Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum and a pandan butterfly at Chinatown FC

I was introduced to Hong Kong Mongkok Dim Sum (#02-097 Chinatown Food Centre, 335 Smith Street) almost a decade ago by a friend and in that past decade, I've never come back much. This was street food dim sum untainted by glamour served on styrofoam plates. But you do get them as freshly made as one can get and the quality was very decent. They do not have much by the way of variety, but what they do have, are done pretty well. Those fluffy char siew bao were literally bursting at their seams with their stuffings and their chunky siew mai were both savoury and meaty. In the past decade or so of my life, I've also learnt to appreciate the steamed chicken claw dish commonly known as phoenix's claw. The required effort to make them were no laughing matter and these ones here were slurp off the bone tender.

Not thirty seconds stroll away in an adjacent lane is Tai Wah Cooked Food (#02-115). Not to be confused with the other Tai Wah that does ba chor mee at Hong Lim, this stall sold fried Chinese breads. Like the butterflies and the hum chim pang. Well, I couldn't get the pandan flavour out of this pastry but as butterfly fritters went, these were nicely done with the prerequisite crispy shell dotted with sesame seeds and chewy insides. I realised that the "wings" weren't just stuck with each other but were knotted into a pair.