Fini's, Elgin Street, Hong Kong Central

We waited about 45 minutes for an order of pizza and the place was barely a quarter filled up. Now that that's out of the way, we were in Fini's (49 Elgin Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 9143 2402) to try their New Haven styled pizza. Allegedly the first in Hong Kong to do so.

Meatballs were tender, quite loosely packed and pretty delicious. The sauce though tasted like a blend of fresh and concentrate tomatoes. Pretty tart. Not impressive.

This was their Bronx that came with a few meat toppings like sausage, meatballs and salami over their thin, almost biscuit New Haven crust. Didn't taste bad but I didn't find it particularly memorable. I think what bothered me was the tartness in the tomato sauce that felt invasive for every flavour nugget on the pizza. For a 318HKD pie, it was expensive and not half impressive methinks.

The chilli sauce that came with it thanks to Uncle K.

Another deluxe meal ticket at Po Lin Monastery

Made our way up to the metal Buddha again this year and got a deluxe meal ticket at the monastery's food hall..

Today's soup was filled with different beans and sweetened by figs.

I don't recall how I felt about this mixed vegetable stir fry from the last time but I enjoyed it today. Bell peppers and all. Those toasted cashews were great.

Love their fried spring rolls. That's coming from someone who normally doesn't bother with fried spring rolls.

Those mushroom caps look reptilian methinks. Don't you?

Love the lemon sauce tau kee.

These Chinese vegetarian meals at Po Lin Monastery are possibly one of the more memorable ones we've had.

More breakfast at Sai Kee Congee (西記粥店)

Because we missed what we had here from our previous trips. No kidding. Don't expect the skies here because what they do is simple and comforting food.

Stuff like the blood curd and century egg congee.

Cheong fun with dried shrimp.

And their straightforward soya sauce stir fried noodles with superb wiry texture. 👍🏼

Pity that they don't do the steamed radish cake anymore.

A few days later......

One more. 😬

Bowl of sweet intestines and blood curd in a pepper broth.

Minced beef congee. We couldn't tell that the minced bits were beef. Now we know.

Alice Pizza, Cochrane Street, Hong Kong Central

Interesting. This relatively new looking Alice Pizza (G/F, 18 Cochrane Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 6685 9642) does Roman styled pizza al taglio.

One basically picks a pizza with the topping of choice and indicate a preferred portion. The pizza is weighed and then charged. Just like in Rome. We picked one with Mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio. Greasy in a good way with a crunchy crust and not bad tasting with chilli flakes.

Re-visiting Tsim Chai Kee (沾仔記) after all these years...

I haven't had wanton mee from Tsim Chai Kee in like forever. Since the first time actually. The queues are still here.

Here's a bowl of their king wanton noodle. I don't know why but I'm getting the feeling that these king wontons are smaller. Anyways, still as tasty. Those amazing wiry textures of the noodles are still as I remembered them. Would have been great if the lye/kee flavour wasn't in the soup.

Kang kong/tong choi (通菜) in fermented bean sauce. This one was stinky that I thought it was a waft that came from refuse in the street. No kidding and I've been eating and loving this for a long time. Glad it was delicious. My only complain was that the vegetables were too stemmy.

Oh lookie. Just across the road from Mak's and they don't have a queue.

Chukfo Taipan Restaurant (竺扶大班燒味), Triangle Street, Wan Chai

Nice roast meats/siu mei/燒味 stall (Shop 3, G/F, Wah Yan Court, 2-3 Triangle Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong). Crowd was pretty crazy and seating's limited.

How could we have said no to all of these?

Soup of the day - papaya white fungus and pork soup.

Roast meats were delicious. I prefer their siu yok/roast pork & ngor pei/goose drumstick over the char siew.

Their sour plum sauce was outstanding. I thought I could taste dried tangerine peel in it.