Another Zheng Dou (正斗) before leaving Hong Kong

One last eat at Zheng Dou before leaving the airport. Never noticed that they were called Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop. 

It's roast pork and goose today. Quality of the roast was pretty decent like the previous times we've had them here. Did not specify the part for the goose today and ended up with a portion that has mostly skin, fat and bones. I much prefer the breast or drumstick.

Beef & Liberty, HKIA

Haven't eaten at Beef & Liberty since that time at Wan Chai. This location at the airport was in the way so I wanted to know if they were still like before. Menu's a little different.

Their basic burger uses Raclette - which was what intrigued me. It's apparently just for the shop at the airport. 

I got one with bacon. The glaring omission to the burger was salt. Considering that there was cheese and bacon, this was woefully bland. Seriously. I had to salt the meat to normalise the flavour. The other thing that bugged me were the caramelized onions which were a dominant flavour. It made me feel like I was eating a raisin burger.

While it didn't taste bad after the salt, I was somewhat disappointed with it.

What I didn't expect was fish & chips. It's called the Cod Father. Beer and vodka battered MSC Alantic cod they mentioned. Comparing with Smiths, the batter's a little dense here and not as well flavoured. One could easily excuse that since they aren't known for fish & chips. What's I loved about it were the fries, house made tartare sauce and their mushy peas.

Wouldn't say that I'm a big on mushy peas in general but these were minty and buttery and it's also now on the top of my list for mushy peas. 😬 The other memorable ones being the one from the old Lad & Dad when they were in Maxwell and those from the defunct Portico.

Hoi Kee Walnut Place (海記合桃坊甜品), Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Prince Edward

I could have sworn having eaten here (G/F, 232 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Prince Edward, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2399 7937) before in the past and being not impressed with what I had but I'm currently not sure if that was a glitch in the Matrix or a Mandela effect. I have no record of it and the memory is hazy.

I did recall not liking their grainy walnut soup and the reason for that was because I found the flavour lacking. It did not seem to be as I remember today. It's decent. Probably not the better ones I recall having but that doesn't lessen it. What made this bowl were the toasted crushed walnut bits which added obviously texture and and additional toasty nuttiness to it.

Sweet potato soup was...unexpected. The texture was more akin to tapioca than sweet potato. Not a fan here.

Revisiting Ho Hung Kee (何洪記)

The first and last time we were here at Ho Hung Kee was a number of years back. We were at Hysan Place and not much in particular looked appealing so we ended up here trusting that they have rightfully retained their one Michelin Star.

Not wanton mee.

Sui gao mee (水饺面). I noticed the lye flavour in the noodles this time but I guess it was good enough that I did not mind them. Those dumplings were smooth and delicious.

Decent rendition of Yang Zhou fried rice. Couldn't say that there wasn't anything in particular that wasn't up to scratch but I didn't find it the most memorable.

Pretty sure their osmanthus jelly tasted like how it did the last time. 

We were pretty sure that we didn't see this loranthus tea with egg the last time we were here. We've only ever had this once and that was like a decade back at Yuen Kee Dessert.

I'm not saying that this was no good, but from the colour of the egg, one can tell that it was clearly not the same standards as the superior one at Yuen Kee Dessert.

Sunning Restaurant (新寧餐廳), Lee Theatre, Causeway Bay

Sunning Restaurant (Shop B, 16/F, Lee Theatre Plaza, 99 Percival Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2890 2029 / 2576 3301) has the same kind of vibe that old school institutions back home like Shashlik, The Ship or The Tavern have. That's what they are. Restaurants that were classy as defined from their era, enduring and a lot of nostalgia involved for a certain demographic who have spending power.  

The bread basket is better than what Shashlik and The Ship has though.

Mushroom cream soup. I was surprised that the soup actually had some flavour of mushrooms. 😬

This one was oyster bongo soup. The name got me intrigued.

I don't know how the name was supposed to describe the soup but it's a cream soup with spinach and a large oyster. And yes, there was some oyster flavour in the soup. Even though it looked just like the mushroom cream soup. Oyster's great.

Menu called this baked pickle ox tongue with rice so I was curious as well. 'Pickle' was probably an inaccurate translation. The more appropriate word would be 'corned'. Like corned beef.

Lots of tongue in the creamy rice layered with a bit of toasted cheese.

Their rack of lamb was breaded and fried instead of grilled.

We asked for medium but it's close to well done. Pretty tender and fatty though. Tasted better than it looked.

This one not Hainanese coffee. It's freshly ground beans and better tasting.

Sun Heung Yuen (新香園), Kweilin Street, Sham Shui Po

Came to Sun Heung Yuen (G/F, 38 Kweilin Street, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2386 2748) after hearing about their allegedly delicious minced beef and omelette sandwich (a.k.a. their 馳名蛋牛治 on the menu). Those are apparently a thing here. 

A piping hot 茶走 to start.

What came as an unexpected and pleasant surprise was their beef brisket macaroni. First thing that reeled me in was the piping hot beefy broth. And then the tender beef briskets. I could come back just for this.

This was their signature beef sandwich. Today, I have confirmed that it's regular minced beef and not corned beef. I'm not a fan of what most of the char chaan teng calls fresh or minced beef because by tradition in the way of prep, they're sodium bicarbonated to death leaving behind a smooth, unnaturally textured and bland-ish protein I wouldn't call beef.

This one wasn't as bad as some but it was still processed. And there's a sweetness in it that I didn't like. Edible but will not come back for it.

Their rendition of company/club sandwich (公司三文治) features the same minced beef omelette with ham and luncheon meat.

Water Gate Chicken Rice (水門雞飯), Soy Street, Mongkok

Little did we expect to eat Thai chicken rice in Hong Kong (G/F, 21C Soy Street, Mong Kok, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2809 2918). What got us intrigued was likely a combination of them being featured on social media and that we noticed their queue out at the actual shop a couple of times we passed by. 

Not bad tasting. No qualms eating again. It's not exactly the same as the Singapore version but the flavour profile wasn't very different too. Got the combi plate with both poached and fried chicken. The bunch of stuff at 5 o'clock are called giblets on the menu and it consisted of some chicken blood curd, gizzards and intestines. Gizzards were hard and chewy.

Both sauces on the side were nice.

Tried the wagyu boat noodle out of curiosity. According to them it's A5.

Could tell that it was nice fatty beef but I don't think I tasted the A5 in it. Their egg noodle option for the bowl was mee pok rather than the mee kia we were imagining. Broth was sweet, savoury and peppery - not bad tasting but also nowhere in the leagues of what we consider great boat noodle broth.

Decent cha yen.

Lok Yuen (樂園), Kowloon City Municipal Services Building, Kowloon City

Breakfast at Lok Yuen (3/F Kowloon City Municipal Services Building, Kowloon City, Hong Kong, tel : +65 +852 2382 3367). Their menu at this shop has a bit of variety which consists of ingredients that are put together in various permutations. Just like many of the bing sutt or char chaan teng.

While they've caught up with a QR menu for ordering, payment here appears to be cash only still.

Red bean with bottled milk. Kinda nice.

I was curious about this one.

Satay beef stuffed in French toast with butter and condensed milk drizzled over. Not so different from eating a fried bao with the sweet meat fillings. It's not bad.

Lok Yuen's special stir fried noodles feature bits of chopped up luncheon meat, pickled mustard, fried egg, spring onions and cabbage. A little pricey but portions were good and I enjoyed this.

Milk tea with almond. I saw them adding the almond powder into their brewed tea. The beverage turned out to be pretty viscous with both the flavour of the almond powder and the tea coming through. For the benefit of those that may not be aware, the almond referred to here is Chinese almond which are actually apricot kernels.

Lemon tea's pretty astringent. But that's how we usually like it.

Vission, Staunton Street, Hong Kong Central

Came across Vission (LG/F, Chui Man House, 7 Staunton Street, Soho, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 5545 6787) while trudging uphill at Central.

Left the bakery with loot.

It happened that we forgot to refrigerate the banoffee pie. So the cream layer over the top collapsed as we unboxed. 😂 Turned out to be a fortunate accident because this tasted great at room temperature. The flavour from the cream, the banana and the coffee were all more pronounced. Fuck me this was good. 

Pistachio custard danish - this tasted like it had a layer of pistachio butter over pistachio custard in that buttery danish cup/crust. Very nice. 👍🏼

Their lemon pound cake was totally overshadowed by how impressive the other earlier two were. Just a lemony sweet glaze over pound cake. But I'm sufficiently impressed to try other things from them.