Island Cafe has updated their menu

And in the process, they seemed to have taken off the prawn noodles and my favourite drink as well. I'm not sure if this was for the better or worse, but it seems like the management felt that a refresh was in order and some of the newer items look a lot more up to date, especially in the western section of the menu where I spied cod & chips and even Reuben sandwiches.

The Hokkien mee was something carried over from the old menu, I've never had it so it was a first time. And last. There wasn't a robust enough flavour in the stock that was used to stir fry the noodles and the grilled prawn was dry and puny. The only thing that saved it was the squeezes of lime and their chilli. What's new was the wagyu beef with black bean sauce hor fun which was actually, not bad at all. The sauce was flavourful with mild tones of heat.

However the wagyu label has a way of diluting the experience by virtue of its name. If they had just called this beef hor fun, I would probably have thought that this is pretty damned good since they didn't use any tenderiser that I could detect. So in effect, one got what tasted to be naturally tender pieces of meat that tasted like beef rather than an unidentifiable protein matter with barely any meat texture.

Lei cha fan from Tracy Juice Culture

We saw the lei cha fan being served numerous times previously when we here (#01-34, Fortune Centre, 190 Middle Road, tel : +65 6336 0754) getting some of their juices and they looked pretty good. Quite a number of people were having them. We decided to come back since we were in the vicinity and give their thunder tea rice (擂茶饭) a go.

This was as we already knew, a slightly different thing from the previous time I had 擂茶饭 at Toa Payoh Central. I'm not sure if there are any fixed bunch of vegetables that has to be included or if it's one of those things that are subjected to the whims recipes by each maker. The liquorice flavour in the creamy green broth was almost non existent and the vegetables that they used here were slightly different. Was it good? I thought so. I liked how it tasted light and clean. Being healthier than many other eats is a bonus.

Miscellaneous eats to round up

We were on our way to breakfast one morning at Prince Edward and we passed by this sandwich shop (G/F 783 Nathan Road) which had melted cheese toasties that were made to order with the choice of bread, type of cheese and meat fillings.

Here's one with their "liver sausage" and cheddar cheese option. The liver sausage was actually pâte. The simple sandwich was built on the fly and toasted with a nice light crisp that had appealed to the salt and fat craving for the morning.

This was a shop we passed by with food steaming in baskets at the stall front down the end of Fa Yuen Street in Mongkok.

We got ourselves a bowl of sausage and glutinous rice to go. It was a little too greasy as a snack, but the lup cheong was pretty tasty.

A trip back to the shop that sold our favourite beef brisket rice.

And a breakfast re-visit to Wai Kee after discovering that Yue Hing was closed. Apparently, the owner of the latter had broken his arm.

Yet another re-visit in Mongkok for some delicious bean curd with evaporated milk.

Osmanthus jelly with wolf berries and on the left, with white fungus. The coconut jelly with corn in the middle sucks. 

During this trip, we were graced with an opportunity to do a hot pot dinner down on a off coast at Yuen Long on a floating platform (kelong!) with a private kitchen. We were requested not to provide any names. This visit was pulled off by a friend of a friend who knew the chef who was chilling the winter away. Because he didn't feel like cooking, it was hotpot.

The setup was simple and pretty good. Lots of good quality seafood that featured abalones, gigantic oysters, lobsters, prawns....well, the works. After some time, it got a little too chilly at the waterfront.

One of the stars of the kelong dinner was a locally bred beef. We were informed that it was a good hunk of meat that money couldn't quite procure and the chef had depended on his connections to land himself some. It's not available in the market unless you knew people. Does anyone know anything about Hong Kong bred cows? This stuff was pretty amazing man.

Some evil vegetable crackers.

And off 7-11, the winter edition of the strawberry flavoured Vitasoy and some ginger milk. The former tasted like how one can imagine them. Nothing really special. Ginger milk on the other hand was good!

Some stuff from Siu Choi Wong (小菜王)

baked fish intestines in egg

A newly made acquaintance brought us to this dai pai dong which is apparently very popular amongst the locals. As the story goes, this place used to be just a little shop down the road and the previous chef did such a good job that today, it's a couple of units large and no longer just a street stall. Said chef had already departed from this joint and is currently running a show of his own (we actually met that guy on another occasion) in which we were sworn on the pain of death not to disclose.  Just kidding about the last part on death. We had ordered a number of items in this dai pai dong (43 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, tel : +852 2776 8380), but I'll just stick to talking about a few which we though were better since the others were really nothing worth writing home about.

goose intestines

There was a baked fish intestines in egg which we had though was pretty darn good. A first time for me and I'm seeing that I could look out for them in the future. And then some pretty delicious and chewy goose intestines stir fried with bean sprouts which would really make a good dish with beer on the side, plus some very nicely done pig liver that came in a metal pot. These livers were actually one of the better ones that I've had in Hong Kong so far. There was a mild element to their savoury flavours that reminded me of pâte. Can you believe that? And those soft cloves of garlic were just the perfect accompliment.

stir fried metal pot pig liver?

Congee King, Heard Street, Wan Chai

This restaurant (G/F, 7 Heard Street, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2882 3268) had been listed in the Michelin Guide for Hong Kong for the past couple of years. They are suppose to be well known for their congee which is made with fish broth. We tried a couple. A lot of the options on menu involved pairing something with pig liver. Mine was scallops with pig liver and we had another which had eel and pig liver. 

I thought Wai Kee was better - and noticeably better. The ones here were rather grainy. The pig livers were pretty good though.

Their salted egg yolk and pork dumping with mung beans were quite well done.

The other mention-worthy were their boiled fish skins. Garnished with spring onions, chillis and toasted peanuts with sesame oil. The texture was smooth and crunchy and changed subtly after they have been dipped in the congee. It's still smooth and crunchy but in a different way. Didn't like the dough fritters. They were a little too hard and dense and grease logged enough to taste of the oil that was used to fry them.

85 South, Kau U Fong, Hong Kong Central

We were recommended to check out 85 South (6-10 Kau U Fong, Central, Hong Kong, tel : +852 2337 2078) just next door from Le Port Parfumé for some supposedly good South Carolinian barbecue that was done by a couple of guys from North Carolina. The approach was supposed to be home styled; recipe, from family and method, traditional. But since I don't really know anything about Carolinian barbecue, it was just really exploratory for me. 

There's no briskets to be had, just ribs and pulled pork. Both of which were fortunately not slathered over excessively with sauces. That being said, I was hoping that the meat of the meal (pun intended) would pass muster. The dry rub on the ribs was....well, nothing very exciting. There was too much bone and too little meat on those ribs and it was definitely not fork tender. 

We were expecting the pulled pork to be tender and juicy. The reality was a little dry and stringy. That's where the sauces in squeeze bottles on the sides came in handy with an East, West and South style in concoction. Personally, my favourite was the East which really tasted Middle Eastern in a good way. Second was the South that had a smokey and peppery tomato base. 

What I liked was the slaw on the side which was tomato and I believe, vinegar based. It was appetizing for a start and did it's job to cut the heaviness from the meat and carbs. But it became a tad acidic at the end.

I couldn't say that I didn't like the food, but I was kinda hoping that this would be a more impressive experience. Then again, I don't actually have much expectations to tie the experience to since I've never had American styled barbecue before.

We got ourselves some of their home made lemonade and Southern tea which was really just sweet tea. The lemonade was waayyyyy too clean. It felt like cordial rather than squeezed lemons unless they had an extremely sophisticated machine out in the back that filters the tiniest particles or sediments out of squeezed fruit juices. It just didn't taste like fresh lemonade to me.