Around the corner from mine recently reviewed
208 Duecento Otto - http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=46034 - lies a somewhat hidden corner shop that's sells well-known Chinese Porkchop run by some oldies couple. Although others might take it for granted, for someone like me who only recently arrived back I am still gradually seeking out many local joints for exploration. I must admit I am skeptical as to what I should and could expect at such so-called 'oldy' traditional places. For example, there has been many places that people give irrefutable SMILING-4 scores to, yet sometimes when I end up trying those my personal score fluctuates a lot more and varies quite a bit with the concensus median. Sometimes it might be very good and really worth a '4', even a '5' occasionally, but many times I also leave with big disappointment.
So anyway, I guess that's the fun of exploring around as a foodie but if my score does not happen to coincide with yours, don't stress and don't write me complaint letters either, please just treat it as my contribution to the overall data pool and part of statistical count.************************
PORKCHOP WITH RICE AND ADDED FRIED EGG 金牌豬扒飯加煎蛋 -Honestly, I never expected much upon arrival here.
Its seemingly just another one of those over-hyped places, where customers might feel sympathetic for the oldie couple and write positive comments anyway, regardless of the true quality of food. Even I do that sometimes nowadays. That's why I also added a fried egg for $4.0 in case the porkchop turned out hard and dry and I might need some egg yolk to lubricate it all - and that shows you how pessimistic I really was! The porkchop was pre-marinated and pan-fried. My first bite of it however was not only a pleasant surprise, I was very impressed and I instantly fell in love. My complaint about most porkchops in HK is that they're inevitably oily, overly 'sugary' marinated and sodarised, making them taste like desserts. Here, the marination was perfect - finely balanced act between sweetness, soy sauce and just a hint of ginger and perhaps other subtle spices, enough to make it special but not so much it destroys the original taste. it also wasn't chemically treated and retained for once, a wholeheap of real pork taste, a true rarity. It was just tender enough and not artificially so, even the amount of pork fat was well proportioned, not too fat yet just enough! Perfection. The rice was also cooked very well, better than many Cha Chaan Tengs and restaurants. Tasty, aromatic, individually grainy. The egg in hindsight was superfluous but even that was fried pretty well, runny yolky but not watery, topped with a drizzle of commercial soy sauce. 4.8/5
EGG AND FRESH BEEF SANDWICH 鮮牛肉蛋三文治 -My title is named after the Black Swan Theory because my encounter of eating here might forever, substantially impact me on my perspective and approach to future dining at some of the neglected, smaller localized shops. Sure examples in town are obviously scarce as I unfortunately found out, but if the above porkchop rice wasn't convincing enough this Fresh Beef with Egg Sandwich also proved equally but unpredictably good. Don't prejudge shops by appearance! This is infact their other, lesser known signature dish, the fresh beef were sliced to about a perfect 1.5mm thickness, not very sodarised, carrying a perfect balance of marination and great, very fresh beef taste. Sounds a bit repetitive already in this review? That's because it's the exact same verdict I'd reached with the above porkchop dish. Compared to the crumbly and tiny portioned, so-called fresh beef sandwich at 新香園 (堅記) which was non-corned beef but tasted like it was tinned anyway, disappointing to say the least, this sandwich in fact had less eggs but somehow carried much more eggs taste. And the much better beef quality too... finally, here's a shop that does a HK Style beef sandwich that gives full justice to the Fresh Beef term. 4.5/5
ICED LEMON TEA -This is normally fault-free, so I shouldn't have much to write about lemon teas right? Wrong...! The old lady serving me saw that I'd finished my lemon tea prematurely before I had yet to finish my food. She comes by my table, picked up my emptied lemon tea cup, then a minute later returns and hands me a refilled iced lemon tea with half-syrup as per my original order. On the house, in case I was thirsty. Surely, such an act by the shop will make you feel very 感動 & 人間有情. 4.0/5
***************
After trying a not bad but not impressive Porkchop Bun in Macau's 大利來記 months ago, I decided to make my way AGAIN to this hard to access area of town to give it a shot finally. I say again because more than a year ago I've already tried to come but it was closed when I arrived, apparently it closes around 4 to 4:30pm on average so beware.
Suspecting that it wouldn't be very good was the reason it took me another year before I made up mind to come again. It was great indeed. 其實真的是比想像中好食. 唔係, 係再好食d 添! Customers here surprisingly ranged from Japanese to Locals to many local living Westerners that I saw. Who says foreigners don't understand how to eat HK food? Its pure assumptions without basis indeed, as is evident from the customer patroning here. If you want further proof, scroll down and read one of the other reviews below.
One of the shops that I will be going back for a long long time, as their porkchop and eggs & fresh beef sandwich quality surpassed any other similar dishes I have tried in HK so far. 208 Duecento Otto might be all the rage now, but its this shop which has won my heart. 
Located on a back alleyway, not easy to Find.
Located on a back alleyway, not easy to Find.
Porkchop Rice. Very good.
Porkchop Rice. Very good.
Fresh Beef and Egg Sandwich.
Fresh Beef and Egg Sandwich.
Why did I post 2 Photos of Iced Lemon Tea? 請看下面:
Why did I post 2 Photos of Iced Lemon Tea? 請看下面: