Category Archives: Chinese

The One With Taipo Street Cart Noodle – Incredible Value, Incredible Taste

11 February, 2015 10:00 am | Leave a Comment |

Street cart noodle is undoubtedly one of the cultural icons of Hong Kong. Made popular in the 1950s by street vendors peddling their wares using carts, street cart noodle continues to be a popular staple for Hong Kong today, and can be found everywhere.

I am a BIG fan of street cart noodle. Cart noodle is a kind of à la carte meal – you pick the kind of noodles that you want, the soup base you fancy, and the kind of ingredients you like to go with your noodle. The sheer options available can be mind-boggling especially to tourists, but it is a great big joy of an eat for gluttons like me.

So when my friend brought me to this nondescript stall at Taipo for a spot of street cart noodle for lunch one day, I couldn’t resist.

Taipo Street Cart Noodle

And oh my, what a bargain! There was a queue of course, but that’s mainly because the very reasonable price charged. You pay based on what kind of ingredients you want to go with your noodle.

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Posted in: Chinese, Taipo | Tagged: , , , ,

The One With On Lee Noodle – An Authentic Hong Kong Experience

22 January, 2015 10:00 am | Leave a Comment |

It was totally a spur of the moment kind of thing that I went to On Lee Noodle at Shau Kei Wan for lunch one working day. I have never heard of that place before, but my colleagues were singing praises of the noodle restaurant. It was a bit out of the way from our Causeway Bay office, but I could see why the place was popular.

On Lee Noodle

Since it was a rushed lunch, I ordered a bit of everything – beef brisket, with fish cake and fish ball. The beef was surprisingly tender and tasty, went well with soy-sauce noodle which was mixed just to the right degree (without getting overly oily). The fish cakes and fish balls were crunchy though can be a bit on the bland side if eaten on their own without other stronger-tasting dishes.

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Posted in: Chinese, Shau Kei Wan | Tagged: , , , ,

The One With Ho Lee Fook – Holy F*cking Good

2 August, 2014 2:28 pm | Leave a Comment |

I wrote the title of this post in case you missed the homonym of the cheeky name for a certain expletive, like I did. I honestly thought Ho Lee Fook was one of those trendy restaurants in Soho with a penchant for Asian names. Literally translated as “good fortune in the mouth”, Ho Lee Fook is third restaurant of Taiwan-born chef Jowett Yu. To give the restaurant its playful vibe, Yu collaborated with Douglas Young of G.O.D to come up with the many touches of off-beat Asian funkiness, including its name sake.

It was weekday night when a group of us #hkfoodbloggers descended into the basement of this Soho shop for a night of good food and great companionship. We literally ordered the entire menu, so I am in the position to tell you that, like most popular opinions, the food at Ho Lee Fook was as good as it looks despite all the cheeky sounding names.

Ho Lee Fook

Perhaps one of the key things you should know about Chef Yu is his obsession with sauces. We requested for a platter of these and he happily obliged. From extreme right, going clockwise – lemongrass chili paste, fresh chili, pickled chili, roasted black almond chili, chili sambal, salted chili, chili oil, and XO sauce at the center. I sampled each one and loved the zesty lemongrass chili paste the best. Gimme a huge bowl of rice with that.

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Posted in: Central, Chinese

The One With Old Bazaar Kitchen – Timeless Oldie Favourites

22 July, 2014 9:49 pm | Leave a Comment |

There is good food, and then then there is really good food.

I can’t remember the last time I gushed this much over a meal. It was completely unexpected and a gem of a find really. Upon some research, I discovered that Old Bazaar Kitchen has a long history with a prior location in Tin Hau that shuttered its door in 2012, only to re-emerged in Wanchai. The waitstaff was unfailingly polite and extreme helpful, and the boss, Angel Cheung was quick to help us with the menu. Since there were only two of us, we decided to go for three dishes. And lucky we did, for the portion is nothing short of enormous.

Old Bazaar Kitchen

Cold squid – I greeted this dish with an unmanly gasp. The squid was easily the length of my arm! Skillfully cut and plated, this simple squid was fresh, crunchy and succulent. I though I had good squid but this blew everything else before out of the water. Served with a choice of either wasabi or chilli sauce, I reckon this gorgeous baby serves at least four.

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Posted in: Chinese, Wan Chai

The One With Under The Bridge Spicy Crab – Fiery Claws Revisited

13 January, 2014 7:08 pm | Leave a Comment |

Under The Bridge Spicy Crab

It has become a fixture in our agenda whenever my Singaporean friends are in town.

The famous Hong Kong under the bridge spicy crab has captured the imagination of many. With ten levels of fieriness it was easy to be overwhelmed and ordered way beyond your capacity to enjoy these awesome crabs, but the key is to always go moderate.

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Posted in: Causeway Bay, Chinese, Seafood

The One With Keung Kee Seafood Restaurant – Famous Shatin Chicken Porridge

18 August, 2013 12:15 am | Leave a Comment |

When someone tells you that a particular Chinese restaurant in a certain part of Hong Kong is “popular” with locals, and “famous” for some local delicacies, you can be assured of three things – a maddeningly long queue, some probably rude and loud wait staff, and medieval queue number system.

I will be the first to admit it – I hate queuing for food. For someone who seem to spend half his salary on food, I expect service, quality and peace of mind when it comes to eating out. To take a number and wait for your turn in packed restaurants made me feel like I am begging them to serve me food.

And no one likes to beg.

But it was a weekend night in Shatin, and we wanted something local, simple and “blogworthy” for me. So I found myself at Keung Kee Seafood Restaurant, famous for its Shatin chicken porridge.

Keung Kee Shatin Chicken Porridge 1

The wait wasn’t long, perhaps fifteen minutes max, but with the loud reception, merry-go-round fellow diners waiting their turns on cheap plastic stools, that wait time felt like eternity. And when we were given a table for two squashed between two larger tables, placed right smack in front of some utility cupboards, I felt outraged.

And then I looked at the menu.

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Posted in: Chinese, Shatin

The One With Jiang Shan Hui – A Fiery Meal It Was Not

9 August, 2013 8:26 pm | Leave a Comment |

My discovery on Groupon continues at Jiang Shan Hui which offers a mix of Shanghainese and Sichuan cuisine. When I saw what’s on offer – drunken chicken by award winning chef – I was intrigued. I walked by the past often enough during my Sheung Wan days, but never thought of “popping up”. If you are like me who can’t read Chinese, you always live in the fear that this will be that restaurant where the waitresses will mock you for being an illiterate Chinese and derisively laugh off my request for an English menu. Though I am happy to report this unlikely incident seldom happens, and it certainly did not at Jiang Shan Hui.

Because it was a set Groupon menu. Hah.

Jiang Shan Hui Chinese Cuisine

Platter of appertiser.

The starters for the night were rather uninspiring. I was looking forward to a steaming bowl of hot and spicy soup; what eventually transpired was a tepid serving of gooey starch. The platter of appetiser – shredded chicken in crystal flower sheet in sesame sauce, pork jelly in Zhejiang style, cucumber – fared better. I particularly enjoyed the crystal flower sheet. Very slurpy and fragrant with the sesame sauce (which I almost mistaken for peanut sauce, LOL). The xiao long bao was just alright, nothing to shout about.

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Posted in: Chinese, Sheung Wan, Sichuan | Tagged:

The One With Maureen – Wan Chai Chinese Noodles Bar With Slow Cooked Food

14 May, 2013 9:47 pm | 1 Comment |

It was a noodle bar with a name that was hard to resist. Especially when you have a friend whose name is also Maureen and you wanted to try a new place for your first dinner gathering in the new year.

Maureen's Noodles

Finding Maureen (that’s the name of the restaurant, short and sweet) has been more than a challenge. At least three cab drivers claimed not to know the street, and on my fourth attempt, I demanded the driver to look at my map and to get me there. Tip: To get to Hing Wan Street, you are better off looking for Stone Nullah Lane (石水渠街). That’s where the famous Blue House of Hong Kong is located at. A few doors down from Maureen is the Wanchai Visual Archive. You can’t miss it, with its patron spilling out from the bar onto the sidewalk with their merrymaking while the entire street was eerily silent.

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Posted in: Chinese, Wan Chai

The One With Wong Kee Restaurant – Roadside Chinese (And Pints Of Beer!) At Causeway Bay

2 May, 2013 8:55 pm | Leave a Comment |

Sometimes the best dinner plans are the ones unplanned. There’s something about doing meals impromptu with friends on loose ends, and that’s how I spent one of my Friday nights. I remembered seeing one of these roadside place packed with people at dinner time right behind Times Square, and I was eager to return to experience everything, exhaust fume and all.

Wong Kee Restaurant @ Causeway Bay

Wong Kee Restaurant (also confusingly named Fai Kee Restaurant) is one of those hole in the wall Chinese place with spilled tables all over the roadside. Tang Lung Street seemed very boisterous with families eating out with children and boisterous men enjoying beer pints after work. It’s quite an atmosphere to soak in, especially considering that you are right smack in the middle of Causeway Bay.

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Posted in: Causeway Bay, Chinese

The One With Fullka Cantonese Cuisine – The Unsung Hero In Causeway Bay / Wanchai

25 April, 2013 10:03 pm | Leave a Comment |

Once in a while you need to break out from your normal routine to discover new experience and enjoy different food. Thanks to my relentless colleagues who were out to get me for lunch every Friday (I swear, they timed it with their calendar), I found myself surrounded by the lovely ladies from the marketing department for some great Cantonese fare at the Fullka Restaurant.

Never heard of Fullka before? Well, neither did I, until that afternoon. Apparently this place was off-radar for most foodies, which was apparent by how not full it was during lunchtime on a working weekday. Further investigation revealed that this restaurant was previously named Home Wanchai (does that sound familiar?) and was helmed by Chef Lee Yue Ching of ‘Ah Yat Abalone’ fame. The set lunch was a steal at HK$88, where you get soup, one main course with rice, and a dessert. Since the main course is rather large in portion, you can go with a few friends so that you can mix and match from its extensive menu of true Cantonese food.

And so on to the lunch.

Pig Stomach Soup

Fullka Cantonese Cuisine

Hand’s down, the best starter soup I have ever tried in Hong Kong (and that’s saying something). The soup was intense with peppery taste and was well balanced with the meaty goodness of the excellent pig stomach. The soup burns down as you drink it, in a very comforting way. It was such a perfect, fiery soup for a cold winter day.

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Posted in: Causeway Bay, Chinese, Wan Chai