Stick 'em up intestines and other miscellaneous eats

These are deep fried pig intestines on sticks that are sold off snack shops in the streets. There's virtually nothing else but salt to flavor them chewy bites. Got them somewhere around Mongkok.

Near where we got the intestines along Mong Kok Road, there's a little corner where more food on sticks were being sold. This time, from the grill and not a deep fryer. These were labelled as Xinjiang lamb skewers. The meat did taste like lamb, albeit rather spiced up, so no questions on any dubious origins there. I've never had the real thing before, not even in Geylang so I don't know how exactly are they suppose to taste like.

Walking down Central, we spied a cart selling pak tong ko. The name translates to white sugar cakes.

They looked pretty good and we bought some back to the hotel. I remember eating them pretty often as a kid, but these seems to have been elevated into an endangered treat these days back home.

In the crowded streets of Sham Shui Po not too far from the MTR exit, a cart sold quail eggs and sweet potato. The sweet potato weren't as sweet as I had expected, but they were pretty soft and very hot off the coals. Wished I had some butter to go with that.

Paid a visit to Kung Woo Bean Products again for their delicious bean snacks.

The last time round, I hadn't realised that there were additions of dried orange peel in the fried tofu. This was a pleasant surprise.

Hot and comforting bowls of ethereal steamed milk with lotus seeds from Yee Shun Milk Company.

And luncheon meat sandwiches to tide the marches of the night.

So that pretty much rounds up the random eats along the way for this trip.

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.