Skye High in Hong Kong: The Food.
June 24, 2015If you're thinking of heading to Hong Kong, maybe this blogpost will help you plan!We'll start with breakfasts at cha can tengs. Cha can tengs are like the breakfast places for locals.
I love breakfasts in HK cause it's socially acceptable to eat maggi mee for breakfast. HAHA. Most cha can tengs are small, and you usually sit in a small booth/table, elbow to elbow. If you hate your personal space being invaded...go with less people. Haha.
Introducing Hwa Xing Bing Shi, a cha can teng.
Hwa Xing Bing Shi
B1, Kwong Sang Hong Building, 6 Heard Street, Wan Chai (short walk from WC MTR)
A cosy place! They have a couple of branches. We went to the Wanchai one, away from the bustle of the city. The uncle here was very nice and friendly too! We spotted many families with cute little ones in tow.
Set breakfast for HKD $34 ($6 SGD) ! The standard breakfast fare in HK usually comes in a set- a noodle/macaroni/spaghetti soup with turkey ham, eggs (scrambled or sunny side up) and bread (can be a croissant, or a toast etc).
Scrambled eggs here were springy and yummy. I also added sugar to my thick buttered toast. #sugarmonster
Their menu said, "用心做好炒蛋，奶茶”. The staff were decked out in Levi's aprons. Do cha can tengs get sponsored or something? Kam Wah had a lot of Anchor (the butter brand) stuff.
The Internet recommended "校长多士“. We had no idea what we ordered la, but it took quite some time for it to be served.
Turns out to be...a thick toast cut into 4s and topped with fragrant BLACK TRUFFLE! OMG IS THIS REAL?
Well even if it ain't, it's delicious. Worth the wait. HKD $25.
Kam Wah
45/47 Bute Street, Prince Edward (Prince Edward MTR)
I think the best of Kam Wah is the boluo baos (boluo yao/pineapple buns). They look huge on first sight but trust me, you'll totally want one to yourself.
They're so soft, with a crunchy, sweet crust. Not jelat at all (but then again I have a huge sweet tooth).
In all its buttery sweet glory.
They also have alternative buns like char siew buns but aiyah, if it's your first time, do go for the boluo bun. Certified awesome by like ten thousand food bloggers and food enthusiasts on Open Rice (a nifty food app that comes with reviews and addresses).
We also ordered eggtarts (ok-ish), french toast (avoid, too oily and eggy imo), noodles with ham and noodles with beef! The beef in Hong Kong looks like pork, tastes super succulent and soft. It's amazing. (Apparently they're minced and processed? I'm not entirely sure.)
We also ordered milk tea, yuan yang (coffee and milk tea) and coffee. Shiok life.
Aren't the little coffee cups cute? Put them on sell for tourists like me please. This place oozes the vintage nostalgia old coffee shop vibes that Singaporeans love.
The only meh about this place is the never-ending crowd (and the french toast). Don't expect to linger around in this busy little shop!
Next up, we have some delicious congee, situated in the upper floors of a wet market.
Mui Kee Congee 妹记
11-12,4/F, Fa Yuen St Market, Mong Kok (630am-3pm)
The aunties and uncles here were very friendly. One of the first things they asked us after taking our orders were if we were Singaporeans. Haha were we so obvious? Apparently the way we spoke Canto gave us away. (When I say 'we' I mean Pok and Kokswee. Complete Canto noob here hahaha)
I had the beef slice congee ($30 HKD/ $5.25 SGD). Did I already mention I love Hong Kong beef? Haha. The congee was smooth and and the beef was tender as f. HOU SEK!!
Cass had the shredded salted pork and century egg, while KS had the 'pork viscera' congee （及弟）, which included pork liver, heart, intestines and meatballs. Pok says the congee here is “有 standard 的粥”. We also ordered drinks and youtiao ($10 HKD/bowl).
The uncle caught Pok stirring the congee and gave us some tips. He said not to stir the congee or it would become watery.
The uncle then had a chat with the canto-proficient people in our group (lol), but I made Pok translate for me after. HAHA.
- Why is the beef in Hong Kong so different?
This involves corn starch, marinate with sauces and sugar (other info lost in translation) - Mui Kee Congee has been around for 40 years. They use a charcoal stove and cook the soup/rice for 6 hours!
- They use natural ingredients, meaning no MSG and so that their congee won't be so salty.
- "Eating congee is like art."
Thanks uncle for teaching us how to better appreciate congee! The auntie also told us how many Singaporeans visit this place. The power of food blogging, yall.
Tsim Chai Kee
98 Wellington Street, Central
Tsim Chai Kee is located somewhere in the Central district. At lunch time, where it was blazing hot at about 32 or more degrees, you have tons of men and OLs in blazers and shizz. And they don't look like they're breaking a sweat. Win sia.
This shop is literally opposite the famous Mak's that sells mee also. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT! But according to Kokswee, who ate both back to back, Tsim Chai Kee is better.
And when we were there, there was NO QUEUE at Mak's! What!
A look at the menu...
We ordered the 三宝 Three Toppings noodles (HKD $36, about $6.30 SGD)- with wanton, minced fish ball and fresh sliced beef. Not sure how the auntie took our order though... cryptic order chit.
Tadaaaa! Not much of a looker, but woah this hugeass bowl is packed full of amazingness. Just look at the mega fishball??? Lol. Highly recommend you to share so that you can eat other things later (like Tai Cheong pastries, that we'll talk about next).
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| Solid performance from the prawn dumplings. |
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| "Tsim Chai Kee thrash Mak's!"- Kokswee and the very succulent yummy beef slices |
Tai Cheong Bakery
35 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Central MTR Exit D2
Actually Tai Cheong is everywhere lah. You see it at ferry terminals, at some malls and stuff.
We only ate the eggtart. Nomnoms. Wish it was just hot from the oven though! Would have tasted even better! You can also try the Sugar Puff (沙翁) - something like a donut.
Somewhere along Mongkok street:
Random street food. I was raised on legit Taiwanese 臭豆腐 (smelly tofu), this cube one is a total lie to me. Don't waste your calories lol. The fried calamari is very dough/floury but shiok. Hahaha.
Fei Jie! Long queue!
Basically it's like a... yong tau foo x satay stick shop. But the food we had were COLD! Haha was shocked when I first had a bite. There's mustard and wasabi on our sticks of food, BURN!!! Hahaha. Refreshing though, especially in the Hong Kong heat.
Liked the squid I tried, wasn't interested in all the other organs and livers so I can't share much about that. Hahaha.
I also bought a HKD $3 (50cts SGD yo) eggtart from a random shop, and it was yummy. omg loves. Don't miss the Egglets (jidanzai 鸡蛋仔) too! (Psst, the ones on this street are rather average. For 'famed ones' try the shop at North Point 北角- it's Wenxin's favourite the last time we went to HK together).
Cuteass Hello Kitty ice cream truck! Pok bought a cone. I am a self professed ice cream enthusiast and had very low expecations, being used to icy soft serves, but this was pleasantly milky! Give it a go if you see it!
A place we went TWICE was Tam Zai Mi Xian 譚仔三哥米線. They have a couple of branches. We went to the Mong Kok one (50 Soy Street, 2F) first, and later another one at Jordan.
This is like a local yong tau foo place. The bowls are HUGE, and the chilli ranges from mildest (十小辣 to something like 特辣). There about 10 grades I think? These two bowls are 十小辣, which were very spicy (to me) and peppery. Don't play play go order 中辣 on your first try, you will die. You should see the waitresses try to hide their smirks when people order 'spicier' soup bases. One guy at the other table hardly touched his soup. Red faces around, but some of the locals didn't even break a sweat.
You can order a mixed bowl like ours, with fishball, meatball, ham, mushroom, some veggie, ytf stuff and liver etc, or choose your toppings.The satay sauce is also quite shiok.
Time to check out some dim sum yo!
112 Tung Choi Street, Mongkok, Kowloon
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| All the hype outside the shop... |
I LOVED IT! Crispy and huge, with plenty of fried mantou feels. A resounding YES from TH.
皮蛋粥 Century Egg Porridge
Not very thick, super shiok! The best part of this is the shredded balls of meat inside. Highly recommended!
Piggy Liu Sha Baos... for the liu sha fans (can you tell I'm not one of them? Haha.) Cute is cute la...
We couldn't take a lava oozing pic so you get this instead. Featuring my food model's hands, Cass, hehe.
Ok THIS. is damn shiok. This is prawn cheong fun（脆皮鲜虾肠）with super crispy stuff inside. I loved this. BIG RECOMMENDATION FROM ME! Silky smooth cheong fun, slurp.
We also had regular cheong fun with char siew (also very YUMMM!), a beef ball I didn't try (too full), prawn siew mai that were bigger than what I was used to- I had to eat it in several bites, yummy har gows (KS: Put the whole thing in your mouth, you can feel the shrimp swimming in your mouth).
And...terrible xiao long baos. Super disappointing.
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| Looks are deceiving. No soup, no shiok meat. It's a strong 'No' from me. |
You can also check out Tim Ho Wan, we didn't have time.
Tim Ho Wan
9-11 Fuk Wing Street, Sham Shui Po (10 min walk from SSP MTR)
Aight, I didn't cover everything that we ate in Hong Kong, but hey, I really love cha can tengs so here's one more.
Shun De Ren 顺德人 (Jordan)
Address: somewhere near Australian Milk Company (lol)
What's special here: it's close to Australian Milk Company (which is always crowded). We tried the satay beef + 出前一丁 instant noodles. The toast here is different in the sense that they use garlic butter spread.
Here are also some other places we didn't manage to visit this time, but do check them out too! This can be your contigency plan.
Australian Milk Company (Jordan)
47-49 Parkes Street, Jordan, MTR Jordan Exit C2
Go get the milk pudding. There was a crazy queue when we got there so we skipped this. Lots of good reviews from friends about this place too!
Mido Cafe
63 Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei
One regret I have about HK is eating too little desserts. We have average ice desserts, and I didn't eat as much cake or ice cream as I wanted (too full, lol). Boo. Will be back with a bigger dessert stomach next time.
Will be back soon with the next installation of the Skye High in Hong Kong series, featuring places to go in HK! Stay tuned and thanks for reading! I hope this helps you in your travel plans, especially if you're a HK n00b like me who can't even speak/understand Cantonese.
Special thanks to Darren & Yi'an for sharing their travel itineraries with addresses and all! And to my HK travel buddies Cass, Kokswee and Pok!
For pretty pictures taken in HK, check out my post: Artsy Fartsy
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