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My view of hor fun is that for the stir-fried version (chow fun), it is quite substantial and is more a meal in itself, lunch or dinner. The soup version (tang fun) could be a "snack" or a meal, depending on the individual. At least 2 bowls of it would definitely make a meal. One dish or even two dishes of dim sum can hardly make a meal.

I have never seen them in cans.

Day 6 Teaser Pictures: Day 6 was a hiking day. We challenged the second tallest peak in Hong Kong - Lantau Peak (or "Phoenix Peak"). Over 900 m (3000 ft). We were on a time budget that morning trying to get to the trailhead before too late. Brunch was eaten quickly at one of the "tea restaurants" in the street of Tsim Sha Tsui. A dish of pan-fried egg omlette, Chiu Chow style. Usually this dish is made with baby oysters. We opted to try a shrimp version. Shrimp, mixed in with the egg batter which is made from eggs and flour, pan-fried. Excellent! A plate of Singaporean style rice vermicelli. (Sing Chau Mai). I don't know if any of this resemble the fried rice noodles from Singapore... but the name was stuck for decades. From the St. Anna Bakery shop in a subway station, bought some snacks to eat on the trail. This one was a chicken pie. Very pretty. And very tasty too! Trailhead was behind the famous Po Lin Temple in Lantau Island. We needed to take a bus up there from the Tung Chung subway station. Unfortunately the new Cable Car in Lantau had been halted because of some accidents a few months ago. I was disappointed for not having the opportunity to ride on the cable car for the first time. This was the famous giant buddha statue outside of Po Lin Temple. The trailhead was behind Po Lin Temple. From there it was a short (distance-wide) hike, only 1.0 km or so, up to Lantau Peak. The climb was about 500 m (1500 ft). But this hike was extremely challenging because the trail went straight up with no place to rest. The locals called this trail "stairway to heaven" for a reason. From the peak, you can have a 360 degree view of the island. You can see the Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok Airport underneath. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate. When we got back to Tung Chung subway station, it was already 7:00 pm. Tired and hungry, we were not too choosey. Just ate at an international food court near the station. They were okay, but not great. A bowl of Singapore style laksa. The Indian Tandoori Chicken was a bit disappointing. The flavor was not strong enough. The curry sauce was okay. (A full report on Day 6 will be provided.

That's an interesting way to use a pomelo. I bet that it tastes wonderful!

Sorry. The temple's name is Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas, not just a thousand. I mistyped it just by a factor of ten.

It is a staple in Hong Kong. So it is a Cantonese thing. Not sure if other regions in China also do similar things.

Day 5 Teaser Pictures: We went to Shatin on this day. The main attraction was the Temple of Thousand Buddhas. But before we see the buddha statues, we needed to see about our own tommies. Since we were in Shatin, I made a special trip to this famous restaurant: Lung Wah Restaurant (inside Lung Wah Hotel). They are famous for one thing. And we had discussed it in this very forum. I came to see if they are really as good as people say they are. (And they have been famous for that over the past 4 decades). And I was not disappointed. What may this famous thing be? The main pagoda at the Temple of Thousand Buddhas, which is situated on a hill of thousand steps. Not exactly. But sure felt that way. Quite a climb. Right at the temple, there was a small store selling snacks. Tofu fa (silken tofu) and soya milk. Chilled! The tofu fa was really soft as silk, sweetened with ginger-flavored syrup. Perfect for a summer day. Or at least it felt like a summer day to me. After visiting the temple and the Museum of Cultural History (also in Shatin), we embarked the train at the Tai Wai Station. At the entrace of the station were all kinds of food stalls selling all kinds of small eats, crowded with hungry workers on the way home. The stall sold a mix of different things. At the front it was "Gai Dan Jai" (little chicken eggs), a waffle like snack made of a batter made with eggs, milk and flour. In the back row, pan-fried minced pork baos, daikon cakes, and steamed baos of various kinds (e.g. sticky rice bao, laap cheung bao). In the metal round steamer in the front was some sticky rice with laap cheung. For you, miladyinsanity! No, that wasn't dinner. Just snacks... Dinner was at Chuen Cheung Kui Restaurant, Mongkok. They are one of the most famous specialty restaurant in Hakka cuisine. The dish: Braised pork belly with preserved vegetables (Mui Choy Kau Yuk). The pork belly: melt in your mouth soft. Very rich flavor with the braising sauce (soy sauce base). Excellent dish! Couldn't have been done better. Another Hakka dish: Beefballs stir-fried with vegetables. The beefballs were bouncy and soft and kind of fluffy. Very nice too. (Full report on Day 5 will be provided.)

I am sorry that you had some bad experience. Fish maw (fish air bladder), like sea cucumbers, when done right (with all the necessary cleaning steps) should taste rather bland. If all Fa Gau tastes like a tropical fish tank that needed cleaning, I don't think it would make it to the list of "banquet dishes" and is so expensive.

Hor fun is considered a "snack"? I thought almond cookie is a snack. Beef jerkie is a snack...

I think we had some discussions on radish cake (or daikon cake, or turnip cake) before in this forum. Basically you first thred the daikons. In a wok, first stir-fry the dried shrimp and laap cheung and sliced black mushroom. Then add in the daikon shreds. Then add in the batter, which is a mix of rice flour and water. The ratio is the key (rice flour to water, and batter to daikon shreds). Start with some recipe to get an idea. Then trial and error. Too much rice flour, the cake will be overly hard and tastes "chalky". Not enough, the cake will fall apart. Add some salt in the process. Cook this mixture for about 10 minutes or so. Then transfer the content to some cake pans and steam the mixture for 1 to 1.5 hour. Let it cool to room temperature. Slice it and pan-fry the slices when ready to eat. Keep the rest in the fridge. I think I have posted a link to a video llustrating how it was done (narrated in Mandarin) sometime back. Yes I agree: the process of making daikon cake should not make it greasy because only minimum oil is used. It's the pan-frying process that grease is added. You can actually skip the pan-frying part and just eat it steamed. Add a little bit of light soy sauce and chopped green onions.

I agree with bethpageblack. What you described, a bao with chopped chicken, hard boiled egg, char siu and laap cheung sounds like Dai Bao (the "big" bao). As made in Hong Kong, China. I haven't seen them offered in the USA for the 20 some years that I have been here. Chicken bao, here in the USA (which is rarely offered but I did have them once in a while) and in Hong Kong (you can usually find), use chopped chicken (ground chicken?) and mixed with some kind of vegetable - depending on the chef... usually Chinese chives, cabbages or something like that. Even in Hong Kong you can rarely find Dai Bao any more. I guess they need to use so many ingredients that this dim sum item is not profitable. There is an old Cantonese saying "Mai Dai Bao", which literally meaning "selling Dai Bao" but the implied meaning is like "fire sale" (no profit).

Note that Fa Gau (fish maw) itself doesn't bear any taste. It is rather bland. It's all about texture. The taste is in whatever sauce it soaks up. The sauce is not too hard to make. Some oyster sauce with five spice kind of flavor (e.g. lo shui) and some broth, plus cornstarch slurry to thicken. Fa Gau works well with duck feet or goose feet in braising. I would first deep-fry the duck/goose feet to get the skin fluffy before braising.

Actually it is not that difficult. I am not sure how to prepare sea cucumbers from their dried form. I suspect it would be something similar. While eating that Fa Gau dish, I asked my aunt who sat right next to me (she is one of those iron house-wife chefs in Hong Kong, rare in modern days) how to prepare it. She said soak the dried Fa Gau in water overnight. Next day, rinse the water, boil the Fa Gau for an hour or so. Leave it in the water for another day. Then use it to cook (rinse the water) the third day.

Day 20 Teaser Pictures: Our third hiking during this trip: destination - Sai Kung, Tai Long Wan Needed to take care of some last minute hotel pick up details, we found ourselves in Tsim Sha Tsui. Needed to rush and grab a bite, instead of exploring we went back to Guong Dong Restaurant on Hankow Road. A bowl of "lai fun" in soup with BBQ pork. The BBQ pork was succulent and juicy. Excellently done! This was not suckling pig. It was just their regular roast pork. The skin was crispy, no less. The roast pork was also excellent. In the TST MTR station, we went to Arome Bakery to pick up a couple of their bakeries to be used as our snacks during the hike. Their bakeries were excellent. This was a roll with tuna and ham filling. It was a long journey just to get to the trailhead itself. MTR train ride, followed by a mini-buy ride, followed by a taxi ride. It took almost an unbelievable 2 hours. Once there, the hike to Tai Long Sai Wan (the beach) didn't take long at all. Only 45 minutes. And from Tai Long Sai Wan to Tai Long Wan (another beach), another 45 minutes. Here is some of the scenes that we came here to see. Tai Long Sai Wan. The Sai Kung peninsula is one of the last places in Hong Kong where you don't find any residential/commercial real estate development. At the Tai Long Sai Wan village, I found a store that carried... Green Spot! I have not seen this soft drink in almost 20 years! I still remember they made a TV commercial where a boy rode his family Rolls Royce to the Peninsula Hotel and ordered a bottle of Green Spot. It is a pretty good orange flavored soda. Not available in the USA, unfortunately. Dinner was seafood back in Sai Kung. Steamed shrimp with minced garlic (Sheun Yung Ha). Steamed pomfret with light soy sauce. This dish was excellent. After dinner, we went back to the Jordan area. Since this was our last night of staying in Hong Kong, we hung out later than usual. Went to do some last minute shopping along Temple Street. Last chance! I summoned my courage to try a bowl of turtle jelly. I was glad I did! The taste was quite bitter. With some sugar syrup, it helped to reduce the bitterness. It actually was quite tasty. A good dessert. We could feel the herbal function of turtle jelly working: an hour or so later, we could feel the blood circulation in the body. Close to midnight. What's life in Hong Kong without some midnight snack? A bowl of congee (jook) with pork liver. This slice of pork liver was almost as big as my palm! Comes tomorrow I would regret that there are as many food opportunities in the USA...

I think the term "char kway teow" is the Hokkien Chinese's pronounciation. char = stir-fry kway teow = hor fun (Cantonese), or flat rice noodles Can any stir-fried flat rice noodle be referred to as "char kway teow"? Or it has to be specifically cooked in a certain way (stir-fried with heavy soy sauce and zhee yau zha)?

This sounds like "shrimp chips" (about 2 inches in diameter) and not rice paper. Maybe they are the same thing, I don't know. Shrimp chips are made of ground shrimp and tapioca flour. In the Chinese way (perhaps Vietnamese do the same thing): we deep-fry the chips. They will curl up and expand. Drain the oil. Let them cool. Just eat them as snacks.

Vietnamese rice papers seem to be quite generic. From my experience: I usually prepare a small bin of luke-warm water. I soak the rice paper one sheet at a time - quickly. Around 20 to 30 seconds. Fish it out and let it air-dry a bit before using it to make a roll. I had soak a stack of rice paper at the beginning: big mistake. It's really hard to separate them once dried - ended up tearing a lot of rice paper useless. Restaurants do that since they serve rice papers in a stack. But I think they just soak a whole stack of rice paper and fish them out immediately.

You need to cut the bitter melon diagonally to reduce the bitterness!!! No. Just kidding. But cooking the melon until soft does tame down the bitterness.

Farm House's food is just excellent and the service extraordinary. There is no doubt about it. The only thing is they are pricey. But... you pay for what you get. With no view to offer from the restaurant, they can only compete by the food and service. And they will try to sell you all the live creatures in their fish tanks!

My pictures helped me remember: Farm House served braised beef shin and cooked bitter melon (with sesame seeds and sesame oil) when I was there.

This is amazing! Dragon fruit looks (after skinned) and tastes so much like kiwi. Are they related?

Many uses. Cantonese use them in cooking. e.g. - Steamed eggs (mix of chicken eggs, salted duck eggs, pei dan) - Bakery snack (pen dan so - a cake that has pei dan as the core)

They are fairly inexpensive - even for the Yung Kee quality ones. They are called "Tong Sum Pei Dan" (Sugar Center Pei San). Named so, I believe, because the center (yolk) is liquidish like sugar syrup. They are the best kind, better than the all solid ones. Regular pei dan in the USA: a box of 6, about US$1.50 to US$2.00.

Day 19 Teaser Pictures: I know what I need to do differently: I need to turn these teaser pictures into a marketing event! Day 19. Lunch. After witnessing the big BOOM!!! noon gun in Causeway Bay, made it to the famous Farm House Restaurant inside the AIA Building, also in Causeway Bay. Before we put on our napkins, two dishes of appetizers were already placed in front of us: braised beef (tendon?), and cooked bitter melons slices with sesame sprinkled on top. The condiment in the back was a dish of delicious, Farm House's own XO Sauce. It was excellent! For a close-up look on the XO Sauce, stay tuned for my full report! Ah! This is their famous house specialty "Chicken Wing Stuffed With Glutinous Rice". What's the big deal? It's just a chicken wing! Ah! On the surface, it looks like an ordinary chicken wing. The difference is on the inside... The bones of the chicken wing have been taken out. In their place, the chicken wing was stuffed with some glutinous rice. This was a classical Cantonese recipe of "Nor Mai Gai" (Glutinous Rice Chicken), except in a smaller scale - a chicken wing instead of a whole chicken. The wing was deep-fried and sheened. Marvelous! It's just a piece of cake (or perhaps "chicken little") compared to what you have done, right, sheetz? Another excellent dish was their Steamed Eggwhite With Seafood. Or they called it "See Dan" on their menu. "See Dan" is a Cantonese slang. It means "whatever". Why was it named "See Dan"? The captain at the restaurant told me a story. What did he tell me? Stay tuned for the Day 19 Full Report... BTW if you are going to Hong Kong and want to sample some excellent Cantonese food, Farm House is definitely on the top of the list. Be warned though that they are pricey. Lunch for two persons: HKD400 (US$50.00). But the service and food are indeed excellent. Back on the street. Saw a store selling "Shui Poh Bang" (Lifesaver cracker). Gosh! Haven't seen these in ages! Did I buy some? Since we were in the Causeway Bay area, I made another stop to Shun Yee Milk Company (Lockhart Road) to have some more goodies. This was their Mango Milk. A smoothie made by blanding fresh milk with fresh mango. It was Good!!! What else did I order? Dinner: made it back across the harbor in the Jordan area. Went to a restaurant named "Federal Palace Restaurant" ("Luen Bon Wong Gong"). On Nathan Road near Jordan Road. They had a special: for HKD59 (US$7.50), you can have a... What does it look like? For dinner details, stay tuned for the Day 19 Full Report.

Day 18 Teaser Pictures: We went back to the Whampoa food court to try some other eateries this morning. I had decided to try out "Fung Sing Restaurant" as they advertised to provide some "Shun Tak" style dishes. I always wanted to try something different other than mainstream Hong Kong Cantonese. The result, however, was disappointing. A plate of "Yuk See Chow Mein" (pan-fried noodles with shredded pork). This was very good. Something that I hadn't had for a long time. The Chinese restaurants in the USA just couldn't do it right. Many times ordering this dish, I have seen the chefs using thick pork slices or simply cha siu (BBQ pork) to make this dish. Those lazy chefs! This was done right: thinly shredded pork cooked with black mushroom slices and bean sprouts. Just as what I had 40 years ago. The "wok hey" is a little lacking, but otherwise good. One of their "Shun Tak" specialty dishes: This one was whole shrimp pasted on a bread slice and deep-fried. Kind of like a "shrimp toast" Chinese style. The condiment was, guess... Mayo! It was okay. But the bread had soaked up much frying oil. Not something that we liked. This was another "Shun Tak" specialty dish: "Dai Leung Yeah Gai Quon" ("Dai Leung" is a city name in China. "Yeah Gai Quon" means "wild chicken rolls"). I never had this dish before in my life, though I have heard of the name. I don't know whether this is their restaurant's execution or that's just the way this dish is... it didn't do it for us. The rolls were made with some bits of chicken meat (very little) in the middle. The rolls were some kind of flour mixed with... chicken fat? Or lard? They were very greasy. I could taste the thick chunk of fat. Felt like drinking oil. The condiment was a dish of Worchestershire Sauce. The sauce tamed down the taste of grease a little bit but still... not a good experience. This food item did not agree with my wife digestive system and she paid for it at the end of the day (as it turned out, the only food item that caused her problem throughout this trip). The dim sums at Fung Sing were okay, but not outstanding. I don't think I can put this restaurant on my recommended list. Dinner was a Ming Sing Restaurant again (the one that we ate at after our Macau trip). Nathan Road near Jordan Road. Food was better. Half a roast duck. Condiment was a small dish of "plum" sauce. The duck was very good. Not great as at Yung Kee but a heck lot better than any roast duck you can find in restaurants in USA. A clay pot dish: "Ga Lei Ha Bo" (Curry shrimp with mung bean threads in clay pot). Very good.