucky. Not to mention the woman who worked there laughed as if to say, "What's there to be scared of?"

Hong Kong Eats: Tak Kee Chiu Chow Restaurant in Kennedy Town Praya (food, HKFall10)

One of the types of Chinese cuisine that I miss most living in NYC is Chiu Chow cuisine (潮州菜), or more specifically Chiu Chow style cold dishes (潮州打冷). So it's great that not far from where I live in Hong Kong is a very popular restaurant specializing in this style of food, called Tak Kee Chiu Chow Restaurant ( 德記潮州菜館). Tak Kee has moved from it's original location to a much larger place nearby, but it remains as crowded as ever. The food is solid and more importantly the prices are very reasonable for this type of cuisine, which at times can get very expensive.

Starting off at every table is a small dish of pickled vegetables and fried bean curd. Good sweet and sour flavors help to open up people's appetites.

Braised goose slices over fried tofu. Braised goose (滷水鵝) is a main staple of this type of cuisine, with the soy-based braising liquid (滷水) consisting of many different ingredients. Here these slices are from more expensive parts of the bird such as the breast or the thigh, and are full of good meaty flavor. At HK$80 (=USD$10) it's quite a bargain, considering it's very easy to find this at other places in Hong Kong for two to three times that price.

Cold-served fish (凍烏頭) uses a fish that is a local product, and that from what I can find on the internet is a striped mullet. The fish is not even scaled, but just opened up, gutted, and steamed. Then it is chilled and served cold. You only eat the meat and dip it into the fermented bean sauce that's on the side. This was really good, fresh-tasting fish that had a nice firm texture. Another good deal at ~HKD$80(=USD$10).

Oyster pancakes had lots of small oysters fried together with some starchy dough mixture and scallions. This was solid but nothing extraordinary.

Sichuan pepper chicken (碧綠川椒雞) is a dish that I get all the time as well. The sichuan pepper flavor in the sauce is quite muted, so it's not a particularly special stir-fried chicken. However, I really like the fried leaves that accompany the dish. I can't figure out what they are, but after a little internet research, it appears that they are the leaves of a species of orchid plants. Not sure, but they're definitely tasty. I saw at another table that these leaves also accompany their fried chicken (炸子雞), so that might be a better option for someone looking to eat those leaves but get a different type of chicken preparation.

Chiu Chow style oyster congee (蠔仔粥) is a combination of rice, broth, oysters, and preserved vegetables. It's a wonderful assortment of flavors and textures. Note that the Chiu Chow version of congee is more like rice with broth and the rice is not cooked down like other congee.

This place continues to be extremely popular, with crowds and lines, and rightfully so. It has solid versions of Chiu Chow style cold dishes at very reasonable prices. It's a little out of the way for now for some people, but when the MTR finishes the Western district stops, it'll be much more accessible. Either way I highly recommend this place.

Hong Kong Eats: Tai Ping Koon in Causeway Bay (food, HKFall10)

Tai Ping Koon (太平館) is a restaurant that I grew up with and has a storied history. It was one of the earliest restaurants in Hong Kong that served what we called "soy sauce Western food" (豉油西餐) with a focus on their sweet, soy sauce-based "swiss sauce". The sauce actually has no Swiss background, but the name was derived from the chef's misunderstanding when a customer exclaimed that the sauce was sweet, and it has stuck ever since.

Perhaps it's because I have fond childhood memories of the food here that I went in with high expectations. Unfortunately, because of those expectations, this was probably the most disappointing meal of my trip. We ordered most, but not all, of the specialties of the house.

I understand that this was probably the only dish that was prepared ahead of time, but I still found it weird that the first dish to arrive at my table was the roasted sliced pork leg, accompanied by a plate of white rice. The pork leg would have been considered very dry if it wasn't for the fact that it was drowning in the sauce. The accompanying vegetables were as bland as they looked.

The boiled corned ox-tongue was simple but good. Nice solid pieces with good texture and a good mix of meat and fat. It had a nice, slightly briny flavor that wasn't overpowering. Something that might seem pretty ordinary in NYC (corned beef, tongue), but it's a little harder to find in Hong Kong.

The smoked pomfret also had a nice clean flavor, despite the very brown color. I love pomfret so I was pleased with this dish.

Roasted/fried squab had good squab flavor, but wasn't particularly exciting. Again, more of that sauce was everywhere, including the gravy boat filled with giblets.

Baked Portuguese style chicken was moist as the pre-roasted chicken was not baked to oblivion like many Hong Kong restaurants do with their baked dishes. The creamy curry sauce went well with the potatoes and rice.

Looking back, it really wasn't that bad of a meal. However, at this price point, the food just felt too heavy and the flavors were monotonous. Perhaps if I replaced the pork leg with other specialties like the swiss sauce chicken wings or the fried noodles with beef in swiss sauce, I would have felt the cost worth it for a trip down memory lane.

Hong Kong Eats: Kaiten Sushi at Sen-Ryo (food, HKFall10)

Hong Kong people love seafood. Fresh seafood. So it's no surprise that sushi is extremely popular in Hong Kong. When something is popular in Hong Kong, there is no hesitation whatsoever to saturate the market, so it's also no surprise that there are a lot of sushi places in Hong Kong. One particular type of restaurant that is very popular in Hong Kong is kaiten-zushi. Instead of a sushi chef making your request to order from behind a sushi counter, everyone sits with access to a conveyor belt running through the restaurant carrying plates of sushi. See what you like, grab it. It's quick and cheap. While the quality certainly wouldn't match the sushi at an expensive restaurant, a popular kaiten-zushi place that is constantly busy should have high turnover and hence, fresh seafood, thereby providing great value.

While we were walking around Tai Koo City Plaza, we stumbled onto Sen-Ryo(千兩) and decided to give it a try. It's a chain with about 6 restaurants across Hong Kong. Their sushi seems to somehow be affiliated with Genki Sushi(元氣), a popular kaiten-zushi chain in Hong Kong favored for its quality, but otherwise it's a separate chain.

We started off with swordfish belly sashimi, ordered off the seasonal menu. The fish was fatty, but was a little too ice-cold for me, masking some of the flavor.

Uni gunkan maki was not of the highest quality, but the sea urchin had plenty of flavor and was a good value.

Crab sushi with real crab and real crab flavor. I'm so tired of the constant use of imitation crab sticks in the states.

One of the more interesting selections was this gunkan maki filled with raw sweet shrimp, crab tomalley and cucumbers. It worked really well in terms of flavors and textures, and was a great deal at HK$14 (=USD$1.8) per plate.

Also delicious was this gunkan maki filled with spicy salmon and topped with tobiko. Another great deal at HK$14 (=USD$1.8) per plate.

Cod liver gunkan maki was good and had a nice clean taste.

Another unique preparation was this flounder fin seared then topped with a black pepper sauce. The sauce was good and the fin had a good chew to it but was not tough at all.

I love foie gras sushi. I think seared foie gras and vinegared sushi rice is an amazing combination. The onion strands provided a nice crunch to round out the textures in the bite. As you can tell from the photo, there's a good amount of liver for the HK$30 (=USD$3.80) price.

There's no master sushi chef making your food, but there's a good selection of fresh tasting sushi and rolls at a good value. I'd recommend it if you happened to be in the area. Also recommended if you happen to be in the Tai Koo area is a trip around the food market section of Jusco. It's massive, with all kinds of food (ready-made, frozen, fresh produce, etc.), restaurants, and lots and lots of free samples.