Reports on Hong Kong dining

[prasantrin]

What is Chiu Chow? Is this the style of braising with soy sauce, anise and various other spices? How is it written, or in Mandarin?

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I think Chiu Chow is an area in China, so in this case, it refers to the style of cooking predominant in that area. As I understand it, the cooking there is simpler than, say Szechuan cooking, allowing the flavours of the ingredients stand out. Check out this Wiki article for more (though hardly complete) info.

Lee Kum Kee has a cooking sauce called "chiuchow" or "teochiu", but I've never tried it so I don't know what's in it or what it tastes like. But if you're curious about chiuchow cooking, it might worth trying.

ETA--LKK has Chiu Chow Chili Oil, not a cooking sauce. I thought I had seen a cooking sauce at Costco (in Japan), but perhaps I was wrong.

Edited November 23, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[somemale]

thanks for the updates so far!

just a quick q: what camera are you using to take the pictures?

[CFT]

What is Chiu Chow? How is it written, or in Mandarin?

Chaozhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teochew

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiuchow_cuisine

Edited November 23, 2007 by CFT (log)

[Dejah]

What is Chiu Chow? How is it written, or in Mandarin?

Chaozhou

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teochew

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiuchow_cuisine

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Our own Tepee would be the authority on all things Teochew.

[milgwimper]

Man the peanut coconut candy looks so good, not the mention the meat balls and noodles. Well okay everything looks tasty. I so could go for the curry squid tentacles for some reason they seem to call to me. I can't wait for more pictures! Thank you.

[hzrt8w]

Tell me more about the Zha Leung. I presume the rice noodles are wrapped around the cruller after it's fried. Hot or cold? Sweet or savory?

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Hot. Absolutely. It must be freshly made, right off the steamer and served. If this waits for any more than 10 minutes or so, the fried crueller inside will become soggy. You know... Hong Kongers have sharp taste buds and tight wallets. They won't go for anything less.

Taste is savory. They put dark soy sauce on top. Though the dark soy sauce is sweetened.

[hzrt8w]

just a quick q: what camera are you using to take the pictures?

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Nikon D80 Digital SLR. Lens: 35mm-80mm with a wide-angle/macro lens added, which makes it effectively 20mm-40mm. I can't stand the lack of focus control on those P&S cameras.

I also have reduced the resolution (the original is 10 Megapixel) of the picture before uploading.

[Peter Green]

Nikon D80 Digital SLR.  Lens:  35mm-80mm with a wide-angle/macro lens added, which makes it effectively 20mm-40mm.  I can't stand the lack of focus control on those P&S cameras. 

I also have reduced the resolution (the original is 10 Megapixel) of the picture before uploading.

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I wish Yoonhi would let me drag one of those to meals. Your shots are looking goooooood.

And I quite agree on the downscaling from 10megapixels. I learned the hard way. Right now I've only got 0.74 MB left of my quota......

What resolution are you using here?

Cheers,

Peter

[hzrt8w]

So, any run-ins yet with egg flower/drop soup?

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I haven't seen any mentioning of egg drop soup in restaurant menus. But that may not say much because my restaurant visits are limited, and that most restaurants did away with the "traditional" dishes and want to create new dishes to attract patrons.

[hzrt8w]

What resolution are you using here?

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About 700 x 500 for each picture (10Mpixel is about 4000x3000). The JPG file size is typically 20-30KB.

[jo-mel]

I love Chiu Chow Chicken especially having had it at a now-closed place in NYC's Chinatown. Ken Hom's "Fragrant Harbor Taste" speaks of having it in Kowloon's "Chiuchow Gardens" years ago. He said he had it on deep-fried chili leaves. Another book said that traditionally, it is served on 'pearl vegetable leaves' zhenzhu cai / jun jiu choy 珍珠菜. I've heard basil leaves mentioned. I've done it with spinach leaves and that is what most recipes call for.

Xiao Leung, ---- if you should have it, try and find out what the deep-fried leaf is?

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time! Write a book about your experience!!!!! I'll buy an autographed copy!

[aprilmei]

Ah Leung, it's a pity I"m in California while you're in HOng Kong - what bad timing.

If you're ever in my old neighbourhood of Sai Ying Pun, there's an excellent little noodle shop that I used to go to all the time. It's on High Street at the corner of Centre Street - it's right across the street from a flower shop. They make yau jah gwai and cheung fun on the premises and therefore their jah leung are excellent. They also make yu pei gau - they don't contain fish skin and I can't remember why they're called that. Their ngau gun/ngau lam is also very good (I usually order the former). It's a very neighbourhood-y place; one time I popped in for a bowl of ngau gun hor fun but had forgotten my wallet (it was only HK$15) and the woman said to pay next time I was there. On weekends they add congee to the menu. If you're there at the right time you can watch them frying their yau jah gwai. But there's not much in the neighbourhood so don't make a special trip out there just for that.

If you can make it out to the area where the old Kai Tak airport was, there's a lot of good food - huge variety, including some excellent Chiu Chow. Frank Sun of Tribute (one of my favourite restaurants) and Bricolage took Anthony Bourdain there when he was filming the HK episode (which I'm on very fleetingly [so my friends say - I haven't seen the episode]). A couple weeks ago Frank organised a trip to the same restaurnant for several of us, including Cha Xiu Bao and Sui Mai. We had a feast.

[hzrt8w]

Day 4 Teaser Pictures:

An egg tart ("Dan Tart"). Just bought in a store inside the subway station in Tsim Sha Tsui. You can find many of these mini stores in a subway station. Their bakery food quality is very good. Much better than those I got in the USA.

This was eaten in a specialty store in Yuen Long. It's regular noodles, but with dried shrimp roes (Ha Zhi) sprinkled on top.

Bought a freshly roasted sweet potato. This variety is different from those we usually get in the USA. Note that the sweet potato is yellow instead of orange that I am used to.

A tea egg. Still bubbling in the master sauce when I bought it.

Skewered BBQ beef with a bit of satay sauce and hot sauce.

This is "roadside stir-fried crab". It's Macanese style: curry with coconut milk. The chef grew up in Macau.

"Wing Wah". This is a very old, famous brand new for classical Chinese bakery stuff. I came to Yuen Long, to this very store to buy one thing that they make best. Can you guess what it is? We had discussed it before in this forum. Hint: it helps if you read Chinese...

[canucklehead]

Wife cakes?

[Dejah]

and moon cakes!

[Cadbury]

and moon cakes!

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I was too chicken to say moon cakes. "Moon" was one of the few characters I could read.

[sheetz]

I think I read moon cakes, old woman (wife) cakes, and wedding cakes.

[Tepee]

Go, Ah Leung Gaw, go!!

I know sweets are not your thing, but, if you happen to pass by a sweets shop, can you see if they still have the chewy osmanthus sweets wrapped in edible paper? Last time I ate that from my mother's trips to HK was 2 dozen years ago.

[hzrt8w]

"Wing Wah".  This is a very old, famous brand new for classical Chinese bakery stuff.  I came to Yuen Long, to this very store to buy one thing that they make best.  Can you guess what it is?  We had discussed it before in this forum.  Hint:  it helps if you read Chinese...

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The moon cake season has passed. And I cannot bring any laap cheung back to the USA. Yes... I came here to buy some "Lo Poh Bang" (Wife cake).

I am at Macau at the moment. Sorry I left my hard drive in Hong Kong. Along with it... all my pictures for Day 5 and 6 and 7. Those will come later...

[Dejah]

hzrt8w:

I am at Macau at the moment. Sorry I left my hard drive in Hong Kong. Along with it... all my pictures for Day 5 and 6 and 7. Those will come later...

Inexcusable! 3 days of food porn=overdose!

Hurry up!

[hzrt8w]

Inexcusable! 3 days of food porn=overdose!  

Hurry up!

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Only 4 replies since I logged off a few days ago????? What happened to everybody? Getting sick eating too much turkey???

No turkey in this trip. Though I can pay HK518 (about US$65) per person for a all-you-can-eat lobster dinner buffet at the InterContinental Hotel.

[hzrt8w]

Day 8 Teaser Pictures:

Some dim-sum lunch at the Macau Ferry Terminal in Hong Kong before riding the jetfoil over to Macau. The restaurant is at the basement of the ferry terminal. Chinese name "Fu Lum" - not sure what the English name is. It is just okay. Not as good as Maxim's Palace.

This was "Gau Choy Gow" (Chinese chive and minced shrimp dumpling).

Pan-fried cheung fun (rice noodles), with dried shrimp and green onions. "Sweet" sauce and sesame sauce as condiments.

Dinner was a mix of classical Cantonese and Macanese - all served in the same restaurant: second floor inside the Sintra Hotel.

This was a Cantonese clay pot dish "Geh Geh Gai Bo" - Chicken with pork liver in clay pot.

Macanese - Chicken with "Portugese" sauce, which is yellow in color and coconut base.

Macanese - I really love this dish. Not sure exactly what it's called. "Bacalhou"??? The brown shreds are fried small threads of potatoes. It's stir-fried with some dried fish (Chinese dried anchovy), eggs and chili. This was really good!

Edited November 27, 2007 by hzrt8w (log)

[prasantrin]

I'm hoping to see some hum sui gok. I love it, and haven't had any since last summer!

Patiently waiting for more food...

[junehl]

that chicken and pig liver in a clay pot looks wonderful.

mmm i love hum sui gok too. We used to make those and eat it w/ Texas Pete hot sauce....so yummy.

[I_call_the_duck]

I'm loving this trip so far, Ah Leung.

Those Gau Choy Gows look great. I don't usually see such a lovely translucent wrapper on those little boys these days.