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RE: do I need a reservation for any of the above recommended places? - Maxim's Palace Restaurant - Reservation recommended - Maxim's Serenade Restaurant - Reservation recommended - West Villa Restaurant - Reservation recommended - Din Tai Fung - not sure if they take reservation. If so, recommended - Eight Happiness Restaurant - make reservation if you plan to go in peak hours (1pm - 2pm; 6:30pm - 8:30pm) - Canton BBQ Restaurant - nope... hole in the wall - Yung Kee Restaurant - Reservation recommended - Metropol Restaurant - make reservation if you plan to go in peak hours (1pm - 2pm; 6:30pm - 8:30pm) - Chuen Cheung Kui (泉章居) - Causeway Bay location: go to the 8/F (instead of 7/F). Less crowded (8/F - no rice plate offers I think). Reservation is probably not necessary but you can. - Wing Lai Yuen Restaurant - not sure if they take reservations - Fortune Cuisine Restaurant - not sure if they take reservations - Golden Shanghai Restaurant (金滬庭京川滬菜館) - not sure if they take reservations - Federal Palace Restaurant (聯邦皇宮大酒樓)- not sure if they take reservations

I am going to jot down some of my miscellaneous thoughts about visiting/dining in Hong Kong: RE: Syk100 Sky100 is the latest attraction for tourists: observation deck on 100/F in the currently tallest building in Hong Kong - ICC (International Commerce Centre). Sky100 charges you HKD $150 for admission to the observation deck. Just for sight-seeing on 100/F in the ICC building. Alternatively: Go to the Ritz Carlton Hotel (same ICC building, different entrance). Take the elevator to the 102/F main lobby. Transfer to the elevator to the 118/F - Ozone lounge. Ozone has some indoor seatings, as well as some semi-outdoor ones (best view). There, you can have the birdeye view of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island from 118/F from the same building. No admission charge. No minimum charge (before 11pm I think). HKD $150 that you would otherwise spend on the admission ticket to Sky100 can buy you just about 2 beers. You can sit down, enjoy the view while you sip on your drinks. (Only draw back is... it is a smoking section.)

Maxim's Palace Restaurant, City Hall, Central Address: 3/F, City Hall, 5-7 Edinburgh Place, Central 中環愛丁堡廣場5-7號大會堂低座3樓 Style: Guangdong | Dim Sum Restaurant | Dim Sum Tel: 2521 1303 http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=488 I am a sucker for Cantonese dim sums. More so, I am a sucker for having dim sums at Maxim's Palace, City Hall, at Central. Just about every trip to Hong Kong, I went there to have my first local meal. Especially after getting off the plane at 6 am. Hotel checked in a 9 am. Waiting for the room with not much to do... I said so because Maxim's Palace, while offering very good dim sums and excellent service, is also very pricey in Hong Kong standard. And don't expect them to offer discounted pricing based on time-of-day (a common practice among dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong these days). Between the tourists following recommendations from almost every tour book, power-lunch business people, the newly minted "rich" class mainland Chinese, and the local elites who feel price is no concern... who am I to complain about a HKD300 pp price tag? There is always a long line outside during lunch time. They roll out dim sum carts with clear labels. Dim sum servers speak enough English to tell you what the items are. If not enough... just ask them to lift the basket lids to see for yourself to decide whether you want to try that dim sum. Table setting. Oops... too hungry... my wife chowed down the first piece before I could warm up the camera. "Cotton Chicken". Steamed chicken pieces with fish maw and black mushrooms and Chinese cured hams. Steamed shredded chick in rice rolls. (Gai See Fun Guen) Very soft and tender. My benchmark for all dim sum restaurants: Har Gow: shrimp dumplings Deep-fried squid tentacles. A bit chewy and tough. But the flavor was excellent. I loved how Maxim's Palace made it. Char Siu Bao. Only two (instead of the customary three) in a basket. The baos were good but the filling was only average. Ground pork steamed in tofu sheets. (Seen Jook Guen) Soft and tender. Nicely done. Siu Mai, with crab roe on top (the orange dots). Steamed cheung fun with shrimp fillings. Soya sauce (diluted). Mini Nor Mai Gai (steamed sticky rice in lotus leaves). These things got smaller and smaller over the years. The flavor was good but hardly much to eat. Fillings were small shreds of chicken and black mushrooms. No more salted duck eggs to be found. Only gravy. Fried egg rolls. I only like the Hong Kong version of fried egg rolls. Shredded chicken filling. Very crispy and light. Worchestershire sauce as a dip. One thing that I really like about Maxim's Palace is that they offer fresh fruit juices and mixed drinks, made to order. Very refreshing. Ordered was a watermelon juice. Overall eval for Maxim's Palace is: very good dim sum, excellent service, very comfortable seatings. Not much of a view any more. They used to be waterfront with the Queen's Pier. Now the Queen's Pier had been moved and the waterfront outside land-filled (building an expressway and recreational promenade). Only a little pricey. Figure that you are spending about twice the amount at this restaurant than elsewhere in Hong Kong.

I am going to post a series of dining reports in Hong Kong. They are visited during two separate trips: Nov/Dec 2009 and recently May/Jun 2011. Hope this will help some of you get some ideas.

Because you are making trip soon, and that it will take me a while to sort things out... I am going to provide a Recommended-and-NotRecommended list from my experience. Not Recommended: - Hutong Restaurant,Tsimshatsui, Sichuan style: Great view, average food, lousy service, extremely high price Sort of recommended: - Maxim's Palace Restaurant, Central (City Hall), Cantonese style + dim sum: Very good dim sum, excellent service. Just a bit pricey. Recommended: - Maxim's Serenade Restaurant, Tsimshatsui, Cantonese style + dim sum: Good dim sum (not as good as Maxim's Palace), good service, excellent close-up view of Victoria Harbour. Discounted pricing after 2pm. - West Villa Restaurant, Central & Tai Koo (plus one other location), Cantonese style + dim sum: Specialty is char siu (Cantonese BBQ pork). Just order char-siu everything... BBQ pork baos (baked ones, steamed ones), BBQ pork cheung fun, etc. - Din Tai Fung, Causeway Bay and Tsimshatsui, Taiwanese style small eats: great porkchop fried rice - must have. Xiaolongbao - mush have. Many other items good. - Eight Happiness Restaurant, Wanchai, Taiwanese style small eats: signature items: pepper beef buns (sesame top), fried shrimp rolls. Xiaolongbaos are okay, not the top ones. http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=23262 - Canton BBQ Restaurant, Tsimshatsui + Jordan + many locations, Cantonese BBQ: Bit hole-in-the-wall setup. Tight seats. But excellent Cantonese BBQ items - roast pork, char siu, etc. - Yung Kee Restaurant, Central, Cantonese style: Very good food. Specialty - roast goose. Goose everything. Other entres also good. Pricey. Power-lunch place. Service is a mix. I had good experience and really bad experience. - Metropol Restaurant, Admiralty, Cantonese style + dim sum: Good dim sum. Very convenient location. 4/F United Centre. Discounted prices after 2:30pm or something. - Chuen Cheung Kui (泉章居), Causeway Bay + Mongkok, Hakka style: great hakka style dishes like salt-baked chicken, beefball stir-fried with vegetables, mui choy braised pork, etc. http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=437 - Wing Lai Yuen Restaurant, Whampoa + Wong Tai Sin, Sichuan/Shanghai small eats: Signature items: dan dan noodle - you must have it. Wonton chicken in clay pot. The Sichuan style stir-fried dishes (e.g. Kungpao chicken) and noodles and dumplings/baos are all good. Seating is a bit tight and they allow table-sharing (unless you opt not). Excellent value. Only thing is Whampoa (Hung Hom) is a bit out of the way. Taxi there, taxi back, a bit inconvenient. The Wong Tai Sin location may be more convenient. http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=4014 - Fortune Cuisine Restaurant, Causeway Bay (Tin Hau MTR Station exit), Cantonese style + dim sum: a little gem. Very good dim sums, excellent service, good prices. Great value. The only thing not going for them is they are in a basement, with unremarked entrance. You pass by, blink your eyes, you miss it. Two more recommended restaurants at Tung Chung (Citygate Mall). If you are transiting through the Hong Kong International Aiport and you have a few hours... they can be good alternatives to the Maxim's at the airport (which is good but limited choices and pricey). Take bus S1 from HKIA to Tung Chung MTR. - Golden Shanghai Restaurant (金滬庭京川滬菜館), Shop 116, 1/F, CityGate, 20 Tat Tung Road, Tung Chung, Shanghai style (plus some mix of Sichuan styles). Really good food with reasonable prices. Excellent service. http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=15561 - Federal Palace Restaurant (聯邦皇宮大酒樓), Shop 255&301, 2/F, Citygate Outlets, 20 Tat Tung Road, Tung Chung, Cantonese style + dim sum. This used to be the store front for Easterngate Seafood Restaurant I believe (which is now closed). I had tried both and they are both good. Dim sums and Cantonese stir-fries. http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=47726

Sure Kenneth. I am a sucker for dim sum myself. When I have sorted out my pictures I promise to post some reviews.

Indeed there is a great collection of info here in this thread. I just came back from a 4 week trip to Hong Kong. Streets are quite crowded, as always. Din Tai Fung in Causeway Bay is now opened. (In fact they now have 2 locations in Hong Kong.) We have tried it. Didn't disappoint. I think the best is their porkchop fried rice. Really nicely done.

There are too many restaurants to choose from. Going from one corner to another to taste the food for visitors is just not practical, because the commuting time can be a bit. Perhaps let us know what styles of food you would like to eat and where you will be... that can short-list some suggestions.

A picture of my home-made S hook: Cantonese Roast Chicken with Nam Yu

S hook..... coat hanger and a pair of pliers.

Siharris28: my experience is limited. We have been to the restaurant at the tip of Newport Pier. It changed hand one time at least, that we know of. We like the view of the ocean and the beach. Food-wise it was okay. The burger, fish and chips, some dinner entres kind of thing. Further down there is Balboa Pier. At the tip of Balboa Pier there is Ruby's. We like to go there too for the view. Many restaurants are clusterred around 3 spots: near Newport Pier, near Balboa Pier, and near Balboa Pavilion (view of the Newport Bay). I am not familiar with all the restaurants. Perhaps walk around and see if any one might attract you. Balboa Pier and Balboa Pavilion are only 2 short blocks apart. Between the two piers, it's about one to two miles.

Uncle Ben Hong: You said in such an authoritative tone that: the Japanese term "ramen" is in fact the corruption of the Chinese term "lo mein". I only begged to differ from your view. I am sorry that you felt my post as calling someone out. It certainly was not my intent.

I beg to differ from this view and I agree with Liuzhou. Ramen is from the northern Chinese' "la mein", or pulled noodles. "Lo mein" has a Cantonese origin I believe. The word "Lo" could have two interpretations in Cantonese. 1) The motion of scooping (scooping the noodles from boiling water). 2) The action of mixing - stirring the noodles with some kind of seasoning. In Hong Kong, if you order a dish of "lo mein" you will be served a dish of boiled, al dente, thin egg noodles with oyster sauce poured on top. In the Chinese communities in the USA (I would imagine other diaspora places as well), "lo mein" had turned into frying noodles with dark heavy soy sauce. More like the Shanghainese style thick fried noodles. When I was in elementary school in Hong Kong, (late 60's), soy sauce chow mein was an item served by street vendors on a 4-wheel cart with a giant wok. Plain meatless. Onions. Green onions. Dark heavy soy sauce, high heat... and of course, pork fat. LOL It's the commoners' food. Now they serve this item on a silver platter in high end dim-sum restaurants and charge you 10X the price. LOL

Actually Spam - the Chinese version of it called "lunch meat" - is quite popular in Hong Kong. We use Spam in sandwiches with eggs, baked bao with eggs, ramen noodles with eggs. While it may not be on the menu, I am sure you can order Spam fried rice in Hong Kong.

Marinate with a little oil... that's typical. Especially with meat like beef and pork. It's a common technique/process. Velveting in oil or water... In water, the shrimp will be a bit rough from the boiling water. Cooking in a high temperature oil bath (in less time) would preserve the "bouncy" texture better. Especially with meat like beef and pork. Chicken too. You may use the same pan. But best to rinse out the pan completely before stir-frying with vegetable or seasoning or else the bitsy meat residual will become bits of burnt charcoal.

Sorry to spoil the spirit. Been to Crab Cooker only once. Paper plates, plastic knife/fork, plastic cups, and boiled crab didn't do it for me. Not at their prices. I think there are more decent outfits near New Port Pier. And BJ's (that's the original?) for some good beers and casual dining - near Balboa Pier.

Did you look at your bill closely? It is customary to charge "appetizers" in Hong Kong, about HKD5 a person. Thanks for posting the pictures. Brought back some memories. While we liked the Typhoon Shelter crab, the garlic (tons of it) was a bit too salty. We couldn't eat any more than 1/3 plateful. And the crab was a bit small. Rock crab. Hong Kong size. Well... I got spoiled eating California Dungeness crab (typically 1.5 to 2 lb) in the Bay Area.

Here is my eval on Hu Tong that I shared with a friend from my last HK trip: In summary - overrated. Only good for the view. HuTong. 1 Peking Street. 28/F. The view was impeccable. Overseeing the Victoria Harbour and Tsim Sha Tsui. But that's the only thing good it offers. The food: a mix. We ordered 5 items. Only 2 can be considered extraordinary. The other 3 are forgetable. Good: deboned lamb and minced port with Sichuan string beans. Forgetable: dan dan noodle, sugarcane shrimp (outright bland), and the fifth item skipped my mind. Service was bad. It near-the-end ticked me off. We had a table reservation from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. They specifically said we could only have the table until 8:30 pm. I agreed to it. Then at 8:00 pm, the "Symphany of Lights" light show started. It lasts about 15 minutes. We could view the light show from the dinning table. I was enjoying the moment. We still had a little bit of food unfinished (we purposely slowed down the pace). Just when I was enjoying my 15-minute show, the waitress came and interrupted me THREE TIMES! 1) Here is your dessert menu Sir. (Before we even finished our main courses.) I put it on the side and continued to enjoy my light show. 2) 3 minutes later, the waitress came by and asked "Would you like to have any dessert, SIR???". I said no. She took away the dessert menu. 3) Another 3 minutes later, the same waitress came by and asked "Are you finished with you meal, SIR?????". I told her "NO. We are NOT DONE YET". She walked away. By then I was steaming mad. Why the hell the interruptions? I know the restaurant trained the staff to rush customers out the door so they can have higher turn-overs. But it wasn't even close to the end of my time allotment. The waitress started asking me for dessert at 8:05 pm! Besides, they are way over-priced (for the view, no doubt). Prices are about 3 times higher than regular restaurant prices. It's rare to see any items less than HKD200. We ordered a dan-dan noodle. HKD90. The noodle coil was about as big as a tennis ball. Total bill: HKD1100 (USD130). About the price of a banquet-style packaged Chinese meal to feed 12 in small town Sacramento. For two persons. I have prepared to pay five-star prices. But the food is lacking and the service is bad. That was enough for me. No more Hutong in my life. And at 8:30 pm when we left, the restaurant was not even full. There were a few other small tables (like the one we had) empty. They rushed their customers, made them mad, for no good reason. I will not go back. Maybe it was one bad apple waitress. But that's enough for me.

I think you are right on. I did some searches for the "molecular cuisine" (and wonder why it was translated as such) in Chinese. Came across this page: http://big5.ifeng.com/gate/big5/news.ifeng.com/gundong/detail_2011_01/07/4075960_0.shtml In summary, it translates to "cooking in vacuum at constant, low temperature, whereas the nutrition remains in the food".

I read through the entire page (which is pretty short). I did not get any impression that the essay suggested to eat the crabs live. Selling a small bottle of vinegar with the crabs just may be for the convenience for those who don't have it, or don't have the right kind of vinegar.

Looks good! Though most of the Dan Dan Noodles I had were soup-based and meatless. Did they use crushed peanuts?

Sheetz: I have not been to the SLO Thu night farmer's market stands (but have heard of it)... Out of rjwong's list from 2005: I like: RE: On Higuera, there's Mo's for ribs and a steakplace named McClintock's (there's one in Shell Beach along the 101). Mo's ribs are good. (There is one at Pismo Beach near the pier). The "original" flavor the best I think. McClintock's steak is good too. Huge portion. With their onion rings, salad, chili and bread... one order is good for two adults. And we like "Rosa's Restaurant". Italian food. Family style. We eat there every time we are in Pismo Beach. The restaurant inside "Spy Glass Inn" has a very good view of the coastline, Shell Beach. Patio seating available - maybe a bit chilly in winter. If you want to dine and have a sunset view...

"Salted duck eggs". Something that look like this: Wiki explanation Googled pictures

I don't have the recipe Dai Ga Jeah. But if I were to try, I will do it with raw salted egg yolks. Smash the egg yolks. Coat the shrimp with the liquidy raw egg yolk, then coat them again with a light batter. Deep fry the shrimp. The frying oil should cook the egg yolk along with crisping the batter nicely at the same time.

Thanks for all the replies, everybody! Yes I guess I was talking about "shelf life". I was thinking of more than that. See some fermented food becomes better with age. e.g. red wine, brandy, cheese, vinegar, etc.. I thought by chance it might be similar in the case of pei dan. Or at least I didn't think the quality would degrade over time. And definitely would not think something already fermented would go "mouldy". Yes I believe that egg shells are porus. Maybe for air but not liquid. (The surface tension thing.) That's why the pei dan dries up over time. And yes I believe that keeping the pei dan stuffed with ash (hi jo-mel mama!) will keep the eggs longer, preventing it from drying up. In the old days (60's - 70's) they used to sell pei dan still wrapped in ash and dry rice husks. Now they clean up the eggs before putting them in styrofoam boxes to sell.