Fred in Hong Kong 08

Fri 29 - Stanley, Causeway Bay Kai See and Cafe Too, Island Shangri-la

2008-03-08T10:35:00.001-08:00

An earlyish start saw me heading for Exchange Sq bus station and heading for Stanley. I had not really felt like breakfast so just got a bun from one of the numerous bakeries in the MTR and washed down with my usual bottle of fresh grapefruit juice.

Stanley has changed and has lost much of its edge as a place for cheap shopping. The actual environmental infra-structure has been upgraded which is some ways is good but it has lost a little bit of its old styl;e charm.

The new shore front shops and cafes came as a bit of a surprise

A more traditional view of the entrance to Stanley Market

Lunch was at the apporpraietly name Stanley Restaurant

I had a two course lunch that was really rather good

Ngau Gun Lor Bak Tong Mein - beef tendon with turnip in noodle soup

Cheet Kai Fan - poached chicken rice plate with ginger and sping onion oil - delicious

An impromptu bus ride to North Point led to an MTR ride back to Causweway Bay and an afternoon exploring the famous Kai See/Street Markets of Causeway Bay. Here were sight and sounds of the real Hong Kong - food that is literally on the street - where the locals buy they fresh and cooked ingredients for their evening meal at prices that would to us seem quite impossibly cheap. There is also all the snack stalls selling freshly cooked skewers of yue dan,sang cheung, yau yue soo, meen gun, dan san and even extremely tasty Takoyaki.

The Kai See was truely amazing - the freshness of the cooked meats, the variety of fish and seafood and the vegetables on offer was truely mouth watering:-

Having spent the latter part of the afternoon and the early evening wondering around the Causeway Bay "Kai See" I was now off to the legendary Island Shangri-la Hotel Buffet in their Cafe Too restaurant.

I don't know if it is a case of familiarity breeds contempt or I was feeling a tad on the jaded side after a whole weeks worth of eating in Hong Kong, but somehow the buffet did not seem as magnificent as on previous occaisons. In reality it was just a good, if not better, but somehow my appetitie did not seem to be able to rise to challange that was around me.

My starter plate was some parma ham with a portion of ceaser salad and a selection from the extremely good sashimi counter - I could have had oysters, any number of different types of prawns, sushi, crabs etc but I resisted

My second plate was a modest affair - some Lap Mei Fried Rice, a spare rib, some suckling pig, roast duck and poached chicken

I then had a quick explore of the Indian counter and came back with a dainty plate of squid tikka, chicken tikka, lamb tikka and a spring roll of sorts with a dash of mint and yoghurt sauce

I could have indulged in the Western food counter, the superb noodles, dumplings and fishball kitchen, the dim sum display or even the Italian rissotto counter but I resisted and instead ended with a flurry at the exquiste pudding station

A selection of miniture jellies and mousses

Fresh fruit salad and freshly cooked ginger sogffle

Finishing with a freshly cooked crepe drizzled with condensed milk, raspberry syrup and topped witha few strawberry halves.

Great food and great company with my cousin Philip and his family.

Thur 28 - TST Waterfront, Stonegrill and Bo Jai Fan

2008-03-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Destined to be quite a lazy day as I did not feel up to too much - I think the busy week had started to take its toll and after the daily wake up power shower at the hotel I headed down to TST, the Avenue of Stars and the Kowloon waterfront. The view across to Central must be one of the most amazig in the modern world and I never ceasde to tire of it.

First off was a simple breakfast at a cafe just across from the hotel - didn't really fancy noodles or congee so settled instead for the classic Hong Kong breakfast of tea with evaporated milk and a spam and plain egg omlette toasted sandwich

After breakfast - a wonder down to TST to take some photos and appreciate the view.....

Even on a misty day - which is the nrom this time of year - well in truth it is the norm most of the year - the waterfront and the view across to Central is mighty impressive

Next up are some images from in and around the TST waterfront area including a display of the Beijing 2008 Olympic mascots:-

Lunch was to be with friend MML at the TST branch of Stonegrill @ Ocean Terminal - the plan was to eat some Waygu beef - Stonegrill style

I opted for the Waygu Surf and Turf Special with a minor modification for the started course - changing it from Tian of Lobster to Seared Foi Gras

This was probably the nicest starter I have ever eaten - seared fresh foie gras on a ring of caramlised apple served with an apple reduction and diced beetroot - this was food to die for and unfortunately was the highlight of the meal as everything else, whilst competent lacked the wooh factor of this wonderful starter, except perhaps the glass of frsshly squeezed green apple juice

Th soup course was a curiously named Lobster Cappucino - which in fact was nothing more than a classic lobster bisque - good but not memorable

The main course, which was suppose to be the star turn was in fact quite disapponting

The Waygu Beef Tenderloin was in fact Australain in origin and lacked the falvour and marbeling of the Japanese original - good but not that good - have the foie gras but skip the Aussie Waygu would be my advice

After this rather indulgent lunch I had another bit of a wonder around the TST ferry area and continued to take in the views across to Central and then it was back to the hotel for a snooze and for the eagerly awaited Bo Jai Fan "meet" with the delectable Janet Ho. She had promised with would be proper "local" food and I have so say this is my passion when I am in Hong Kong - local street food that is just not possible to experience in the UK.

The place she chose was Hing Kee Rice Pot - take the Temple St exit on Yau Ma Tai MTR station. There was a queue when we arrived and there was a queue all the time we were there - the food is cheap, tasty, good quality and the VFM factor is simply amazing.

As for what we ate - we had.......

Sliced Pork, Pak Choi, Tofue and Salted Duck Egg soup by the tureen

Ho Beng - a sort of oyster fritter type dish with a dollop of chilli sauce to cut through the richness of the oyster and batter

Pak Choi with garlic

We had three Bo Jai Fan between the three of us

Sliced Pork and salted fish clay pot rice with the obligatory doosing with soy sauce

Lap Mei Bo Jai Fan - chinese pork and liver sausage with preserved belly pork clay pot rice

Wat Dan Ngau Yuk Bo Jai Fan - sliced beef and egg clay pot rice

All of this was simply stunning - great food, great atmosphere and with a total price of HK$108 the value for money was simply stunning. Thanks Janet (right) for a great evening.

Wed 27 - Jo Cha, The Cheung Sisters, The Peak and Chungking Mansions Curry Meet

2008-03-06T23:30:00.000-08:00

Many will have noticed that the blog has fallen behind and that this and subsequent entries are being made post trip so to speak - a combination of being much busier than previous trips and also taking longer to establish a good sleep pattern meant that there was no time to keep the blog up to date.

Today started with an earlier morning dim sum - the typical Yum Jo Cha. Friend Mei was the instigator of this - an early morning text at 7:30am asking was I up and up for some dim sum was replied in the affirmative. She took me to a place in Mong Kok and even though it was only 8:30am the place was already heaving. The dim sum was ok but we both agreed with was nothing special though the turnip cake fried with XO sauce was above averageas was the leng yue kau

Other items eaten included......

Japanese style Gyoza

Mai Seen Ngau Yuk Peen Tong - thck vermicelli with sliced beef

Leng Yue Kau - these were very good indeed and I had already eaten one before I remembered to take a piccy

Not sure what these were called - they looked like sui mai but had har gow style pastry and filling - they tasted pretty good.

As it was still early I returned to the hotel and had a nice long shower which sort of helped me start the day again. I had a lunch time meet up with sisters Sophia and Catherine Cheung (sisters in law to my sister) at HSBC members only restaurant in Central courtesy of Catherine who works for them. The buildings in Central always make for interesting images

The former HMS Tamar (symbolic of Hong Kong's Imperial past) and the IFC (symbolic of its affluent future)

The wonderfully eccentricly shaped Lippo Centre

Pretty sure this is the base of Jardine House.

It was nice to meet up with Sophia and Catherine and the food they ordered was very fine indeed and whilst I got pictures of the food I forgot to get any pictures of them - never mind - if you want to see what they look like click on this link Last years visit

Lunch was at the 3rd floor HSBC staff restaurant in Hutchinson House. Far too much food was ordered for 3 people so doggy bags were taken by Catherine. We had some of the kitchens signature dishes

Salted Duck Egg Yolk Batter Prawns - absolutely delicious

Ja Jie Kai - Crispy Skinned Chicken - this is THE signature dish of the kitchen and rightly so - the skin was wonderfully light and crispy and the meat most and tender - spot on.

Ngaw Jeung Yau Pai - stewed good webs with dried pomelo skin - a caontonese classic and very well executed

There was also some very decent lai tong/house soup and Fukkian style fried rice - but neither made very good photographs :)

The weather was quite sunny today and so taking advantage of the relatively blue skies and lighter than normal haze I decided to head for the Peak. A quick trip on a bus from Exchange Square Station soon saw me at the Peak complex and heading for the Sky Terrace, which is not free - it will cost you HK$20 for the priviledge of having one of the best view points of HK from the roof of the Peak complex.

What follows is a selectionof views from the top of the Sky Terrace on a day that was better than most for the time of year when the expectation is overcast and hazy rather than blue skies all round

It was late afternoon by the time I had finished on the Peak and the sun was starting to set as I arrived back in TST via the Star Ferry from Central. I managed to get a few decent shots before the light was gone fpr the evening:-

I had a mooch around the TST ferry peir area and a wonder intp the Star House mall before meeting up to Roger, Tania and Jimbo for the scheduled Curry meet at the infamous Chungking Mansions - it still has a reputation for being a bit on the wild side but in truth it is a safe as any place in Hong Kong. What marks it out as very different to the rest of Hong Kong is the high concentration of African and Indian people who congregate here and have businesses in the malls. And where people of a certain ethic origin are plentiful then their cuisine is never far behind.

Chungking Mansions is famous for having the best Indian curry houses in Hong Kong and tonight Roger was going to be our guide for a curry night out. The venue was to be:-

Take lift no.9 to the 7th floor and look for this sign and knock on the door - not sure wht it says members only as it is clearly open to the public - member or no member.

Food was very very good - better than many a curry house on the Curry Mile in Rusholme and not far off the real thing. We had:-

Spicy Poppadoms topped with tomato and onion with a bit of mint and yoghurt chutney

Tandoori Platter - pieces of tandoori chicken, chicken and lamb tikka, shish kebab and a piece of fish tikka - very good stuff

We shared the following curries

Channa Massala

Lamb Dopiaza

Chicken and Potato Curry

Chicken Makahani - butter chicken, which was abosolutely delicious

accompanied with bhatura bread, naan bread and pillau rice

The curry meeters - Tania, Roger, Jimbo. me and MML who turned just for the socialising at the end and didn't eat.

A great night out and the end of another day. back to the hotel for sleep and whatever tomorrow brings.

Tues 26 - Juk, Wong Tai Sin, Jap Lunch and Shirley

2008-02-28T01:44:00.000-08:00

An earlyish start today - am begining to feel quite tired and in need of a lie-in but at the same time don't want to waste the time that I have in Hong Kong slobbing in bed. Last year I was forced to spend a day mid trip resting in bed due to a bout of food poisoning which overall did me good in terms of getting much needed rest and thus am thinking maybe a bit more rest would be sesnsible at some point.

Breakfast was at my favourite 24 hr Juk Deem/Congee Stall nr to Temple St. But first a sober reminder that Hong Kong is not a perfect society and that the distribution of wealth and the support infrastructure for the marginalised in society still needs to be worked upon.

Breakfast was the usual......

Chiu Yeun Yuk Yeung Juk (congee with pigs liver and meatballs) with Doughstick and a rather messey plate of cheung fun which I had started to chomp on. As usual the food was up to the standard of previous years. Strange to think that in the three years that I have been coming this place has never closed for business - not even for a single hour.

Onwards and Upwards I headed for Wong Tai Sin - that most colourfulof temples and where east meets west and ancient collides with the modern in a way that is unique to Hong Kong.

What follows is a littel pictorial tour of what was happening on the Tuesday when I was there at the temple:-

After a couple of hours at the temple I had a late lunch at Beppu Ekimae Japanese restaurant located in the adjacent mall.

Eel Tempura Sushi - superb

Beef Sashimi

Japanese Scallop Sushi

Boneless cicken wings stuffed with wasabi

King Prawn Tempura - a trusty favourite but very nicely executed and cheap at less tha £3 great VFM

A bit of a slobby afternoon resting and a long hot shower saw me ready to meet my friend Shirley and a venture out for a Chinese vegetarian dinner which was at the New Lucky House, 13 Jordan Road, Kowloon, Tel: 2384-2833, Fax: 2332-7378 - we ate upstairs in the main dining room rater than in the ground floor jai da bin lo/buffet. The mealranged from the interesting to the truely amazing

Jai Ping Poon - all made from wheat gluten but tasing like meat - very very good

Birds nest with mushroomsand celery - good but notvery out of the ordinary

Fried noodle parcels tied with bands of seaweed for dipping and softening in a boiling stone bowl filled with a sort of thick creamy soup that was a cross between sate and curry - interesting - not sure about this one

BBQ Pork Ribs with the bone made from strip of loyus root - it looked more like chicken but it certainly tasked like the real thing

Mui Choi Kau Yuk - veggie belly pork with preserved cabbage - this was truely amazing the "meet and the fat" had the taste and texture of real pork but was in fact some form of pulse puree and agar agar concoction - stunning.

Desert was at the Hu Lui San chain of fresh fruit dessert cafes

Fresh Fruit and Mango Soup

Mango Platter

Ans so ends another colourful day in Hong Kong :-)

Mon 25 - Uncle Man, Bigma and the Chau's

2008-02-26T01:04:00.000-08:00

Bit of a mixed day this one. A combination of camera stuff buying, meeting relatives- long lost and distant - and as usual the eating of good food which because this is Hong Kong comes in all sorts of guises from the vaguely familiar to the totally outlandish.

First up was breakfast which was taken on the hoof so to speak from a little stall just round the cornerfrom the hotel - the middle one of the three in the photo below:-

It was the classic Chiu Cheung Fun- plain steamed rice roll slathered in a mixture of soy, sesame sauce and hoi sin sauce and topped with sesame seeds

I met up with my Uncle Man (aka Archie) whom I had not seen for at least 12 years and in many ways he is the man responsible for passion for photography having taught memuch when I was a child and spent many a long summer on holiday in Hong Kong. Anyway enough of the nostalgia - this is now and the mission of the morning was a bit of camera stuff shopping in Mong Kok and a chin wag and catch up over a dim sum lunch

We visited famous Wing Shing Camera Shop in Mong Kok and ended up purcjasing the following:-

1. Sigma 50-500 EX DG APO HSM lens aka the BIGMA
2. Hoya 86mm UV filter for the above
3. Spare Battery for my Nikon S510
4. Manfrotto Monopod - (gift for Uncle Man)
5. Manfrotto Quick Release Monopod Head - for me
6. Case for my G7

Shopping done we headed to Ghangzhou DimSum restaurant which yielded some fine dim sum as we chatted over time old and new

Gwuan Tong Gau - Supreme Soup Dumping which included a whole dried scallop

Har Gau Wong - prawn dumpling but not as we know it :-)

Uncle Man

Meen Fa Kai - Chicken with Fish Maw and a slice of Abalone

Jing Lor bak Go - steamed turnip pudding with conpoy

Fish head with beancurd dim sum

The afernoon was spent at Wanchai Computer Mall and just outside was an Ngau Jap (beef offal) vendor doing a roaring trade in this most ethnic of Hong kong specialities born out of the days of poverty when the prime cuts when to the feudal Lords and the offal was all that was left for the plebs like you and me.

One Ngau Jap Vendor

One tub of the unmentionable bits of a cow

So the veggies amongst us don't lose out - a tub of braised wheat gluten with sate sauce

Dinner in the evening was to be with sister and brother Pearl and Eddie Chau at Wu Kong Shanghainese restaurant in Times Square. It was a pleasent evening and the food wasn't bad either.

Times Square- a temple to retail therapy

Drunken Chicken

Chung Pau Ngau Yuk - beef with spring onion

Tong Choe Yue - Sweet and Sour Fish Slices

Braised Chinese Cabbage with Yunnan Ham

The oddly named Fried Milk - in reality an egg white mixture

Siu Long Bau - Shanghai Soup Dumplings

Dan Dan Meen - noodles in a spicy peanut broth

Me,Pearl and Eddy

Here is a video of the ride down on the external lift from the Times Sq food forum block.....

An so ends another full day in Hong Kong- the Fragrent Harbour

Sun 24 Macau - The MML Mad Cow Meet

2008-02-25T06:49:00.000-08:00

Eight of us headed for a day oit in Macau - for one of use - it would be her first time ever on the former Portugese colony and emerging casino capital of the Faer East.

We all met up at the Shun Tak Centre - Hong Kong side and caught the 11am ferry across to Macau - we were me(Fred), our beloved group leader and meet organiser - Mei Mei Lai(MML), Jimbo, Roger, Candy,Janet, Tania and Anneee.

For a full on photo account of the day click on this link - Macau Meet Slideshow

Anyway here is a brief summary of the day words and piccies:-

First up was as taxi ride to the famous St. Pauls Facade with steps that leads down to the famous treet of free samples of egg rolls, almond biscuits and various types of meat jerky, eventually arriving at the historic Senado Square. This year St Pauls still had the leftovers from the Year of the Rat celebrations.

The view down the steps from St Pauls

Not that I'm being sexist or anything but first here's a piccie of the girls

And now one of the boys

Jimbo treated us to the famous Macau Po Tart and as you can see we had to fight hard with MML to stop her from eating them all

As usual snacking on street food is aways an option and I do believe that Roger may have had a stick of yue dan.

One of the famous foods of Macau is the various types of meat jerky which are very good and range from wild boar to fillet of beef with prices to match

Our little group decided this place was the place to fill up with Macau food goodies and came out with bags of their produce

Lunch was at Restaurante Plateo and given its fame was more interesting than memorable

Dishes such as baked chicken with spicy sauce and bachaloe baked with seafood was interesting rather than delcious

Traditional jery seller complete with street side oven and bitter herbal tea stall

Next off we were off to the Venetian Casino - Macau - a place to gambling and consumerism and a tacky American interpretation of minature Venice.

MML and her friend Janet

Dinneer was at the fabulous Bambu Asian Buffet restaurant in the Venetian

and included some amazing oysters

and a fairly decent selection of desserts

The Macau Geng

It was a great day and most people had a nice sleep on the ferry back

Here are some videos from the day....

Fri/Sat - 22/23 Travelling to HK and First Day

2008-02-23T16:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 2008 Fred in Hong Kong Blog.

Every journey must have a start and in true foodie tradition we will start with lunch at Manchester Airport Terminal 3 departure lounge. Given the fact that a week of full on oriental culinary troughing was instore I thought it appropriate that something sumpremely British should be sampled before the eating in Hong Kong started :-)

Yep - I had that classic of British dishes - Fish, Chips and Mush Peas -for airport food it wasn't too bad but it wasn't the best either.

First up an afternoon hop from Manchester down to Heathrow

Some decent views despite a very overcast day

An of course the unbiquitous in flight meal even if it is only a sandwich and chocolate biscuit

It was an evening flight to HK on the usual BA 747-400 from Heathrow

And like any decent long haul flight it always starts with a meal - my theory is that they fill you up with food and drink at the start of a journey and you spend the rest of it stuffed and content watching the impressive in flight entertainment that you get with BA.

The Hot and Sour Pork was actually really nice and the bread rolls came as both white and brown and the rice pudding was not bad at all. - next up was 8 hours of sleep and then what do they do - feed you again....

I couldn't really face eating a full on breakfast - the scrambled egges tasted very good but I just picked at this meal and sent most of it back untouched.

Anyway the most important thing was that arrival at HK was fast approcahing

Hong Kong was grey and overcast upon arrival and a quick hop on the hotel coach service saw me at my deluxe room on the 12 floor of te Prudential Hotel - literally above Jordan MTR station.

The external lift lobby

The View from 12 floor up - not great but quiet as no traffic noise

A plate of complimentary nibbles

There is wired broadband in the room which is a real bonus for blogging and keeping in touch with people. Anyway after a quick shower and change of clothes I was off to see my cousin Phillip and his wife Polly and their family for a hot pot/steamboat dinner at their home in the Blechers