Kam Wah Cafe (金華冰廳), Bute Street, Prince Edward

We must have walked past this shop (G/F, 48 Bute Street, tel : +852 2392 6830) a couple of dozen times in the past few years and never thought of walking in until today. Good thing we did. Came across a friendly chap who was kind enough to educate us that we learnt to deviate from the usual 奶茶 to a condense milk fuelled 茶走.

Their bo lo yau (a.k.a. bolo or pineapple buns) are the thing that you should try here. The crispy crust on the top of the bread is thick. It doesn't crumble as much as it cracks and they're definitely one of the better ones I've had. The great thing about having them in the morning is that you get them pretty fresh out of the oven and the turnover for each batch of bakes is high.

One can get a staple of luncheon meat and egg sandwich between steamed bread here too. Nothing extraordinary, but I couldn't find a time in my life when these things don't work for me at breakfast.

Update 19/11/15

So we came back for another breakfast. This is their bolo bun with pan fried ham and eggs. Yes, apparently one can have it in that configuration here. But this doesn't have butter. It would probably have been better if it had butter too.

So there's corned beef and egg sandwiches to be had here too. Again, nothing extraordinary; but it works for a quick brekkie.

Their coconut tart, or was it cake, looked good on the display. Fat, glistening and fresh from the oven. I had imagined that it was a tart filled to the point of spillage with juicy shredded coconut. But there was only just a layer of that shredded coconut on top. The rest of it was just cake. Not bad though.

Lau Sum Kee Noodle (劉森記麵家), Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po

Lau Sum Kee is famous for their noodles tossed with prawn roe (蝦子撈麵). The noodles from what I've read, are made daily and the dough is kneaded traditionally with a bamboo pole. Man made with blood, sweat and tears. That alone warrants a visit right? We came by their other outlet (G/F, 80 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po, tel : +852 2386 3533) simply because. It was either the original older shop on the adjacent street or this one and I picked this.

We liked this. And I think I liked it mostly because of the texture of the noodles which were hard and chewy and that there was a generous bit of that prawn roe that's tossed into those wiry noodles. That in itself took the centre stage in comparison with the other ingredients that one might have chosen or added. Sure the wontons were decent and braised beef briskets acceptably so, but whom are we kidding? I'm pretty sure the majority didn't come here for those. They came for those noodles crusted with the savoury briny sweetness of the millions of unborn offsprings of shrimps.

One Dim Sum (一點心), Playing Field Road, Prince Edward

We were introduced to this dim sum (Shop 1 & 2, G/F, Kenwood Mansion, 15 Playing Field Road, Prince Edward, tel  : +852 2789 2280) joint by a friend. If not for that friend, we wouldn't have known that this place existed or that it actually has a Michelin Star. That being said, don't walk in expecting anything fancy. The food is solid, properly done and is made to fill bellies - not blow minds. These guys just cover the bases of the usual stuff or what's popular for Cantonese dim sum with no frills and an affordable price to match.

This was called Steamed Chicken with Four Combinations on the menu - essentially bean curd skin blanketed over chicken, fish maw, mushroom and what appeared to be sausage or ham; I'm not sure about the last item. I liked this. 

Siew mai was very competent. The flavours of the individual components of the stuffings stood out and the dumplings were tender. One of the more enjoyable siew mai I've had in recent times.

A competent pan fried radish cake, but I thought that the ones from Imperial Treasure actually outshone this one. Those were creamier.

The one item that we felt didn't quite make the cut was the har gow. We've had better even back home and we definitely weren't judging the standards of the food here based on a Michelin Star. The stuffings on the whole didn't taste as savoury as we would have liked and the shrimps didn't quite pack the crunch.

There was an enjoyable steamed rice with pork ribs and chicken claws. The fatty ribs were pretty tasty, generous in portions and the chicken claw was delicious that we ordered a plate of it after this.

There, One Dim Sum has competently done phoenix talons which were tender and easy to slurp off the bone.

And a ma lai gao to wrap up this post flight late lunch. These cakes (kinda like an eggy chiffon cake) were served piping hot in the bamboo steamers. Jiggly and light they were. We couldn't ask for better.

A sushi lunch from Meii Sushi

I though since this place was call Meii Sushi, why not give their sushi set from their lunch menu a go. The range of seafood was exactly the same as what one would get from their chirashi don. Maguro, sake, hotate, amaebi, akagai and a couple of fishes which I can't tell. Didn't know if there was any difference between the two pieces of tuna which was on the platter. I suppose it was pretty decent, but nothing extraordinary that I'd make my way down just for again. Lunch was certainly a different thing from dinner and they didn't even entertain any upgrades for better nigiri on the set unless we took the omakase option which I didn't feel like spending on today. The thing that hit me about today was that Chef Hong was a little heavy handed with the wasabi. That detracted from the natural flavours of the fishes.

More tasty stuff from Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐)

This would be a second part to an older post on a couple of my favourites from Din Tai Fung. Not to worry though, there aren't going to be many parts.

The above is their roselle drink (洛神花冰); made with a frozen ball of roselle tea. This was one drink packed with flavours. The first time I had them, I could have sworn that I had subsequently emptied at least two full cups of tea onto the ice to make two full glasses of roselle flavoured iced tea after I had finished the drink. Very nice. Exceptional even when one is parched.

These are dried red dates stuffed with chewy glutinous rice (红枣圆). They're from the small plates/appetizers section of the menu, but could have easily been a dessert as well. For some reasons, I like them.

What I felt was underrated were their steamed vegetable and pork buns (菜肉包). These savoury but light tasting buns were stuffed with a lot more vegetables than pork, but that was what I liked about them.

Peachy In The Secret Hideout, North Bridge Road

Interesting name for a halal local western food joint which was almost hiding in plain sight (803A North Bridge Road). Food portions are pretty generous and nothing costs above $10 here. So one can easily see how this place can be a hit with students on a limited budget and need an cosy corner for food that actually fills you up. That cheesy chicken cutlet was pretty decent and loaded with mozzarella cheese. Our local chicken parmigiana grease plate if you would. My only complain was that the pasta on the side really needed salt. Or/and sprinkles of Tabasco sauce.