Shui Lui Shan is one of the places that I must go to on every visit to Hong Kong. As it is, it is wonderful that they have an outlet at the airport and you can sit comfortable rather than be ushered to a tiny table to be shared with several other people. So, while I have tried a better version at Cong Sao, I still was not able to board my plane without a last bowl of mango sago and it was a sweet good end to a fabulous holiday!
To me, Hung King Heen is the epitome of what makes a good dim sum. I still rate it as the best dim sum restaurant in the world – for its exquisite and delicate dishes, beautifully baked pastry, exquisite service and beautiful harbour view. There is just no comparable in Hong Kong (or at least as far as all the restaurants I have tried there).
I like coming here for so many reasons, the spacious restaurant and excellent service people are just some of the multiple reasons to keep coming back to dine here, for the sheer wonderful dining experience.
For this trip, I tried slightly different dim sums from my last trip, and only repeated the mini abalone puff with diced chicken. The baked BBQ pork buns with pine nuts were simply crisp and wonderfully soft at the same time – definitely one of my best finds this trip. The steamed vegetable dumplings with bamboo piths were equally good with its thin skin and light-as-air ingredients. The pan-fried pork dumplings with chives must surely be the best I have ever eaten in my life – even better than most in China, Singapore or Japan. It is plump with juicy and finely chopped meat. I like this when I am generally not a fan. The spring rolls were good and nicely crisp, but not as outstanding as the other dim sums.
Overall: It is perhaps one of the few reasons for me to visit and re-visit Hong Kong. Of course, the nice flower arrangements placed strategically around the Four Seasons is also a sight to behold.
Across from the Agnes B Cafe on Gough Street, we chanced upon an interesting shop that sells lightings, furniture, water bottles, neon lights, key chains, Vespa stuffs, etc. Homeless.HK is a most interesting find that we actually stayed in the shop for a long time, even longer than we intended as it cut into our very limited shopping time, but we didn’t mind. While browsing through the store, we found things that we generally can’t find elsewhere and the whole place is really quite interesting and is either emerging or a soon-to-be-emerging place for interesting finds, both in terms of food and shopping – and with a nice combination of old and new.
Overall: Highly recommended for a leisurely afternoon stroll around the vicinity to explore the place and what it has to offer.
After watching Jacky Cheung’s 1/2 Century Concert in Singapore last year and I thoroughly enjoyed the non-stop 3-hour concert, I thought it could not get any better, but it did.
I just attended the same concert in Hong Kong, and being on his home turf, he was all at ease and definitely a lot more comfortable and chirpy. I believe there were some slight modifications to the songs performed here, or it could be my imagination, but he seems so much more relaxed and had a better rapport with the audience here. I thoroughly enjoyed the concert, and it was a good experience to attend a canto-pop concert in HK, something I have always wanted to do. JC! JC! JC!
Note to self: Canto-pop concerts are truly “value for money”. There is dancing, singing, clowning around, love stories, etc. All this for more than 3 hours!! In addition, concerts are more reasonably priced in HK than Singapore. I was informed that top priced tickets are only at HK$800 (or S$135)
My friend highly recommended the desserts at Cong Sao – at Holiday Inn at Causeway Bay. The queue was extremely long, but it was shorter for takeaways, and it was really great! Awesome!
The mangoes with bean curd is definitely one of the best desserts I have tried. The bean curd was soft and melt in your mouth good, and ditto for the succulent and generous pieces of mangoes. It was so good that one bowl is just not enough!
After lunch at The Chairman, and without desserts to compete our meal, we went to the nearby Agnes B Cafe – partly to satisfy our dessert cravings and partly to avoid the heavy downpour (it has been raining every day since I arrived in Hong Kong).
I like the cafe, it is so out of place with the neighbourhood, and yet it has so much charm. I love my coffee, especially with the signature Agnes B (check out the picture!). This is really a lovely way to spend the afternoon hanging out with loved ones and friends.
PS: I love the floor tiles. Check it out, it is gorgeous!
The Chairman started off very promisingly with an incredibly nice pumpkin soup (but then again, I always had good soups in Hong Kong – the land of flavorful and piping hot soups). It was good, but still not as great as Lei Garden’s daily soup.
As the meal progresses, there was really nothing quite outstanding or special about the dishes. Most were competent, but then again, we were not expecting just competent. We were expecting to be “wowed”, especially after what we have heard from reviews and friends.
Most of the dishes were done fairly similar to home cooking, that is, most dishes were decent, but not particularly memorable. The vegetables and the chicken were good, but the rest were quite forgettable. I have also come to notice that the “kampong” chickens in Hong Kong are so much more interesting and without the “steroid” taste as found in Singapore.
The Chairman is a 1-star restaurant, but after checking it out, I believe that several of the Chinese/Asian restaurants in Singapore also truly deserve some stars. In particular, I would personally award at least 2 stars to Hua Ting Restaurant in Singapore. Others deserving of Michelin stars include Crystal Jade Golden Palace Restaurant at Paragon, Li Bai and Summer Pavillion.
Price: Around HK$400 per person or S$65
After the previous night at Azure at Lan Kwai Fong, we decided that we can afford to tone it down a notch or two. READ: We want to sit down, have drinks served on nice little table, with some side dishes, and not try too hard to move or pretend to move to the music in a very crowded dance floor with almost no space between each other. Ok, we admit, we are getting older and this is what we prefer.
Friends suggested Cafe Gray at Upper House near Pacific Place (JW Marriott). It is a pleasant place to chill out and it offers a fabulous night view of Hong Kong and the waterfront area. Lovely! According to MWFW, it serves the best Pimms No 1 in town. Well, it was a nice concoction and we had a great time people watching, munching on fries and chatting. Yes, it is a nice place to relax after a long day.
Overall: Recommended. Price of HK$260 (S$40) for two drinks and light snacks.
Besides Lung King Heen, I have not dined at another three-Michelin-starred Chinese restaurants, and was looking forward to my second 3-star experience at Sun Tung Lok.
With three Michelin stars, our expectations went sky high – rightly or wrongly so. It was almost the highlight of the trip and we were truly excited to be able to secure a reservation at the restaurant, especially for a Saturday dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to note that it was not full despite the high rating. In fact, there were just a few occupied tables.
While the restaurant has an updated look, the food appeared to be traditional and “trying” a bit too hard to impress. With our first dish of deep-fried prawn and assorted vegetables done tempura style, it was somewhat disappointing, and the disappointment did not stop there. The rest of the dishes were quite salty and forgettable. I find the saltiness a bit hard to accept, especially for a Michelin-starred restaurant. I almost had to give up on all the dishes, except for the braised bird’s nest soup with egg white and bamboo pith, which was the least salty of the dishes. The braised fish maw and pomelo skin with dried shrimp roe was only interesting because it used pomelo skin – something most of us have not tried before. The pan-fried sword fish belly with volcanic salt was dry and a tad too salty. The braised (yes, braised again) prime rib of beef with house gravy was no better than most of the stewed/braised beef I have tried before and I deemed it to be considerably ordinary. The meal ended with seafood fried rice in curry flavour and again it was not memorable. Our additional order, the house’s special of suckling pig skin, was definitely over-fried – and very disappointing.
I am starting to wonder if having so many stars is indeed a privilege or a “curse” since diners tend to have high expectations whenever they see it. For me, and maybe it is because we did not order the more expensive set menus, I cannot find the “wow” here. I was obviously disappointed, largely because I have dined at other fine Chinese restaurants, without any rating, and yet with dishes that have caused me to salivate just at the thought of the dish.
Pricing: set menu per person ranges from HK$700-13,000. We paid about HK$1000 (S$165) each.
Address: 4/F Miramar Shopping Centre, 132 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
During my other trips to Hong Kong, I have always wanted to try the famous Kau Kee beef noodle, but somehow, there was never enough time to drop by. For this trip, and thanks to one tiny spot of “freedom”, I decided to try the places I have always wanted on my own.
I made my way to Gough Street after a nice leisurely walk around Central. When I reached the small little corner shop at around 3pm, there was a long queue. I was surprised. I wanted to avoid the peak lunch time crowd, and yet, it was obviously unavoidable.
The place was packed and I had to share a very small table with six other people (when it was designed for at most 4 and not 7). I was literally plastered next to the guy next to me, chopsticks clicking loudly with chopsticks. It was most unpleasant and I thought the food better be good to compensate for the heat, crowd and tiny space.
What about the noodle? Well, it was tasty, but the layer of fats was not quite what I am used to. Somehow, I still prefer the Singaporean-style beef noodle. Which bags the important question, would I re-visit again? I don’t think so. Not just because the style was not the same (which I can still accept and like), but for the squashed sitting arrangement and to me a fairly ordinary bowl of beef noodle (HK$50 for my little outing or S$8).
Address: 21 Gough Street
After last evening’s fabulous dinner at Xi Yan Private Kitchen, I was all ready for more of Xi Yan, but a lighter version. Jacky, the owner from Xi Yan, highly recommended his desserts at Xi Yan Sweets and I thought it would be a nice break to have simpler fares to “detox” the system from the rich food I have consumed and is planning to consume over the couple of day.
Xi Yan Sweets’ dishes were indeed delightful, light, tasty and as an added bonus, the place is a nice place to meet friends over a good meal. I like the very flavourful and tasty fish porridge (rice in prime fish soup). I also like the zhenjiang spareribs. This is a wonderful place to come for a light meal, especially for its tasty treats and clean environment.
Overall: Highly recommended. Price of about HK$250 or S$40 per person.
Address: Shop 1, 8 Wing Fung Street, Wan Chai
Although we have tried Xi Yan Private Kitchen in Singapore, we have also been told that the main one in Hong Kong is still worth visiting. So, with that in mind, we put it on our to-do list.
We were given a nice corner and we like the generous use of red in the decor. Of course, owner/chef Jacky was around and took time to explain to us his food and concept, and it was interesting just listening to his idea. I must add that he is cute for a chef :-)
The food was also refreshing and quite interesting. In fact, several dishes were truly outstanding including the wagyu beef and chicken.
For appetizers, we had the wagyu beef steak in wasabi sesame sauce (I love the style that was done here, especially with the sauces, it was delicious), the wine marinated prawns, tossed cordyceps fowers with spring onion oil (lovely dish that I have never tried before). For mains, we had roasted chicken with truffle (nice and crisp, totally melt in the mouth, and I have come to like and appreciate the much leaner chicken dishes in Hong Kong), steamed baby geoduck clam in pickled gooseberry (nicely done without the typical smell from clams), pickled olive and black bean paste, longan and jujube sorbet, deep fried grouper with lemongrass in shrimp paste, fresh mushrooms in bean curd thick soup (apparently this is an award-winning soup for the thinly sliced bean curd), asparagus roll in pea sauce. For dessert, it was the unusual South-east Asian favourite of durian bubur cha-cha. Lovely!
It is a nice and friendly restaurant. I am definitely coming back to try the next time I am in town. Hopefully we can get to meet Jacky again, as I would like to hear more about some of his new dishes, which incorporate SE Asian spices and concepts.
Address: 3F, 83 Wan Chai Road, Wanchai. Price of about HK$800 (S$130) per person.
When friends first mentioned about going for the Hong Kong Art Fair in March, my interest was lukewarm as I imagined it to be slightly bigger and better than Art Stage 2012 in Singapore in Jan 2012. However, I wanted a short break and I thought it would be fun to get an “education” from my museum friends who are going too. However, as with the best intended and planned holiday, things start to fall apart as May approached. We had our “ups and downs” and almost had to cancel the trip for various reasons, but in the end we made it and am I glad.
It was a fabulous event and I had fun walking through the exhibition halls. In the end, it took almost 3hours just to walk through one hall and we had to practically sprint past most pieces in the second hall.
There were just too many art pieces to look at, and what is equally compelling is that the crowd is huge (read: HUGE!) and it gives it the buzz. This place is so much more vibrant and fun. We thoroughly enjoyed the people watching part, it was incredibly fun! We like it that the crowd dressed up for the event and most looked good and fashionable. This is what I imagined an art fair to be.
Given a chance, I am likely to come back again. I was told that the HK Art Fair will be held in Feb in 2013, and I think it is fabulous as the weather should be better in February than the non-stop rain in May. Should I start planning now? Or wait till Jan 2013?
Here are some of my favourites, in no particular order.
Our first meal in Hong Kong for this trip and we clearly over-ordered at Fook Lam Moon. The roast meats were very good, and it was the same for the roast chicken (I especially like the chicken). The house special crab was very interesting and packed full of generous chunks of crab meat. The Xiao Long Bao was very tender and juicy. The signature Har Kao had thin skin and crunchy prawns inside. My favourite Ham Sui Kor was excellent – I actually wanted to have another order of this, but was stopped by my friends as we had already clearly over-ordered! The stewed beef brisket was also soft and fabulous – one of those times when I wished I had six stomachs to eat all I want! My friends loved the fried rice and the nicely crisp spring rolls. On the downside, the desserts were fairly forgettable.
Overall: Highly recommended for the nicely roasted roast pork and meats – very tasty and tender. Price of about HK$500 per person (or S$85)
Address: Shop 3, G/F, Newsman House, 35-45 Johnston Road, Wan Chai
Katong is really really changing and becoming more vibrant. It seems to have almost everything here, great food and more great food on almost every street and every corner.
We wanted a simple dinner, but somehow ended up at Canton Paradise because we thought we can order some light snacks. But in the end, we had several dishes in addition to the dim sum dishes. I guess we will never know how to order in moderation, we are Asian, having a table full of food is in our DNAs. We can’t change it. Fortunately, all the dishes were good.
This restaurant is now one of our favourites in the east for its tasty food and convenient location.
If anything good can come out of being sick is that you discover a lot of wonderful things about the people around you who love and care about you. I discovered this recently when I came down with a bad bout of flu, cough, aches, etc.
I got oatmeal specially prepared for me with nice cut fruits, I got served Fried Mee Hoon with Curry Chicken. Friends also delivered my favourite Dragon Phoenix Yam Ring, Hilton’s famous Cheese Cake and a wide assortment of cupcakes. Then, I also got a surprise treat to eat ramen at Ramen Talk at Katong 112. I am feeling well loved, nourished, and definitely on the road to recovery with all the meals, some prepared with so much love.
Yes, it is a strange combination, but it was also one of those days when you just want to try to cook several items, even if it is not the right combination. For me, I started off wanting to try a new recipe of lemon grass corn rice and apple pike and after that, I was just fixated to get it done, I didn’t think too much that it was an unlikely offering of western and eastern dishes. Still, I am still at this happy exploratory stage of cooking that I wasn’t going to let some small “technical” dos and don’ts stop me from experimenting and cooking.
In the end, I roasted chicken wings, cooked lontong vegetables, corn rice and ended the meal with apple pies. The chicken wings were nicely roasted and were rated one Michelin star by my kind and generous friends. The vegetables were also tasty. But, the rice disappointed, and the crust of the apple pies were too thick, too salty and tasted exactly like digestive biscuits!!!!
So, of the four items, two were good and two disappointed, and for me, it was a very disappointing attempt. Thankfully, my encouraging friends gave very useful comments and tips and I am determined to make a more complementary and unforgettable meal the next time. Until then, I think I have to revert back to Cooking 101 and do more research and what went wrong.
There are times when you just want to be selfish and keep some good food places to yourself, because the queue or the wait is already long. This is the case with my special fish soup shop at Bedok. We went recently and waited almost 30 minutes for it. The elderly couple was already working very hard, but the stream of orders was just non-stop, but she was so apologetic that you actually did not mind waiting.
I guess it helps that it is housed inside a hawker centre and you can order food from other shops first and we usually do. This can be unfortunate too, because when the delicious fish soup finally arrives, we are usually almost half full from snacking on whatever we ordered earlier.
I like their generous portion and the freshness of the fish slices. I also like the side dishes including Stewed Pork and Tau Pok. It is always such a satisfying meal eating here – you walk away feeling happy! The fish soup costs $3 and to me that is incredible value for money especially since they provide a generous portion of fish slices.
Someone offered to buy me lunch at No Menu and I almost jumped with delight. The food was as usual good and consistent, and I guess that is what I like about this place – just good, robust, decent portions Italian food done without too much false pretence, but just focusing on being incredibly good.
We had wine, and it made the meal almost perfect. I think I can eat here regularly and still not be sick of the food.
After several disappointing meals in the past few days (so bad that these do not even warrant any mention, posting or picture), I finally decided that I need some good old familiar local food. Whenever I am in this mood, I settle for one of a few favourite local items (Laksa, Mee Siam, fish ball noodle, prawn noodle, Nasi Lemak, etc).
For lunch, I decided to head to Different Tastes for its awesome Nasi Lemak – got to go early as it is usually sold out before lunch is over. Since I was on leave, I decided to pamper myself with Nasi Lemak, high calories or otherwise. It was still the same aromatic rice that I love, and even though I am trying to cut down on carbohydrates, I still polished off the whole plate of rice. So yummy!!!! And now, I feel satisfied!!!!
If only there are more of such simple, but highly satisfying food around!
