Most people who know me would know I have that wanderlust lurking beneath the otherwise obvious yearn for stability to nest. While it's comforting to know that the places you go eat and all will exist for another long period of time due to popularity, it's not unusual to want to explore unfamiliar territories as well. Recently I stepped into Wan Chai again, and instead of looking into the favorites, I looked for the unfamiliar, something that didn't strike me as something I would normally go in. I stopped at the front step of Ippai, and there, I went inside.
Fast food, Japanese style. You first pay for your orders then you wait inside the dining space. There was a TV, blaring in the small screen some worn movies that nobody remembered watching. Instead of TV, I looked around to find that the furnishing is quite neat. The space, though, was filled tightly with chairs loosely arranged as if a strong wind has blown through the space creating an organized chaos. No sense seems to make out of that arrangement, and nobody seems to care either. Until then, our food has arrived.
On a tray udon with broth so steamy my glasses were fogged just to take a second look of it. The udon noodle was soft but slurp-able, in ways that you just know it's not the premium kind but it's 'edible'. But that does not nearly justify on the quality they use. The broth was faintly briny and certainly reminded me of MSG-laden instant miso soup I had growing up. The Pork cutlet that went with the udon arrived again, piping hot. The thinly battered piece of meat was cut into strips, The coating was thin, and crispy at the same time. Crispy exterior enrobed the seasoned meat, assuringly enough, it didn't bear the texture of cardboard. (What a relief).
A white-peach soda accompanied the udon and porkchop. This one was a major disappointment. We didn't expect much of a peachy drink, but what we weren't expect at all would be a faux-peche taste-alike that brought me back to painful childhood memories of "good for you" fruit-flavoured cough syrup. And to make things worse, it's cough-syrup diluted with soda water. The killer combination of fizz and artificial flavours drove me up the wall and possibly on my way to gastronomic insanity soon enough.
The Curried Potato Cake brought me back to the real world though. Though not outstanding, the deep-fried disc was served cut in half, golden brown on the outside and a moist interior filled largely with curried mashed potatoes. The patty was slightly larger than a hockey-puck (please look it up, it looked so much like it in real life) and it's best split in half and shared between two people.
The idea of wandering without a fixed destination may seem pointless and like an extravagant activity not many are interested in pursuing. It is, time consuming indeed to seek out for places you want to try but know very little about. Maybe one shouldn't think too much about the anticipation of something great, or great expectations that may or may not be fulfilled at all. The idea of wander in the city is to be inspired by it, and by many wonderful establishments that we have overlooked blooming around us. This, is certainly what wanderlust is good for, I supposed.
Note: You don't always get to good places wandering around, but at least you try them, you'll learn your lesson...
Rich Thick Milk Cap -- slightly salty to the taste
Taste the milk cap first, then the tea, then both.
Location (bad photo, I know, it was quick snap)
Some people call it the driving force to progress, while some considers it the part where you get distracted by the presence of it and loses focus. Rivalries can be on both sides of the coin. You deliver the goodies, you get your share of your customers, you don't, blame it all you want, you ain't getting any attention, or for that matter, sympathy either. The Taiwanese beverage joints have turned CWB into another Mongkok. In one cross-section there are four beverages stores, the most recent one being Gong Cha, the latest venture of the popular joint, and the first one on this side of the harbour. Arriving at the busiest district to stake their claim, it's undoubtedly true that "drinkers" will temporarily abandon their favorite joints to check out the new one. This day I was lucky enough to come at a time when lines have yet to build up.
I ordered up one 奶蓋紅茶 with less sugar. This 'milk cap' is according to them, a "trade secret" I have no intention to find out its content, but it's something that I'd like to try to recreate at home. It has a consistency of Mexican crema mixed with a little bit of double cream (unwhipped), and lose the tang -- the thickness of the cream layer hence floats on top of the chilled and shaken black tea and ice cubes in the middle.
Maybe it's the opening jitters, or maybe they're just nervous to have a line building up early evening. The staffs are not standing around idling or texting SMS. They are really keeping themselves occupied prepping, shaking and so on. My order arrived chilled and freshly made, with thin steaks of cream worming downwards into the glittering brownness of the black tea. As you observe closer, you can see the uniform creaminess leaching into the tea, floating about until the creaminess dilutes the tea into a milky concoction, bit by bit, until at the end the entire beverage becomes cloudy and then milky at the end. Suggested procedure of consumption of this drink please see HERE. The cream layer is thick, with a slightly salty taste to it. The plain tea (at the beginning, no cream dissolved in it yet) is sweet and slightly toasty, but not to the same extend similar to the Oolong's toastiness. When you mix the two together, the cream mellowed out the colour as well as the taste of the entire beverage.
The beverage list is pretty much the same across the board, and so is the narrow waiting space on the street. Really, it doesn't matter where you stand there will always be someone waiting WITH you, squeezing alongside the curb anticipating their numbers to be called, in time people inevitably form a line without themselves knowing -- something HK-ers do at best even when we're not consciously doing so. It's just as amazing to see staff from other joints coming by the drink at Gong Cha. Maybe they're testing out their fellow rival, maybe they're just there for the fun of it. Gong Cha's beverage selections are not limited to fruity green tea, it offers a certain selection that's unique on its own. Case in point, it has the milk cap, and it's by far the best among other similar products (including lookalikes)
Looks like Gong Cha is here to stay, it can be good news for fans for these teas, maybe not so good for its rivals?!
When social animals need to live up to their "nature", they meet up and be "sociable". It used to be a hassle calling up each and everyone for a gathering, but now you have facebook, twitter, and everything else that updates you by the millisecond who wants what, when and where. There are small gatherings and then there are the big ones. I, as someone who writes here on Openrice occasionally, must admit that I've yet to attend the latter. Small ones, though, I have. On this day, in the middle of summer, we decided to meet for hotpot, of all things. The 15 of us got a table at the Megabox joint, and here we were, blending into a mixed crowd of the familiar and strangers.
The location is, to be exact, "hard to get to" for someone who's been too comfortable with point to point transportation. Megabox is not easily accessible, and even if you're inside it feels like the directions are screaming out at you in different directions, when you finally reached into the elevator that shoots you up to the floor of your choice, you'll realize, that it doesn't matter anymore. TACK HSIN at the Megabox is a clean square room, brightly lit even on a sunny day, with a view of the open skating rink below and the harbour on the outside. Hot Pot for 15 means we're going to get 2 to 3 pots of different soup bases, and by all you can eat, it means that we're all going to have a good time passing food across the table.
Focusing on one pot, the ordering began, as checks were swiftly marked in each tiny boxes on the ordering list -- beef, meatballs, cuttlefish, slices of scallops, and all that. For the soup base we ordered a double-soup base (half of Coriander broth and the other, a Szechuan chili hot soup base). The shimmering pot of jade green and chunky crimson broth were a contrast on each other, with star anise, chilies and their seeds easily fished out from the latter. At last the first of bubbles erupted from the chili broth, and the onslaught of "cooking process" began -- we each added in meats and vegetables by the platefuls, clearing out plates' contents into the simmering broth before the waiters could settle more of our orders onto our table. After each addition, we all sat down, reaching our arms out, chopsticks in hand, blending in raw slices of meat and meatballs, and slices of squid together. For a minute or two nobody moved, eyes still on the pot with the lid on. Our eyes might have been fixated at the pot, conversations started to flow with hot tea, as we were just glad that we had finally been able to meet up and have a meal together, on the same table. And soon enough before long the strangers in the able have blended in and become friends with each other faster than it took to cook thin shavings of beef!
I have limited my choice of pictures to beef, which was primarily the most ordered ingredient of the night. The "dumplings" were served frozen. There were two kinds -- one with barbecued pork and the other, sweet custard. The texture was supposedly glutinous and gooey on the outside while the filling was hot and molten. Sadly, it was the chunky barbecued pork dumpling that won our attention. I normally preferred the custard one, but let's face it, when you have a chili broth, it'd taste rather weird because you could taste neither the chili nor the custard...It became "a gooey mess" in the end.
The beer was flowing, and so were the conversations. We laughed and chuckled our way through another tray of beef, and to the staff's surprise even after two hours the 15 people who sat in the centre of the room were still having healthy appetites,crossing each others' chopsticks and downing plates after plates of meats. (Let's not forget, we're talking about 15 adults). The meal is rounding up with a full belly, and frankly to have this kind of hot pot TACK HSIN seems a reasonable choice and the quality maintains at a high standard across town (in different branches).
Seating here may be a little tight, and that, has stirred up quite big trouble that night, causing disruption between our table and the adjacent table. There were exchanges of some not so nice language and nearly actions involved -- that, is not the willingness to "blend in" can do...When people say the prolonged "boiling" during a hot pot dinner boils one's temper as well, I now realized what they mean. It's no joke and certainly no conflict resolution on my part, perhaps we all need to loosen up and learn to blend in with each other -- chill out, down a glass of ice cold beer, and be cool.
Golden Army of Custard Tarts fresh out of the oven
There is only so much you can say about one certain thing, or so I thought.
Hoover Cake Shop, translated in Chinese to become "Luxury". The cheaper alternative of foreign pastries will get you to this long-queue corner shop. The store space is tightly packed, where the sales ladies work with roomful of metal trays arranged neatly on shelves. Each shelf holds an array of fresh out of the oven cupcakes, tarts, and breads -- plain or wheat or with raisins. HOOVER is a staple, and inside the beating heart of Kowloon City, nobody will doubt the legendary status and how Hoover got it.
For $10 you can get three 'coconut tarts' -- you can see the red jewel-like maraschino cherry on top --no one I know ever eats that fruit, so dyed in red, as it is ever so cloyingly sweet that it makes the coconut tastes like something out from the paper shredder. Not this one. Pale golden and lumping in half-dome of a mound is the coconut filling, lightly sweet and dense at the same time. The pastry shell is toasty but buttery as well.
The legendary custard tart ($3.50 each) tastes consistently over the years. I've had one before a meal on one day, in between meals on another, and as a "dessert/ stomach filler" on another occasion. The tart shell is neither the shortbread crust nor is it flaky either. It's a cross between the two and frankly, I enjoy it a lot, with its richness in butter and a delightful crunch upon each bite, revealing a sweet wobbly custard filling the glow of shimmering gold. It's quite a sight to see a tray of new custard tarts come out of the oven and rest on the shelf -- each puffed up filling soon sink slightly in its shell, The custard filling is eggy and velvety smooth, at the same time it's denser than many custard tarts out there as well. I have had these tarts several times, and each time they don't disappoint, whether I got them just out of the oven, or been standing around for an hour or two. I always have it without the bag, as the cupping of a naked hand nests a perfectly round custard tart with ridged sides, nibbling on feeling the contrast of crisp shell and soft filling, feeling every bit of it, never wasting a crumb, be in on the paper, the hand, or even visible on the chin.
Each time at Hoover reminds me how important it is to maintain high consistency, and it's not just in business we're talking about. By constantly delivering scrumptious custard tarts, Hoover has never stopped impressing locals, whether you like custard tarts in the first place or not. Old-style bakeries like Hoover don't need the glamorous makeover in the shop, or rare ingredients and artful designs. Its modest simplicity can be, and is already a form of luxury on its own.
Wants and Needs don't necessarily go hand in hand. You want to eat out, but you may not need to do so; You need to exercise to lose the extra weight but you may not want to. It may be relative whether the two should align anytime during one's life, depending on the circumstances, often times, it is one who makes the call, weighing which trumps the other. Recently for me it's the vivid memory of the whole pork knuckle (comes with sauerkraut and beer) during a trip out west. It's not easy to tackle a whole pork knuckle but after an entire morning of hiking with the sun blazing above, it's not all that hard to down it. (I enjoyed it a lot, in fact). The aftermath certainly involves shunning away from every bits of swine limbs every time I get, oh, and I want vegetables.
This day I just happened to stop by this little joint. The name was familiar, and when I knew I wanted mid-morning breakfast, the name of 紅米粢飯 won me over. 甘香齋 has opened for 20 some years in a different location, it's only recently that they have relocated into this new location at Shell Street, neighboring Tea and Herb just down a few stores. They offer convenient lunches with 8 different varieties of vegetables, soy products, and beans to choose from each day, feel free to mix and match with a giant bowl of soup and a choice of white/ red+ white rice to go with each meal. At $25 (for 2 choices) it's quite a steal in the neighborhood.
I ordered up that 紅米粢飯 and have chilled soy milk to go with. ($13 for breakfast, $14 after 11am). I was greeted by a smiley woman who handed me my order. The soy milk was chilled, but not ice-cold. It tasted lightly sweet. The 紅米粢飯 arrived next -- tightly bound in plastic wrap like any other ones. I looked closely from the outside -- granules of white glutinous rice turned slightly purple -- the colour of lilac, with black glutinous rice bejeweling within. The filling was fried dough, pickled mustard tuber and wait...pork floss? I looked again, it really was pork floss. Turned out, it was one of those vegetarian pork floss -- made with the stem part of mushrooms (unlikely ingredient, but think about a fresh mushroom's stem. When you bite into it, it becomes tiny strands!) I unwrapped the parcel and bit into it -- the textures and flavours were exactly the same with the meat-version, so real I seemed to have forgotten the whole not-eating-meat factor. It wasn't an issue at all when I was eating it, bite by bite. The nice crunch on the mustard tuber paired nicely with the gooey fried dough and the glutinous rice exterior, which also offered a slightly sweeter aftertaste than just ordinary white glutinous rice.
While enjoying this, I was offered some culinary tips by the smiley lady -- turned out, glutinous rice, the black one has to be presoaked and cannot be cooked in a rice cooker (I did not know that). To yield fluffy glutinous rice the granules must be soaked before hand and then STEAMED (she didn't show me how, but I figured it's like cooking basmati rice) That, I didn't know in the first place. The lady was friendly all through our conversation and that made my visit a good one with simple food but good conversations, also made me realize that restaurant experiences often don't lead up to the personal conversation of likes, dislikes, and preferences, and smiles are often in very short supply as well. (sincere ones are scarce among the smiles you get). The service, was enthusiastic and it showed me that these people who have run this little shop for the past 20 some years, have done something right, that they have wanted to do it right and felt to align the needs for their clientele and their own to do things the right way -- not to waste, and to encourage themselves to serve on a mission to promote vegetarian meals for the omnivorous clientele. That, is the kind of charity mission I think that will benefit me not just on the front of health, but others as well.
Note: 甘香齋 closes at 3 pm on Sundays and Public holidays. Other days they close at 8 pm.
Television's primetime is not the prime time for dining options -- you see people lining up in each and every store (even at those you KNOW that serves crappy food, especially when you feel the urge to reach out to those people informing them they're about to spend money on crap). You also fail to make a decision. At a time when you need something to eat real fast, usually "real good" doesn't get to be factored in, and on this day, we chose this place to have a quick bowl of noodles so we can move on to our destination in time.
We aimed for fishballs, primarily because ever since we landed back to Foodieland after the Eurotrip we have yet to get a fix at noodles with fishballs. So here we were, 3 of us sat down and swiftly ordered "魚皮餃河"and "魚蛋河". Seeing something strange such as "豆苗餃米", we ordered one as well. (Each, $20)
The blaring TV screen stole our attention, but soon enough mine got shifted to the picture laden walls -- each item on the menu has a picture, a name, and a pricetag on, as if those who don't know "tripe" will ditch their adventurous attempt if they don't witness the possibility of "stringy dark strips resembling a cross of jellyfish and rubber band, and comes from a cow". We wanted one ($28) but it was sold out when the night was still young.
"魚皮餃河" arrived in a flash -- 5 pieces of dumplings with the wrapper slightly off beige and translucent revealing pork filling the colour of light pink. It's cooked, and it has always been pink like this. The dumplings were ok, except that I would prefer the wrapper to be more on the chewy side though. Rice noodles were uniformly cut (probably ordered cut) and easy to slurp up in bunches. The broth was made mostly with fish -- milky white and each whiff of aroma brought up reminiscence of the bones of many fish being simmered down to liquid essence of fishiness.
I've always considered 魚蛋河 to be quite exclusive -- since there are always more variations on the fishball itself (using fish as a primary ingredient) but in different forms. Here there are the conventional fishball, then the "fish slice", and a few deep fried conical shapes of fish. They all tasted quite the same, afterall they're all made with fish, just into different shapes. They all tasted quite evenly fishy but slightly softer than I normally have mine as well.
豆苗餃 turned out to be a copycat of the 水餃 on the looks. The filling, however, featured a mix of pea tendrils unlike the wintry pea tendrils we normally have. This one is coarser and bearing lighter taste. The shrimps are chopped into bits, mixed with pork and perhaps a little bit of waterchestnut for textures. The overall impression wasn't bad, but they dumpling itself was too large on its own. No wonder they only put three in per order.
Now that we've had our fishballs and noodle fix, we could easily head out into the night. Yet one of us, while finishing last bits of her noodles, suggested with a twinkle in her eye, that she sees possibilities for drinks afterwards. And then, off we go, disappearing into the streets, passing through bustling traffic and hungry lines yearning for the next best dinner when the night is prime.
I'm not going to play on words this time, knowing that I have already done that and it was darn funny. This time I'll focus on the experience.
Chun Yuen Street at 1 pm is hectic, almost war-zone like, in a way that the mixed crusaders who lunch march their ways into any restaurant they can find. They run in groups, weapons in hand (women: large purses/ men: purses, too -- these days, let's cut them some slack!), staking their claims joining the long lines of loud-calling numbers. Those who failed to sit down right away or at least in 5 minutes fret in despair, as if losing the battle. Some determined and optimistic enough they could "still beat it" (the time, that is). Lunching here, afterall, is mostly fast food -- factory-lined processes that didn't really need extra time to prepare. It's all done before the 12 pm crowd arrives. All it takes for the kithen to do is to scoop and serve. This day, the Thai place has the shortest line, and without further ado, I jumped into the queue, clearly I was right, within 5 minutes, I was seated.
It was the narrowest seat I've ever been seated, and the most uncomfortable too. But that didn't matter, it's fast food, remember? The shop was quite dark even on a sunny day, as if the owners have decided to skim on lighting for a good cause. We ordered one order of the Hainanese Chicken, and another, a bowl of thin rice noodles with Thai fish cakes and Porkchop with lemongrass and a soup base of coconut chicken soup.
It didn't surprise me that they arrived in a flash. Our attention landed on the noodles first. The porkchop was cut into strips, and the fish cakes (2 whole pieces, each cut in half) were piled up on the top, beneath it the "white on white" combination of coconut chicken soup base, soaking into starch-white rice noodles and a bunch of bean sprouts for crunch. The broth was not as thick as an ordinary coconut chicken soup you normally would have. It's lighter, and had the combination of flavours in it -- the slight richness of coconut milk after greeted by the astringent zesty lime juice. Chopped bits of lemongrass stalks were floating about in the broth, and contributed the flavours as well. Refreshing enough, the porkchop was also of lemongrass flavour -- strips of fried porkchop warmed up in advance. It wasn't quite as easy to chew, but seasoning was done thoroughly. The fish cake, thick and fried in advance, was textbook -- with fine juliennes of kaffir lime leaves and coriander leaves. It tasted like the fish cakes I've always had. I would, however, prefer it freshly fried. The noodles were not turned into mush, and that, I think was more than I can hope for given how little time we waited for it. The Hainanese chicken was supposedly boneless, which was a disappointment to begin with. I always considered making it boneless a redundant attempt to be lazy. (Maybe I just like gnawing on the bony bits too much). They come in boneless strips, skin on (comforting!) neatly in a pile. The skin was golden and pieces of meat moist and tender, not exactly full-blown flavour though. (It's not overcooked, which offered me some relief). The rice was a fluffy dome well flavored with juices from chicken and the broth the chicken was cooked in. They complimented each other, and on a personal side of things, I tend to like the rice a little bit more because they have taken in more flavorful juices. But well, that's just me.
The accompanied soup never arrived at our table, but the lime soda wasn't half bad. The slight sprinkle of salt muddled with the wedge of lime was just right, combined with sugar and soda water to make a refreshing drink that quench the thirst in the mid-summery day. We hurried through the two orders, and within half an hour, we were out the door as another two lunch-hopefuls hurried in for their turns.
It is hard to say where the line-ups go, as they change day by day. Sometimes this place have a line so long it extends towards the store next door, sometimes, like this time, took less than 5 minutes to get in. The food you can count on the simpler orders. Anything more complicated than fried noodles you can skip if it's for lunch. Think about it, the popular items are often prepared with care in advance, they probably wouldn't spend much time entertaining special requests or those that are too "different". It's not just about playing safe on the restaurant's side, you'd prefer the better prepared dishes, don't you?
推介菜式:Hainanese Chicken, noodles with Coconut Chicken Soup Base
Rice w/ Mixed Tempura ($95) is a blend of textures
Buckwheat noodles -- the mushroom is the star!
Superb Steamed custard -- soft as velvety silk.
Complimentary Coffee paired sadly with CoffeeMate
Set Lunches in Central -- prices ranging from $80 to $150 is the norm, I think. Those who has spent their lunch hours begging for a seat at a reputable joint (big and small) will know that neither do you have enough time for the 3 course lunch, nor will you enjoy it even if you do. And that, is another reason to celebrate the fact that a public holiday has landed on yet another weekday. You see, some restaurants don't run a holiday schedule. They run their weekly brunches with free flowing bubbly on the weekends and during the week, work or holidays, they run set lunches. Those who have not been able to availed themselves for these opportunities will have the chance to do so, to splurge on the expense of time, to try these places.
Sushi Uogashi, a joint with a familiar name, which opened previously in TST and Causeway Bay (closed), has re-opened in the new building opposite of Luk Yu Teahouse. At exactly 1 pm we arrived to find that the place was nearly empty. This would never have happened should it be a weekday. The place occupied a square space brightly lit with a sushi bar looking over to the kitchen action while wooden furnishing filled the room, which is modestly decorated with Japanese art accents of paper cranes, theatre masks and ceremonial elements. Set lunches prix fixe ranges from $85 to $150 per person. Each comes respectively in a set with miso soup and steamed custard. The $150 set lunch featured "3 mini bowls of rice", which each person can 3 choices among a list of toppings. You can choose one of each from sea urchin, salmon roe, tuna, to grilled eel. various types of tempura.
For our lunches we chose the "Rice with Mixed Sashimi" (雜錦魚生飯, $130) and the Rice with Mixed Tempura (雜錦天婦羅飯, $95). The sashimi rice also has a small bowl of udon in hot broth, while the tempura set comes in the same thing, except replaced by buckwheat noodles.
Rice with Mixed Sashimi arrived in an enormous bowl set on a lacquered tray. Next to it an array of neatly set bowls including the udon in steaming hot soup, the steamed custard (lid-on, with wooden spoon) and a miso soup, also steaming hot. The rice, as shown in the picture, really was surprisingly "mixed". It didn't look very arranged and correct me if I'm wrong, but I had a different picture in mind. I thought it was going to be everything neatly tucked together "mixed" by type, not by looks. But that, could be forgiven should the quality surpasses the looks. I comforted myself that all the time especially when fried intestines or cod sperm was concerned, but never quite like this.
The rice was vinegared, but not typical sushi rice vinegar as I normally would have. A little more tangy perhaps. The fish, cut into small bits, really was mixed in variety as well. There they were -- tuna, salmon, whitefish, and a few others I couldn't name but have had plenty of during trips to sushi joints. A beautiful shrimp with a tilting head topped the fish pile as gems of salmon roe bejeweled its surroundings. The fish bits were slightly mellow, and if I may add, not exactly the perfect type of mixed sushi rice I would imagine myself having either. The fish, cut into bits so small, was actually difficult to pick up with chopsticks to eat WITH the rice. I was at a loss of words when suddenly an epiphanic moment hit me. SCRAPINGS, that's the word I was after. The fish looked like scrapings here and there, and everywhere. I hope I wasn't right about this, but I so would preferred to have 3 different mini bowls of rice with one fish at a time. I imagined for the extra $20 it would look and taste significantly different?!
The udon in hot broth was satisfactory. The udon was a little on the softer side (though you can't really compare that to the ones served cold at Ootoya). The chewy factor gone, but the broth was briny enough to take on the flavours of kombu and bonito as I slurped up yet another of those slippery noodle. That, fulfilled the expectation I had for the meal so far.
Rice with Mixed Tempura was impressive in terms of presentation. Seeing past the same accompanying elements of steamed custard and miso soup. The small bowl of buckwheat noodles in briny broth was delicate. The broth was steaming as well but clearly tasting quite different from the udon broth. The buckwheat noodles had a slight bite to it as ringlets of scallions accompanied it well.
The rice itself was delicious (I almost never use this word in writing...it's so vague) Slightly sticky and easily picked up in small lumps, the rice was well seasoned with the tempura soy sauce which tasted briny and sweet at the same time. The shrimp tempura (2 pcs) presented crisscrossed across the top was a classic look for the dish, and the coating was thin and crispy, not to mention tasting fresh throughout. In terms of vegetables, the eggplant was on an angular cut with knifework on it that resembled a comb when fried. It was moist and delicate, while the thin wedge of kabocha tempura was honey sweet and starchy in texture.
Little bits of crunchy fried bits top the rice, offering extra crunchiness to the otherwise soft lumpy rice. I found this deeply satisfying and frankly, it's the kind of finishing touches that got my by surprise. The miso soup was just as ordinary as it normally would taste like in a quick casual lunch, the steamed custard was another way to impress (or dread, in many occasions). When uncovered, a whiff of mushroom aroma arose as silky smooth custard slightly jiggled a softly-set jelly in front of me. The colour was -- perfectly as it is, a custard. I dipped an exploratory spoon to touch the surface, and digging in slowly as the custard dented, and gave in to the slightest pressure of the wooden spoon, a wonderful egginess surfaced and met my eye and nose. I let the custard melt slowly in my mouth, as a complex combination of shiitake mushrooms, egg, and chicken harmoniously erupted and fused together. As the custard slid down the throat, my hand was already on the next scoop. It was one of the good steamed custards I've had, and I must say, this was perhaps the jewel of the crown for this meal.
The complimentary coffee of the meal was not a made-to-order coffee. It was steamy hot when served, with a slightly woody and smoky flavour less pronounced than hickory. It's a shame that the restaurant decided to offer "Coffee Mate" instead of real cream, that, was a disappointing no-no for me.
Service was of course prompt, at a restaurant that probably could sit no more than 35, and at a time when there were only one other table was having a meal. Mike Pung, the manager here, was pleasant and friendly to chat over the course of our meal. When the idea of a food blog/ writeup came up, he looked taken aback, but resumed with a killer smile and a whole feed about the restaurant, its stories, and some other specialties.
Lunching here may seem difficult if you're not a fast runner to stake your claim for a table, but there are possibilities and hope for the return to try that tempting 3 mini bowls next time.
推介菜式:Rice with Mixed Tempura (and the steamed custard that accompanied)
What gives you the motivation to get up early on the weekend, when you have no workout/ training schedule to follow, or anything planned at all? Those who get up early enough to get their "1st worms" during the week may prefer sleeping in, indulge in a decadent brunch at mid-day (sipping champagne). Then there are those on the look out for things we don't have the pleasure to have during the week -- the leisure to sit down at have breakfast. We grab a toast in a hurry, pack our cereal, or drink our coffee while we wait for the elevator on our way to our destinations.
I've heard much about 金記. The food may not be the most outstanding among establishments like these, but the funny that the earlier you get to the joint, the better service you get, and the better quality you get. There I was, wanderingpast TAI ON Estate, passing by irresistible temptations at 百利 and 牡丹咖啡, I arrived at the side street where 金記 is located.
Tiled floors with light green painted walls, the use of conventional fluorescent lighting makes the space dimmer than it normally would. The wooden booths were not of the roomy kind, in fact it'd be rather embarassing sitting with strangers when your knees grow deep against theirs, the strange intimacy between strangers would work best in situations other than this one. The breakfast is a good eeal. For $24 you'll get a ham omelette, a hot beverage (recommending the milk tea), and a macaroni in broth with beef, served in one of those plastic soup dish that matches coincidentally with the walls.
It didn't surprise me that it's the hot milk tea that arrived first. In the most conventional sense, the tea was in one of those thick porcelain cups -- white with a deep red line just below the lip, and the handle a tingy round just small enough to fit in an index finger wrapping around it. Tea was hot, but the familiar aroma of the tea's complex blend greeted me in open arms, as if to reward my getting up early on the weekend. The initial sip was potent, when combined with high temperature, makes it even more difficult to swallow, but as the tea cooled inside the mouth, travelling through the palates the flavour of the tea and milk harmoniously paired up and permeated into each tastebuds. Its smoothly slid down the throat without inducting that typical stimulating sharpness you'd otherwise expected from a tea THIS HOT.
The ham omelette arrived sliding across the table. It looked the part -- a puffed half moon crescent with the familiar egginess. Strips of ham as filling, the omelette was quite large. What appealed to me the most was its edges, brown and crisp, yielded from the searing over a heated pan, and despite plenty of oil went in the making of this omelette, the lightly runny interior will make you forget all about it.
Macaroni with beef rounded up the bearkfast. Satisfying on its own, it really didn't need much introduction and descriptions to it. The macaroni was the smooth kind. (no ridges on the side). Beef strips were not tossed in satay sauce either, but added just enough of meatiness in a typical breakfast, nothing to complain about, really.
Time was early on the weekend, I visited 金記, customers have not packed the place yet. Staff were more friendly, engaging in conversations tha extended beyond "hello" and "thank you" and "goodbye". When they threw in, "Not many folks wake up this early on a weekend!" I replied as I felt -- that maybe I should come by earlier to try it out. The lady who served me my breakfast nodded to agree. I caught a glimpse of approval as she turned around, and perhaps appreciation from that. She went on joking about the milk tea being bigger, or special requests will be taken care of with more consideration. I realized, that what folks who have had bad experiences with disgruntled service here could have come with better timing. i.e. a time when the mood is good. It all comes down to getting used to being the early bird, not just "early in terms of timing", catching the right one may just get you the first (usually best) worms of the day!
"Tapas?", a voice edged with uncertainty on the other end of the receiver, followed by "You want tapas on your birthday?" I had El Pomposo in mind, but later a dear friend reminded me an opening of a Spanish Tapas Bar in Wan Chai. For days I agonized over possible embarassment during drunken afternoons from Sangria. There were fond memories of the good times, but the bad ones with spilled secrets often override the vivid memories.
TAPEO has set such high standards for me that when it comes to tapas, I hesitated trying UNOMAS, a place literally means "ONE MORE". The luminated sign leading up to dark steps upwwards. At the end of these stairs was a large space, dimly lit with dark lacquered stools against the open bar. The open kitchen offered you all the actions from the chefs preparing your paella, tossing the salads, shaving jamon etc. The large dining room led up to a terrace overlooking fluorescent lit Lockhard Road.
Back inside, the menu looked promising enough -- a stack of papers on a mini clipboard with boxes to check for orders. For the three of us, lighting eating meant four to five tapas, leaving the well anticipated paella out intentionally (for next visit) . The three of us placed orders, and while listening light guitar tunes, we chatted about birthday wishes, and toasted on good health, good life, and goodness in everything else, as the first of our orders descended upon us. CALAMARE RELLENO (Stuffed Calamari with lentils served with saffron aioli, $72) was an extended rectangular plate with a whole squid, stuffed tightly with sauteed green lentils which bears the aroma of smoked ham and onions. The rings of calamari were tender, pairing well with starchy lentils (not mushy though). The saffron aioli was a fluffy light golden pile, so light you wouldn't expect to feel this consistency from an emulsion, think Mayonnaise. The golden hue from saffrom added both a sense of glitzy glamour and floral aroma to an otherwise common sauce for calamari.
CHORIZO FRITO (Chorizo with red wine reduction, $58) was served in a shallow metal pan. This dish was simplicity as i is. Angular cut of a mildly hot sausage flash-fried in a pan with olive oil, sizzling away. In went the red wine and reduced to a thicker and richer sauce. Just as I thought how ell it would go with bread, there they were, sticks of grilled bread contained in a basket were served up. Each strip of bread, soaking up velvety sauce the colour of brick-red.
Next in line was CROQUETAS DE ARROZ Y MANCHEGO (Deep fried rice fritters with Manchego, $48). These realy are the golden globes the size of golf balls. Eah fritter was coated with chopped blanched almonds before frying, creating the ever so nutty alternative to a conventional breaded coating. Each grain of rice was soft awith an al dente-like core, tightly packed enrobing molten manchego cheese as it oozes out from the centre. The burst of richness was uncalled for, but warm and welcoming indeed!!
ALMEJAS AL JEREZ (Sauteed clams with ham and sherry, $68) arrived in the truest sense of a peek-a-boo surprise. Served lid-on, I uncover the dish to reveal the aroma most resembling the sensation as if I were standing at the sandy sea shore of Spain, with wet sand squishing between the toes and sea breeze gently brushing by me. The welcoming whiff of the sea greeted me with such intensity that I completely went speechless for a few seconds, before the briny aroma was replaced by the fragrant sherry wine. The clams may be the focus here, but it was the cannellini beans the stole the show. They soaked up all the flavours from the ham, sherry and clams and slow cooked until desired doneness but never to a mush.
The onslaught of tapas charm was fantastic, but deciding to skip the paella and desserts, we just had to have one last tapas. The MANZANA RELLENA (Stuffed Apples, $68).The apple arrived whole, with filling of raisins and minced pork. Served in a shallow pan, the apple was cored as wel. The sauce was somewhat a savory rough applesauce. The apple was soft but retained shape on its own. Unlike a dessert, the sweetness level of the apple was balanced out by the tartness of it, while the meaty pork was accompanied by caramel sweetness of plump raisins and pine nuts used in the filling. Sweet, savory, nutty, meaty, all harmoniously blended in coherence as our tapas adventure comes to an end.
There may not have been staples like Jamon or Paella, or the bubbly Cava in our Tapas adventure at UnoMas, but the array of tapas drew the curtains for more celebrations of wonderful meals ahead. UnoMas has generated considerable buzz and a reputation of authenticity in Barcelona style Tapas, as the dishes arrived piping hot and the staff were knowledgable in the cuisine they served, allowing people like myself yearning to have the experience re-lived. Perhaps just once more, as suggested appropriately in the establishment's name?
I don't mind waiting in line, in fact I have come to enjoy the process of it, with equal anticipation that I'm waiting in line for something great. (If there are people lining up, there must be some good things about it). Previous experiences have proven me wrong, but that doesn't happen all that often. (Gotta need crying face experiences to make smiley faces worth the while, no?) There's waiting in line, and then there is waiting for something to open, get ready, for business. What happens is that I called up a joint to make sure they open in the morning. They reassured me by 11:30am everything will be all set to go. I arrived on the dot to find that, no, nobody was at the shop. "Come back in half an hour", the lady-in-charge said. At 11:30am only half the shops were open on this same street, and so, to rid of my temporary state of disappointment and raising level of hunger, I was tempted to give up, but wait, there it was, 唯珍 was open. There's a lady in a floured apron frying potstickers in the front, as I could see from the greasy window at the front.
I walked into the shop, to find everything quite old-style. The tiled floor and the booths were rather narrow. On one side in the front you'll get the kitchen where noodles are boiled and dumplings were fried, behind that you'll see the dumpling production station, where mounds of freshly made chive-and-pork mixture would be swiftly put into floury wrappers and the entire thing folded into dumplings. The ladies here worked quickly and in no time, they finished off trays of those dumplings. I was in the mood for something smaller in serving. So I ordered 3 pcs of those fried dumplings (煎餃, 4pcs for $10) and one gigantic "filled pastry" (韭菜餡餅, $7).
I ordered them to go, only to find that from a distance I could see the shop I wanted to go to has yet to be ready...I changed my order to stay-in instead. The dumplings were served crispy and hot off the griddle. Toasty brown on the base and thick floury wrappers glowing with the excessive brushing of oil through the cooking process. The dumplings were gloriously crispy on the outside. The interior was loosely packed with green chives and minced pork, the proportion is about 50/50. I especially love chives in dumplings but not so much when they're well, in "chive" form...Anyways, the filling was rather juicy but seemed to need a little more seasoning, or maybe some minced ginger will do the job to give it some depth. The wrapper was thick the way I like them, as they are not so easily torn during the flipping in the cooking process.
The gigantic filled pastry was the same chive and pork filling, except this one was more floury and tougher on the dough. Fried with lots of oil and both sides browned, the frisbee round was crispy on the initial bite into it, followed by a burst of meat juices and a sharp grassy taste of the chives. The dough, however, soon has gotten cool and when it did, it became unpleasantly chewy as juices could not permeate into it. I blame it being too large, if it were smaller in size so we could finish each within a few bitefuls, this would give significant perks to this pastry.
Service may be minimal, and it may seem like the ladies here are yelling or complaining at you, but don't fret. They are actually very nice, and will make suggestions if you ask nicely.
Settling comfortably at the table near the entrance, looking over to the opposite side of the street, wondering about the next stop I was about to make. The dumplings may have carried me away for the time it took to take a few "first bites" into each dumpling, in those mere seconds I felt great, but the follow-up didn't quite live up to the crispy beginnings. I looked over to my "next stop", the front door was wide open, furniture arranged. I quickly paid my bill, and hurried across to venture into my new adventure.
First, a friend was twittering her way in Hung Hom, raving over the list of new joints favored by foodies alike. Then the news that GONG CHA has opened its doors in Tsim Sha Tsui, near the Star Ferry Terminal. The tide of tea-lovers have not tided over here, and that, without a visible queue like the joints in Mongkok and a lack of arrow signs and ads to show the way, yield a highly undesirable result -- I got lost wandering the arcade, swallowing hard with high anticipation every turn along the way, until I reached 3rd floor. There it was, GONG CHA, occupying on a tiny shop tucked in a corner, as if being casted off and away to the dark attic of an ancient arcade where people have passed by and forgotten over the years.
There was nothing worth describing about the decor and everything else, as I do plan to write about the joint in MK, so I'll save that for later. The product du jour is of course the standard TEA WITH "MILK CAP" ("奶蓋紅茶", as the salesperson calmly translated it for me). Costing $12, the serving you will get is a large version, and I do believe there ain't any smaller version, nor should there be, given that you will need and want the big one with the 1 inch thick "cap" of dairy on the top.
After some careful construction the tea was served to me, with a sticker that explains how to drink it: 1. Take the lid off, gently sip the creamy top in --> feel the richness of it 2. Use the straw, sip the tea from under the cap --> feel the depth of the tea. 3. Put the lid back on, and carefully stir the dairy part into the tea, gently mixing it (carefully not to spill any) until the mixture becomes the desired level of homogenity. 4. Sip it up and enjoy!!
I followed the directions, and first felt the thick coolness of the cream. It felt like sipping in a thin layer of softly whipped cream, with clotted cream mixed into it. It also tasted slightly salty, to my surprise, but that soon was mellowed out by a sweeter taste from the chilled tea. Tea wasn't quite as strong as I thought it would be, but sweetness was well balanced leaving a trail of slighty "wheaty" aftertaste, instead of the usual Earl Grey/ Orange Pekoe/ Breakfast Tea aftertaste...The milk and the tea match with each other. I realize that there is no need to add extra "tapioca pearls" unless you do enjoy more texture to chew on while you drink your dessert. Good thing the beverage is cool enough to last through the entire time from beginning to finish. (It lasted long enough to go from third floor down to the Ferry).
Maybe it's still new, and people are not lining up for Gong Cha yet, but get this, even in the hottest of a summer day, you will still find better room for lineup here at Gong Cha TST because there is air conditioning, the downside may just be having fewer choices on the special beverages you often get in Mongkok. For the time being, I wouldn't mind coming back again for other teas, perhaps more frequently than I usually allow myself for a sweet fix!
Note: Like many Taiwanese tea-joints. You can request your beverage with less sugar, and more/less ice. Mine shown here is a reduced sugar version (75% of original)
喊瞼 
餐廳總分 
文章形式 | 
地圖形式
使用Facebook登入
75次成為首位寫食評會員
食評數目
人氣指數
16522
留言數目 
上載相片
上載影片
我的心水餐廳
我的推介食評
食評被推次數
287
我的心水食家
34
我的Fans
81
Cough Syrup with Fizz...
Rich Thick Milk Cap -- slightly salty to the taste
2009-10-14
