Food in Hong Kong

[Henry]

Dear Friends,

We will be spending several days, November 2 - 7, 2009, in Hong Kong before take a 2 week November 7 - 21. 2009, SE Asian cruise from and returning to Hong Kong.

Can anybody advise me on where to have dim sum, noodle restaurants, and/or dinner at Chinese restaurants.

I am looking for reasonably priced places with excellent food that is a good value for the money.

Thanks.


Henry

[tyuti1668]

Although claimed don't read chinese but your map reading skill proved able to "recognize" Chinese character. This guide: select the "地區" (District) & using Google translation when necessary

[geoff]

Henry,

Somehow the Sydney chicken chow mein didn't taste the same as the HK version. Maybe it's the Aussie twist that made the difference. There's no taste like the one you've grown up with.
Sorry can't recommend any restaurants in HK as we mainly ate in the restaurant of the hotel, where it was easier for the relatives to meet us.

When you visit Sydney, I'll take you to some of our favourite chinese restaurants.

[Henry]

Hi Tyuti1668 & Geoff,

Thank you for your responses.

My elementary Chinese character recognition skills do not really help to identify good places to eat in Hong Kong.

I absolutely love the Cantonese chicken chow mein " gong ong gai chow" with some red vinegar sprinkled over it. These days, they call it " gai see chow men ".

Another favorite is the "bok hong tee" along with the pig trotters that are sliced very thin with a vinegar light sauce and this is like a salad dish. Does anybody know what the proper name of this dish is? I just ask for "gee gek".

Henry

[tyuti1668]

Old school "糕品" in SSP
鴻發 the boss is from "Hoishan"
坤記 This store had the Zhongshan style "葉仔"

[geoff]

Henry,

Like you, I love them noodles. Any kind ... stir fried or in soup & with combination ingredients. No wonder I'm also mixed up. The 2 most popular dishes served & requested by the regular weekly takeawayer at Sydney chinese restaurant are Wonton noodle soup & combination chow mein with fried prawn crackers as entree & canned lychees & vanilla ice cream as dessert. Sweet & sour pork is also a favourite. Within the last 20 years, yum cha with the diff dim sims, gow gees, har gow, bows etc is popular at lunchtime. Now lunch starts at 11am for yum cha.

What are the favourite Chinese foods in NZ, Canada, USA, Asian countries, Australia?

Enjoy your cruise & the tastes of Asia.

[Henry]

Geoff,

I also love Chinese noodles. Talking about all these dishes make me hungry - yummy!

Tyuti1668 - Thanks for the link:

www.openrice.com/restaurant/advancesearch.htm?mapType=1

I will be with my mother and she can tell me about these restaurants that are described in Chinese.

Whew - off to Hong Kong tomorrow.

Henry

[helen]

Geoff- The home made foods are the best - the days when we had no takeaways - the wontons Mum made by hand, and the noodles she made. There were no other Chinese in our town. The Lap Cheung came from Dundedin. The Doong goo (Dried mushroons) from HK, as well as the har mei (dried shrimps), bao yew (Abalones in tins), harm yue (salted fish). In the 70s the new crop of migrants arrived in Auckland - bringing their HK style cooking. That changed the face of takeaways. BBQ Pork, chicken and ducks; HK Style chow mein. One family started a tofu business, and hasn't looked back since. Another started the Hong Kong Bakery, and then the Vietnamese started their bread shops.

Happy travelling to HK Henry.

[geoff]

Helen,

Similar story to yours here in Sydney.

Agree...home made is the best. Can buy more fresh ingredients now.

In the country town where Mum lived, their China made provisions comprised of dried or canned goods bought from Sydney's chinatown, 350km away. They had to substitute with Aussie vegs & the occasional chinese home grown veg.

In Sydney now, there are more cooked meat shops in the suburbs where one can buy BBQ pork, roast pork, Peking duck, soya chicken etc. without having to travel to Chinatown.

Buying chinese food has changed......now more convenient....also wider range.....more people are buying as well.

[helen]

Henry is bound to be enjoying the HK food by now. Went to Bai Sarn on Saturday, followed by a funeral. For Bai Sarn we had bak jarm gai (White poached chicken) a vegetarian dish, roast pork, BBQ bow, fruit and some other food.

[geoff]

Helen,
It was cemetery day yesterday in Sydney. I couldn't attend so will have to wait until next time to "taste the treats".

I'm sure Henry will find the tastiest meals in HK & will tell us on his return.

[helen]

sorry to hear that you missed going this time Geoff. Hope you're better soon. The next time is early next year? Henry - where are you?

[geoff]

Henry,

Waiting to hear about your travels............especially the food!...........the good, the bad & the ugly.

[helen]

Henry - you must be home by now.

[Henry]

Dear Friends,

This past Sunday night, my wife and I returned home and have been recovering from the jet lag/ time adjustment to the Eastern Standard Time zone. We had returned from a week of shopping in Hong Kong (HKG) and shopping at the Lowu Commercial Center [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At3M2Xkh2ew] , a 5 storey air conditioned building the size of an American football field with approximately 1800 stalls), and downtown in Shenzhen.

The Lowu Commercial Center, is just a couple hundred meters from the Lowu , Shenzhen border crossing. You can take the HKG MTR (subway / Metro rail) to the last stop Lowu. There is a senior’s rate of just $5 HKG dollar each way. While shopping in HKG is great, Lowu is where you can buy all manner of Chinese goods at really cheap prices. My rule of thumb is to try to bargain the vendors down to about 30% or 35 % of the initial quote. On the ground floor in the back, there are ATM machines that you can get Chinese RMB (yuan) about $300 USD maximum withdrawal per day. Fortunately, I have several VISA credit cards.

There are about 4 restaurants in the Lowu Commercial Center, however, the best place is the Laurel Restaurant on the top floor. The dim sum is outstanding and the Chinese restaurant dishes are fantastic! I took my 3 sisters and their husbands to this restaurant and we had a wonderful meal of dim sum and Chinese dishes. Peking style goose, not fatty at all, we had some clay pot chicken and some great stewed pig feet where the meat fell off the bone. I have visited well over a 100 countries in my life, with multiple visits to the same country – for example 30 plus times in China – the food in HKG and China is unbeatable – plain and simple. The only other place that comes close is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

For shopping, downtown Shenzhen is the place – unbelievable! Shenzhen is totally awesome for the choices and cheap prices. Instead of haggling with retail vendors, we went to wholesalers for pearls, jade, clothes and bought goods at rock bottom prices.

The food in HKG is very good no matter where you eat. But, there are some places that are very good. We stayed at the Panorama Hotel and nearby, we ate at a place “Kai Kee Restaurant”, 13-15 Prat Avenue, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon. The food was very good, cheap and the restaurant was very clean. Another place that we had a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law was, the Super Star Group – a restaurant chain that was excellent [ .

After our 2 week cruise to several SE Asian countries, our friend invited us to dine at the restaurant in his private club. The food here was really wonderful and it was at the level that most people rave about HKG cusine. Everybody had winter melon soup served from a carved winter melon and since it had shrimp in it and I am allergic to shell fish – Bill ordered me an ox tail soup that was the best I have ever had. The meat fell off the bones and there was no fat at all and the broth was almost very light gravy that was just delicious.
Eating in HKG is an experience that all overseas Chinese should have – just amazing.

Henry