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I would suggest an unique dining experience at the Victoria Peak. There is a famous "The Peak Tower" at Victoria Peak (it's a tram station). It looks like this (from "Discover Hong Kong"): This building looks like a double T. At the top level, there are 2 restaurants. (Note: My information is as of 1999. It may be outdated as the restaurant business changes hands often in Hong Kong.) On one side, there is a steak house kind of restaurant. On the other side, it's a bazaar kind of a-la-carte, you pick what you want and they cook it for you while you wait kind of restaurant. The price was reasonable. HK$250 (US$30+) for two adults, dinner. We got a window seat facing the Victoria Harbor (the other side of this building from this picture). Regardless of what restaurant is operating there now, if you get a window seat the view is exceptional. I haven't been to any restaurant in my travels that's quite like it. The view would be similar to something like this: http://www.pbase.com/accl/image/18701329 It most likely won't be traditional Chinese food, but it's quite an unique dining experience. While I am at it, you can browse some of pictures of Hong Kong in the following websites. Some of these pictures are very beautiful. http://www.pbase.com/accl/hong_kong http://www.geocities.com/asiaglobe/gallery/hongkong.htm http://www.ibiblio.org/hkpa/Scenic/by-district/en/index.html

Do you know where you are going to be staying in Hong Kong? Tsim Sha Tsui (Kowloon)? Central/Wan Chai/Causeway Bay (Hong Kong Island)? Or the hotel name? Suggestions can be made based on easier commute. Lan Kwai Fong, or the so-called Hong Kong "Soho" district is in Central. Luk Yu and a few restaurants suggested by other posters are located there. Yes this little area is frequent by foreigners and trendy local youngsters. You will probably find many restaurants with English menus, which is why it attracted so many foreigners. To me, as a native of Hong Kong, Lan Kwai Fong is a bit too touristist-centric, and the crowd is often too rowdy especially in the weekends or on holidays. But, maybe that's what you would like. It would be easier if you have friends who are locals to guide you to dine in other places such as Cheung Chou or Lan Tau Island or Sai Kung where English is not spoken often.

I agree that the soy sauce and five spice overshadow the taste of tea leaves. However, I believe green tea is too "weak" to be used in making tea eggs. You need to use a strong flavor tea leave, such as Pu Er, to obtain the tea flavor.

Does it mean they use a needle to inject the sauce into the egg yolk?

And there's me, a Hong Kong born Chinese (maybe we don't count because we are Chinese) now live in US, travelled over China in early years. How about you, Dejah? Have you been back to Hong Kong at all since you departed Kai Tak Airport in the 50's?

Thanks again, would definitely be interested in a recipe, please feel free to email if it's easy. ← Here is the recipe for the Beef Noodle Soup. Sorry it took so long and thanks for your patience. Recipe of Beef Noodle Soup (Hong Shao Niu Rou Mian) 红烧牛肉面 There are different versions of this recipe. The following is my approach. This recipe uses “Chinese Marinade”. Refer to earlier postings if you don't know what it is. Serving 5 to 6 Ingredients: 2 lb of beef stew, cut in 1 inch by 1 inch cubes 2 lb of wheat noodles or rice noodles 1 ½ cup of “Chinese Marinade” 1 ½ cup of dark soy sauce 7 – 8 cups of water 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 3 small size shallot, finely chopped 1 inch of ginger, thinly sliced 1 medium size leek, cut in 1 inch stalks (save some green leaves and thinly slice them – use for garnishing) 2 tsp of white or red vinegar 2 tbsp cooking oil 3 tsp of sugar 5 whole star anise (or powder) 1 stick of cinnamon (or powder) 2 tsp of cumin (or powder) 2 tsp of clove (or powder) Some sesame oil Method: - Use a medium size pot. Apply high heat. Add 2 tbsp of cooking oil. Add finely chopped garlic, shallot and sliced ginger. Dash in 2 tsp of white or red vinegar. Sautee until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. - Turn down heat to a simmer. Add 1 ½ cup of “Chinese Marinade”, 1 ½ cup of dark soy sauce, and 7 to 8 cups of water. Stir the mixture. Immediately (while the mixture is still cold), add the beef stew. Add leeks. Add 3 tsp of sugar (or better yet use rock sugar). Note: both “Chinese Marinade” and dark soy sauce are very salty. You need to dilute them with plenty of water to simmer the beef stew. Adjust the ratio to your taste. - Add 5 whole star anise, 1 stick of cinnamon, 2 tsp of cumin, 2 tsp of clove - Put cover on. Simmer the beef stew in the mixture for about 2 hours. The beef stew should become very tender. (Note: you must start simmering the beef in the mixture while it is cold. Do not put beef stew in a boiling mixture. Doing so will toughen the beef stew.) - Use another pot, boil enough water to cook the noodles. Cook noodles until el dante, drain and put in a bowl. - Scoop in the beef stew with the broth. Garnish by sprinkling some thinly sliced leeks on top. Drip in some sesame oil and (optional) ground white pepper on top. - Note: you may use pork shoulder instead of beef stew in this recipe. Also, you may cook some Chinese greens (such as Bok Choy) to serve with the noodles.

The only kung pao story I have is watching the movie "Kung Pow". It is a parity on many of the Chinese king fu movies made in 70's, and it took many clips out of one particular 1978 flick titled 'Tiger and Crane Fists'. Some scenes worth a few cheap laughs, but the movie as a whole is a bit silly. This is not food related. Oops, wrong forum. Okay, I watched "Kung Pow" while eating some Kung Pao chicken. That would do it.

Some thinks that if you put sesame oil and soya sauce to your cooking, it automatically makes it Chinese food. How silly. Olive oil, garlic and basil makes it Italian? Cumin, onion and pepper makes it Mexican? Some puts in sliced chicken breasts on top of a bed of romaine lettuce, drip in some sesame oil, soy sauce and vinegar, sprinkle on some fried mung bean threads and call it a "Chinese Chicken Salad". The poor general public thinks that this is a dish from China... isn't it? [Answer: Chinese (traditionally) don't eat salad.]

In Chinese shrimp paste, the (already) tiny shrimps are grounded to almost powder like. While the dark shrimp eyes may add color to the mixture, they can no longer be distinguished individually.

I was gonna say Belacan in my posting but I couldn't spell it. They are very similar but differ in forms. I have not used Belacan before but had read/heard about it in many South-East Asian cookbooks and cooking shows. I believe it is dry, hard and square in form. (isn't that right?) The Chinese shrimp paste is wet, soft, jelly-like, and is sold in a small jar. They probably taste very similar. Whenever I make Thai/Vietnamese/Malaysian dishes, I just use Chinese shrimp paste instead of buying Belacan.

Sure. haum yee [Cantonese] = salted fish fooyee [Cantonese] = fermented bean curd haum ha [Cantonese] = salty shrimp paste bitter melon = melons that taste bitter! and haum dan [Cantonese] = salted duck egg pei dan [Cantonese] = century egg (400 year egg?) nam yee [Cantonese] = fermented bean curd (red)

I agree that the hawker centres are the best places to taste the real Singaporean food. I had been to Singapore once. I ate mostly at those hawker centres (modern Dai Pei Dong in Hong Konger terminology). They offer Chinese (mostly), Malay and Indian food, plus great dessert soups, fresh fruit juices, etc.. It was wonderful. In particular, I really liked: - Chili crab and curry crab. I was treated by my friends to a famous restaurant for those 2 dishes. (They set up tables along the street at night if I remember it correctly) Perhaps the locals on this board can provide name and direction to that place. - Beef Satay (hawker stands near the Singapore harbor) - Mutton Curry and Mutton soup (hawker stands near the Singapore harbor) - Pork jerky in Singapore's China Town? Those were great! I never had pork jerky as juicy and soft as those. They made it fresh off the grill when I bought it.

Yick as in "thinking of, remembering"? Sai as in "West"? If so, your family had been thinking about the West (Canada relative to China) generations ago.

Welcome! I think these are acquired tastes. Reminds me that one time I was onboard a Lufthansa flight from LA to Frankfurt. They served a triangular piece of cheese with the meal just as a snack. Without looking, I bit into it. Wowwww!!! The taste... I found out later that it was a blue cheese. Nowadays I like to use it for cooking, but am sure if I ever want to eat it as is. I think Chinese and French are probably the most difficult (but tasty) cuisines to master. If you can do that, other cuisines of the world may be relatively easy.

Left-over seafood doesn't taste very good. This is espeially true for fish. Left-over fish becomes a bit fishy. Besides, fish meat submerged in soy sauce for a long time becomes a bit salty too.

I think it's not the bone, it's the type of muscles around the bone. Dark meat has more hemoglobins because they are muscles around joints and therefore have a lot of bloods circulating through them, which is why they appear darker (from the iron content in the blood). White meat (breast), on the other hand, are muscles that hardly move. They appear white because they have less blood flowing through. The bone mallow also add tastes to the food.

Help the lobster change diaper before you cook it?

The knowledge about cheese in the Hong Kong Chinese population is very limited. We didn't know that many varieties of cheese. Kraft is probably the most predominant brand in the area. My guess is either cheddar or swiss, probably more likely swiss.

Oh, yeah. These are dried shrimp, minced, mixed with salt and favoring, then rolled in minature spring roll skins like a spring roll, then baked or deep-fried (not sure which). Served as snacks. Each shrimp roll is about 2/3 the size of my little finger. They have it for sale in a box. About US $1.20 or something a box (about 2 handful of shrimp rolls). The translated name is Shrimp Rolls or something to that effect. I used to buy lots of them, along with shrimp chips. Love to munch on them while watching TV or surfing the net. (until my wife imposed a ban...)

My father told me that back in his village in China, they have a village name book which dictated which generation will bear a given first name or middle name. For example, his middle name is Kai. All males around his age in the village have Kai as the middle name. In my generation, my 2 brothers and I have the same given name, and only differ in the middle names. My 2 sisters have the same middle name, and only differ in the given names. That's how they sort of recognize which generation one belongs. But then, the new generations who grow up in the US/Canada know nothing about these naming rules. It doesn't work any more. Some new ABC or CBC don't even have Chinese names. If you ever go back to your own village in China, though, I'll bet that they still follow those naming rules. Your story about your father going to the Chinese restaurant in every small town sounds very familiar. My father-in-law doesn't travel much. My wife and I did take her parents to a few road trips in the past few years. Whenever we past through a small town (California and Oregon and Washinton), her father had a tendancy to go and eat at any Chinese restaurant that came in sight. He said even if we didn't dine there, he would like to go in to the restaurant and "take a look" (meaning probably to talk to the cook or the owner's family). Perhaps this is a Toisanese immigrant trait?

Traditional Cantonese, absolutely. My parents-in-laws would not have it any other way. (I am okay with sichuan/hunan/mandarin/shanghai. <abc> & <sil> want Italian or Mexican. <kids> want McDonalds. Go figure.) $98? Sacramento is no San Francisco. Family dinner for 10-12 would not be that low. $138? Maybe... but MIL gets frequent-patron discounts. Plus she's a bargain shopper. The price is probably like $128.88.

Maybe you would like the minced shrimp rolls (each about 1 inch long, really minature size). I like them as snacks.

How does one eat a durian? Use one hand to clip the nose and the other to deliver a slice to the mouth? Or just endure the smell for the taste?

I agree, fish meat is very delicate. The Chinese style steamed fish only taste good if the fish is fresh and taste bad if it is even slightly under par. Most of the fish I see in Sacramento's Chinese grocery stores don't interest me much... meat too tough, too boney, taste too bland, etc.. The fish in the San Francisco China Town is much better.

Here is an observation on our typical family dinner gathering. First of all, the dinner must be Chinese food because my PILs don't eat anything else. Second of all, we always go to that one restaurant my PILs like. Yes, the same one for the past 10 years (since they opened basically). We order the same set family dinner every time. There are 4 groups in the family: <me> my PILs and me are traditional Chinese. <abc> my wife and her brothers. <sil> my Caucasian sisters-in-laws. and <kids> all are cute Chinese-White mix. Soup: Crab meat and winter melon soup. All groups like them except <sil>. Honey glazed shrimp (mayo) with roasted walnuts. <sil> love them. <me> so-so. <abc><kids> welcome them. Deep-fried chicken. All groups love them. Everybody races to grab the best pieces. I love the wings and dark meat. <kids> like drumsticks. Pork chop, Jing Dao style: (bit sweet and sour) <me> and <abc> like them <sil> love them. <kids> so so. Beef with vegetables (gai lan): <me><abc> love them. <sil><kids> so so. Sauteed seafood with snow peas in a bird nest: <me> like them. <abc> so so. <sil><kids> never touch this dish. Steam fish, ginger and scallions on top, soy sauce: <me> love it. <abc> okay. <sil><kids> take on tiny bit. Shrimps, salt and pepper: <me> love them (well, PILs couldn't eat them because of high cholesterol level). <kids> only one like them, others don't. <abc> okay. <sil> one likes them, one doesn't. Crabs, ginger and scallions: <abc> okay. <sil><kids> never touch this dish. <me>, no, my PILs don't eat much seafood. It's really just Me like it. My record is eating 1 and 3/4 Dungeness crabs all by myself in front of everybody. Pork fried rice: <me><abc><sil> okay. <kids>... garble garble garble. Dessert: sweet red bean concoction <me> love it. <abc><kids> okay. <sil> never touch it. So, it seems that the only common denominator is the deep-fried chicken.