Sunday, July 4, 2010

翠華餐廳 (Tsui Wah Restaurant)

Malaysian Beef Curry

I guess I'll finally get around to posting about the 2 days I spent in Hong Kong. Starting with 翠華餐廳 (Tsui Wah Restaurant). I can't really think of an equivalent for comparison, but I suppose it would be the equivalent of IHOP in America, or 永和豆漿大王 in Taiwan (sort of), in the sense that it's basically a breakfast/brunch chain that also serves dinner type entrees. I guess it's kind of silly that the first restaurant I'd go to would be some sort of commercialized chain restaurant, but I kept complaining that I hadn't eaten anything all day (which is a lie, since they gave us lunch on the flight), so naturally I ate at the first place that I saw. So about the food...

Like I said, Tsui Wah is basically a pseudo-HK diner. They serve a pretty wide variety of things (most of which I can't recall), but mostly brunch type food. I ordered their Malaysian beef curry (which at 42 HKD is basically ~$6). Holy Jesus, it's like the greatest curry ever. Hrm, maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's certainly very good. You're given a plate with a giant scoop of white rice on a plate, and another big plate of curry beef. Awesome... two plates. The beef curry is made with an assortment of different cuts of beef, lots of tendon, and some lean pieces, all cooked to a degree of softness that they fall apart when picked at with chopsticks. This sits in a pool of heavenly orange curry that is remarkably strong in flavor, and spicy to say the least. I'm bad at describing things, but if you mixed Indian curry with Japanese curry, you'd be getting close to what this dish tastes like. It doesn't really matter, it tasted real good... that's all that matters.

Toast w/condensed milk and butter

One of the other things I got was condensed milk - butter toast (I don't know why the colors are wonky... I tried fixing them, but evidently I failed). Genius. Whoever was the first person who decided "putting butter on my toast isn't quite that fattening, let me drizzle condensed milk on too" is my hero. The taste of savory sweet breads isn't really foreign to Asian bakeries, but having a semi-crunchy roll with warm sweet goo is quite the experience. QUICK! Go grab toast and make it now. You're welcome.

As far as this restaurant? It's pretty easy to find since there's multiple locations, and despite the conventional thinking of avoiding chain restaurants when traveling, well... screw that. They have condensed milk - butter bread... and curry to die for.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw you profiled on Midtown Lunch Philly (I'm at the same school, btw!) and flipped through your blog..

I'm from HK and Tsui Wah (on Wellington St. near Lan Kwai Fong on HK) was a night-time post-drinking 4am standby for me in high school. They have char siu daan fan (char siu over rice topped with sunny side up eggs). If you ever go back to HK you should check out that dish.
Whenever I'm back in HK to be with family for the holiday, a part of me wishes I hadn't gone vegetarian when I head back to Tsui Wah for drunken eats with my friends.

Nicholas said...

Anonymous - legit, although now I'll be constantly wondering if some random person on the street reads my blog...

I wanna go back to HK so bad it's not even funny. I feel like I was rushed last time with 3 days, so I definitely want to have another go there.

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