Things I ate in Hong Kong (Part 1)

To aid my good friend and I in this quest to eat well in Hong Kong, I brought along an old 8-days magazine (an entertainment weekly magazine in Singapore) supplement, EAT YOUR WAY AROUND HONG KONG. It lists the best 50 eateries chosen by four well-known foodies in the region. What I like about this guide is:

1. It provides names of really local, authentic and down-to-earth restaurants (which I will explain more this post).  

2. It gives good directions and tips (like which dishes are offered in which seasons in certain restaurants). Moreover, it’s organised neatly into breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper AND dessert.

3. It’s so handy to take along.

Anyway, this information is probably useless to you since you probably can no longer get hold of a copy. Thus, I’ll be providing the addresses of those restaurants that I visited, because I’m nice. Also, there are some places that we went to without the help of the guide.

Note: All photographs posted are courtesy of my very good friend, who has extremely good camera skills. Without her, this post would have been a string of my boring words.

Upon arrival: Dinner at Wong Chi Kei

Address: #1950 15B, Wellington Street, Central

Although Wong Chi Kei seems quite commercial (having opened a branch in the Terminal One of the Hong Kong International Airport and all), it actually has quite a prominent history in the culinary world in Hong Kong. The prawn dumplings are yummy, as they not only use large whole prawns in each dumplings, they also add in black fungus strips, giving it CRUNCH. That night, I had the minced pork and century egg porridge, which has more of a rice-in-water consistency, and not so homogeneous like congee.

 

Day 2: Breakfast at Lin Heung Tea House

Address: G/F, 160-164 Wellington St, Central Hong Kong (852) 2544 4556

This tea house is apparently one of the oldest institutions for dim sum, which is the breakfast staple for many Hong Kongers, young and old. It was a rainy day, and we stepped into a packed restaurant  filled mostly with older uncles going about their daily ritual of reading the newspaper while slowing savouring their savoury and sweet snacks. Apparently, this place is famous for their da pau, or big buns (in a non-lewd way), filled with chicken and egg. 

However, we didn’t have any of that. In fact, we seemed rather out of place, considering we were probably the youngest and most brightly-dressed individuals in there (I had to choose that day to wear my multi-coloured floral dress. No wonder the guy next to me gave me weird looks.). The trolley-pushing ladies, who eerily resembled one another, seemed rather irritated by our lack of Cantonese knowledge. In the end, we resorted to the universal way of ordering – looking and pointing.

Fortunately, considering our dismal ordering skills, we actually managed to order quite delicious dim sum dishes.

The trolley-aunties all kinda look like that. Which was really confusing as my friend and I were constantly wondering whether we had already inspected the contents of each trolley.

 

 

Day 1: Lunch at Watami

Address: Causeway Bay MTR (one level below Times Square basement)

The menu gives you a wide range of Japanese dishes, extending beyond the sushi and sashimi. I went for the stir-fried pork and vegetables, while my friend had the fried tofu drenched in cheese. 

 

Dinner: Takeaway from Yung Kee

Address: 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong 

The last time I blogged about Yung Kee goose and roasted char siew meat rice, I was raving about the “delicious-ness of it all”. I still love it, but probably not as much as the previous time I was here.  Maybe I have too high expectations, or perhaps their standards have dropped, I don’t know. The feeling has changed. In any case, it’s still a must-try for people who want to get a hunk of that Hong Kong goose in them. I would advise you to order takeaway instead of eating in, which is exorbitant (a goose leg costs HK$150 which is equivalent to about S$27!!!! For a leg, mind you!).

Just me and my Yung Kee

Whew, Day 1 is over! Day 2 coming up!