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Day 14 Teaser Pictures: I managed to change our hotel to the Harbour Plaza in Whampoa, near the Hung Hom Ferry Terminal. This one is waterfront. I love the view from the room. Occassionally you see some big ship sailing by in the Victoria Harbor. The sight is awesome. Sorry about the blurriness from the dusts on the window. Buffet breakfast at the Harbour Plaza Hotel. The buffet in Hong Kong hotels usually are very nice. Much better than the ones in the USA. A mix of fruits (European style) and Siu Mai's and Yue Chee Gow (Chinese style). Fruit juices... there are plenty. Grapefruit and orange. And a cup of yogurt. The smoked salmon was really excellent. With capers. I had a few of these. A pomelo bought in Hong Kong. So juicy! I couldn't get enough of it! This one was only HKD20 (US$2.50) bought in Cheung Chau's Welcome store.

Thanks! I owe it to a lot of eGullet friends: aprilmei, HKDave and a few others for suggestions. Including you, canucklehead! Ever since you posted pictures of the ginger syrup with milk custard in Causeway Bay, I have thinking of trying it the next chance I come back to Hong Kong. I am glad I did! For many years I knew of such a food item but never am interested enough to even taste it. The next thing that I want to try (and never had) is Gwai Ling Gao (the turtle jell). And remember to revive your "A Canuck in Hong Kong" thread when you come in Christmas!

It is, indeed, very generous of the eGullet society to provide a forum where I can share my travel and food experience. Thank you!

I agree, aprilmei. What I observed in this trip: most of the street food hawkers are gone. I only saw some who came out at night, in the cover of darkness, and sold some small eats like fried chestnuts, salted quail eggs and these Tong Chung Bang kind of small eats. Instead, there are a lot more small stores (legitimate storefronts and business names) selling what used to be sold by street hawkers: such as fried dice fish balls, squids, beef organs, steamed siu mai's, etc.. Those storefronts must carry very high rents. So they must have made a lot of money just selling small eats. HKD5.0 here and HKD10.0 there... but very lucrative after all because of the high volume. They got thousands of people passing by everyday.

Day 13 Teaser Pictures (continued): Day 13 we went hiking at Tai Mo Shan. Time was tight. No time for enjoying an elaborate meal. Went to the temporary food market near Temple Street (Dai Pei Dong). Here is a plate of Beef Chow Fun. I love the coffee in Hong Kong's Dai Pei Dong. They taste much better than the ones at Starbucks. My wife wanted some dessert. We grabbed a "Nai Yau Bao" (bread with whipped cream and coconut shreds) at the Tsuen Wan subway station. We hiked from the Tai Mo Shan Country Park towards Lead Mine Pass, then down on to Tai Po Market. The journey took about 5 to 6 hours. The view was absolutely stunning. And we witnessed many jumbo planes flying above, landing at Chek Lap Kwok. So many... about 1 plane a minute. Shortly after we passed Lead Mine Pass, it already turned dark. I had been on that trail before many times, though those were over 20 years ago. We hurried and did the best we could in the dark. Then my cell phone kept ringing. At first I tried to ignore it. But it just kept ringing. It was from my high school buddy of 30 years ago. "Leung, where are you???" "Man! I am just trying to find my way to the Tai Po Market in the dark." "Just follow the lights", he said. "Yeah... I HAVE BEEN following the lights. But it's so dark here that I can't see anything more than 3 feet ahead of me!!!!" We cracked a laugh. He said he was just driving back from Shenzhen and would pick me up at the Tai Po Market KCR Station and would go for a meal with us. What a friendship! If I could only survive this dark journey! But 3 minutes after the phone call, I transitioned from a dirt trail to a cement road. And a mini-bus just came by. Zoom... we were at Tai Po Market in less than 10 minutes. Only in Hong Kong... While I was waiting for my friend to pick us up, I ran across this street vendor selling "Tong Chung Bang" (Sugar "green onion" cake). I don't even know how to translate this. It is a very traditional Chinese sweet eat. I haven't had this for over 20 years! They wrapped some sugar honeycomb in a piece of rice "cloth". Before wrapping, they scooped a spoon of mixture made from sugar, sesame and coconut shreds. Then they wrapped it up like a tiny burritos. It's just wonderful! My friend picked me up and drove me to a nearby (Tai Po Market) good eat named "Tung Gong" in Cantonese (East River). They are famous for their salted chicken. We have a whole one (pretty small). They provided one chicken foot. Must be a crippled bird. This is a "eat on the street" kind of outfit. But their food is really good, no lesser than those in TST area. This is Pork Chop, salt and pepper style. ("Jill Yim Pei Gwut") Really excellent.

Boy... I feel that I am such a pig! (But that's my year, hee-hee) I think I have passed the 21 lb mark in this trip and it didn't take 21 days. After a full lunch of dan dan mein, twice-cooked pork, we went to Deep Water Bay, Repulse Bay and Stanley. At Stanley I had some McDonald's soft cone, and some beef jerky (from Macao). At Causeway Bay, I had some fried dice fish cake with chili pepper (that's hot!), wonton skin and egg plant, and a cup of watermelon juice. Then ate a full-stomachful of hot, hot, hot Sichuan food at Man Jiang Hung (and thanks for the tips, the food tasted great!). They fed me some complimentary Hung Dao Sa. And I still wanted to have some double-skin steamed milk since we were in the area. My stomach went exploded! Back in the hotel room... some more apples, oranges, tangerines and pomelo (shatin yau)... (I wish you guys can take the pomelo skin to experiment with it...)

I know of a few Mcdonalds that have great views..... maybe something at the peak?bubba gump? ← somemale: You seem to be very familiar with Hong Kong! Yes, you are right. I ate at Bubba Gump at The Peak. I passed on their restaurant in Kona, Hawaii as well as a few other locations in the USA. Didn't think I would end up eating their baby back ribs and fish N chips in Victoria Peak, Hong Kong! The world is getting smaller. Today I broke my vow for the second time. A soft cone at McD in Stanley next to the Murray House. HKD2.80 for a soft cone. That's CHEAP! (USA price... US$1.00 or so). Same quality. I can't taste any difference. What's next? Try the Starbuck's coffee? Nah... I love the Hong Kong "cha chun Tien's" (tea restaurant) coffee, with condensed milk and plenty of sugar... Pizza Hut? KFC?

A teaser question: I swore that I wouldn't step foot in any US-based restaurant chains while I am in Hong Kong... but last night I broke my vow... I dinned at a US-based restaurant. Not because of the food. But because of the view. Which restaurant might it be?

Day 13 Teaser Pictures: One thing nice about living in Hong Kong is that there is an amazing assortment of fresh fruit juices. You can buy something freshly squeezed by the store workers. Or you can buy them from the 7-11 convenient stores. There is certainly one near you in Hong Kong. I love kiwi and guava juices. They are excellent! (Got to go... to be continued)

When I was at Yuen Long MTR Station looking for the way to transfer to light rail, I saw a few caucasian young ladies lugging their oversized Samsonites trying to read the route maps and figure out how to buy tickets. I feel sorry for them... They probably stayed at Tin Shui Wai... bird lovers may be... It seems an odd place to operate a hotel. Sticking to the hotel transfer bus would be much easier getting to the airport from there...

And I passed by quite a few coffee shops called "Pacific Coffee Company". I am not sure who (what country) operates it. Keen competitor of Starbucks no doubt. They provide a few Internet access computer terminal at the store. Buy some drinks, you can use the Internet for free. Limit to 15 minutes if there are others waiting. I have checked eGullet when I browsed the street... At Man Mo Temple, Wanchai, The Peak... Quite amazing... Now if I can upload a picture to post it for you guys in real time that would be awesome!

Indonesia Restaurant has been around for many, many years. It was one of my favorite restaurants when I lived/worked in Hong Kong in the mid 80's.

Not huge. We are a small family. Only 4 brothers/sister in the inner circle. Only spouses and their kids. I wish we could all afford to have a banquet at Yung Kee, but... We all grew up in the common's circle. It would only be some "nicer" food. In today's restaurants in Hong Kong, I feel that most of the restaurants in the Jordan/Yau Ma Tei areas are just kind of so-so in banquet food. The really good ones are probably in the Tsim Sha Tsui area and in hotels. And of course the price tags are accordingly (much) higher. And with Wall Street's subsidy, I hope that one day I can come back and treat all my family to a real abalone/hairy-crab/shark-fin feast. (Read - only HKD8888)

I am back!.... Sorry, my time in HK is very tight. Between family obligations, meeting old friends (haven't seen in 30 years!), revisiting old places and exploring new places... Weekends are my off-line days. I will be on-line til Friday... then time to hop over the Pacific pond to US soil. Gai Mei Bao... hard to tell. Just try one when you come across a bakery. Pitch it if you don't like it. There is always another bakery shop around the corner!

Folks: Today is Saturday in Hong Kong. We are going to a second hike in Tai Mo Shan, going to Tai Po. I will be offline for a couple of days, and be back on Monday to post more pictures.

Day 12 Teaser Pictures: Lunch was at a "cha chun tan" (Hong Kong style tea restaurant) in the nearby Tsim Sha Tsui area (Hankow Road). This restaurant's name is "Canton BBQ Restaurant" in Chinese. We passed by, not knowing the restaurant, but saw that they seemed to have very good Cantonese BBQ items and with some kind of publicity newspaper mentioning so we decided to give it a try. Their Cantonese BBQ items are indeed very good. I do recommend it if you are in the TST area. The price is very reasonable. e.g. A plate of Cantonese roast pork is only HKD40 (~US$5). This is Hong Kong style iced coffee. I truly enjoy the taste of the Hong Kong style coffee. More so than Starbucks - which is around every corner in Hong Kong/Macao too by the way. Cantonese roast pork. We asked for extra lean ones. The taste is really good. "Gon Chow Ngau Ho" (Dried style beef and fried rice noodles). This one is good, though not the best. I should have stayed with Cantonese BBQ items - specialty of this restaurant. Perhaps something like BBQ pork with "lei fun" in soup would be better. I can't resist opportunities to snack. I bought some "baos" just from some stores at the Star Ferry terminal on the way to Central. This one is baked flakery pastry with ham and tuna fish filling. Hong Kong style egg sandwich! This one was made with a slice of luncheon meat, bought at the ferry terminal on the way to Cheung Chau Island. After a day of walking around Cheung Chau Island and the excitement of crawling through the Cheung Po Tsai Cave in total darkness, time to relax and have dinner near the pier. We didn't know any better of which restaurant to pick... we just ate at the first restaurant to the left of the ferry pier. They seemed reasonable and had many patrons. We took their "packaged" dinner, which was reasonably priced at HKD188 for 4 seafood items, plus house soup and one additional stir-fried vegetables of our choice. My advice is: The seafood in these packaged dinner entrees is very small and the quality is not as good. Price is great but quality suffers a bit. If you want to real good experience, you can pick your own live seafood at the store next to the restaurant than have the restaurant cook it for you. The owner said they will charge HKD30 a dish for cooking. You pay for whatever seafood you buy. That way you can ensure of the ingredient's quality and size. This dish was manis shrimp, fried with salt and pepper. Very tasty! But manis shrimp does not have a lot of meat inside. Clams stir-fried in black bean sauce. Baby scallops in shells, steamed in black bean sauce with a bit of rice vermicelli and green onions. Very good too.

That is very true! I drank 3 bottles of water that night after eating the crab dish! Kept feeling very thirsty.

Yeah... thanks Suzy. I learned that later on too. They (Macanese style food) also use bacalhou in other dishes, such as fried potato balls. Very interesting.

The fried garlic is quite tasty. But very, very salty. The next time we eat there, we will ask them to skip the salt so we can finish eating the whole plate of fried garlic. You may want to do the same.

3 locations, all close to each other. The bigger ones are at 405 and 429 Lockhart, and there's a tiny additional one around the corner (this is the one that's 'under the bridge', and recommended if you want the full experience, it's only got about 6 tables) on Canal St. Tel 2893 1289. ← Yeah... we went there early (around 6:30 pm). We were gonna sit at the "original" shop that has 6 tables with white (plastic?) table cloths - while nobody was in it. Then a guy took us to the restaurant at the corner - like 20 feet away. He said they are all of the same ownership. They only seat people in the old restaurant when the new one is full. We were kind of worried... we just didn't want to go to imatators. Later on we found out that they cook the spicy crabs in the old restaurant's kitchen and then bring the crab dishes to the new restaurant's dinning room. Kind of odd and funny, seeing plates of spicy (all that garlic) crabs being carried on the street. The other dishes are quite reasonably priced (around HKD50-60 or so), which is US$7-9. Only the spicy crabs are very expensive. Well... you buy in to the brand name...

Those look perfect! How did they taste? Did they have a good filling to dough ratio? I get really disappointed when there's barely any filling in my hum sui gok. ← They tasted pretty good. Though I had even better ones in some other restaurants. The filling is just a very small portion of minced pork and some finely diced black mushrooms and seasonings. The dough is quite thin and chewy.

That is true... they do carry Vitasoy in many of the Asian markets in the USA. I just haven't bought them for a long time.

Ah Leung, I thought it was "seurng tong"?上湯 ← You are right... You are right... they do use the world "sheung tong" here in Hong Kong. "Goh Tong" is more used in recipes in books. Anyway... superior broth. There is broth (very concentrated) in the center of the shrimp balls. The Macanese style fried shrimp balls I had in Yuen Long used cheese. This Cantonese style shrimp balls used concentrated broth.

"Hom Sui Gok" sold in Hong Kong, as well as all the Chinese restaurants I have been to in the USA are deep-fried. Perhaps you were eating something else and they mislabelled it as Hom Sui Gok?

Day 11 Teaser Pictures: My liquid breakfast!!! Haven't had one of these for a long, long time. Vitasoy. A local dairy company. Famous for their soyamilk products. This is "Mak Jing" Vitasoy (malt based soya milk). Roasted geese at Yung Kee!!! Not today... Not enough time. Instead, I opted to go to the nearby "hole in the wall" Law Fu Kee for some wonton noodles. Yung Kee for another day. Law Fu Kee is a very small shop. Seatings are very tight and uncomfortable - even for typically small-body-type Chinese. So be warned! This is deep-fried dace fish balls ("Lang Yue Kow") with fermented clam sauce. There are tiny clams in the condiment dish. This is their house specialty that you should not miss if you go there. Their wonton noodle soup is also very nice. Their jook (congee) is also famous and excellent. They really put a lot of ingredients in the congee - more so than any of the restaurants I have visited. This is sliced beef congee ("wut ngau jook"). Dinner was at "Under The Bridge Spice Crab" in Causeway Bay - the shop featured in Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservation". The food is really great. The crab prices are ridiculously expensive compared to other eateries. (e.g. small crab HKD280 while others charge HKD130-180, medium crab (what we had) - HKD380, which is about US $50 just for one crab). The taste is really great. So... people pay for what they want to have... This dish is snails in hot spicy wine sauce. There! This is the famous "under the bridge spicy crab". Those are fried garlic all surrounding the crab. Very tasty. But also very salty. There is no way one can finish all the fried garlic with all the salt in it.