Snacking in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is my home. If I had to make a list of the luckiest things that have happened to me, one of them would be being born in Hong Kong. Food has always been an important part of Chinese culture, we catch up with friends over a meal, celebrate special occasions with a banquet, we even have iconic food items for traditional festivals (e.g. Mooncake for Mid-Autumn Festival), any excuse to eat really...

There are seven million people living in this small city, nearly half of them live on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and the other half live in New Territories. Many people have to work long hours, so sometimes cooking at home is considered to be a hassle, or there is simply not enough time to cook after a long day at work, so eating out has become a big part of daily life for the locals. Because of the rich food culture, and given the history of Hong Kong, it is not surprising to find cuisine from all over the world, along side regional Chinese eateries.

I have been to Hong Kong twice this year (August and September) since I started this blog, as it is so easy (and cheap!) to eat out, I hardly had a home cooked dinner when I was there. I am going to introduce you some of my local favourite cheap eats, snacks and cake shops in this post, mainly form my home town Yuen Long. There will be more restaurants in central Hong Kong featured in upcoming posts.

Lo Poh Beng (Wife Cake)
There are different versions of the story of where the name ‘wife cake’ came from, the most common one tells of a man who dedicated the cakes he made to his wife, because she sold herself as a slave in order to get medicine to heal his father’s illness.

Hang Heung cake shop is well known for their traditional wife cakes, it has been in business for more than ninety years! The bakery produces over twenty thousand wife cakes daily to cope with the demand from locals and tourists. The pastry is puff and flaky, and is filled with mild winter melon paste, best served hot.

恒香老餅家 Hang Heung Cake Shop, 64 Castle Peak Road, Yuen Long

Daan Tart (Egg Tart)
You can find egg tarts everywhere in Hong Kong - Chinese restaurants (as a dim sum item), traditional and modern bakeries - this shows how popular these little baked egg tarts are. Apparently (and not surprisingly) it was adapted from the English custard tart, which has now evolved to become one of the must-eat treats in Hong Kong.

Tai Cheong Bakery’s egg tart was described as ‘The Best’ by Chris Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong. The custard filling is light and creamy, together with the crumbly shortcrust pastry made this the best selling daan tart in Hong Kong.

泰昌餅家 Tai Chong Bakery, 35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central

Mango drinks and desserts
Hui Lau Shan is a dessert franchise specialising in mango desserts. It is nothing spectacular, but you cannot beat a glass of fresh mango drink layered with mango jelly, mango puree, chunks of fresh mango and then topped with coconut milk when you are tired and thirsty, especially after shopping :) They also do a wide range of fresh fruit drinks and desserts, such as mango mochi which is equally satisfying.

許留山 Hui Lau Shan, 2 Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay

Siu Mei (Roast meat)
Siu Mei is a classic Cantonese cuisine in its own right, which involves a great deal of preparation. Each restaurant has its own secret recipe for preparing the meat. The common meats - chicken, goose, duck and pork -  are roasted in an open wood fire, and then hung to enhance the flavour. They are normally served on the bone, with a dedicated sauce for each. You can order them as an individual dish, or on top of rice/noodles for a quick meal.

Kam Gei is a local siu mei restaurant in my home town Yuen Long. We always order roast whole suckling pig from there, when there is a big traditional celebration in our local village. I highly recommend their ‘half fat half lean’ char siu, which melts in your mouth in no time!

金記 Kam Gei, 66 Shui Che Kwun Street, Yuen Long

Chea Jai Min (Trolley noodles)
As you might have guessed from the name, trolley noodles used to served by hawkers on the street, but since the hygiene standards came into force in recent years, most of the hawkers have vanished - although some have started their own trolley noodle style cafes in permanent venues. The basic idea is to choose your own type of noodle and toppings. A typical cafe would serve around five different type of noodle, and at least twenty toppings, including the exotic ones like lo sui pig’s intestine, deep fried pig’s skin, and cubes of solidified pig’s blood.

My favourite trolley noodles come from a very basic noodle cafe near my old secondary school. I remember the queue was long back then, but now the average queuing time can be over thirty minutes! Their success is due to three killer ingredients: the first is the braised Chinese radish, slow cooked in a light and sweet soy sauce based broth. Second is the lo sui pig’s intestine, so bouncy and rich that I have to order double portions every time I visit. The last one is the aromatic spicy sauce - it is a bit like satay sauce but a lot thicker. It is a highly spiced sauce, I could not tell what is in it apart from Chinese five spice... you just need a little to blow your head off!

永年士多 Wing Nin, 6 Fung Lok Lane, Yuen Long

This is just a small collection of my favourite snacks in Hong Kong, I tried to fit in as much as I could, but it was impossible to cover it all in two trips. Stay tuned for upcoming posts featuring more Chinese, as well as Sichuan and Japanese restaurants in Hong Kong!

City Caphe Supper Club

City Caphe, Bank

City Caphe is my new favourite lunch spot in the City. It is a nice little Vietnamese cafe located right in the heart of the City on Ironmonger Lane, run by a lovely lady called Julie Vu. The cafe menu ranges from the ever popular noodle soup Pho and Bue Hue, healthy vermicelli salad Bun, the hearty Vietnamese baguette Banh Mi, and the colourful rolls Cuon. If you have been following my tweets, you would know my favourite is the Bun Bo Hue - spicy beef noodle soup. Totally worth the twenty minutes queuing during lunchtime.

I was very excited when I found out about the two-night special supper club co-hosted by City Caphe and Banhmi11. With both teams offering their expertise on Vietnamese cooking, with Banhmi11’s modern twists and City Caphe’s French-inspired dishes, it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Green mango, pomelo and sun-dried squid salad

Pan-fried scallop on lotus roots chip

I used to eat pomelo a lot when I was a kid, especially during mid Autumn festival. I remember we used to make a lantern from the pomelo skin. It was nice to see it being used as an ingredient for a dish, its refreshing taste went well with the dried squid, which could be quite fishy on its own. The scallop was pan-fried on the shell, giving it a beautiful charred look on the outside.

Prawn banh xeo

Fish Q roll

The banh xeo was not as crusty as I would like, but the prawn and vegetable filling was scrumptious. The slight disappointment was soon lifted by the bouncy fish q roll. The fish was bursting with herbs, it was perfect with the light fish sauce and mint dressing.

Bun rieu crab noodle soup

Oven-baked sardine in lotus leaf

Most of the guests on our table were pretty full by the fourth course, we all went into shock when we saw the generous portion of the crab noodle soup, which could be a meal on its own. The highlight was the specially made fish broth, it was totally different from the one I usually get in the bun bo hue at lunchtime. The last savoury course was the sardine. It was wrapped in lotus leaves together with chopped garlic and bay leaves, then baked in the oven.

From left to right: Che troi nuoc mung bean dumplings in ginger syrup, Durian ice-cream

Durian is not too everyone’s taste, but I love it. I think the chef had toned down the durian flavour for the first timers. The bean mochi-like dumpling and the ginger syrup was a sweet and warm ending to the night.

This was the first time I had attended a supper club. The experience was unique, and I got to meet some new people over great food. Julie, Anh, Van and their teams had done a great job on creating an amazing evening for all the diners. I hope to see some of the dishes from the supper club appearing on the regular menu soon :)

City Caphe

Banhmi11

Sushi of Shiori

Sushi of Shiori, Euston

As part of my big 30th birthday celebrations, one of my best friends took me out for dinner (yes I am so lucky!). We both love eating sushi, so we decided to give 'Sushi of Shiori' a go. We were blown away!

My first impression of the restaurant was that it was small, only around 15 covers. The restaurant has little in the way of decoration, it was bright and simple. There were only three staff working in the restaurant that night: a chef, a waiter (waitress?) and a kitchen porter. We sat at the counter, which allowed us to watch the chef’s every move. He is a very serious chef, he was very focused on his work, and barely talked to the other staff unless it was related to an order.

There were good selection of fish on the menu, the usual ones like salmon, tuna and prawns, as well as more exotic ones such as razor clams and sea urchin. You can have them in the form of sushi, sashimi, rolls or donburi (on top of rice). There was a small selection of sake as well.

Moving on to the food...

Razor clam sashimi - It was a work of art. The razor clam was cut into strips and carefully placed on its own shell, together with beautifully crafted cucumber, carrot and salad leaves.

Assorted sushi - Where should I start? There was tuna belly (chu toro), tuna, salmon belly, yellowtail, red snapper, squid, scallop, salmon roe, and the daily special maki. I particularly liked the mini ‘toppings’, which were tailor-made to enhance the flavour of each fish. Check out the truffle on top of the scallop! I would not have expected a £19 plate of assorted sushi to be of such a high quality. The squid with sea urchin was my favourite of the night. It was just so good...

We ordered more...

Amai ebi (sweet prawns)

Sea urchin gunkans

Grilled eel

and more...

From left to right - Mackerel, jumbo prawn, and negi toro rolls (minced tuna and spring onion)

Without doubt, the sushi at Sushi of Shiori is of a very high quality. What makes it so special is the chef’s attention to detail, and the thought that goes into every single piece of sushi. We finished our meal with a scoop of homemade sesame ice cream, planning our next visit for the omakase!

Sushi of Shiori

The Tang's Seafood Feast

October is a special month for the Tang family. My birthday, my younger brother’s birthday, and my parents’ wedding anniversary all happen to fall in the same month. Before my brother and I came to live in the UK, we used to celebrate this very special month together every year. It is a shame we cannot get together as often as we would like because of the distance, but we still try to do something special whenever possible! We were not able to celebrate together this year, but as this is the first year my little brother is living on his own, I decided to cook up a seafood feast to celebrate his birthday.

There are so many different ways of cooking seafood, but I love the Chinese way - Get the freshest ingredients from the market, then grill or cook at a high heat with aromatic seasonings. Steaming is also a brilliant way to cook seafood if you prefer to keep it light and delicate. It is not easy to get live shellfish in London, there is a good selection in some fish mongers, but the markup - in my opinion - is excessive. Luckily we have Billingsgate Market, the biggest fish market in London, where you can buy the freshest seasonal shellfish at wholesale prices. After haggling for around half an hour, we had bought - a Scottish lobster, half a dozen clams and tiger prawns, a monkfish tail, a fillet of red snapper and a grey mullet, all for £60. BARGAIN!

For the meal, I cooked four dishes using the lobster, clams, tiger prawns and grey mullet. All the shellfish were cleaned, gutted and patted dry. They were all fried at a high heat (on the shell) briefly - in Chinese we called it ‘run oil’ (過油) - then set aside before adding back to the wok towards the end of the cooking process. This is to prevent the flesh from becoming mushy when cooking with other ingredients.

Lobster in a Chinese-Western style cheese sauce. Check out the size of the claw!

Steamed huge clams with glass noodles, garlic and spring onion. Seasoned with a splash of hot oil, soy sauce and sesame oil just before serving.

Stir fried tiger prawns with red chillies, garlic, ginger and spring onion.

Grey mullet is a speciality of my hometown, Yuen Long. For a typical home cooked  meal, we would usually have a whole steamed fish, a plate of vegetables, and a meat dish. My dad used to buy grey mullet from the local market, and he still does it whenever we go back to Hong Kong. So when I saw the grey mullet in the fish market, I could not help but buy one, even though I absolutely hate gutting fish...  luckily it was not my first time, so I managed to do that quite quickly. I laid slices of fresh lemon (supposed to use pickled lemon but I did not have any) on the top and bottom of the fish, before steaming it in a wok for around 15 minutes. I then added a splash of hot oil and soy sauce just before serving. I remember that I used to mix the remaining fishy soy sauce with the rice, after all the fish was gone.

For my own birthday, I was very lucky to have a warm day in mid October, so I could enjoy a wonderful picnic in Victoria Park with my great friends. We then headed to Viajante Bar for cocktails, followed by a Vietnamese feast on Kingsland road. Turning 30 is the start of a new page of my life, and I'm sure it will only get better :)

Galvin Bistrot de Luxe

Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, Baker Street

I still remember our first visit to Galvin Bistrot de Luxe when it was first opened in 2005 – the amazing bistro buzz, the friendly staff and the scrumptious food. It all came back to me during my second visit a week ago.  The meal was as good as I remember, if not better.

I could feel the bistro atmosphere the moment I stepped into the restaurant, I loved the round hanging lights and the dark wood décor, and the fact that we were greeted by every single member of staff we walked past. It made me feel like I was in a local Paris bistro. The people chatting, and the buzzing atmosphere were a huge contrast to the quiet Baker Street.

Moving on to the food…

Escargots à la bourguignonne - I could tell the snails had a good life and been very well fed, as they were huge! It was the first time I had seen a mountain of snails that were so consistent in size. We could not restrain ourselves from dipping the bread into the leftover garlic butter, as if it was the start of another course.

Lasagne of Dorset crab, beurre Nantais – A stack of crab meat and thinly rolled pasta was precisely placed on a plate filled with a creamy butter sauce. The lasagne itself was very light, the sauce was seasoned to perfection, it was one of the best dishes I had had in years.

Rump of Cornish lamb, pomme boulangère and puy lentils

Confit duck leg, black pudding, glazed figs and Lyonnaise salad

Slow roast ribeye of pork, braised red cabbage, prunes and Armagnac jus

The high standard of cooking continued to the main courses. The quality of the lamb was top-notch, it was extremely tender. Although I am not a big fan of lentils I managed to clear the plate :) The skin of the confit duck leg was goldenly crisp, and the meat was slow cooked in its own fat, so that only a fork was needed to separate the meat from the bone. Black pudding was a strong garnish but it was creatively balanced by the sweetness of the figs. The pork ribeye was new to me, I did not try it myself but my cousin from Hong Kong said it was delicious. What a beautiful looking dish as well.

Apple tarte tatin - We had the very same dessert on our first visit. It lived up to my memory, and more. There were shiny, syrupy caramelised chunks of apple laying on a bed of crispy puff pastry, it was heavenly. We also ordered a quince tarte to share but it was nearly demolished by my cousins after I finished taking the photo of the tarte tatin... I did manage to have a few mouthfuls, it tasted a bit like a pear and almond sponge tart, the sweet qunice came through nicely from the fluffy sponge, just as enjoyable as the tarte tartin.

The Galvin brothers have taken classic French bistro cuisine to a fine dining level by delivering excellent food and service. They have managed to keep up with the new trends and ideas by opening two new restaurants in the past five years, as well as keeping a high and consistent standard in their very first restaurant. To me, it is always the best Galvin.

Galvin Bistrot de Luxe