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