To Dim Sum or to Yum Cha

You have to do it don't you. When in Rome. Dim Sum or Yum Cha is as Hong Kong as the Peak or the Star Ferry are. You think of one, you think of the other. We wanted to try one, but where. Do we go for one of the super slick Dim Sum Restaurants that serve immaculate and innovative food. Or one that was jammed packed with old friends catching up on daily events, picking different dishes off the carts being pushed around by old women. We choose the latter. 

I managed to get one recommended to us, luckily it was really local to us as well. As we walked in, we saw a huge room packed with at least a hundred people, all in true Hong Kong fashion making a hell of a racket. It was packed, and I think we looked kinda lost as one of the guys there found us two seats on a table being used by two other parties. The normal way, I observed afterwards, was to pick an area and hang around, and as soon as someone stands up to go, you pounce on that seat. 

So seated we were. We were given a pot of oolong tea, and then we waited for the trolley to come our way. There is no menu in these places, which made it more exciting. Bit like playing shotgun noodles again. The first trolley that came around had plates of steamed rice noodles filled with either fish or pork. We choose the pork ones, the woman poured over some soy sauce just to coat  the noodles. They were delish to say the least. The noodles were really soft and delicate to the taste, although meat was only at the ends not all the way through. 

Next up which seemed to be thrust upon us was some Steamed Pork Rolls. Lina reckons Beef, but I say Pork as they tasted like sausage meat. They were pretty good, but should have chosen the ones with shrimp as well. 

We were still kinda peckish, so we ordered some honey glazed pork and rice, that we had seen people eating and we liked what we saw. This had a real nice sticky glaze to it and went well with the rice.

We decided to have one more dim sum, so when the next trolley came around we ordered what looked like a Tamale. But turned out to be a Glutinous Rice Cake with Chicken Wrapped in a Lotus Leaf. It is a Chinese Tamale. Same type of thing. Really nice, but I really like Tamales, so this was right up my street. We are getting pretty good at eating difficult things with chopstix, even with those darn plastic things. Much prefer wooden chopstix, have more grip. 

We were just coming to the point of no more tea. Thee guy had filled up our tea pot with water countless times, then we saw a mad rush to a trolley over the other side of the room. The woman was mobbed with people, taking her delicious parcels of food. We had to wait before someone from our side came back with what she had. It was steamed buns. So I was up like a flash to grab me some Char Siu. Luckily she had some left. Phew. Me loves these little buns of barbecued pork. They tasted so good, I wish I could of had more, but we were pretty full by that point. The rice again.

Went over to pay for our hour of gorging, and the bill was HK$105. Unreal. I was expecting double that. 

We shall return in October.

Some Like It Hot !!!

I was quite excited to goto Chili Fagara. I had done my research and this was one of the best Szechuan restaurants located near to us. It is located half way up a steep hill on Graham Street, so you work up a thirst before you get there. There is not much lighting inside and the color of the place is deep red, a reference to the famous chili's (Pointing to Heaven is a literal translation) that Sichuan is famous for. The restaurant is pretty small and cramp. I could feel the pain that the poor girl next to me was going through, as I could feel the heat coming off her. 

The menu is shall we say contenpoary Szechuan. A few new additions, but mostly jazzed up old favourites. We started off on a few appitizers, some spicy, some not. Just to warm up the taste buds. We also had some beer, which was served to us in a bowl. Which was actually much more easier to drink from than a glass. Also you drink slower also. 

I ordered some Lemon Chicken to get us going, a time old favourite. Lovely pieces of deep fried chicken with a thick lemony sauce. This reminded me of lemon curd, a childhood obsession once upon a time. It wasn't on the menu, but I asked for Twice Cooked Pork, they were only too glad to do this for me. I was really happy. Absolutely great, apart from the lack of pork. Would have prefered a bit more. And to finish off and me literally as I was sooooo stuffed. Pearl of the Orient, a house speciality, they won an award a few years ago with this dish. It was a fruit, not too disimilar to a Lychee, coated in spicy crumbs and deep fried with at least 50 chili's. It really did have my mouth on fire. 

Now overall, it was ok but not as good as I was hoping it to be. The food in Bar-Shu in London has a more authentic note to it, and they do use Pointing to Heaven Chili's, which give you a more numbing effect in your mouth, not a mouth on fire effect. 

Good but not brilliant.

A Good Local Family Restaurant

Since we arrived here in Hong Kong, I have been searching high and low for some of the culinary delights that Hong Kong has to offer… I seem (well most of the time) to be able to spot or search out good eateries… No idea how I do it, but I am sure it is all my belly. Also as our kitchen here is pretty small, I cannot cook everyday, plus my Chinese cooking skills are not that good anyhows, and restaurants can cook a more varied amount of food. Plus they are much better at it than me. 

One of the best local places we have found is Ngau Kee Food Café, a family run places, we were told that number 2 son does all the cooking. The food is typically Chinese but with slight twists. We have eaten there a few times, and always the food has been fantastic. Ranging from Chicken cooked with ginger & spring onion (a personal fave) to the sweet n sour pork and deep fried shredded pork with minced salty fish, black Chinese mushrooms and water chestnuts (yes that long). The prices are very good also. It seems to be filled with locals and most of them I am sure are regulars. 

The speciality of the place seems to be the sweet and sour pork (as everyone has it) and a casserole of pork and noodles. We never tried it, but we shared a table quite a few times with people having it. Looks and smells great. Have to be in October now. 

We got chatting to the owner on one occasion, and he reliably informed us that Number 2 Son was doing all the cooking. A really god family place.

The Only Place To Buy Your Fruit 'n' Veg

I have been shopping in two places wince we arrived. The open market on Graham Street, is by far the most popular one I goto. I just enjoy the hustle n bustle of the place. The fish stalls where the fish is still alive when you buy it. The sellers take about 3 or 4 cuts to kill the fish and gut it. Then they descale it for you all within 10 se4conds. Incredible to see.

The fresh meat sellers, whose stalls look anything less that hygienic, with the meat hanging up on hooks in the humidity, but so far we have not had any bad effects from buying from these guys.

The fruit & vegetable stalls, all selling bundles of the freshest looking fruit n veg I have ever seen.

The other market, which is actually closer to home, is the Sheung Wan Covered market. A 3 storey building, which sells meat, cooked and uncooked, fresh fish, fruit, veggies and some dry goods, with a stall that sells some fantastic fresh egg noodles. This place is a bit cheaper than the one above, but then again it’s all about location, location, location here in Hong Kong. The top floor is the cooked food centre. We haven’t eaten there yet. Well we can only eat at so many places. Hahahahaha.

There are plenty of supermarkets here in Hong Kong, which we have been into to buy the store cupboard necessities like soy sauce, rice wine vinegar etc etc. There are some foreign or ex-pat orientated supermarkets, which really stock everything you would find back home. But am not tempted to make tacos just yet. They are also considerably more expensive than shopping at the local markets, and with prices of food on the increase the gap is widening.

We went the other day to Bowington Road Market. Another fantastic market, if we were staying closer then I would be here everyday. It’s similar to the one in Central but more spacious and a lot cheaper. Shame its in Wan Chai.

Every Sunday at the Star Ferry Pier in Central there is an Organic Farmers Market. The produce is grown in the New Territories. All the produce looks fantastic and fresh. They sell a lot of different varieties of salads that I have not seen before. They do not provide bags for you, they advise you to bring your own, but they will wrap your veg in a leaf for you, so you can carry it away. Excellent idea. 

We've arrived in Hong Kong

We’ve been firmly en trenched in our small studio apartment in Sheung Wang for 2 weeks now. Been real lazy in updating, but here is a first of many updates from Hong Kong. Our apartment/studio is small to say the least. Probably best for one person but we are coping well. The only downside is the kitchen, as we are on a tight budget, most of our eating will be done in this small one hot-plated kitchen. It’s frustrating to say the least. As only one hotplate, one small frying pan and one small pot. It drove me to despair, so I had to buy a bigger pan so at least I could do some stir-fries properly. Which has helped.

The good thing is that we are very close to two good markets. The nearest one is the 3 story Sheung Wang covered market. Which on the 1^st floor has fish and meat, and the next floor is for veg and dry goods and 3^rd floor has lots of cheap eateries. In the other direction is the Graham Street outdoor market in Central, which is where I have been doing most of my shopping. Having a blast shopping there. There are plans to re-develop this area one day, but hopefully they will fail, as it is a great place to shop.

So until the next post….