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That hostel is located at a very nice area. A bit remote, yes. But in the "cement forest" (that's how we call Hong Kong), where else can you find some pleasant green to look at? The area around Pok Fu Lum still has many trees around.

There aren't a whole lot of street food around the Peninsula where you will be staying. Because the hotel is located in Tsim Sha Tsui, an area populated with tourists. Rents are high. You will see a lot more camera shops, watch shops than street food vendors. If you go to Tsim Sha Tsui East (about 10-15 min walk from the Peninsula), you will find plenty of restaurants. They are all inside the buildings. Not much "street food" you can see. To experience the real Hong Kong street food, I would suggest you to take the subway from Tsim Sha Tsui to either Jordan (1 stop) or Mongkok (3 stops) (north). If you get off at Jordan, go up to the street level. Find the major street: Nathan Road. Walk west by 3 blocks or so towards Temple Street. You will see plenty of street food vendors offering all kinds of local food. Temple Street is also a famous night market for bargain-price marchandise (cloths mostly). But watch out for quality. If you get off at Mongkok station, walk up to the street level (Nathan Road). Then you can find street food on both sides of Nathan Road. Both areas around the Jordan station and Mongkok station are shopping areas for the locals. Tsim Sha Tsui is more for tourists (top quality merchandises, but also top dollars). My must-see suggestions: (4 days make it kind of tough... not much time) - Po-Lin buddha statue, that's in Lantau. It would take you a whole day to make this trip and back. You can have lunch at the monastery (Vegetarian dishes). - The Victoria Peak. Best tour around Central to see all the architecture of modern buildings (e.g. Hong Kong Bank, International Finance Centre, China Bank, Exchange Square, etc.). Then take the tram up to Victoria Peak. Very scenic ride. At the peak, take the path to walk around it. Takes a little more than an hour. You will have the birdeye view of the harbor. You can also see the famous double-T structure "The Peak" tram station, a picture of which was posted earlier. There are plenty other spots. Not sure what you would be interested in. A tour book would help you pick and choose. ... if you have questions...

I was off. Just slightly off. Victim of being in the US for over 20 years. Thanks to instant communications on the Internet, some fellow forum participants helped me find some sample banquet menus. The first course is appertizer, such as suckling pigs, jelly fish, etc.. The second one is not soup. Rather, the second and third and perhaps forth are hot entres ranging from shrimp, squid, dried scallops, seafood combinations, etc.. The fifth one is typically shark-fin soup. The sixth one is abalone, or other hot entres. The seventh one is always steamed fish. And the eighth one poultry, typically deep-fried chicken. Fried rices or noodles would not count as a course. They do come at the end of the meal to fill up your stomach. All Chinese banquets pretty much follow this format. Each dish is served one after another, not all together. The following is one sample banquet menu: 龍 鳳 呈 祥 全包宴(粵) 脆皮乳豬全體 (Barbecued Whole Sucking Pig ) 金銀明蝦球 (Sauteed and Deep-fried Prawns ) 發財瑤柱脯 (Braised Whole Conpoy with Sea Moss ) 百花炸釀蟹拑 (Deep-fried Crab Claws coated with Shrimp mousse ) 紅燒菜膽鮑翅 (Braised Supreme Shark's Fin with Cabbage ) 花菰炆原隻鮮鮑魚 (Simmered Whole Abalones with Mushrooms and Lettuce ) 清蒸大東星斑 (Steamed Red Spotted Garoupa ) 富貴脆炸雞 (Deep-fried Crispy Chicken ) 美滿鴛鴦飯 (Fried Rice Topped with Tomato and Creamy Sauce ) 幸福水餃麵 (Shrimp Dumplings with Noodles in Soup ) 濃情蜜意 (Red Bean Soup with Lotus Seeds ) 情深款款 (Chinese Petits Fours)

Egg roll wrappers are really good for deep-frying. If you plan to bake it, then of course puff pastry would be the best. Egg roll wrappers would be okay, but remember to grease the skin or else it won't come out too good. Freezing then deep-fry should be okay. But freezing then bake may not be a good idea because the skin typically would be soggy while thawing in the oven. Using fresh Thai chili peppers. That's brilliant! Why didn't I think of that? I kept making my own chili sauce with just pepper flakes. It's not as good as fresh pepper (but I didn't want to use jalapeno or serano). I usually use a bit of smashed fermented black beans. It is an interesting touch.

I learned from a master long ago that cooking food, in general, no matter what style should have these few basic elements: - saltiness - sourness - sweetness - hotness Saltiness can come from directly using table salt, or indirectly from sauces or ingredients which are already salty, such as bean sauce, soy sauce, shrimp paste, cheese, etc.. Sourness can come from using vinegar or a squeeze of lemon or lime. Sweetness can come from using sugar, or some ingredients which are already sweet. Hotness can come from a bit of fresh chili pepper or a bit of black pepper, cayanne, pepper flakes, etc.. The basic steps seem to be: always start with the aromatics (garlic, onion, shallot, green onion, ginger, etc..). Add your spices or sauces. Deglaze the pan (French speak) with either water or better yet chicken stock. Thicken the sauce with corn starch or flour or the likes. If you just follow these basic steps, no matter what dish you want to make it would come out tasting good. These are foundations of good cooking. What spices/sauces/herbs you use are just like accents.

It's been a while since I had been to a formal Chinese banquet. The banquets in Hong Kong is more conformed to the Chinese traditions than the banquets in the USA. The format is about the same, whether the occassion is for wedding, baby first-month, or birthday. [Note: my memory is rusty, the following may be wrong. Feel free to correct me] The formal banquet features 8 courses: The first course is appertizer. e.g. Roasted suckling pigs, hams, BBQ pork, jelly fish, etc.. The second course is soup. The third course is usually "the best stuff", e.g. abalone and black mushrooms. The four and fifth one is up to the hosts. The sixth one is fish. The seventh one is fried chicken. The eighth one is fried rice or fried noodles. At last, they will bring out the dessert buns for birthdays or some sweets. In the event of a baby's first-month, then red eggs. And fruits (e.g. oranges) The banquets in the USA no longer follow these traditions. There are also traditions for meals during Chinese New Year. - First day (Lunar New Year): must slaughter a chicken. So there must be a chicken dish. - Third day: supposedly you should not visit your relatives on this day, or else you will get into quarrels. This is a vegetarian day.

Sesame oil is usually what I use to marinate meat (beef, pork, chicken, etc.). It is more fragrant. You may, of course, use regular cooking oil such as peanut oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, etc.. Because sesame oil is much more expensive, you wouldn't see it used in restaurants as a marinade.

I played with that site a little more. Apparently the content is done by voluntary contributing editors. The software just look up the words in English and use some algorithms to do the translations. So some of these translations may be subjective (based on one individual's view)... translations that I don't agree with. But... it's a free site... beggers can't be choosers... If you have some wish to translate some food items from English to Chinese, it seems to work well.

I just stumbled upon an interesting website. The site translates English to Chinese. The accuracy is pretty good. It takes more than single words. I tried it some a phrase like "how do you do" and it did the translation pretty well. http://chinese.primezero.com/ Benefit: now you can type in your favorite dish name in English and have it spit out the Chinese names to show to the waiters! For example, I typed in "roast duck" and it came back with: 烤鴨, 明爐火鴨 I typed in "pork" and it came up with the translation along with some dish names. 白肉 plain boiled pork; [ bái ròu ] 紅燒肉 red-cooked (pork) meat; [ hóng shāo ròu ] 蹄 hoof; pork shoulder; [ tí ] 肘 elbow; pork shoulder; [ zhǒu ] 豬肉 pork; [ zhū ròu ] 肉炒飯 Pork Fried Rice; [ ròu chǎo fàn ] 肉撈麵 Pork Lo Mein; [ ròu lāo miàn ] 甜酸肉 Sweet and Sour Pork; [ tián sūan ròu ] 回鍋肉 Double Fried Pork; [ huí guō ròu ] 蔥爆肉片 Sliced Pork with Green Onions; [ cōng bào ròu piàn ] ….. the list goes on and one.

I agree. You can also buy many premixed sauces these days. Some are even specific to a dish! Mapo sauce (for Ma Po Tofu), Hai Nan Chicken sauce (for Hai Nan Chicken).

Hmmm... Maybe I am mistaken about the restaurant that I'd been to. I gotta check that out next time. Perhaps next year. I haven't been to that 4-floor restaurant all these years. But then again, there are plenty of good eateries in Hong Kong.

I used to make these a lot too. With my restaurant contacts, I can get the puff pastry sheets in bulk. When I make these, I add mashed potatoes to the meat. This gives it a nice texture. ← I was just thinking of the same thing as Yetty: Curry puff would be a good item. I took a look at the recipe posted in: http://www.hwatson.force9.co.uk/cookbook/r.../currypuffs.htm They used only curry powder, beef and onion. That's overly simplistic. Curry powder without salt and a bit of heat (cayenne or pepper flakes) is very bitter. It would not taste good at all. My recipe would be something like: - Marinate the beef with oil, soy sauce, ground white pepper, corn starch. Velvet the beef until medium. - Heat oil, (you can mix in some butter) sautee onions and garlic until fragrant, add vinegar, add curry powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne powder or pepper flakes. Add potatoes (precooked and mashed), green peas and carrots. Then at last mix in the precooked beef. When cooking is done, set this aside (possibly refrigerate it). Use it as fillings for the curry puff. I found that using spring roll skin to wrap curry puff is acceptable. We can bake these curry puff instead of deep-fried. But need to brush on some oil on the skin before baking so the skin will come out shinny and crispy. Try to make this in small scale for your family first and see how it comes out before commiting to the real production...

Sure. haum yee [Cantonese] = salted fish = 咸鱼 = Xian2 Yu2 [Mandarin] fooyee [Cantonese] = fermented bean curd = 腐乳 = Fu3 Ru3 [Mandarin] haum ha [Cantonese] = salty shrimp paste = 咸虾 = Xian2 Xia1 [Mandarin] haum dan [Cantonese] = salted duck egg = 咸蛋 = Xian2 Dan4 [Mandarin] pei dan [Cantonese] = century egg (400 year egg?) = 皮蛋 = Pi2 Dan4 [Mandarin] nam yee [Cantonese] = fermented bean curd (red) = 南乳 = Nan2 Ru3 [Mandarin] Anything else I can do for you? You want Toisanese translation? (Ask Dejah or Ben...) Shanghainese? (Ask Gary)

Thank you, Yetty. All these pictures you posted are so beautiful! Are you a professional photographer?

TotallyNutz and Dejah: My wife and I are not big on fatty pork. But making this dish is fairly simple. You can pick the cut you like: pork leg, pork shoulder, or in our case we like lean pork loin. Recipe for Steamed Pork with shrimp paste (huam ha) Ingridients: - 1 lb of pork, sliced (1/4 inch thick) - 2 tsp of shrimp paste (haum ha) - 3 tsp of sesame oil - 2 tsp of light soy sauce - 1 tsp ground white pepper - 2 tsp of corn starch - 2 tsp of XaoShing cooking wine - 1 inch of ginger, grated or shredded Method: Just combine all the ingridients in a mixing bowl. Transfer them to a shallow dish. Put in a steamer, steam for 15 to 20 minutes. (Note: The shrimp paste is already salty. There is no need to add salt in making this dish.)

Have enough already? I am just getting started! ... just kidding HKDave: Thanks for the correction. Yes indeed I was thinking of Regent not Regency. Regarding Yung Kee... the Yung Kee you described is not the one I had been to. I found a map of Central. Where the X mark shows is the approximate location of the Yung Kee restaurant I know on Wellington Street, roughly opposite from The Center. I used to go there when I worked in Hong Kong, which was back in 1985-87. I re-visited it last in 1999. The restaurant was still there, serving more or less the same thing. Did google on Yung Kee in Hong Kong and came up with their website: http://www.yungkee.com.hk/history/history-e.php I recognize the picture in black and white, that's the one I'd been to. Very tiny. Perhaps that's the original restaurant. The one that you mentioned must be the one in the color picture. Have you been to the old one?

Yes. Five spice powder mixed with table salt. Some street vendors make quail eggs along with chicken eggs. Quail eggs are tastier. But is a lot of work peeling the shell from each egg. And when you pop it in your mouth, chew it for a few seconds, it's gone.

The Peninsula Hotel is right at the tip of Kowloon Peninsula (thus the name). One of the most prestigious hotels in Hong Kong. It may probably be the oldest. Not sure. It's within a 5 minute walk from Regency, another five star hotel. Regency Hotel is right by the Victoria Harbor. There are several restaurants inside Regency that offer an exceptional view of the harbor. I recommend that you can have afternoon coffee/tea or snack there. Another place which offers good view of the harbor is the Hong Kong Convention Centre. It is over in Wan Chai, a bit more inconvenient from where you will be staying. But if you are in that area shopping or sight seeing... The HK Convention Centre itself is a good place to visit for its architectural design. Tall glass exterior wall all around. We had coffee there once. Really nice view of the harbor close-up. Hong Kong Convention Centre looks like this: (Click here) There are many tall buildings in Hong Kong that contain restaurants at the top level. Before going further, not sure if you care about the views, or just want to have authentic good food even in the "hole in the wall" restaurants. If my memory serves me correctly, Yung Kee (in Central) is a very tiny place. The food is great (specialties: Won ton, Cantonese BBQ, deep-fried fish balls), but the place is very cramped especially during lunch hours (should avoid). The size of a table for 2 in the US would seat 4 to 5 people in Hong Kong. If you can get used to that... My opinion is that while you are in Hong Kong, you may want to try more Cantonese styles, as Hong Kong is the capital of Cantonese cookings.

Yeah. Yim Gok Dan (salt-baked egg). Yim Gok Gai (salt-baked chicken). Steamed or baked? Well... the name of the food (in Chinese) said "baked". But it's really steamed. I would imagine you can bake it in the oven (eggs or chicken in a pan of salt). Just use very low heat (e.g. 300F) and bake them for an hour. Nowadays, many restaurant "cheated". The salt-baked chicken is actually boiled (low heat) in a pot of brine with five spices. Taste pretty good too.

Where are you from originally? ← I believe liuzhou mentioned that he is English but now live in liuzhou (which is why he picked that name). So I assume he's originally from U.K.

When it comes to eating insects... it's not the insect meat itself (which probably is just proteins). It's the legs and wings. We don't know where the insects had been to. If they are cock roaches, you know where they had been to. I would imagine the legs and wings would pick up a lot of microbs/germs. I don't think these vendors would wash the insects very well, if at all. Would grilling be enough to kill off the microbs/germs?

One of the pictures showed star fish. How do you eat a star fish? I have observed them in tide pools, picked some up and examined them. They have very hard shells. It's difficult to break them by hand. I cannot imagine myself biting into one of these. It will probably chip my teeth. Looks like the vendor just skewered them together, and grilled them (I assume)? Do you break the legs by hand then suck out the meat/whatever inside?

There are a few blogs linked in this forum which mentioned insects as snack food in China (and pictures). I am fairly adventurous when it comes to eating. But I have yet tried eating insects. I know, I know, some said it's just a source of protein. Scott O'Grady, the down pilot, relied on eating ants to survive while waiting to be rescued. Has anyone tried eating insects in China (or elsewhere)? Would you share with us what you thought of them?

There is another way of making chicken eggs: salt-baked. To make this dish, simply use a medium size dish (e.g. a cylindrical, 2 inch thick dish). Put the eggs in it, then fill in the space with rock salt. If not available, table salt is okay. Put the dish in a steamer and steam it for 30 minutes or so. The saltiness should infiltrate the egg shell into the egg. When serving, sprinkle a spice mix made with five spice powder and salt. This is one of the Hong Kong street food that I missed. Also, you can salt-bake chicken thighs. Simply wrap the chicken thighs (or drum sticks) individually with some parchment papers. Then put then in a dish and fill it up with salt. Steam it for 30 minutes or so.

The hawker food as you knew them is virtually extinct in Hong Kong. The once street food, such as fried fish balls, fried tofu, cheung fun, chow mein, etc. are now served in big restaurants or small eateries, or "fast food" chains like Cafe de Carol. You will no longer find hawkers pushing their mobile vending carts along the street. Remember what's once called Dai Pei Dong (like a food vending kiosk)? All gone. Thanks to HK Government's crack down and environmental control. I left in the late 70's. Every few years when I went back to Hong Kong, I have to refresh myself in my orientation. There are so many new structures being built all the time. You haven't been back for almost 50 years, it would be practically a new experience for you. Browse through some of these pictures and see how many places you can recognize... http://www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hongkong.htm