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A Canuck in HK


canucklehead

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[...]Oh.. and we overloaded with Indian food in the last two days, and now hoping to find some other veg-friendly places for my friend.  He's a Thai nut, but I don't understand how without fish sauce.

I have tried a few Thai restaurants in Ocean Centre as I recall. One example is "Golden Elephant".

I found this page on Vector Map:

http://www.vectormap.com/iconhp/f/other-a.htm

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Ah I'll look into that, sounds great.

As for the debate as to whether better Chinese food can be had in Vancouver.... I think people miss the fact that even if some of you have grown up in HK or China, when you visit you are limited to only a few meals and you only have a chance in hell of being pleased if you have friends living there to show you around. If you do, without a doubt the food should be better than Vancouver, Toronto, San Fransisco or New York. There are just too many restaurants, and similar to in North America, there are so many BAD ones! Also, I won't hesitate to say that some of the best food in China has yet to even make appearances in the capital cities of their respective provinces, let alone North America!! But anyway, we are talking now about Cantonese food mostly, so that doesn't really apply.

And yes, Shenzhen is a truly weird city. Don't be fooled by the population size though. It might be 7 or 8 million, but most people in the province in general have their meals of rice + simply cooked protein paid for by their factory employers. Though a friend of mine in Guangzhou told me that she thinks Shenzhen has more restaurants than Guangzhou to choose from (??).

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I'll have to borrow a camera and get busy...

Dave - I hope you and jokhm continue to fill us in on what is going on with food in HK. The places that I went to are from years ago - so I my knowledge of new and upcoming places is pretty low.

Looking forward to your future postings.

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...! I hope someone fills ME in on what is going on with food in HK. I'm just a visitor too. I had a terrible claypot rice last night while wandering on my own. Lots of people does not always equal good food. My friend who usually shows me around isn't available this week!

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...! I hope someone fills ME in on what is going on with food in HK. I'm just a visitor too.

jokhm: if you have the network bandwidth, check out this thread:

Hong Kong Restaurant Recommendations

Many points have been discussed and argued in the past year.

BTW: Where (what district or area) are you staying in Hong Kong? Where did you have a tendency to wander around? Tsim Sha Tsui? Tsim Sha Tsui East? Central? Wan Chai? Causeway Bay? Or ???

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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I did a lot of wandering from Tsim Sha Tsui up to Prince Edward station area. Also here and there closer to the base of the mid-levels elevators. This city is really huge for these short visits of mine. I have been taken to a few notable places in Tsim Sha Tsui east and center, as well as just below Jordan. mmm.

My hotel is the Miramar right on Nathan rd.

I'll check out that thread. Though, my tendencies are more to play with snacks and cheaper meals. Fancy dinners in HK are rare for me unfortunately. In the mainland however...

(time to start posting pics)

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I did a lot of wandering from Tsim Sha Tsui up to Prince Edward station area. Also here and there closer to the base of the mid-levels elevators. This city is really huge for these short visits of mine.  I have been taken to a few notable places in Tsim Sha Tsui east and center, as well as just below Jordan. mmm.

My hotel is the Miramar right on Nathan rd.

I have posted some suggestions to piers who was to stay at Miramar last year like you in this post:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=875627

Also, check out Cha Xiu Bao's website. He is a local. He has many suggestions for good eats. The only challenge is if you can find those places...

http://chaxiubao.typepad.com/

I have jotted the following note in some private correspondences since. Hope it may be useful:

Along Canton Road (inside the Ocean Centre and Macro Polo Hong Kong), there are more “upscale” restaurants (some are non-Chinese restaurants such as Thai, steak house, etc.). Maybe more populated with tourists or foreigners. If you go to the Tsimshatsui East area, which is only a 5 to 10 minutes walk from Marco Polo hotel, you will see more Chinese restaurants mostly geared towards locals. There are quite a few Chinese Seafood restaurants in this area. My favorite is (not sure if it’s still there, though I think it is) East Ocean Restaurant. There are others Cantonese Seafood restaurants very closed to each other. Sorry I cannot give you more specifics because I have not been back for 6 years. Hong Kong Cantonese Seafood restaurants typically have a live fish tank at the entrance.

To have seafood: Lee Yu Mun (on Kowloon side, about 5-6 miles away from TST). Sai Kung – which I think has the best seafood. But it is in the New Territories. A bit far. Maybe 10 miles on taxi? And the outlying Island “Cheung Chau”. You need to take a ferry (1 hour ride, plus waiting) there from Central. Terribly inconvenient for just eating dinner. But if you are to make a trip on a ferry, it would be a good ½ day trip. Not sure if you have the time though.

In TST East, if I remember it correctly there is a “Peking House” restaurant specialized in Peking/Szechuan style. They are pretty good. I remember eating a “Begger’s Chicken”… the whole chicken wrapped in lotus leaves and then clay and baked in the oven. And their Peking duck is pretty good too.

On the West side of Canton Road TST, you won’t see a whole lot of restaurants on street level (high rent area). Many of them are inside the office/hotel buildings (e.g. Ocean Centre, Macro Polo Hotel, etc.). If you walk to the East side of Nathan Road (along Cameron Road, Granville Road, Kimberley Road), you will see more Chinese restaurants offer day-to-day local food. You can have some Cantonese wonton noodles in those places and they shouldn’t disappoint. And jook (congee). They are very close to Miramar Hotel.

Around the Temple Street night market, there are quite a few of street-side restaurants/store that offer great food from jook to stir-fries. Those would be the “hole in the wall” places.

There is another “hole on the wall” place that I think you should try. And it is not too far from Miramar Hotel. Walk along Canton Road North til it crosses Haiphong Road (2 minutes). Right turn on Haiphong Road going East. 1 minute. Underneath the overpass of Kowloon Park Drive, there is a place that sells beef balls, fish balls with noodles/rice-noodles. I think eGullet poster “HKDave” mentioned it as well in earlier posts. That would be a really good snack.

Anyway… bear in mind that all my suggestions are from the perspective of a native Hong Konger. Things come easy to me because I grew up there and I speak Cantonese. I would imagine in your case you have added difficulties because of language barrier, and you are a visitor.

Another are where there are plenty of eateries (along the street) is Causeway Bay. It is “the” shopping area on Hong Kong Island (very crowded at night). Take the MTR from Tsimshatsui to Causway Bay (need to transfer once). Go up the exit on Percival. Walk along either Hennesy Road or Lockhart Road. There are plenty of eateries along the street too.

P.S.: Plan a trip to the Victoria Peak. The view is breath-taking. If I can only go to one place in Hong Kong, that’s the one I will visit. You can tour around the Central district during the day. Take the tram up to the peak before sunset. Walk around and enjoy the view. See it turns from day view to night view. The night view is awesome. Then you can take a taxi down to Causeway Bay to have dinner.

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Great stuff! Thanks!

Right up my alley... literally.

And yes, the language is always a fun issue. Here in HK it is the traditional characters that make my head spin. But regardless of my understanding of the character itself, Chinese menu items change in meaning drastically from one place to another. I can't remember how many times I've been with Chinese that have no comprehension of much of the menu. And just the other day I took someone from Hunan out for dimsum and had to explain each item to her! She was scared to eat the luobogao. Hah, this part of the world is a dream for food lovers. People actually think I am here on business...

!?

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[...] Hah, this part of the world is a dream for food lovers. People actually think I am here on business...

Are you on a business trip, or leisure? Or a leisure trip disguised as business? :laugh::laugh:

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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ah.. these trips are 'often' business, but Always leisure. This one in particular started with an active food-vacation in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, followed by 'work' in HK. OK.. Time to post some Guangzhou pictures... at least from one meal.

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Hi, Dejah and "Ah Leung (we have the same surname)," Thanks for the welcome. It is such a treat to read about food through your eyes and experiences, as well as those of others who share so well from their perspectives.

At this point, I can only appreciate what you have written. I am planning a trip back to HK with my family and/or with some friends. I shall write about recommendations if I am fortunate enough to visit soon. (I will visit Vancouver first before HK, China and Japan?).

In the meantime, I am enjoying the food vicariously through all of you. Dejah, I believe it was your website I saw with the 7 day logs of what you cooked for your family and yourself. I cannot believe your versatility and ability to cook up delectable Chinese and Western-style food. You do not have to miss living near a major cosmopolitan area with a sizeable Chinese population and quality restaurants! Maybe you will take me as an apprentice so I am not so (Chinese) food-deprived in the suburbs of NY. Really great food, enjoyed all the pictures, as well as Canucklehead's great pictorials from HK. :smile:

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Hi, Dejah and "Ah Leung (we have the same surname)," 

So... that makes you an "Ah Leung" too! :biggrin:

[...]Dejah, I believe it was your website I saw with the 7 day logs of what you cooked for your family and yourself.  I cannot believe your versatility and ability to cook up delectable Chinese and Western-style food. 

There is another dimension to her versatility. Have you listened to her music yet??? :laugh:

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Ah, Leung (or Cousin Leung? I am going to claim some relation!), No. I have not heard her music, but I just discovered your recipe pictorials! What a service. I love your ability to communicate the cooking techniques and ingredients to use via this forum. I just tried your pork chop recipe (pork chops marinating even as I write). I hope my cheap quality center loin cut will not do injustice to your recipe. But I am so excited that some "common" dishes have been passed on by you for home cooking.

My mom was excellent in providing delicious home cooked Toisanese and Cantonese dishes (very creative with different dishes every night). Unfortunately, she was not a teacher and even to this day, she is very vague about her recipes. I am going to try to pin her down for her bird's nest soup recipe, which she used to make on a regular basis in the '70s and '80s before the prohibitive rise in cost of bird's nest. She made it with squab and ham (Chinese ham?). Not sure of the ham; also, does anybody have suggestions for getting bird's nest that is of good quality without paying an arm and a leg and getting ripped off? This was my mom's last response to me; bird's nest has gotten too expensive to cook with (on top of the cost, the quality one can buy has suffered). I asked a friend to check in HK and again there was no success. Anybody with suggestions for buying good bird's nest at a fair price (for home cooking) in NY, LA or HK? (I can go to these places to buy or have someone do so for me). Also, maybe a reputable place will do mail orders. Would this be a reliable process?

Thanks, all! I love great food, especially Chinese since that was what I grew up eating (I was lucky to grow up in NY's Chinatown and we had great variety at home and in the restaurants.) I had "hou fook" as a child/ adolescent. Alas, now we are more established adults and we are lost in the wilderness of suburbia (NY is so close but so far). Love reading about the food I cannot have - ha-ha. Thanks to my cousin, Ah Leung, I now can replicate some of the dishes at home (once I gather the ingredients and get my energy up to the tasks.) Sorry I still find it easier to make the ma po tofu with the instant packages (my preference is also the silken tofu for this dish)! :wacko:

Edited by rlr222 (log)
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Sorry I still find it easier to make the ma po tofu with the instant packages (my preference is also the silken tofu for this dish)!  :wacko:

It's great to find some long-lost relatives! That's a shame, Cousin Leung! :raz: Just kidding. Instant packages are quite convenient. If you have time, try to make it from scratch. It would probably taste better.

I first learned about Chinese cooking from my father. He taught me only a few times when I was 10. As for the rest, I silently observed what he did in the kitchen growing up.

Edited by hzrt8w (log)
W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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[...]Dejah, I believe it was your website I saw with the 7 day logs of what you cooked for your family and yourself.  I cannot believe your versatility and ability to cook up delectable Chinese and Western-style food. 

There is another dimension to her versatility. Have you listened to her music yet??? :laugh:

Both of you have "silver tongues". With Chinese New Year coming up, you must be hoping for "dai lai see bao"... :rolleyes::laugh:

I also learned and am still learning from my Mom. Now, I am learning techniques and recipes from people who post pictorials and pictures of the food they enjoy.

After I joined this forum, I discovered that I was quite limited in my food experiences - what I was familiar with from my immediate surroundings. With the sharing on eGullet, I am finding a whole new world of ingredients and cooking; and Chinese is but one forum!

We start to learn only when we admit that ours is not the only way. :smile:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Both of you have "silver tongues". With Chinese New Year coming up, you must be hoping for "dai lai see bao"... :rolleyes:  :laugh:

...

After I joined this forum, I discovered that I was quite limited in my food experiences - what I was familiar with from my immediate surroundings. With the sharing on eGullet,  I am finding a whole new world of ingredients and cooking; and Chinese is but one forum!

With statements like that, the officiers on eGullet need to prepare to give you some "dai lai see bao" (red pockets)! :biggrin::biggrin:

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
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Both of you have "silver tongues". With Chinese New Year coming up, you must be hoping for "dai lai see bao"... :rolleyes:  :laugh:

...

After I joined this forum, I discovered that I was quite limited in my food experiences - what I was familiar with from my immediate surroundings. With the sharing on eGullet,  I am finding a whole new world of ingredients and cooking; and Chinese is but one forum!

With statements like that, the officiers on eGullet need to prepare to give you some "dai lai see bao" (red pockets)! :biggrin::biggrin:

You saw through me. :wink::laugh:

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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