After a week in Taipei, we are now in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a food Heaven, you can eat whatever you want whenever you want and I do mean whenever, as in Hong Kong, many restaurant opening hours is 24 hours if not at least closes at 2-3am in the morning. The disadvantage that I was having was to get my camera out and capture everything that I ate as i feel pairs and pairs of eyes staring at me, maybe I should not care how others act as I am giving out info!!! 🙂 Hence I capture the limited pictures with my phone and did not really gather the description of the lovely food. 😦
My auntie has taken us to this Vegetarian Restaurant, it is a very small restaurant, there were 9 of us but sitting on a 6 people table, it was tight but the food was decent.
We ordered a set meal which consists all the above. This is not the normal boring vegetarian cuisine. We had Vegetarian Lo Mei (Curried Gluten, Sweet & Sour Gluten & Veggie Roast Pork) Veggie Shark Fin Soup, Veggie Abalone with veg, Mock Fish Pieces with Broccoli, Stir Fried Beans with Cashew Nuts, Bean Curd Roll stuffed with mixed veg, Mock Roast Suckling Pig, Fried Rice with veg, Mock Ginger Chicken, Taro Fish. One might say if you are a vegetarian why you need to eat all the mock meat?!?! Chinese eat loads of meat so for trying to convince our fellow Chinese, it will have to use and taste mock meat! It is not the best I had but it is decent!
We met up with a friend and she took us to try Chiu Chow Cuisine which my hubby never had before. It was a Chained Restaurant but the food was nice and we enjoyed it very much.
We ordered 5 dishes between 3 adults and a child. First we had the Black-peppered Pig Stomach & Preserved Veg Soup, I love all kinds of soups, from Western Soup to Chinese Soup, from quick instant soup to traditional herbal soup that the longer it boils the better taste it is. This pig stomach soup is the proper stuff as when you take the first sip, you can taste the aroma of the black peppercorn, it must have be in the soup that been boiled for a long time as when you drink it you can feel the heat of the peppercorn permeate from your throat down to your belly. Next was the Platter, it consist of Braised Goose, Deep Fried Duck with Stuffed Taro, Deep Fried Shrimp Ball and Crab Roll. I personally love the Duck, the crispy outside with soft and sweet taro and salty duck, it was a little perfect mouthful of goodness in one. The rest are normal, nothing special. Oyster Omelette is a classic in Chiu Chow Cuisine, to make it tasty, the wok and oil must be hot enough as you want the edges to be crispy and yet the oyster is not overcooked, this one does have the crispy edges but I find the inside is too soggy, there is no texture. The salted Chicken in Claypot was brilliant as the chicken was very flavourful and juicy, even the chicken breast was still moist as I do not like chicken breast as they tend to be very dry, the only one that I liked was from Motherclucker, they were so moist I thought I was eating thighs. Lastly the fried rice was not your normal egg fried rice as they used only egg whites, also they have sliced stems of choi sum and dried scallops, the rice was fried well as it was not lumpy and oily. Overall, we were very satisfied with the meal, although it was a bit pricey if I remembered correctly, it is a chained restaurant, next time I would like to go to a proper traditional Dai Pai Dong Style Chiu Chow Cuisine.
After dinner, we went for some dessert, it is a Hong Kong culture that after dinner, we go other place for dessert. Everytime I go back to Hong Kong, I had to go to this Dessert/ Drink Place – Hui Lau San.
When I am in Hui Lau San, I have to order the Durian Parcel – there is a layer of fresh cream, a layer of Durian Flesh all wrapped in a bright green sweet pancake, it is so satisfying when you bite into this sweet parcel that full of Durian…mmmm…..Durian is similar to Marmite, you either love it or hate it. Well I certainly LOVE it!!!! I also ordered Durian Mochi – not as good as the Parcel as I am not a fan of Mochi. Second best thing I must order is the Mango sago Dessert “Soup” (Tong Shui) It is a bowl of goodness of Sweet Mangoes, last but not least the classic Black Sesame Dessert “Soup” (Tong Shui) it is served hot and it is nice, thick and fragrant.
My Uncle and Auntie were taking us to Central for the day, since we were in Central, I had to go to The famous “Tai Ping Koo Restaurant” for their soy sauce cuisine and giant souffle. I had to say after trying it, I did not know what the fuss was about as not only the standard of the food but also the standard of the service was poor.
When we got there, it was lunch time, many people from the offices were having lunch there. We waited around 20 minutes before they gave us a table. Once we were seated, the waiter brought the plates and cutlery and starting to throw it on the table, even in Dai Pai Dong you do not get this type of service but yet in a restaurant that has been around since 1860 that is how we got served.
The above are the dishes that we had, I do not want to individually tell you how it all taste as there is nothing to talk about, it is below average. The Famous Souffle that we came for, it is only for show, the portion is huge but flavour is opposite, literally no taste, not even sweet. For the price we paid, it is not as good as it make out to be, but since it has so many media attention, it has became a tourist attraction.
Hubby has been craving for Dai Pai Dong for a long time, so I have asked my uncle and auntie to take us. Dai Pai Dong is a type of open-air food stall in Hong Kong. The government registration name in Hong Kong is “cooked-food stalls”, but Dai Pai Dong literally means “big licence stall”, referring to its size of licence which is bigger than other licensed street vendors. Some might find the hygiene standards in Dai Pai Dong is low but food wise, it is much better and flavoursome than any of the well known restaurants.
First dish that came is Fish in Salt & Chilli, the fish they used are the small ones, they lightly battered and quick fried with garlic and chilli salt, it is a great dish to go with a beer, absolute classic to order when in Dai Pai Dong.
We ordered 2 types of baby pigeon, this one is deep fried, nice crispy skin and juicy tender meat that is full of flavour. The other one is cooked in soy sauce, I personally prefer the deep fried one as the soy sauce one has been in the sauce for too long that I feel the meat is a bit over cooked and dry.
Another classic dish, Clams in black beans sauce. To see if the Dai Pai Dong is a good one, you must order their Clams in Black beans Sauce, to me, I feel it lacks of chilli and black beans, of cos the clams were fresh, meat was plum and juicy but if the sauce were more seasoned, it would be perfect.
The last 2 dishes are Deep Fried Chicken Wings and Deep Fried Pig Intestines. You can never go wrong with deep fried food in Dai Pai Dong as Dai Pai Dong are good for a bunch of people at night going for a drink with cooked nibbles.
It was close for our holiday to end and Hubby wants to have as much Roast Ducks as he can get, it was just 2 of us so we went to this chained Cantonese restaurant near our hotel. As soon as the first dish came, I know it would be a disaster.
This a 1/4 portion of Suckling Pig, I mean 10 slices and half of the head??? The skin were not even crispy, it was chewy, meat was dry, I was not impressed.
Now, when you see Roast Duck in a Chinese Restaurant Menu, you expect Roast Duck!!!!! Well, say hello to the Roast Duck with a twist!!!! When this came I was shocked, the garlic, spring onions and onions was cold, the sauce were warm and salty and not forgetting the grease that you can see on the pic!!! I asked the waitress and she said that is how they does theirs Roast Duck!!! Really????!!!
Pea Shoots in Garlic, I have been eating a lot of this dish while in Hong Kong as UK is extremely expensive.
Chicken and Salmon Head in Claypot that was not cooked in the claypot, it was so salty that it is bitter, I was not happy with the first 2 dishes and I guessed this was the last straw, I complaint and they took away the dish.
Overall, Hong Kong has always been a great place for food, although, this trip we had some bad experience but I still have faith Hong Kong is STILL the Food Paradise!!!!
I am sorry for not detailing the Restaurant locations and more reviews on what I had, but I am sure I will improve. Thank you for reading this, please support me by sharing out my blogs, remember Sharing is Loving!!!!! Next one is the last one of this trip…Osaka!!!
Eat Cook Travel Ling 