Spring Time

Well, at least spring is down in California now, these are pretty nice asparagus. I stir fried them with shrimps and season it with garlic, ginger, Chinese hot bean paste, rose liqour, sugar, soy sauce, and scallion.

Shaobing 烧饼

Shaobing is a very popular kind of Chinese savoury pasty eaten as bread at meals. It is made with layers of hot water dough and light roux. The end result, when cut, is a nice crispy pocket into which tasty food can be added to make a nice 'sandwich'. This is my first attempt and they ain't bad at all.

Snack Pasta

The very tasty dry cured spicy olive was a little too tasty for the saumon en papillote but just right for pasta. I have garlic, olives, anchovy paste, tomato, chili, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano in here with the pasta. Very good night snack.

Fen Guo

Well, I wrapped the little bit of remaining chive stuffing in clear wrappers. Pretty, aren't they?

Chive Fried Rice

I woke up today and thought why don't I make fried rice with the chive fillings from yesterday? So I did. Turned out good too, just a little egg and a little Sambol, quick eat.

Chinese Chives and more Chinese Chives

I am trying something new for dumpling. Here I have a lot more Chinese chives then pork, worked them finer in the food processor then added shrimp, seasoned with ginger, soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil.









Made my own wrappers as usual and boiled some. I rather like them, maybe even better then the pork dominated ones, because the Chinese chives here are not very strong and this way I get a good taste of the chive.









I fried some too and they are equally good but a different texture. Maybe I will make some of those clear wrappers and see how they are later.

Saumon en Papillote

I still have some salmon in the freezer and need to be eaten before the new season comes around. En Papillote is a great way to cook salmon. Here I have some dried cured olives, carot, fennel bulb, tomato, chili, salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil and lemon zest and juice. Baked in 400℉ for 20 minute. It is just about perfect except the olives are little strong. Next time I will use less olives and chop them finer.

Crispy Skin

I always wonder what happens to all the salmon skin that is cut off from fillets. I like the skin even better than the meat. I just salt-and-peppered this piece and fried it in a little olive oil until crispy. Tasty, fun and lots of omega 3 and 6. Chips that is good for you!

Clams

I made bread and T&T Supermarket had fresh clams on sale so here it goes: garlic, tomato, chili, olive oil, oregano and clams. Fun to eat.

Beef Wrap

I made pita and still have some brisket and tendons in the fridge, so why not make a wrap sandwich out of it? Turned out pretty good too.

Back Home

I am back in Vancouver and the picture look repetitive: brisket, papaya soup and bak choy.

Joffre II

Now this is not a bad creation, half a chicken is cooked with sauce in a lotus leave. The flavour is like that of a begger's chicken but a little saucier. The meat is very tender and the flavour of the seasonings penetrated the meat very well. It is a more or less honest dish, unlike the foie roll.

Avenue Joffre

Avenue Joffre is a Shanghai cuisine restaurant with a very nice room. The food though is not quite up to the room. This is a very well presented dish foie gras rolls, unfortunately if I didn't know it is so called, I would not have guessed there is foie gras or any liver in it. It probably would have tasted better with just pork fillings. But then, they cannot charge good money of a simple pork roll! A pity that goose died in vain.

Lamma Island V

It is not easy to find good shrimp paste fried rice.
Good shrimp paste is hard to find these days and it is all to easy to burn it when cooking under the intense heat required by fried rice. This one is passable, with just a faint hint of burnt and quite a good shrimp paste. Another point to the rice, it must have been leftovers so the texture is perfect. Quite enjoyable.

Lamma Island IV

This is a well done but not unusual dish--scallop steamed with garlic, scallion and cellophane noodles--most seafood restaurants in Hong Kong sell this. Here it is fresh and tasty.

Lamma Island III

They called these Scottish Razor Clams but I don't think they are actually from Scotland. It is not so easy to cook this right, just a hair overcooked, it becomes a giant rubber band. Here it is done with, perfectly sweet and crunchy with a very flavourful chili and black bean sauce.

Lamma Island II

These shrimps are medium sea shrimps, They are wonderfully crunchy as only jumping fresh shrimp can be. Just briefly poached, loveliest as can be.

Lamma Island

Lamma Island is a popular place for seafood in HK. You can pick your healthily living fish or shellfish from the tank and they will cook them to order. The price is reasonable and you can pick your price range.









The selection is wonderful.












The place is not exactly classy but it is a nice platform extended over the water, a very nice village flavour.

Osmanthus Jelly

When this came to the table, I thought it was four mahjong pieces! Osmanthus Jelly is layered with coconut jelly, very refreshing.

Blondie

This is a very common dessert with milk custard encased in crispy light caramel. The Imperial part about this is the thin threads of sugar that decorates it. Excellent presentation.

Fish and Fried Rice

The fish is Mandarin Perch, a very popular and not very expansive fish. This is surprisingly good: the fish is fresh and cook just right with mild seasonings that brings out the natural flavours of the fish. The rice is done right too. While the dish is not unusual, to find one that is done right isn't a simple task.

Well Braised Shortrib

This is the best dish at the Imperial Manchurian--braised shortrib. It is cooked whole so it probably takes hours and hours to do. The good thing about it is the perfect timing. It is very easy to overcook this and have it literally melts in the mouth. This, however, is perfectly tender yet holds together enough to have an excellent texture on the teeth.

Not that Royal, really

This is at the Imperial Manchurian Restaurant. The food is fine but not very imperial. Here are the appetizers: sliced beef and fried tofu, not bad but not remarkable.

Giant Fish

This is a five pound 'tiger' grouper steamed to perfection. This is no mean feat, to steam such a large fish. This is at the Institute of Security Dealers, despite the dull name, the kitchen is excellent with tradition Cantonese cuisine.

Food or Smoke

Near where I am staying is this Vietnamese restaurant that is always busy. I was curious so I gave it a try. The curry beef isn't bad but nothing remarkable either. I realized that its popularity isn't about the food but the large outside seating area. Of all the restaurants in Hong Kong, I think this one enjoy the smoking ban the most.

Crab Under the Bridge

I love crab and this is one great way of eating it. It originated in street vendors thus the name. A giant meaty crab with tonnes of garlic, chili, ginger, scallion and such. Because it is cooked with the shell on, the meat is tender and sweet while talking in the fragrance of the spices. I would fly the distance just to eat this. Served at YueWaHui, one of my favorite places in Causeway Bay.

Really Late at Night

After a very pleasant dinner at Shuang Wan, I decided to talk off the wine a bit. Shuang Wan is a great place to walk around: it is an old part of town and hardly a soul on the street. After a bit of walking, I needed a little something and walked into a congee shop. Boat Congee and rolled noodles are the tonics I needed. This is by no means very good, passable at best, but sort of fit the moment.

Pigeon and risotto

Finally a properly made risotto in Hong Kong. It is in a small place called Bonheur upstairs in a commercial building on Bonham East Street. The pigeon too is made to my spec. With good company, it was an excellent meal.

Seriously local eating

This must be one of the most expansive store front in Hong Kong, located at perhaps the busiest corner in town. What they sell here is street food, little snacks, no table no nothing. I love their spicy tribe and fried tofu. For less than one Canadian dollar each serving, people lines up for at least 12 hours a day.

What happens when not eating local

The only real food disappointment I have in Hong Kong is eating European food. Many of the big names from Italy and France have outposts in Hong Kong, unfortunately they are all very disappointing. This is probably the worst plate I have had in a very long time, not just in Hong Kong. It is served at Zefferino of the Regent Hotel, supposedly associated with Belloni. It is simply horrible the shrimp is fishy and mushy, the pastry in not exactly crispy and the cheese in the pastry is just too cheesy for shrimp. Good thing is their antipasti table is quite good, they don't have to cook it, probably. Not all are this horrible, most are just uninspiring. Caprice at Four Season has a beautiful room with a great view and good service, what it lacks is inspiration in their food. When the price is that high, I don't want to taste the cream sauce and say "oh, cream sauce" but "wow", at least "interesting." Everybody says that they hire their chef from France, they way they cook, they must have been kicked out of the country!

Opening

The second day of the New Year is the day to open the year--businesses would have a meal with their employees and family with get together. Because everyone is busy this time around and had to go to a different dinner afterwards, my Dad wanted just a simple meal. This is what my mom meant by simple. Going clockwise: fish, duck, beef, steamed pork, roasted pork, oyster and mushroom, lettuces and shrimps and cabbage.

Wonton

I never order wonton in North America because I never know what I am going to get. It is like an Italian ordering a risotto and does not know if he is getting a congee, a paella, a chicken rice or a rice crispy. Mak's in Hong Kong is well know and people lines up late into the night. I ordered wonton, of course.











Wonton is a snack so it shouldn't be big, it should be a nice comfortable mouth full for even a small adult. The shrimp should be the small sweet prawn that crunches on you teeth and fill your mouth with its sweet shrimp taste. The pork should be light and provide a little but unnoticeable fat to the dumpling. The wrapper should be thin and have some body. The soup should be made with shrimp shell that give it a light but fully flavoured background to the wonton. Mak's is famous and has four shops. Their wonton may no longer be the best in town, but they are still traditional and quite good. It makes for a very good late night snack.

Goose Neck Market

Chinese like their meat fresh and not hung like graded beef in North America. The pork here is as fresh as can be, killed early this morning. Lovely pink meat.









Vegetables too, no refrigeration no sprinkle, there is no need. There is no one leave showing any deterioration. Fresh as can be.










And fish, no where in the world is freshness of the fish is taken more seriously. Fresh fish means only live fish. Once they even show a sign that they will soon be dying, they are taken off the water and their price cut by a third. Once they die, well, half price is generous. I know of no better way to buy a fish.







Cooked meat too, they keep coming out of the kitchen and sold still hot. In Europe or in North America, to roast a pig or a goose or a duck is a serious and expansive restaurant experience, here, well, it is street food. The pork is crisp on the skin and the meat is creamy. And the ducks and goose are crisp, moist and tasty with little fat left under the skin. Taillevent has nothing on these guys.

Midnight, Street Food, Mongkok

Mongkok is a district in Kowloon. The name is literally 'the busy corner.' Whoever named it so definitely knew something! So many shops, so many people and some much street foods deep into the night.

This one is Thai, all kinds of things, meat, chicken legs stuffed, fish, shellfishes... all goes on the grill when you order. Around C$1 a skrewer.





These ladies sell a lot of juices and has the best 'stinky' tofu in the area. If normal fried tofu is like fried cheese, then 'stinky' tofu is like fried blue cheese. Love it.











This one's stinky tofu isn't that stinky but the stuffed veggies are very good.

A Bowl of Indecisiveness

Lok Yuen in Mongkok is my favorite Chiuchow noodle place in HK. Here I have the "four treasures", in reality it is one of everything, a number of meat balls--beef, pork, two kinds of fish--a slice of pork sausage, a slices of fish cake and a fish roll on top of fish noodles (yes, the noodle is made of fish) with some seaweed and a bowl of light and tasty pork bone based soup. If you can't decide, one of everything is good.

一品香

There are a lot of Shanghai restaurants in Hong Kong called 一品香 and this one is in Jardin Street.

This scallion pancake is different from mine but it is quite tasty and good eating. Looks kind of like foccacia, doesn't it?





This is one of my favorite lunch set--stir fry eel. This is Shanghai cuisine for the working people, a set menu of a dish of meat or fish or vegetable with a bow of soup and a couple bowls of rice at a reasonable price. Eel is about the most expansive. At this restaurant, they start at HK$22 and reach HK$34 for eel. A large and tasty lunch for just C$3-C$5, I call that pretty reasonable.

Snake Lunch

My camera went out of battery so I was only able to take this picture later after putting in new batteries. I love snake and this is near where I am staying, a 60+ years old restaurant. I had a bow of snake soup, a bow of rice with roasted meat and a plate of blanched lettece for HK$78 (about C$12). The soup was quite good, nice typical taste of the classic snake soup, rich but can be a little richer. The roast meat is very good, tasty and creamy, the skin though is not as crispy as can be. It is over all a very good quick lunch, a little expansive for Hong Kong but quite a bargain coming from Vancouver. Next time I am there I will have picture of the food.

Fish Dumplings

I am visiting my parents in Hong Kong so there is not much cooking for a while. Here is my lunch today. These dumplings are called fish dumplings. The interesting things is that it is not the filling that is made of fish, but it is the wrapper. The filling is actually ground pork, dried founders and seasonings. The wrapper is fish meat whipped with starch. This is my favorite Chiuchow noodle dish, no good ones in North America, unfortunately because the difference in available fish. It is a good illustration of 'eat local'.

Poor Man's Sushi

This is my late night snack. The rice is typical sushi rice made with rice vinegar, sugar and salt; the filling is made of a small can of sardine in soya oil, chopped scallion, wasabi and a couple of drops of Tabasco. It is not Toro but it is still tasty. Most importantly it is simply and quick.