Cantopop

Cantopop @ L Place

Having heard Cantopop's menu had changed (quite drastically I must say), I was back to try the items that I hadn't yet tried (e.g. the much talked-about Sous-vide char siu rice) and the other newer items. We proceeded to order up a storm... 

Sous vide charsiu and fried egg on rice ($68)

Man Wah Chinese Restaurant - featuring Da Dong

Man Wah Chinese Restaurant @ 

Mandarin Oriental HK

For a week, Da Dong was at Mandarin Oriental's Chinese restaurant, and if you don't already know, Da Dong is famed for their lean roasted ducks.... 

Sun Tung Lok

 Sun Tung Lok @ Miramar, TST

I think Sun Tung Lok's status sort of shocked everyone, with its rise to 3 michelin stars quickly after its move to Kowloon side. This visit was a trip to try out their 'higher end' dim sum (i say this because dim sum in HK is often not very expensive, being a breakfast / brunch type food for many), and whilst overall quite good it wasn't exceptional or mind-blowing..  

Din Tai Fung II

Date of visit: 28th August 2010

Din Tai Fung @ Silvercord

A pictorial - for details on similiar dishes from previous visit, see here. 

Fried String Beans with minced pork ($28) 7/10

"Crystal ham" aka cold ham in jelly ($45) 8/10

Crab Roe Xiao Lung Bao ($68/6) 8/10

Steamed Pork Buns ($15 ea) 7/10

Garlic fried Spinach ($40) - undercooked; 5/10 

 
Dan Dan Mian ($30) - soup was thick, not really spicy, lots of peanut and sesame flavours, noodles were too sticky this time; 7/10

Shrimp with Egg Fried Rice ($58) 7.5/10

Hot and Sour Soup ($32) 9/10

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Din Tai Fung

Shop 130, 3/F, Silvercord, 30 Canton Road, 

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

(CWB Branch also)

Tel: +852 2730 6928

Shanghainese at Crystal Jade

Date of visit: 14th Aug 2010

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Lung Bao @ IFC Mall, Central

On a Saturday night a bunch of us came here for a casual dinner. We took a ticket at around 7pm, and waited with the bunch of others who were mostly tourists. Though we were at least 10 large tables away from being seated, time seemed to pass fairly quickly. Perhaps it was our engaging conversations or perhaps it was the speedy table-turnover..... it didn't matter because 45 minutes later we were seated and I was starving!!

First off was an appetizer of chicken and noodle salad ("gai see fun pey") ($42) which is served chilled, with shredded chicken breast, cucumbers and translucent flat noodles, topped with a sesame and peanut sauce. The chicken was quite dry, and the sauce was mostly peanut-flavoured, which I’m not a fan of. My friends did enjoy this however. 5/10

Our second dish was one of my favourites - marinated beef shin in five spice ($48). I've never had this at Crystal Jade, but I was pleasantly surprised. Although they could've used more seasoning to make the five spice more bold, the marinade was otherwise light and tasty. The beef shin was very thinly sliced - thick slices are quite hard to bite, and they aren't usually good as appetizers. My friends never had beef shin before, and some even went on to comment that it looked like brain because of the lines of translucent tendon and lean meat...but I assured them they were missing out if they didn't try it, and once they did they were happy I'd managed to persuade them =). 8/10

Steamed Xiao Lung Baos ($28 x 3) come in the standard bamboo steamers, each with four dumplings. Here, the dumpling skins are thin and delicate, not as al dente as DTF's but they didn't break too easily as long as you handled them with a little care =P. The dumplings here are relatively large – I don’t think I’d feel comfortable eating the whole thing in a bite! The meat inside was tender and juicy due to the use of fatty minced pork. Flavour wise it was slightly seasoned to bring out the flavours of pork, though there was only a little ‘soup’ inside these dumplings…6/10

I had a winter melon soup ($36) with ham, whilst some of my friends had soya milk ($12 per glass). My soup was way too salty, and such a small portion (with some of its contents spilled out whilst they brought it out from the kitchen) that the price could not be justified. 3.5/10

Assorted Vegetables ($50 x 2) included Chinese mushrooms on top of bak choy and Chinese long cabbage. They were cooked so they still retained some crunchiness – definitely required some jaw muscles, especially for the cabbage. The sauce was not too salty, though next time I’ll probably stick to the cabbage in cream sauce… 6/10

Dan Dan Mian ($36) here is white hand-made ramen sitting in a wonderful red broth speckled with sesame seeds. The broth is rich but not thick, spicy (not so much that it burns or anything), and is dominantly peanut-flavoured. The ramen noodles were nicely cooked – not soft, but not the springy kind I like. The broth was actually a very balanced one, and it was exceeded my expectations for Crystal Jade. 7.5/10

Shanghainese Fried Noodles (with a little pork and cabbage) ($55) was fantastic. I loved the subtle flavours of mainly dark soy, yet it wasn’t overly salted or anything. The cabbage was nicely done, and the noodles were the thick chewy kind, almost like udon but these were in irregular sizes. I think this dish is one of those that please just about everyone! 8/10

Vegetarian dumplings ($22) came in a steamer with three large crescent shaped dumplings. These were better than DTF’s vegetarian dumplings as I recall them, and the thin, almost translucent skin certainly suited the veggie fillings better. They were so well-balanced in taste the addition of vinegar would’ve ruined its natural taste. 8/10

Pan fried dumpling (aka wor tip) ($26) came so late we forgot that we had ordered them! We were so full a plate of four dumplings just seemed so much. I managed to try one anyway, since it would’ve been a waste to leave these golden-brown-bottomed dumplings alone! The skin is thicker for these dumplings, so when it is fried it gets a harder crisp texture and doesn’t break. The meat inside was similar to the xiao lung baos – tasty but could’ve been leaner. For me, this pan fried dumpling fared better overall than the xiao lung baos, and I think it’s because of the crispy thicker skin and the smaller meat filling which I felt was more balanced! 7/10

After the last dumplings we were so stuffed, ordering the deep-fried soufflé balls and other desserts just seemed...unwise. I guess I'll have to try it next time! Instead, we sat a little longer, chatting / digesting all the food, and off we went for gelato elsewhere!

Food:  ♥♥♥♥

Service:  ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Crystal Jade

Shop 2018-2020, 2/F,Tower Two, IFC Mall,No.1 Harbour View Street, 

Central, Hong Kong

(other branches around town too)

Tel: +852 2295 3811

Yung Kee, Revisited

Date of visit: 10th Aug 2010

Yung Kee @ LKF
In July I had a quick lunch at Yung Kee, and had a memorable congee and char siu rice. So when an out-of-towner came to visit, I was happy to take him here for another casual lunch. 

Wanton noodles ($31) - Yung Kee only makes the thin egg noodles here, but we ordered one to share any way. The noodles weren't as good as I hoped - looked nice but noodles weren't the slighted bit springy and had no bite to it - perhaps a little over-cooked?? The dumplings contained more pork and shrimp thus making the dumplings really soft when bitten in to. They also weren't particularly flavourful... don't think I would order this again. 

Char Siu (BBQ Pork) with rice ($2x) – we ordered the ‘bowl’ size, and although the char siu here is quite lean they managed to make it quite tender. I thought the char siu this time was better than last – they had given us cuts with slightly burnt edges, giving each piece a smokey BBQ flavour which we liked. Some sauce would’ve been nice though, the rice was so plain underneath!

Roast Goose with rice ($3x) – I didn’t try it this time, but my brother liked it well enough.

Assorted Seafood Congee ($55) – The waiter suggested this, and it was indeed a very tasty bowl of congee. The name is sort of misleading, since there’s some roast pork (salted), which adds to the flavour of the congee, making it less ‘plain’ compared to the single-item congees. Anyway, there was also some sliced fish as well as a couple of shrimps, and on top was some peanuts, chopped up deep-fried dough-sticks (yao jar gwai) and a sprinkling of fish roe (?) I believe. The ingredients were fresh, even the dough stick was still crisp and crunchy. We all agreed this bowl of congee was really tasty and I would definitely come back for it.  

We finished in less than one-hour - you got to love Chinese restaurants for their speed in Hong Kong! Thank you A for lunch! =) 

Food: ♥♥♥ 1/2

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Yung Kee

32-40 Wellington Street, 

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2522 1624

Lunch around central

Date of visit: 31^st July  2010

Kau Kee @ Gough Street, Central

On this day I met up with my foodie friend M to try the famed beef brisket at Kau Kee. Service is very quick here so we didn’t really have to wait to be seated, we simply joined another table with random diners.

There are two sizes here, the standard where your beef comes in the same bowl as your noodle, or the large, where your beef comes in a plate, with a bowl of noodle on the side which is ordered separately. We opted for the standard size, but I had trouble deciding once again. What I really wanted was beef + tendon in their signature clear soup with wide-cut noodles, but the waiter wouldn’t budge and said I could have curry tendon only (as a dish too), so I followed M and ordered beef brisket with noodles in clear soup ($27), except she had hor-fun instead.

Beef brisket with wide-cut noodles

Our steamy bowls of noodles and beef came quickly, and I tasted the light-coloured broth first. It was definitely umami, but didn’t have a large amount of MSG that made me react with a pang of thirst like I normally would. [ps msg isn’t bad for you unless you’re allergic to it!] Anyway, we both loved our soup. Kau Kee’s thinly sliced beef brisket was really tender, and M clearly loved it. Perhaps I am used to a different cut – those squares of tender beef brisket are the way to go for me – so I thought it was only so-so. My wide-cut noodles were yum - al dente and not crazy-chewy like the regular thin wonton noodles, but so darn filling I couldn’t finish. M’s hor-fun was also really good. Soft and slippery but not over-cooked at all.

Beef brisket with hor-fun noodles

I do think this place deserves a recommendation, but I have yet to try many other supposedly ‘famous’ joints for beef brisket, such as Wah Jeh’s, or even the not-so famous, just to compare. If only they were more flexible, would’ve loved to try the beef tendons too. Ahwell…. Another time!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥

Price: $

Kau Kee Beef Brisket

G/F, 21 Gough Street, 

Central, Hong Kong 

Next stop....


 Jaspas @ Soho

We were here for one thing only - dessert! M had raved about their banoffee pie ($65) before and I had to try it, so she kindly agreed, even though I knew she wanted the malteser cheesecake more =P. 

Our pie took ages to come, but I guess they were slicing it, dressing up the plate blahblahblah..... Anyway, when it eventually arrived, I was a happy customer. 

Doesn't look as good (on its own) as Simply Life's aesthetically, but the layers were better proportioned, and definitely leaned more towards the real banoffee pie. This one had a bottom crust of crushed digestive cookies with butter, a layer of caramel (noticeably thicker than the one from Simply Life - much better too), whole bananas, and a layer of Chantilly cream (i.e. sweetened whipped cream). As the cream layer was significantly thinner compared to other banoffee pies I've tried / seen (798 Unit, Simply Life, Portobellos), I thought Jaspas had executed my ideal banoffee pie. Why so much cream anyway? Yes it looks better, but if I wanted to eat cream I'd just buy some cream and whip it up right?!

We were pleased with this dessert, and if you ever get a craving for banoffee pie I'd recommend you head over to Jaspas! =D

Food: ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥

Price: $

Jaspas

G/F, 28-30 Staunton Street, Soho, 

Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2869 0733

(other branches also)

Six Furlong

Date of visit: 25th July 2010

Six Furlong @ Happy Valley Jockey Club

On a Sunday night with nothing planned ahead, we decided to go to Jockey Club for dinner. After buying some of mother's favourite Cane Juice from Kung Lee in Soho we were off to Happy Valley. When we arrived the Food Plaza was damn full so we got in line for Six Furlong to see where we could be seated first. Six Furlong it was...

Our dinner began with the bread basket (house-made baguette + roll) with tuna paste, butter. There were only two kinds, but both were very good tonight. 

For dinner, you could opt for the standard set dinner ($88 for two courses; $98 for three courses - both sets with coffee/tea), or the new steak set dinner ($170-$360~) for an appetizer/soup, your choice of steak main course and French Basque cake, or go a la carte. Between us we chose two two-course set dinners and one steak set dinner.

One of the options for the standard set dinner was one serving from the salad bar. There was quite an array of greens, starches (pasta / potato salad) and dressings to choose from. 

 Another option from the set dinner menu was a simple caesar salad with smoked salmon - romaine hearts lightly dressed with a tangy and creamy caesar dressing and topped with croutons and grated parmesan. They used very fresh ingredients for this one!

Lobster Bisque was one of several choices from the more premium steak set dinner. This one was prepared very well indeed, creamy but not thick, and with only a hint of alcohol (cognac) but rich with flavours from the crustacean. 

Black pepper Beef Hor-fun was one of our standard set-dinner mains. The serving size was quite large, making it impossible to finish. The beef slices were tender but not in a bicarbonate of soda-marinaded way, and well-cooked and seasoned. The hor-fun was nicely fried too, not oily at all, but definitely could not match the hor-fun from Singapore's Swee Ting, because of the lack of wok-hei in comparison. 

Black Cod with wilted spinach and cream sauce (leek) was pleasing to the eye but not quite so on the taste buds. It was honestly quite bland. Everything was cooked very well - in particular the cod, but there was such a lack of seasoning on the fish and the cream sauce I had to make use of the table salt and pepper in front of me to make it more edible. The skin could've been more crisp too, says my brother. 

From the steak set-dinner, there was several selections of grades of meat, from filet mignon to grade 4 Wagyu. My brother decided to go somewhere in-between, a 12-ounce Australian Rib-eye, cooked to medium-rare. While I only tried the fully-cooked outer rims of the rib-eye, I must say they were tender, naturally flavourful and seasoned just right, the best main course for tonight with a little French mustard..! To go with your piece of steak diners were to choose a sauce, a vegetable side and a potato side. We chose garlic spinach and fries to make 'steak-frites', with a mushroom cream sauce that was served on the side. The mushroom flavour from the sauce was so earthy and strong it was definitely a memorable first for us. 

We were so full from all this food all my (normally apparent) desires for sweets were gone. We had the Basque cake (two almond sponge layers with Chantilly cream) to go, which I tried later that night and it was better than I expected, moist and light with hints of almond.... yumm! 

Food:  ♥♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$$

Six Furlong

4/F, Hong Kong Jockey Club, 1 Shan Kwong Rd, 

Happy Valley, Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2966 136060

Ho Hak Shan Tung

Date of visit: 10th July 2010

Ho Hak Shan Tung @ Sai Ying Pun Second Street

Having had my eye on this little restaurant since its opening, I finally got to try this place for lunch with my brother. We arrived at 1.30pm to find only one other table occupied. He asked "Is this place any good? why is it so empty?" I had my doubts too, but set aside these thoughts and looked through the menu.

We first debated on whether we wanted appetizers, which we then decided against because we wanted two kinds of dumplings. So our next question was whether we wanted dan dan mian or  jia jiang mian.... I would've gone for the latter but my brother chose the former so the former it was.

Milk tea ($10) - here they used evaporated milk instead of my preferred choice of condensed milk. Not bad but not ideal. 

Dan Dan Mian (Noodles in Spicy Peanut Broth) ($26) - the version here is quite different from the Shanghainese restaurants' we've tried. It is quite watery, but still has strong flavours of peanut and chilli in. The ground meat (pork?) was quite lean too. The noodles reminded me of the ones I had in Sha Tin 18 - al dente and thick, with no noodle being the exact same size, most probably because they are hand-cut! I didn't really like the broth, but would try another noodle dish gladly if I come again.

Ten Dumplings - half were Shandong Fresh Fish Dumplings and half Vegetarian Dumplings ($33)

 These dumplings were massive - bigger than I had seen before for sure. I would've preferred them to be cooked less long, as the wrappers were overly soft for me. I'll bear that in mind on my next visit to tell them to cook the dumplings for a shorter period. 

Anyway, I was half expecting them to be pre-made (either frozen or refrigerated) but found out they were made-to-order. How do I know? Well when I first bit into one of the fish dumplings it was pork. I told them this, and the waiter/cook came to identify the mishap and said he'd make (wrap) new ones for me and took away the other 4 'fish' dumplings. 

Meanwhile I tried the vegetarian dumplings, which were filled with mostly green vegetables, not like the mushroom and cucumber(?) filling in Din Tai Fung. I also detected a tiny amount of sesame oil present to give it a much appreciated flavour. I would choose these vegetarian dumplings over DTF any day, but the wrapping used here is another matter...way too soft!

the inside of a vegetarian dumpling...

Our Xiao Lung Baos ($25) (wrongly translated as 'Little Dragon Buns' on their menu!) had a very nice pleat, but the wrappers seemed too big for the pork fillings...

One of the five dumplings had 'deflated', because of a puncture in the wrapper as well =(

The dumplings taste-wise was not bad - the all-pork filling was well seasoned and juicy. In the remaining four dumplings there was quite a lot of juice, and was even better with a little ginger and black vinegar. Although the skin was very thin, it was not elastic enough (like DTF's) and so they broke much easier if one isn't careful when transferring them...  

Last to arrive was the fish dumplings which earlier had been sent back... Indeed the chef had made fresh ones for us and we were genuinely grateful. The wrappers this time was not overcooked either! They had a slight bite to it. The filling was a type of white fish that was quite meaty, minced with some spring onions. Again, with vinegar these dumplings were lovely. These were my brothers preference between the two (fish and vegetarian) dumplings we ordered. 

Would I come back? Yes! Prices here are very reasonable for a hearty meal, and there is quite a long menu. Even with several visits I would still not be able to cover all the appetizers / dim sums / hot dishes / noodles / rice dishes available here!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥♥

Price: $$

Ho Hak Shan Dong 

Shop A1, 143 Second Street, Hoi Shing Building, Sai Ying Pun, 

Western District,  Hong Kong 

Tel: +852 2117 9680

Yung Kee, LKF

Date of visit: 7th July 2010 

Yung Kee @ Lan Kwai Fong

My friend P's sister loves Char Siu, and so do I, but not to her extent =P Everyone's preference of Char siu is different. I like them lean and soft but still slightly chewy, whereas others may like them half fat/half lean etc etc. I suggested we try out Yung Kee for our lunch meet-up. 

A plate of roast goose and char siu with rice ($52) was quite reasonably priced. I tried the BBQ Pork only and it was pretty good. Not too sweet or salty, and did not have the scary red colouring some places tend to have. It was caramelized well, making it smell appetizing. The pork itself was pretty lean, yet was not chewy - yum!

Shrimp Wontons with Thin Noodles ($31)

I only tried the soup, which was quite good and mild in flavour - no presence of any alkaline (gan sui)! I didn't try the wontons, but P did comment that it was not all shrimp. Had a bit of pork as a filler. She prefers Mak's Noodle (麥奀雲吞麵世家). 

Congee with fish slices ($32)

This was really good. The congee was slightly too thick for my liking but taste-wise it was spot on, and I didn't feel the need to add any other flavourings, even pepper. The fish was 'wan yu', thinly sliced and they gave at least an ounce or two of it. Would've liked the chopped spring onions to be fresher though, the ones given (mainly white, so towards the root of the plant) weren't so nice and gave a little bitterness. 

Mini Egg Tarts ($21)

We decided to end with a plate of mini egg tarts. The tart shell was pastry-based, rather than my favourite cookie base, but was not bad. It retained some crispiness around the sides of the tart. The filling was nicely sweet and smooth, my favourite part of the egg tart! Nonetheless, I still think for this kind of flaky pastry based egg tarts, Pak Kee's on Centre St is the best (and they sell for $2.5/standard sized!). 

This place was quite full, so reservations are a must for lunch hours. I did enjoy my simple meal here, and would gladly do it again, but may visit Tai Cheong instead for my favourite cookie based egg tarts!

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Yung Kee

32-40 Wellington Street, 

Central, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2522 1624