Tai Wing Wah (大榮華酒樓), Yuen Long, New Territories

This old school canto restaurant (2/F, Koon Wong Mansion, 2-6 On Ning Road, Yuen Long, tel: +852 2476 9888) down in the New Territories, which is also the flagship outlet apparently takes no reservations. We were brought down by a friend for dim sum. Or brunch.

The food dim sum here was rustic but didn't quite take on the same qualities found Lin Heung. The outstanding items that we had ordered were their 5 taste chicken and a steamed fish (I don't know what fish this is) with pickled lime. Both were delicious. Scratch that, the fish has been elevated to very good. The chicken was tender to the breast and thoroughly infused with the flavour of the savoury braising sauce while the fish was simply freshness flavoured with a light soy dressing and the appetizing lime. 

The rest of the dim sum were..... hmmm....okay I guess. There's a Yanjing beer that they serve that was pretty cheap and oddly lacking the effect that beer normally has. 6 large bottles between 3 persons and not the slightest buzz? 

We were told that the restaurant was well known for their liquid lard and premium soy sauce over steamed rice. Unfortunately, it's something that they only do during dinner. I'm not really adversed to a re-visit (perhaps dinner rather than dim sum) but the location is really out of the way.

Ser Wong Fun (蛇王芬), Cochrane Street, Hong Kong Central

We were here (30 Cochrane Street, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2543 1032) for a couple of reasons. The obvious one was to have dinner and their snake soup. The second was to spirit away a small batch of liver lup cheong which we had previously gotten before and had liked.

This was the first time we were having the snake soup. Snake tasted like chicken. Seriously, albeit with a more stringy texture. The bowl of piping hot soup was topped with fried crackers and shredded kaffir lime leaves which really created loads of textures with the sliced mushrooms and snake meat. Beside the accented flavour of the lime leaves, the soup pretty much just tasted mushroomy.

Another item I was looking forward to was their lup cheong rice. It's basically just that; a duo of preserved sausages (the regular and liver ones) over piping hot steamed rice. Drizzled with a little bit of light soy sauce, it was just that irrefutable medley of sweet, savoury and umami lethality. The flavours are again running through my head again as I typed this.

This was just cabbage fried with fermented bean curd. Flavours were actually quite underwhelming.

The other really awesome item that they had was their doubled boiled soup of stewed pig lungs with dried figs and sweet dates. What caught me off was the burst of fruity flavour (in a good way) that kept me spooning mouthful after mouthful of the sweet broth. The pieces of lungs were tender like stewed tendons. I'm marking this place for returns.

Heh...it's sweet and sour pork. Not the most memorable I recall having but it's definitely not a bad rendition if I might say. 

We were put on the waiting list for quite a while before getting our seats. It's one of those uncommon times where the frustration of the wait was worth it.

Supermarket sashimi from citysuper

Here's some sashimi bought off the citysuper down at Causeway Bay (Basement 1, Time Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay)

No, it wasn't anywhere close to being cheap, but I guess it would be slightly cheaper than back home and definitely gave better bang for buck in terms of both quantity and quality. In fact, apart from those Japanese fairs that featured tuna slicing demonstrations, the general offerings from Isetan doesn't quite come close. Not even in Meidi Ya. With exceptions occasionally.

The fish was generally just a little fattier and fresher tasting, scallops and botan ebi were plump and sweet; there was even a fairly generous amount of uni thrown it. And this was the quality of sea urchin that people describe as having a floral bouquet, not the shrivelled slivers of ochre zombie flesh that some places pass off for uni sashimi.

If anyone was wondering, this little haul was 509HKD.

Chrisly Café (華星冰室), Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mong Kok

This shop (G/F, 107 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mong Kok, tel : +852 2520 6666) as I understood was actually part of the new generation of HK café opened up some years ago that stuck by the principles of serving straightforward local food with little to no frills. This created an atmosphere of almost ruthless efficiency, especially during the crushing meal hours where one sits pretty much elbow to elbow to the next person soaked in that human din while deciding quickly on what to order. Very similar to the often mentioned Australian Dairy Milk Company.

The location appears as Capitol Café on OpenRice, but seems to have been changed to Chrisly Café at the actual restaurant down at Sai Yeung Choi Street South.

The corned beef omelette here rocks. Quite sure this place isn't the only char chaan teng that makes them but the ones here were pretty good. The grease, salt and eggs definitely made hearty breakfast with toasts. 

Something that doesn't quite get served at other char chaan tengs though, are their black truffle scrambled eggs on toast. It tastes exactly like how it looks. The flavour of those crumbled black truffle bits actually came through and added a little something to the usually smooth and creamy eggs. It's not mind blowing in anyway and I don't think anyone should be expecting them to be for 35HKD. I certainly don't mind getting these for breakfast again if they're available around the corner.

These on menu were called principal's toast (校長多士). Which were melted cheese on thick sliced toast with black truffle paste. They tasted also exactly like how they looked. Not bad for a snack, but nothing that should be flooring anyone.

Bon Bon Cafe (車品品小食), Tai Kwok Sui, Kowloon

It took us a while to find this little eatery (92 Ivy Street, Tai Kwok Tsui, Kowloon, tel : +852 2180 9655) but it was worth the effort. The seating capacity of the shop was rather small. However, the options on menu were anything but.

One of the recommended orders from the shop were their century eggs. I know they're available everywhere but we were told that these here were suppose to be pretty good. The yolk had an amazing consistency that bridged the two sliced halves of the egg. We noticed that they were also consistently presented that way for every order that was served. What I liked about it was their option to have them with vinegar and sugar, rather than the usual pickled ginger which I never eat.

Yes, that's a slab of goose liver foie gras on noodles. Rather large slice, keeping in mind that the portions of the noodles were huge. This was very very gobble-ly good. The springy egg noodles were tossed in a light oyster sauce and foie gras oil concoction, accented with just chopped spring onions. And the delicious foie.

Some sweetish pork dumplings with shrimp roe. It's a signature dumpling from Bon Bon Cafe. This wasn't mediocre per se. Honestly. It was just totally overshadowed by what arrived earlier.

Here's a mixed bowl of braised stuff. By stuff, I meant radish, chicken mid wings, rolls of tau kee stuff, pig intestines, cheese tofu, cocktail sausages and chopped beef briskets in a sweet and savoury soup. Everything was either soft, chewy or soaked up the broth well. Very awesome winter dish.

So good that we followed up with another bowl of little bag shaped tau kee stuff, sliced meat from pig's head and hidden below, pig blood cubes.

I'm had difficulty trying to put the emotions that their beef balls put me through into words. These beef balls were gristly, bouncy, filled with chopped bits of tendon; was seriously beefy tasting and reminded me of *cues a Vinnie Paul drum roll* .................... the first times I had a hamburger at McDonalds as a kid. Seriously, I shit you not. There was so much nostalgia in this innocuous looking beef balls that welled from flavour alone. I hear from the proprietress they are bought and not made in house, so somewhere in Hong Kong must sell these.

The Beef House has got nothing on these.

Very delicious and comforting luo han guo tea. Even better than any of the bottled stuff that you generally find in Chinese medical shops. There's enough of the dried crushed fruit in there to top up another glass of hot water with little dilution to the tea.

Imperial Treasure at TripleOne Somerset

We've been to Imperial Treasure Windows of Hong Kong (#01-K1/24/25, TripleOne Somerset, 111 Somerset Road, tel : +65 6732 8798) maybe twice in the past, but had never given them much though. I guessed that in those previous visits, nothing much registered. This visit however, left some impressions.

For one, the century egg congee with shredded pork was actually not bad. It wasn't quite up there. Radish cake felt the same. Decent, but not quite there as well. While this char chan teng themed joint is not representative of what Imperial Treasure can do, it accomplished the job for a fuss free quick lunch.

Their duck was much better done compared to the shop at ION. Roasted pork belly was nice with a crispy crackling. 

Sandwiches are generally not a forte (in this country). We cannot even get a Hong Kong styled corned beef sandwich right. There was far too much mayo whipped in the chopped egg which drowned out whatever corned beefiness that might have been present. The bread though, was steamed. Soft and warm.

This was steamed rice with garlic pork ribs & black bean and braised chicken claws. It's actually ordered off the dim sum menu from the steamboat restaurant by Imperial Treasure just next to this place and one can have them delivered here. This stuff was pretty good. Flavoured with little else but the toppings and soy sauce. We gobbled this up in short order.