Lin Heung Tea House, Hong Kong

This is my last post on Hong Kong.

Yes, yes, I hear lots of relieved sighs? :p

Lin Heung, one of the oldest restaurant in Central, was a must visit for it's one of a kind dim sum experience and of course, a very old style chinese dinner at night.

We went for dimsum and SF did remind us to check out the 'scene'; it's like no other.

We reached mid morning, the place was already packed with customers. I noticed there were mainly 2 types of customers, the tourists and the elderly. The locals definitely were more than the tourists; there were actually just a handful of tourist.

Managed to get a table, we shared table with an elderly couple..and we waited..and waited. There were no carts coming our way and no food :(. Next thing we know, everyone was rushing to the cart with their order cards. We learnt a new trick at Lin Heung; dont sit and wait for the dimsum, just run to the cart to get what you want, else you'll never get to eat!

So, after much scuffling for dimsum, we got these..
The siew mai.

The meat was very fresh, but a tad salty for my liking. Luk Yu's fared better.
I wanted my steamed spareribs as usual...

Average tasting though.

The beancurd fishmaw roll

This was really good. The fishmaw was springy, the meat filling sweet and the beancurd, tasty, as it absorbed all the delicious sauce.

The beef balls looked so tempting..

So we took a portion of it. The texture was lovely, the meat was bouncy, very juicy and the bits of orange peel added some zest to this dish.

Amy took the steamed radish cake

Super huge. The radish cake was very smooth and light, but after eating quite a big portion of it, I do get a tad sick of it :p

Total bill for our dimsum was HKD88.

We came back another night for dinner..

Again, this is a place to go if you want to really feel the atmosphere of local restaurant. In the evening, the crowd shifts from tourists and elderly to local families. Everyone was busy tucking in to piping hot chinese dishes.

We started off the dinner with Pork rib with buddha's palm soup

The soup was velvety smooth, so flavourful and all of us enjoyed it tremendously.

SF preordered 1 day in advance for their specialty Stuffed duck

Looks like pat poh ngap (eight treasure duck), but it's slightly different. The filling was so much that we could hardly see the duck meat..

Filled with soft lotus seeds, lots of chopped mushrooms and heaps of salted egg. So much so that we had a hard time finishing this bird. The sauce was thick and scrumptious, would have been better if they gave more of it. :p

Some deer ligamen with mushrooms..

The mushrooms were thick and yummy to bite into. The deer ligamen was slightly soft, gelatinous to sink my teeth into. I prefer the ligamen to have a mild crunch and spring to it

All of us find the stir fried lotus root

Lin Heung's version was full of wok hei, the lotus root and celery was sweet and crunchy, the water chestnut added a fibrous texture to the dish. The caramelised walnuts was so very lip smacking too! Love it.

Total bill was HKD360.

We ended our heavy dinner and popped over to Peel Fresco Music Lounge..

As Mr BS insisted that we had to try the best Sangria (HKD380 a pitcher) in the universe.

The Sangria was indeed very yummy and divine; but I'm not sure if it's the best in the whole universe.

And as we get all comfortable and the drink slowly warming our bodies, the jazz started... and what else could we do but to sit back and relax? :)

Lin Heung Tea House is located at 160-164 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong. Near to Aberdeen street. Can take Sheung Wan MTR exit.

Peel Fresco Music Lounge is located at 49 Peel Street, SoHo, in between Hollywood Road and Staunton Street, right across the street from Joyce is not Here!

And so ends my posts on Hong Kong. Hope it's useful for those who plans to go in near future? Last but not least, many many thanks to SF. Thanks dear for being such a gracious host, we really had a blast!!

La Piazzetta, Hong Kong

We met SF and Anthony for dinner at La Piazzetta, a place Anthony recommended for best italian food at Central area. That coming from a half italian, I guess La Piazzetta's food should be delicious. La Piazetta is a cozy little restaurant tucked away at a quite lane off the Mid Level Escalator at Soho. Lovely place for quite dinners, catching up with friends or having some romantic time with a special someone. Oh, and obviously, with such cosy ambiance comes bad lighting(you know, candles and dim lights), hence my bad pictures (excuses SC, excuses! tsk tsk tsk!) :p

Amy and I were late, SF and Anthony already had their share of bruschetta and were sipping wine.

After getting myself all comfortable, I took the remaining bruschetta. As the bruschetta has been served a while ago, I was worried of soft, soggy bruschetta. But La Piazetta did a great job, after toasting the bread and topping it with ingredients, it was baked again. The result? Moist chopped tomatoes, basil and anchovies with crisp, still crunchy base of bread. Tasty indeed.

Just after I've finished munching on the bruschetta, we got the Napolitana served..

Smells wonderful, this was smashing piece of pizza. Thin crust, the ingredients were so fresh and so very basic, you can actually taste the flavours of each ingredients (of cheese, tomatoes, anchovies and basil). Really reminds me of the pizzas I had in Italy, back to basics, just stressing on the freshness of each ingredients and how it complements the rest.

After the carbs, came the meat...

The Scaloppine al chianti

Well, the name was longer, but I cant recall.. sorry! Anyways, it's melt-in-mouth beef, cooked to perfection with pinkish center, topped with red wine sauce, porcini, bacon and tomatoes. Absolutely mouth watering!

The the pollo something something..

Oh well. I know my italian sucks. It's actually very tender grilled chicken breast with white wine cream sauce and velvety mash. Another gorgeous dish, La Piazzetta did right by serving the rich sauce with chicken breast; it mops up the sauce nicely. Delectable.

Before I could even rest my fork and knife, the highlight of the night was serve...

The Super Marinara..

Super alright. Super, freaking huge. It's a serving for 2 people, but man oh man, it seems more than that after all that other food we have eaten. Anthony, being the only man at the table, aherm, got that tiny bit of 'stuff' in the super huge clam shell (that shell was so huge, could almost cover amy's face). We tucked into the over abundance serving of seafood, and had to dig for the pasta. Same as the pizza, the pasta sauce was very basic, again stressing on the freshness of the tomatoes and herbs. Lip smacking pasta indeed.

I knew we had to stop, but how to without at least a bit of Tiramisu?

The waitress came over with a plate of Tiramisu and a bottle of alcohol.

All of it? she ask Anthony. And hence the base of our Tiramisu was soaked with Marsala. Though slightly intoxicating, it a velvety smooth tiramisu nonetheless.

We had a fantastic dinner and entertainment by a tiny uncle tucked in a corner of the restaurant added more fun to our merry night too :). Bill was HKD270 per person.

5, Tsun Wing Lane, Central, Hong Kong (at a tiny lane between the Mid-levels Escalator and Graham Street in the heart of Soho)

Lok Yuen, Kowloon

When I was over at Kowloon a few years back, I had this excellent beef balls noodles which I enjoyed tremendously. Alas, bad memory did not lead me back to the shop, but I was told that I should try the very famous Lok Yuen beef balls.

Lok Yuen's beef balls were so delicious that it was rumoured the scriptwriter of the movie God of Cookery (one of Stephen Chow's classic) got the idea of springy, soup filled beef balls from eating at Lok Yuen.

The shop was not too packed, we got seats quickly and had our orders taken..

My usual milk tea. Of course not as good as Lan Fong Yuen. But still ok la.

Got some fried eel/ fish skin as snacks before the mains..

A tad salty to eat on it's own, goes better once dipped into the soupy noodles. Nothing to shout about though. Keropok ikan taste better.

Noticed something else that was recommended in the menu..

Fish dumplings with fish noodles..

The fish noodles was rather coarse and a tad chewy. The dumpling skin was also made of fish meat while the filling was somewhat raw looking fish chunk (like sashimi chunks). Though it looked raw, it tasted and felt cook. An interesting bowl of noodles, but taste wise was just mediocre.

The star of the day, Lok Yuen's beef balls noodles..

Super gargantuan beef balls, about the size of ping pong balls.

So what's so special about Lok Yuen's beef balls?

It's filled with soup and bits of fish maw. One had to take good care while biting into it as the soup may just, erm, squirt out. The beef balls were really springy, though lacked the gamey taste that I so love. And yes, the centre was filled with mildly sweet soup and slippery smooth, slightly spongy textured fish maw. Was I in ecstasy when I bit into one of these famed beef balls? (ala God of Cookery). Erm, sadly No. It was just nice beef balls, but not impressive ones.

Total bill was HKD97.

Lok Yuen is located at G/F, 11, Fa Yuen Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon. There's also branches at Sai Yeung Choi street and Bute Street.

Wang Fu, Hong Kong

When SF said we should try the chinese dumplings shop if we had the time, I didn't give much thought about it.

Then I read about it in a food magazine, Wang Fu serves many types of dumplings, even those that can be found at different regions of China; I was enthralled. I always wanted to try the mutton dumpling, something I've read years back; served up north of China.

Obviously, we did managed to squeeze in a meal there :)

Small shop which can only sit about 30 patrons? That definitely did not deter us, although we were sitting next to the freezer and cooking area..haha

The dumplings were boiled in hot water and served dry like this..

We had the ubiquitous pork and cabbage dumplings

The pork mince was well marinated and chopped cabbage makes this sweeter. The dumpling skin was just nice, springy to the bite and don't stick to the teeth. Delicious.

The pork dumpling with chives..

Very balanced amount of chives and pork. As chives are somewhat strong in flavour, this may not be everyone's cup of tea. I like it though, especially dipped lightly in vinegar.

My die die must try mutton dumpling

Ultra scrumptious! The mutton was so flavourful and full of juices... it was like biting into a mutton xiu long bao. And yes, of course it was gamey...hence I love this so :)

But my surprise came last..the tomato and egg dumplings

This was featured in the food magazine, said to be really good.

I was like How can it be? No way can it taste better than those meaty dumplings..

I was so wrong! This is amazing, even better than the mutton dumplings! I'm not sure what they added into the egg and tomato mix, they obviously cooked the ingredients before it was wrapped as the layers of flavours were just indescribable. A must order, please!

Between the 2 of us, we only had 20 dumplings. Not a lot actually, think I could have eaten 15 on my own :p. Total bill was HKD67.

Wang Fu is located at Wellington Road, Central, Hong Kong. Just next to Tsim Tsai Kee.

Law Fu Kee, Hong Kong

For a change, we decided to have porridge for breakfast...

SF did mentioned about Law Fu Kee before she left for work, so we decided to pop over for a piping hot bowl of goodness (it was walking distance from where we stayed after all :p)

Amy had the dace fish ball porridge

Velvety smooth porridge with springy home made fishballs. The fishball had an added zing to it as they mixed orange peel into the fishball. Sure was satisfying :)

I had the century egg with pork porridge..

The same smooth porridge, though I preferred my ingredients better :). The century egg chunks were so delicious, why are those in HK much more fragrant? The lean meat was just mediocre though, I have tasted a better lean meat version in Melbourne.

The plain looking yau zhar gwai

Don't be deceived. Their version was saltier, hence, once added into the porridge, the combo becomes...perfect.

Some deep fried fishball with clam sauce

The same springy fishball, but deep fried. Obviously tasty as anything deep fried is :p. The clam sauce was quite unique, had baby clams soaked in predominantly fermented bean curd and some other sauces. Very salty though, so we had in moderation and was better eating with the porridge.

Overall an enjoyable meal, we wanted so much to return for another brekkie here but just could not squeeze in the time. So much food, so little time! :(

Law Fu Kee is located at 50, Lyndhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong.

Lan Fong Yuen, Central, Hong Kong

The smoothest silk stocking milk tea....
The smoothest silk stocking milk tea.....

It was playing in my head for a few days before I got to try it as I heard about it from SF and also read about it in food magazine.

A small establishment tucked at the corner of Gage Street. Extremely unassuming but such gems lies within.

With about 15 tables in this small char chan teng, we (aka the tourist) looked slightly out of place as the tables were filled with locals slurping noodles and eating toasts.

It was teatime for us, so no noodles, but we opted for the famed silk stocking (xi mut) milk tea...

Unpretentious cup. Smooth as silk milk tea. Maybe there's magic in the silk stocking they used? Or from decades of serving many, many cups for milk tea? Whatever the reason, this cup of tea was indeed the smoothest I've tasted so far. The combination of tea and milk was perfect; did not leave any 'dry' aftertaste with each sip.

I ordered some peanut toast, but the lady heard wrongly, and I got toast with condense milk :(

The bread, though thick, was fluffy and charred nicely from charcoal grill.

The pork chop bun

Looks amazing? Well, it tasted even better than it looks! The chop was marinated for 12 hours, hence it was tender, flavourful and so very juicy! And served piping hot, biting into the fluffy, toasted sesame bun was just pure pleasure. Wish I could have this every day!!!

One of the waiter chatted with us, telling us that they have a larger, more comfortable (with air con) branch just a few shops down the same road. It had a bigger menu, more food selection. We did pop by another day..

We had french toast..

Too oily and not eggy enough for me. And thin layer of peanut butter dont assuage my appetite. :p

I had the iced silk stocking tea

The warm one's better. The ice dilutes the tea's flavour.

And as usual, pig that I am, I ordered the pork chop bun. Not as tasty as the original branch.
So how does the older (original) Lan Fong Yuen looks like?

No, that's not a stall, the entrance is on the left, where the lady is standing..

Lan Fong Yuen is located at 2 (original branch), 4-6 (newer branch), Gage Street, Central, Hong Kong. Opens 7 am- 6pm.

Maxim's Palace, City Hall, Hong Kong

1 time dim sum in Hong Kong on each visit is definitely not enough..

Hence our visit to Maxim's Palace :p

Maxim's is a huge, chinese restaurant (zau lau), so if you want cozy tea house setting, this is definitely not the place for you. I felt I was attending a large chinese wedding dinner when I was in there actually( and me sitting near the large golden dragon- phoenix carvings with "hei" words does not help).

I was rather intimidated by the large crowd ( mostly locals and a handful of tourists) queuing at the entrance, luckily it was quite fast as they have about 100 tables in the restaurant..

Waiters pushing trolleys and carrying trays of dim sums were everywhere, so getting food the moment we sat was a breeze...

Stuffed aubergine..

Quite yummy. Pan fried aubergine stuffed with fish paste and doused with thick sauce.

Har gau (steamed prawn dumplings)..

Thin, translucent skin wrapping encasing huge, fresh, springy prawns. Good.

The steamed beef balls

Juicy, not over cooked and very well marinated. Had a wonderful spring to it.

Lamb with black pepper sauce..

Extremely tender lamb cooked in slightly sweet black pepper sauce. Delicious actually, the meat was still pinkish on the inside and the black pepper not too overpowering..

Amy was craving for loh mai kai since the first day in Hong Kong..

We had to grant her, her wish. Alas, she was sorely disappointed. Some parts of the rice were uncooked and taste was, well, flat. Skip this.

The fung zhao (steamed chicken feet)

Plump chicken feet cooked in thick sweetish bean sauce. Very flavourful, pretty good. (though a tad oily)

Steamed chicken with mushroom and fish maw

This was scrumptious! The chicken chunks were well marinated, tender and moist; while the mushroom was thick and fragrant; and the fish maw was so, so good as it soaks up all the essence and sauces from the chicken and mushroom. A must order!

Some veggies to balance our meal.. As expected, very fresh and sweet veggies..

The prawn chee cheong fun.. The CCF was too thick and sauce was a tad bland.

I was asking for woo kok (yam puff) since we sat down..

And after waiting, waiting and waiting, one of the waiter finally remembered my request and wah lah.. I'm glad for the wait. Freshly cooked, it's piping hot, the yam was soft and melting and the filling was simply lip smacking. Rather than the dark coloured filling we have in Malaysia, Maxim's version is somewhat creamy; ala alfredo, but very delicious nonetheless.

We thought we'll have some sweets and saw this quaint looking thing..

Ultra mini paus filled with mango flavoured custard and coated with a light mango gelatin. Nothing to shout about though sounding so fancy.

I was surprised to see the waitress carrying trays of keropok (fish/ prawn crackers)

No, that's a sweet snack, nothing like keropok SF said

Yes, it does look different when it was placed on our table. Tasted exactly like mah zai (aka shat kei ma), but way better as the fried flour concoction melts in my mouth almost immediately. What's left was hints of honey/ maltose which lingers, just for a while. Sweet :)

Total bill was HKD510 for 3 persons. A tad cheaper than Luk Yu, though Luk Yu's quality is a notch higher. I guess this is a place for you if you prefer a lot of dim sum variety.City Hall Maxim's Palace is located at 2nd Floor, City Hall Low Block, Hong Kong.