Sunday 27 July 2014

Tsui Wah Restaurant @ HK Airport - Hong Kong

Here we are at Hong Kong Airport!



Waiting for our flight home...
We grabbed a late lunch before boarding our 15 hour flight:
  
 
A super popular Hong Kong style cafe chain, but they also served a lot more Chinese food than a normal cha chan teng. 

  
Hainanese Chicken Rice
 The chicken was juicy and flavourful and the soy sauce was more like the soy sauce they used in Singapore and the other sauce was spicy and a great complement to the chicken. I loved the chicken stock flavoured rice - it's always my favourite part of the Hainan chicken rice dish.

 
Beef Brisket noodle
Really good and very filling despite it's appearance in the cup/bowl.

Malaysian Beef Brisket Curry with Rice and milk tea
The chain is known for this dish and it's no wonder! It had the same seasoning and flavour as the curries we had in Malaysia with a lower level of heat (that or my spicy tolerance increased since last year). So delicious! The beef brisket was super tender and the potatoes soaked up the curry flavour so well - just fantastic to eat!

Overall: Great quick service Hong Kong style cafe! You've definitely got to try the Malaysia Beef Brisket Curry - it's delicious and authentic!

Muji Snacks - Hong Kong

 Muji is a Japanese retail store with lot of cool things like clothing, household items, stationary and snacks (like Baumkuchen)
I was so excited to see pre-packaged baumkuchen (even though I know it's not going to taste nowhere as good as Nenrinya's fresh baumkuchen)
And I got strawberry marshmallows just because they're cool!

  
I really liked the orange baumkuchen and the lemon straight baumkuchen
The chocolate and salted caramel ones were pretty forgetable.
The baumkuchens were pretty dense compared to Nenrinya's - it's like they were made of different ingredients.
However, they were super cheap compared to the other brands, so I thought it was okay. 

Nam Kee Noodles - Hong Kong

We were wandering around Wan Chai and wanted a quick meal (even though we weren't hungry after all those snacks), so we stopped by Nam Kee Noodles for a quick bite:
Noodle with four treasures: noodles with fish cake, fish balls, pork balls, spring rolls (aka fish fingers) and seaweed in a clear broth. Pretty good and it was cheap and fast. 
The other bowl is just noodles with fish cake 
Also we ordered soy milk and cold milk tea (because milk tea no matter where you go in Hong Kong is amazing). 

Spicy fish finger noodles and kai-lan
It was actually a lot better with a spicy broth.

Saturday 26 July 2014

Snack time in Hong Kong

Yee Shun Milk Company (Causeway Bay)

A popular place for steamed milk pudding:
Ginger steamed milk pudding and regular steamed milk pudding
Really creamy and delicious! After eating the ginger steamed milk pudding, I preferred that one over the regular steamed milk pudding since it had a stronger flavour. 

Pork Chop Bun
The bun was great! It was buttered and grilled and it did a good job absorbing the flavour and juices from the pork chop. 

 
Taro bubble tea - I asked for less ice and less sweet (and it ended up tasting pretty bland = fail)

Lee Keung Kee North Point Waffles (eggettes)

These were better fresh from the waffle maker with crispy edges, but I found that the dough was really chewy and gummy and I didn't really like the flavour. Oh well. 

Ten Zen Japanese Restaurant - HK


July 26, 2014
We couldn't leave Hong Kong without going to our favourite sushi place! 
The prices went up by $20 HKD, but it was still amazing sushi:


The side dishes didn't change either (except for the salad)! Yay!


They had unagi and toro! I was so excited!
There were a few pieces where I didn't know what I was eating, but everything was so delicious that I didn't care. Yum!!!

Black sesame, red bean and green tea ice cream

Overall: If you're looking for sushi in Hong Kong, you've got to eat here! The fish is fresh and delicious and such a steal for $170 HKD. The service was impeccable too! Our waitress really knew her stuff and she made amazing recommendations.


August 6, 2013
Junk Boat in Hong Kong

 
We came to Ten Zen on the recommendation of a friend. 
They have a lunch special of 10 pieces of fresh sushi for $170 HKD and they include seasonal fish like Rock Bass and Deep Sea Fish (as seen on the menu above) - the other fish on the menu we didn't know how to translate it into English, therefore it will be "unknown".


Clockwise from top left: Miso soup, pickled radishes, warm egg custard and seaweed salad
These side dishes were all included with the 10 pieces of sushi.
The miso soup was a thick soup with lots of green onion. The pickled radishes were really good, not too sour: just enough to whet the appetite. The warm egg custard had mushrooms and choy inside with a slightly salty taste of the sea and the seaweed salad was really tasty without being too salty.
What a great way to start off the meal!


Left column: spring onion tuna roll, medium tuna and toro (fatty tuna belly)
Middle: unknown, octopus, sweet shrimp, white fish
Right: salmon roe, rock bass and deep sea fish
The spring onion tuna roll used chopped up toro - it was so delicious!!!

Left: White fish, medium tuna, toro
Middle: Mackerel, rock bass, unknown, deep sea fish
Right: Flying fish roe, tamago (egg) and sweet shrimp

Left: rock bass, deep sea fish, uni (sea urchin)
Middle: Ark shell, mackerel, octopus, unknown
Right: Toro, medium tuna, salmon
The sea urchin has a mushy texture and a very distinctive taste (definitely not for the weak of heart since it resembles eating brain).
The ark shell was a little harder to eat - the meat is a little tough.
The octopus was sweet and the salmon was delicious.
The tuna was really good especially the toro (fatty tuna). Toro just melts in your mouth - it's amazing. There are almost no words to describe how good that fish tastes.
The deep sea fish was a little tougher than I expected (I guess they have to be tough to survive living in the depths of the ocean without sunlight). The rock bass was really soft and almost melted in my mouth (but not comparable to the toro's softness).
Interestingly enough, the wasabi was the real deal and sparingly placed underneath each slice of fish and the rice - you could taste that it was freshly ground.


Beef Sukiyaki
The sukiyaki broth was good - very hearty, salty and flavourful. There was a lot of beef and enoki mushrooms. It was classic Japanese sukiyaki and really well done.


Black sesame ice cream and red bean ice cream with orange slices on the side
The red bean ice cream was amazing! So smooth and silky on the tongue and full of red bean flavour.
The sesame ice cream was more granular in texture and really tasted of sesame.

Mini One (Sogo) - Hong Kong

I always find it really interesting walking through the food sections in the basements of department stores. There's so much variety and there's so much to see.
We were in Causeway Bay killing some time until lunch when we saw that they were giving away samples of the croissants at Mini Ones:

 The croissant samples were so good, we decided to buy a sample pack of 6 of their other buns and breads
  
All the breads were really good, but my favourite was still the croissant over the mini sesame bread and chocolate croissant.

Overall: I like that they bake everything fresh and the croissant was really buttery and yummy!

Friday 25 July 2014

Gi Kee Restaurant - Hong Kong

We were told that there's a dai pai dong (food court) in the Wong Nai Chung Market and Cooked Food Centre in Happy Valley that serves really good food. So we went to check it out:

  
It definitely wasn't like any food court I've ever been to - they had two stalls open and apparently there were specific seating areas for each stall. We were given two sets of menus and we took a look through both before deciding on Gi Kee Restaurant. However, we noticed that most people who came to the food court already knew which stall they were eating from. 

Also, people from each stall came and took orders from your table - so it was kind of like a restaurant set up, but the two stalls shared the same food court space.
 

Clams in black bean sauce
The sauce was really good and the clams were really fresh! The dish had a lot of balance with the sweetness of the clams and the saltiness of the black bean sauce. Nice!

Shrimp Paste Tofu
The tofu was super silky and the shrimp paste was made with real shrimp rather than the processed and pre-packaged shrimp paste. Amazing!
Deep fried Minced Garlic Chicken
This is the dish that they're known for and it's no wonder! The minced garlic was so good that we finished all the crumbs on the plate and the chicken was fried to perfection and the meat was so juicy. I could eat multiple portions of this! It was so good!

Overall: I feel like we discovered a treasure in a random food court in Hong Kong. Gi Kee Restaurant was soooo good! Everything was delicious and all the ingredients were very fresh. 

Xin Dau Ji (Tsuen Wan) - Hong Kong

Another branch of Xin Dau Ji in Tsuen Wan:

Chicken, Chinese sausage, mushroom and rice in clay pot 
It was pretty good! The soy sauce was sweet and the meats and vegetables were savoury all on a bed of rice cooked in a clay pot. 

Zhaliang and Yu Choy
Crunchy youtiao wrapped in rice noodle was really good

Roast suckling pig skin, noodles, har gow and vegetables in beancurd wrap
Yum! 

Siu Mai

Stuffed tofu with pork and shrimp paste
The tofu was super soft and the sauce was good. 

Egg custard bun and ma lai go (Hong Kong steamed sponge cake)
I really liked both desserts! The ma lai go was sweet, but not too sweet and quite fluffy and yummy! 
It was my first time trying an egg custard bun:
Really good! It was super hot inside with the egg custard spilling out the second I ripped open the bun. 

Overall: I think the quality of the food is better at the Causeway Bay location. The atmosphere at the Tsuen Wan location was more casual and friendly and not as formal as the Causeway Bay location.