Yardbird, Bridges Street, Hong Kong

I categorized Yardbird (33-35 Bridges St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2547 9273) as Japanese for the food that they serve, namely yakitori and good ones at that, rather than what its background truly represents. For one, it's New York-esque chic-styled double storied compound is located in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. The owners of the restaurant, one Chinese from Canada and the other a Morrocan Israeli have done stints in Masa and Nobu in New York. One would be at a loss to count the ticks of subliminal multicultural influences that has created the beast bird that rears its head today.

It's Japanese food. At heart. Using chickens that are delivered fresh daily from the New Territories.

If anyone has noticed, there's a beer from Catalunya with Ferran Adria's name on it. I'm not sure how much he was involved, if at all, in the crafting of the brew. It was malty, pretty light and made good easy drinking.

Tried the Hitachino Nest Ginger Ale. This stuff is real ale. Hoppy and mild in gingery taste. Not the Schweppes kind.

We ordered some corn tempura for starters. This was basically a ball of corn kernels bound by batter, fried to a crisp on the exterior. The corn kernels on the inside were still hot, sweet and juicy. Pretty tasty stuff.

Next up was their chicken liver mousse that was served with buttered and toasted milk bread and crispy bits of fried shallots. This was excellent liver mousse. The textures were undulating for mousse, more like a crushed up terrine and had a robust livery flavour that paired well the shallots. I liked this!

There was a torikatsu sandwich that was off the menu. Minced chicken, deep fried and not over doused with tonkatsu sauce.

chicken oysters

chicken skin

lamb ribs

chicken wings

chicken hearts

chicken liver

Yardbird's yakitori items were well done. The ingredients tasted fresh and they had pretty much stuck to the original style of grilled meat on sticks with only the occasional traditional dressings and little to confuse the flavours. The chicken oysters felt especially premium with the juicy ball of meat wrapped in a bit of chicken skin

Korean Fried Cauliflowers

These were labelled KFC on the menu. I thought it was rather well done. The cauliflowers were coated in a tangy spicy yuzu sauce on the outside and must have been fried briefly for a light crunch above the moist vegetable. The sesame seeds added some dimension to the sauce that had actually packed some heat.

tsukune with egg yolk in shoyu

chicken and egg rice

The chicken and egg rice seemed like something that quite a number of people were ordering. Beside the deliciously crispy deep fried chicken skins, this actually tasted quite healthy (even after the egg was mixed in) considering all other previous stuff we had ordered. I guess it must have been the lack of heavy hand on the salt and that those little green peas really shone.

Wah Fung (華豐燒臘專家), Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong

Well well.....we're back here in Wellington Street again. After having passed by this place (112-114 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2544 3466) a number of times over the course of the past week, we finally decided to step in. Sold by the images of the roasts and waxed meats hanging at the front of the shop .

I ordered a milk soda from the menu, imagining it to be something similar to a soda susu. I was slightly surprised when it arrived....erm, deconstructed. But all's good.

Starter was deep fried century eggs wrapped in squid paste.  These were delicious and easy to pop in the mouth one after the other.

We had deep fried pigeon which made pretty good snacks keeping our mouths and fingers busy while waiting for the other food to arrive.

Sweet and sour pork from Wah Fung was pretty tasty. Each of us have our own idiosyncratic preferences to this almost ubiquitous dish. While this didn't fall within my regular spectrum of ideal textures and flavour, I enjoyed these no less. The cut of the meat used was fat laced rather than fat lined so the effect was juicy cuts of tender sweet pork. They had stir fried this dish with peaches here too it seemed.

Usually waxed meats products are minimally a notch up in HK compared to the ones back home. This claypot rice with mixed waxed meats were just okay.

This was baked shrimp and garoupa with some cheese and ee fu noodles. The top with the cheese was briefly torched for a smokey taste. Portion was huge. We were pretty glad that only two carb dishes were ordered for the four of us as there was no way that we could have managed one each. I'm generally not big on starchy sauces but this was ok.

FoFo by el Willy

Lunched at FoFo (20/F M88, 2-8 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2900 2009).

Located on the 20th floor of M88, the restaurant was positioned to provide a pleasant and tranquil view of the hills and the mid levels at the rear of the Central. Where one could dine shielded from the hustle and bustle.

We were served a platter of amuse bouche to munch on while perusing the menu. Think it was sardines on tomato and salmon mousse, both on crostini.

Since we were out to have a nice lunch, why pass on the alcohol eh?  The jug of red from FoFo's sexy sangrias which contained a bunch of stuff that was lost in translation the mix. Like Cognac, tempranillo, cointreau and peach liqueur. Except for the cinnamon which really perfumed and mellowed the drink. I liked the red.

We had cooked octopus with potatoes blanketed under Teruel ham. The slices of octopus were chewy and tender at the same time, salted by the ham and spiced by paprika.

We ordered some jamón Ibérico shoulders to see what they were about. FoFo uses the ham from Iberselec which make them from 100% Iberian pig. The result was a healthy warm red hue in each slice laced by flecks of intramuscular fat. These ones were very very good. There was a lot of that buttery component of flavour in the fat than I had ever noticed. Those flavour were all nicely layered on top of the bodied nutty aroma that one is generally accustomed to from the ham.

The jamón Ibérico was accompanied by some Catalan styled tomato toast. A fresh, crispy and perky counter to the ham.

We ordered up some fried baby squids that were accompanied by a smokey chilli lemon mayo which I thought was an excellent concoction. Rich, tart and spicy at the same time underneath that moderated smokiness.

We also had at Montadito des foie gras with truffle and confit onions. I've just found out that Montaditios for the Spanish refer to a bite sized open faced sandwich and can be used with various toppings. I guess this is a FoFo interpretation. And I liked them.

Then, there was a bowl of eggs in a nest. Organic eggs cooked at 63 degrees (omg, the precision they have to sell here!) in a nest made of crispy potatoes and onions. Topped with sliced truffles too. And more foie gras. I found that the best way for me to enjoy this was to let the eggs soak into the nest by tossing them a little before forking them out with bits of the foie.

The last of the small plates came in the form of FoFo's suckling pig served on top of a gratin of onion, potatoes and black truffle. These were amazing. The skin was moderately fat laced, crispy on top of a tender slice of flavourful pork. Underneath that sure fire combination of potatoes and onions. Good for return orders I say.

Next up were a duo of their juicy rice. This first was done with sea cucumber, scallops and Iberico pork. It was rich, creamy and dotted by freshly cooked green peas. This was very nice. The only thing that didn't settle with me was what they had claimed were sea cucumbers and had insisted so. It had definitely tasted and looked like razor clams.

The second was a Boston lobster juicy rice that was sadly not as flavourful as the previous. I had really been expecting a lobster bisque quality to the creamy stock infused grains but it wasn't as I had imagined.

Desserts were a white chocolate mousse with mixed berries and churros. All were competently done with what I thought was well moderated sweetness that didn't make me feel like stopping after a single spoon. We were already quite stuffed at this point.

I think FoFo is good for returns.

Small plates in Mongkok

We headed down to one (G/F, 28 Mong Kok Road, tel : +852 2395 9867) of several squeeze sized shops where one can get seats and frills free snacks of the braised, pan fried and boiled variety in one stop.

The food turned out to be much better than I had expected. I liked that those unassuming delicious pot stickers huddling in the griddle which had vegetable fillings that were so fresh that one could taste the said freshness. And we've had the better pig's blood curd yet which was of a coarser texture almost akin to a firm silken tofu and filled with the flavors of the blood as I had remembered them. Coupled with tasty chewy intestines braised in a hot peppery broth which was just the thing to have for the cool evening.

It was basically straight forward stuff that was good for sharing and I think the place opens till late in the night.

I recommend trying the bean curd with evaporated milk.

pan fried tofu


pan fried pot stickers


pan fried radish cake


starchy soup with wood ear fungus, paste of fish trimmings....that sounds just weird


braised pig intestines, pig's blood curd and chives in a peppery broth


mai fan


some thick udon like noodles in a clear lard filled broth


peanut porridge


tou fu fa (a.k.a. tau huey) with evaporated milk


yellow sugar for the bean curd

Wai Kee Congee Shop(威記粥店), Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong

We liked this place (G/F, 82 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2551 5564) enough that we were here twice for breakfast within the week.

For one, it's been quite a while that we've had good dough fritters that wasn't overfried, overfried to hard crispy death or too chewy. The ones done up at Wai Kee were dense, yet soft. The outstanding items from the shop included their creamy congee, their also creamy radish cake filled with shreds of radish and  their natural sweetness and deliciously smokey plates of bee hoon/mai fun.

Speaking of which, the mai fun seemed thicker while the regular noodles were thinner than what we were generally used to; which resulted in only slight differences in the textures of both. However a blind taste test could easily be passed simply because of the smokey aroma from the former which the latter doesn't seem to have.

The pig's blood curds in their porridge also appeared different from how I remember them. These ones were unusually smoother and had less flavour.

congee with pig's blood curds

dough fritters draped in rice flour sheets (zha leong)

smokey mai fun

dough fritters

the thinner regular noodles

rice dumplings with mung beans and pork fat

hum zhim bang

steamed radish cake

canton styled congee with cuttlefish, fish maw and minced beef