Hong Kong Eats

This is long overdue, but here are the places I ate when I was last in HK, March 2015.

W Hotel Kitchen as our Starwood Platinum amenity, with a breakfast buffet.  This just scratches the surface, and I may have written more previously elsewhere.  But there is a huge selection, Western and Eastern, and I like the Eastern selection better.  Great views of the harbour too, when the pollution is not too bad.

I always go to Tim Ho Wan, even if it is only for take out.  Their baked BBQ pork buns are the best in the world.  This time I also got the Malay cake (ma lai gao) because my mother mentioned it and I was thinking of her.

Another favourite is Tsim Chai Kee for their wonton noodles.  This is my preferred noodle place in SF.  I did a comparison post with Mak's Noodles (wow they have a Wiki page).  I much preferred TCK for their comparatively large portions, springy noodles, large wontons and chili.

We tried a new place this time, called Dim Dim Sum.  They have a Facebook page, wow.  I'm so amazed all these restaurants have websites.  HK is getting techy!  I went there mainly because of their cute piggy liu sha baos, which were not bad, super fun, but not the best I've had but still pretty good and different looking (haha).  We also got buo luo bao and the deep fried chang fen.  All pretty good!

Lastly, we went to Nahm, the Thai restaurant in the Elements Mall.  We ordered the soft shell crab which was way too thickly breaded, spring rolls and chicken noodle soup (it seems), which were all OK.  I would not go back, but it was convenient at the time.

Fun eats, HK!

A Comparison of Egg Tarts, Hong Kong and Macau

Seems to be that comparisons are a thing.

My favourite egg tart in Hong Kong, and probably in the world, is Tai Cheong Bakery and I go to the one on Lyndhurst Terrace.  It has a yummy short bread crust, and I really love short bread.  Mmmm all that butter (or is it lard?).

In Macau, one has to do as the Macanese do, which is eat Portuguese egg tarts!  Lingon did some research and found out the most famous egg tart shops are these 2, each owned by one half of a divorced couple.  The first one we went to was Margaret's Cafe e Nata, so probably the female side of the split.  The crust was made of puff pastry, and the custard was browned.  Pretty good.  The queue outside this place when we arrived was pretty insane.  We found out you have to line up first in the queue on the left to order and pay, and then line up on the right to pick up.  They have timed the baking process so perfectly that within 2 mins of our scheduled pick up time, we got our egg tarts!

Then we went to Lord Stow, which is a chain, in the Venetian.  I thought then pretty similar to the one from Margaret's.

So what makes an egg tart Portuguese?  There seems to be a lot online about it, which I am a bit lazy to read about, but here is what I know.  It seems to have originated from a monastery in Portugal.  A puff pastry is used.  The custard is made of either exclusively egg yolks or a higher egg yolk to white ratio compared to the dim sum kind (I think).

All of them were good.  I liked both Portuguese ones equally, but in general I think I preferred the sweet and slightly salty short bread crust better.  I'm getting hungry looking at all this food.

A Comparison of Won Ton Noodles, Hong Kong

What an exciting title for this blog!

A friend of mine told me of two won ton noodle places in Hong Kong - Mak's Noodles and Tsim Chai Kee, both on Wellington Road in Central, directly across from each other.  By no systematic method, I chose to go to Tsim Chai Kee the first time, adored it, and have been going there ever since.

This time round, I decided I wanted to try Mak's Noodles, but I did not want to give up Tsim Chai Kee too.  Luckily, Lingon was with me, so we decided to get one bowl of noodles at each place.

First we went to Mak's noodles.  The size of the bowl was that of a rice bowl, very small.  It had 4 small won tons in it for HKD$36, about US$5.  The won tons were very tasty and crunchy, and the noodles were nice and springy.  Vegetables were good too, at $27, about US$4.

Then the revered Tsim Chai Kee.  The size of the bowl was maybe 50% larger.  There were only 3 won tons, but they were maybe twice the size.  They were also very tasty and crunchy.  This set us back HKD$25, about US$3.50.  The vegetables were good too, a larger plate, at HKD$14, about US$2.

I have to say I'm glad I finally made it to Mak's.  Sometimes some questions just gnaw at you, like which won ton noodle shop is better, and should you try a new place or the tried and tasted very fabulous place.  It is nice to have an eating buddy to tackle such tough life questions.  We both agreed that both were great places to eat, but you get more bang for your buck, plus everyone likes bigger won tons, and what I did not mention above was that Tsim Chai Kee has an amazing chili, so Tsim Chai Kee wins!  Hooray for the winner!