canucklehead
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Posts posted by canucklehead
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I really popular trend in HK is modern Shanghainese. It has even made its way to Vancouver (Richmond really) with places like Shanghai River and Nothern Delicacies.
We went to a place in a new development - Olympian 2 and went to place called Modern China.
Chefs wrapping XLB. A steamer of the final product.
Spicy pork in pancake.
The XLB were very very good - with an almost perfect skin. Thin but very strong - holding all of that hot juicy pork. MMMM MMMM. Otherwise the food was kinda pedestrian - and certainly one could get the same quality in Richmond. The spicy pork was not spicy, the tan tan noodles at these places are always sooo watery and far away from the real Sichuan noodles.
Still - it was worth it for the XLB. Best I have had in a long time.
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Nice photos
...Was snake still on alot of the menus when you were there? We had it in various forms during the month of November?
Cheers,
Stephen
Thanks! People were staring at me with my digital camera. I was asked at one mall not to take pictures. But I had no problems in the restaraunts.
I did not see any snake - but I did not look for it either. Deep fried snake is particularly good.
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I had to do my duty and be the good nephew and take my relatives out to dinner.
We decided to go out to Sai Kung and have a seafood dinner. At these places you go out and choose your seafood and they prep it for you. The choices in seafood is absolutely stunning.
It is more than a little like going to the aqaurium and eating the exhibits. I am sure that someone from Greenpeace would have a heart attack here. Spiny lobster
Mantis prawns (huge). Chopped moray eel (I think)
Horseshoe crabs - I have no idea how these are eaten.
These places don't do the same business as they used to. People don't want to eat the large fish because of mercury build up and the fishing practices (with poisons to stun the fish) are scaring some people off.
On top it all - the growing issue of seafood sustainability really had me thinking. The Vancouver sustainability lunch at 'C' that Jamie Maw put together this past summer - certainly taught us that you can still eat very very well while minimizing the impact on the environment.
So it was not too over the top for dinner
Steamed young abalone. Mantis Prawns roasted in garlic (okay- these were really delicous)
Scallops steamed with bean thread and roasted garlic. Roasted suckling pig.
There were a number of other things that were ordered - steamed fish and large clay pot sparerib rice. Overall - a nice little meal.
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Is this "Crab Roe Steamed Dumpling" Xiaolongbao or Siu Mai? It looks like XLB.
Look at the inch-thick pure fat on the roast pork! Phewww... You ate the whole thing, right?
The dumpling was XLB - ooh so good. I never miss a chance to have them.
The white stuff on the pork was not fat - but white meat. That's what made this cut of roast pork so amazing. There was a thin line of fat in between the darker and lighter meats.
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Okay - I admit it - I am completely off of street food. It is too scary. The only thing I took part in was the elcair and egg tart. Everything else just seemed like I might as well swab my insides with hepititis viruses.
I can't believe that you missed out on all those street food!!
Those noodles and various ingredients in the bag are a great way to fill the stomach for poor students(they just spent all their money on manga, anime, and CD) since you can get each ingredient for HK1.00 in the cheap places.
I was thinking the same thing. I lived off street food while I was there. Those egg puffs, eggettes, are divine. Street food isn't as bad as some people think it is. I have yet to get sick from any and when I was back there, I had street food everyday. But I did tend to go to larger places for street food and skip the shady looking little stands.
I used to have a weakness for deep fried pork intestines - with mustard and hoisin sauce. So amazingly delicous and so bad for you.
But I try to be much more careful now - so I chickened out and did not have any!
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Is the "fried dace" from canned fried dace?
Not the canned stuff - but fresh fried dace (the same fish that is used to flavour won ton noodle broth - is that not dace?) Correct me if I am wrong.
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I think most people out side of HK are baffled by the notion of HK-style Western Food with its bland flavors and odd combinations.
Well - this is were it all began - Tai Ping Koon (TPK) which was started by a Chinese guy who cooked for the British in Guangdong in 1896! Thus the fancified ouvre of canteen food. It is an odd combination of top notch ingredients with cafeteria techniques.
This branch is in Central and it looks like it has recently gotten a reno - I like the branch in TST the most - swank in the retro 60's mah jong parlour kind of way. The beef tongue was lovely - but check out the frozen vegetables. Why? Because it has always been done that way.
They are most famous for these dishes. Swiss chicken wings (poached in a sweet soy sauce) and roasted squab (pretty scrawny this time).
The service is always impeccable. It used to be staffed by old men who would snap at you if did not know what you were doing. One time I was sitting in the TST branch and there was this family having lunch. Then a furrier showed up from the nearby Siberian Fur Store to deliver their purchase. They measured up the jacket and appropriate alterations were ordered - and then the family settled back down to their dinner. So old school - it was a perfect little HK moment.
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... I prefer the HK version. This ranged anywhere from Chinese BBQ meats, beef brisket noodles...
In HK - the current style of brisket very clean tasting without alot of sauce. I think the first place that made them (and I think the still the best) is in Central - Guo Gai. I was told that the owner was offered millions of dollars for the orginal recipe but he turned it down. These were from a place in Sau Kei Wan. They were very good also and I had over soy tossed thick egg noodles. Usually I have them over yee mein - which really absorb the flavors.
The fish eggs were very nice also - very fresh tasting with a soft chew.
We had deep fried fish skins that were crispy with a nice brininess - not fishy taste at all. Of course everything washed down with an ice cold Schweps Cream Soda from a bottle (which do taste the best).
Except for the fish balls - I have never had these foods in Vancouver. I really like this kind of brisket alot - savory with a clean beefiness. The Schweps is a real HK thing - it is the soda of choice for most people. I love it too - but I try to have it in HK only - so that it becomes part of the local experience.
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Great posts canucklehead. I just got back after spending 2 weeks in HK and my friend was taking me to all sorts of different places for the best or most well known version of different dishes. This was also my first time back in 10 years and here are some of my observations:
1) I thought, on average, HK Chinese food (Chiu Chow, Cantonese, Shanghai) is seasoned less aggressively than Chinese food in Vancouver. Seasoning is more subtle and you can taste the ingredients better. I prefer the HK style.
2) If you know where to go for the specific Chinese food, I prefer the HK version. This ranged anywhere from Chinese BBQ meats, beef brisket noodles all the way to high end cuisine. I think it's a combination of the available ingredients and subtle differences in the style of cooking.
Alex
Too bad we did not get into contact while we were both in HK - you can never have too many eating partners.
I agree that the cooking in HK is more ingredient focused and people will only eat certain things in season. The food culture on the whole is much more developed in HK. However - I also saw beautiful ingredients being used in the most heartbreaking ways. Beautiful fresh prawns - being tossed into mayonaissey potato salads with canned fruit cocktail! However, everyone could tell the prawns were top quality.
On the whole though - given Vancouver is about 1/4 the size of HK - I think that Chinese food here stacks up pretty well. But given the larger market in HK - there is of course going to be higher quality food and more focused niche restaurants (I can't think of a good chui chow restaurant in Vancouver for example). However, I think that Sea Harbour in Richmond is as good as 95% of the restaurants in HK. And the quality of dim sum - in general - in Vancouver is very very good.
However - at the end of the day - the food in HK is going to be superior. You've got large population that is demanding about quality. You've got access to superior seasonal ingredients. I agree that the chicken in HK is so much better than the bloated bland birds here in BC (avian flu be damned). And the fruits! My parents neigbours had star fruit and papaya's growing in their yard.
Like you noted - the quality of imported ingredients is also very very high. I had my first Vacherin in HK then could not find for years in California until I went to the Napa Valley. Once - I had a dinner party for 5 people in HK - simple beef carbonade with mashed potatoes, salads, appetizers, cheeses a couple of decent wines... it cost me C$500 in ingredients alone.
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aprilmei - thanks for the heads up... so it is about $USD 12 for a coke at the new Mandarin? Yikes is right.
Street Food you can have instead:
Tea eggs, steamed quail eggs
Various dim sum, black corn (which was very sweet, mealy, and almost licorishy)
A rice noodle maker in Guandong. I never thought about how hard these were to make until you watch someone do it.
Eclair and Cream Puff from Papa Bakery in the basement of Sogo.
Stinky tofu - which I smelled blocks away. Cold noodles in a BAG - truly repulsive.
Various things on sticks. Overstuffed Chicken Wings
Egg puffs (which I associate with food posioning). Egg Tarts from Honolulu Bakery in Central - soft, warm, delicous!
Okay - I admit it - I am completely off of street food. It is too scary. The only thing I took part in was the elcair and egg tart. Everything else just seemed like I might as well swab my insides with hepititis viruses.
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Spent the holidays in HK - and went to alot of local places. I will be updating the post over the next couple of days in the Chinese Food Thread:
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What's for breakfast?
Most HK people will drop into a coffee shop for breakfast.
You can get ramen noodles with thick slabs of bacon (I know - it seems weird to me that you would go to a restaurant to order instant noodles - but it works). My favorite is the hot pineapple bun with icy butter. Heaven!
Everything washed down with HK style tea. This thick sweet concoction came about because the local Chinese wanted to have milk and tea like the Brits did. The price was prohibtively high though - so a local restaurant came up with brewing a hyper strong cup of tea (with three different kinds of black tea) and adding evaporated milk for richness. Most locals add heaps of sugar to it.
I got to tell ya - once you develop a taste for it - you love the tea. And if you don't like it - you can blame the Brits.
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Right in the middle of Central (where most of the offices are) - there is a little coffee shop that has earned the nickname 'snake pit' - because it where office and government workers go slithering off to slack off.
It is famous for its 'chicken pie' - which seems more like an ham and onion pie in a insanely rich short crust. Still - the service is good and it is fun to hang out with all the other slackers.
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... how does Vancouver's Chinese food scene stack up against what you found in HK?
The Chinese food in Vancouver and California stacks up very well against Hong Kong. Basically whereever you have Chinese people with disposable incomes - they will be very demanding of their food.
This was particulary borne out by dim sum - I found most 'everyday' places in HK to subpar to Vancouver - very greasy and heavy. However, if you are willing to get into more heavy duty spending - then HK will offer you an experience you cannot duplicate.
That being said, there was a place in Shenzen where the dim sum was outstanding and ridiculously reasonable. It is called the "Laurel" in the Shenzen mall just outside of the Lowu border.
The 'yu tiao' was the most crispy and delicous I have ever had - and in the rice roll - it was perfection. The lotus root cake was equally good - fresh ingredients, imaginately prepared, well handled.
In Hong Kong - I always make a point to go to Victoria Harbour in the Sun Hung Kai Center in Wanchai. I know many people like Fook Lum Moon also - but I never got to know their menu well enough.
This being Shanghai Hairy Crab Season (a lake crab eaten for it's tommaley) - I always get the Crab Roe Steamed Dumplings - they are bursting with crab roe and rich with pork - fantastic (they run about C$2 apiece). They serve it with a special black vinegar that brings out all of the natural sweetness of the roe. I also love the roast pork - perfectly roasted with light and dark meat - just the right amount of fat running through it.
This dish also suprised me - thin rice noodles fried with shredded pork - in the style of 'dry beef ho fun'. It was light tasting with lots of 'wok breath'.
As there wasn't enough people - I could not get the flower crab steamed in 'fa dui' wine. It is sweet and briny and delicous... and when you are done with the crab, they toss the rich sauce with noodles of your choice to finish the meal off. Ahhh - heavenly.
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Well - just to round things out - I did high tea at the Peninsula Hotel. To be honest, I prefer the Mandarin's tea - but they were shut down for major renovations - they have a very sparkly temporary location at the Landmark - but it was too cutting edge to have tea in.
To be honest - I have always found the Peninsula tea time to be a bit of a cattle call. The food is a little assembly line - but the service is top notch and it is actually very good value for money (C$ 50 for two people - compare that to the C$ 90 per head at the Empress in Victoria).
The tea set consists of various tiers of sweets, savories, and scones.
I got to admit that I am a sucker for hotel silver - don't know why. The devon cream that came with the scone tasted very cooked - very little dairy flavor. In fact, if you blindfolded me - I would have thought it was whipped butter.
This little dessert was the surprise hit. Basically a mocha granita on top of a tiramisu. Refreshing, light, yet rich at the same time.
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The local Hong Kongers are fanatical about freshness. Most people will shop each day for something fresh (most people's homes have very small refrigerators).
Much of this shopping occurs in the local wet market... The government has been buidling large tiled markets for vendors to move into in order to improve cleanliness. Everything - including meat - is sold without refrigeration.
I must admit that when I lived in HK - I did not like going to the wet markets in the summers. The heat, humidity, and strong smells did not sit well with me. I guess that made me a girly man. The Cantonese do not shy away from the more nitty gritty aspects of food - animals are laid bare, fish killed at the very last moment, vegetables are piled high. You got to respect this pragmatism... when it comes to food... people in HK remain very connected to the ingredients of their meals.
Meat shops... note the hooved leg, I thought it would be something super exotic - turns out it is a goat leg.
Vegetable vendor, hot pot stand
Fish vendor (note how insanely fresh EVERYTHING is), noodle shop
Is it any wonder why new immigrants to Canada look at our supermarkets with bewilderment?
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One of the first meals I had this time in HK was something called "poon choi" or 'platter meal' to celebrate a Chinese holiday.
It is basically a rural style celebration dish where all the food is stacked into one platter and heated through and eaten. Vegetables and lotus root are put on the bottom to absorb the flavour as the other items warm through. There is chicken, various meat balls, pork belly... you get the idea.
It has only recently gotten popular outside of rural areas and large restaraunts like Maxim's will prepare platters to be taken home. The use of one platter dates back to when people in the country side did not have lots and lots of platters to hold all the different dishes for celebration meals - so the practice of stacking the food developed. By the end of the meal - you end up with rich sauce that you can use to cook vegetables in.
I found the meal interesting - but too rich. Still it was fun trying something new.
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This is the one most inavertently disturbing pieces of shope displays... only in the PRC baybeee!
A preserved meat shop in Guangdong
For some reason - they decided to dress up two of the preserved suckling pigs as newlyweds. They look like they have been preserved in mid-scream.... I think we all know what would have happend to Wilbur in China, regardless of what a stupid spider decided to write in her web.
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HK McDonald's Food.
I love the weird shit McDonald's makes for different markets.
Red Bean Pie, Taro Root Pie (in Guandong only)
The pies were delcious! First of they were deep fried (none of this BS psuedo healthy baked pies we get in Canada). Secondly - they were not too sweet. We also had a grilled chicken sandwich that was basically pressed thigh meat (juicy!) with as much mayonaise they could slather on it (not so sucessful).
During Chinese New Year -they have Red Bean and Green Bean Sundaes. Insanity! I love them.
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Another place that I love is Chong Fat in Kowloon City. They specialize in chiuchow food - lots of braised and fried things. Kowloon City used to be in the flyzone of the old airport - so most of the old buildings are very low - but already some new development has moved in with 40 and 50 story condo towers.
Chong Fat has been around for decades - and I hope they stay around for decades more. But as real estate gets more pricey... well the economics get tougher.
I love all the things on display for you to pick and choose your meal. The crab you seel is called flower crab... it is tasty with good amounts of tomalley - but did not get a chance to eat any this time.
You always start out with some nice homemade pickles and 'kung fu' tea. I used to think that the name had something to do with martial arts - but I was told it actually means 'alot of work' tea. I guess it is a pain in the ass to make.
Stirred fried gai lan with fried dace. Mixed fried items - including fried dumpings, taro roots and fish balls. If you don't like something deep fried - you will never like it.
This is my favorite chiu chow item - braised goose. The ribbons you see are the goose intestines - nothing goes to waste. It is served warm with a sharp vinegary garlicky dip - good!
Though it looks homely - I love chui chow style congee. Basically it is like soup with meat and veggies over rice. I can wolf it down in no time flat.
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HK has large Indian and Muslim population - mostly centered around the Tsim Tsai Tsui.
Chungking Mansions is famous for being a bit of a warren of lawlessness - but really - it is not that bad. It is full of Indian and Halal restaurants but I have to admit I have not gone to any of them.
I did pick up some things from one of the stalls from the ground floor.
I had a samosa and a bag full of egg plant fritters. Fresh, hot, tasty and cheap - can't get much better than that.
I love the fact that all the Indians in the area speak perfect Cantonese... it really freaks out the local Chinese and keeps their little racist comments in check.
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One of my standbys in HK is the Farm House in the AIA Center in Causeway Bay. They specialize in home style Cantonese cooking - and I love it! The ingredients are top notch and home cooking methods are taken to a new level.
They always sneak some small appetizer in - they just put these down on your table without being asked and they you are charged for them. No matter - they were delicous - braised beef shin and steamed bitter melon.
This is one of their signiture dishes - boneless chicken wings stuffed with sticky rice. It is fantastic.
Though we ordered a number of things - I like the homey style stuff the best. Steamed eggs with mixed seafood topping. Steamed pork cheeks (jowls) with preserved mustard greens. The pork jowls are chosen because they have a very springy texture.
Did not splurge on Bird's Nest - but this steamed whole papaya filled with hot almond cream was a perfect way to end the meal. They also do a very good hot walnut cream - rich and nutty.
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I saw these signs in an HK subway station. I did'nt whether to laugh or cry... but really - no one eats dog in HK (proper) or takes bear bile. At least nobody I know.
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When the weather is cool - I like to have congee in HK. The best I think is in Sheung Wan (Western District) - Wong Kee. The place is a tiny sliver of a restaurant tucked inside one of the many alleyways in the area.
I like to play it safe and get the beef and pork meat balls congee. You get a dipping sauce of soy, ginger, and scallions to dip you meat balls. They are delicous - with watercress chopped right into the meat balls - they have a freshness that keeps them from being too rich. My brother gets the mixed bowl - which includes a variety of organ meats. Though they may not be pretty to look at - the ingredients are always impeccably clean and fresh. If they were not - nobody would eat there. Its a very competive market.
I know... I would'nt eat it either.... I guess my Canadian squeemishness is showing.
A Canuck in HK
in China: Dining
Posted
Another big favorite of mine - and many local HK families is a place on top of the Java Road Wet Market - Tung Bo (Eastern Treasure). It is always packed! It is a little sad to see the other restaurants nearby sitting empty - but the food is very good and it is a real local experience.
Don't have a reservation - forget about getting a table.
Gem lettuce with perserved bean - this dish tasted like a hot ceaser salad. I know it sound odd - but it was delicous. Fresh sweet and sour pork - big guilty pleasure for me.
Crispy skin chicken - spectacular. This seemed to have a touch of nam yue (preserved tofu) underneath that crispy crispy skin. Prawns with salted egg yolk sauce - finger lick'n good.
Hot sweet potato in ginger sweet soup. Fortifying during the winter.
This place also has an excellent 'pregnant lady fried rice' - which is fully of pungent ginger and rice steamed in lotus leaves - which is what our choice of starch was. Yummy.