Cafe de Coral (大家樂)

Only in Hong Kong... would a chicken wing and a piece of French toast qualify as a meal. On the suggestion of more than a few, I was told I had to make a trip to Cafe Coral, otherwise known as 大家樂 (Da Jia Le). As explained, Cafe Coral was basically the Asian equivalent of McDonald's. This analogy never really made sense to me, since... there are already McDonald's all over Asia, but I guess the gist of it was that they're all over the place. In any case, I didn't actually get a chance to try it during the span of my 2 days, so I was pretty ecstatic when I heard there was one in the HK airport.

I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, but when I read the menu, all that went through my head was, French toast... good... and roast chicken wing... good. Plus they came with coffee. Uh, what's there to say about this? The toast is pretty good, nice and fluffy with a fresh buttery crust. It possessed that characteristic butter/milky taste that all Asian breads have. It comes with jam (and more butter!), but I don't think you need it... unless your life goal is to have multiple gastric bypasses. The chicken wing was just a tease. Really good sweet soy sauce lathered on top of a wing with just enough meat to make you hate the person who suggested wing over breast.



Chinese people seriously confuse me at times. In another combination that they dub a 'meal,' you get a fried chicken cutlet, a hot dog, and a butter roll. Let me summarize this for you. Cutlet = supremely oily, but oddly intoxicating (possibly from the constriction of my arteries). Hot dog... uh, just a hot dog? Ditto on the roll. I tried in vain to make a fried chicken, hot dog, butter sandwich, but it wasn't meant to be. Total price of both combo sets... 35 HKD ($4.50), and definitely a mistake. Damn, I can't believe the last thing I ate in HK was this. Oh well, I guess that's another reason to go back. To wash the sour taste of Cafe Coral out of my thoughts.

PS - maybe I'm not giving them a fair chance, they had plenty of 'normal' roast meat and rice combos. Knowing my luck, I probably just picked the 2 duds in their entire lineup.
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Yes, more dim sum (新樂 Shamrock Seafood Restaurant)

Over the course of 2 days, I felt compelled to go to multiple dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong. Not for lack of variety or anything, but just because my first experience had been so... scintillating, that I wanted to see if every dim sum parlor in HK was just of another standard compared to the US and Taiwan. In hindsight, I probably should've stopped at the first one, since things can only really go downhill from an experience like that, but on the morning before my flight, I stumbled into a smaller place called 'Shamrock Seafood Restaurant.' I had high hopes that a cheaper atmosphere would foster a more 'authentic' flavor... whatever that means.

Anyway, note to self (if I ever do end up going back to HK). Don't get 小籠包 from a dim sum parlor. They're overpriced, and not all that good. Perhaps it's because incredible soup dumpling places are a dime a dozen in Taiwan, but I was thoroughly disappointed with these. Thick skins, lack of soup, and bland meat describe these to a tee. When you couple that with the fact that I'm only getting 3 per basket... well, that's just annoying. Sure they look nice, but they were pretty awful.



Then there's these. Again with the 鹹水餃 (salty water dumplings) since I'm obligated to order this everywhere. These were actually good, but then again it's really hard to screw up frying glutinous rice and stuffing it with fatty pork isn't it?



More turnip cakes! Also remarkably well prepared. Flaky exterior holding together delicate shreds of steamed turnip just waiting to fall apart. Sound familiar?



Oh great, it's more of those stupid things called 潮州蒸粉果 (Chao Zhou steamed fen guo) with the water chestnut filling. God I hate them so much. They're bland, they have a strange texture, and the only reason we bought them was so my grandmother would stop complaining about my unhealthy eating habits. Argh, sometimes I honestly don't know why old people like things that taste like nothing.



Ultimately it was okay though, because I also got char siu noodle wraps. Like I said, rice noodles = awesome, char siu = awesome, rice noodles + char siu = still awesome. I realize that some people prefer getting these with shrimp, or beef, or vegetables inside, but that's not my cup of tea. Nope, 10 times out of 10 I'll go with char siu. Goddamn I miss this so much.



I didn't really love these all that much. I don't even remember what they're called (they did have a special name). What I do remember though, is that they were on the day's special menu, and that you get 3 meatballs for 4 HKD. Which is like 58 cents. That's stupid cheap. So cheap that I felt compelled to order it even though I wasn't sure what I was ordering. Plus they're bright red. Bonus points for bright red meat. That's always a plus in my book.



This is actually a dish I looked for at the other dim sum place but couldn't find. It's basically layered pastry with char siu stuck inside, which is then baked, and glazed over top with sugar. End result is a sweet and savory dish. One that I'm not sure should be classified as dessert or not. Still valid here is the fact that char siu in Hong Kong tends to be sweeter and more sauce based than the ones in Taiwan, so the filling is much more apt to spill out upon biting. Call it a plus or minus, whatever, basically this shit is irresistible.



Of course I got egg tarts too. Except these were shaped like footballs, and bright orange instead of yellow. All the same, the pastry portion is light and buttery, the filling is delicate with a subtle sweetness. All the previous superlatives regarding egg tarts still apply here. Nothing new, carry on. Anyway, I realize most of these pictures look really similar to the ones from the other dim sum place, and some people might say I'm an idiot for taking pictures of things that look exactly alike. Well... yeah that's probably true, but I actually have nothing better to do. So... there.
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Stir fried noodles and rice balls (人和豆付)

In what can basically be summarized as a stir fry of thick rice noodles, beef, scallions, and bean sprouts... 乾炒牛河 (gan chao niu he) is pretty one of my favoritest foods in the world (so much that I'll make up words to describe how much I love it). When I was younger (and refused to touch any sort of seafood or vegetables), it was pretty much the only item on the menu that I'd accept at dim sum places. Yes. I was very stupid as a kid (which isn't to say I've improved much on the intelligence, but I'll eat pretty much anything now). At a restaurant called 人和豆付, which translates to 'Friendly Tofu,' I was mesmerized by the picture of their noodles on the glass outside... I knew I had to order it.

Ha, actually I'm lying... I'm pretty sure the only reason I walked into this restaurant was because I wanted a place to photograph my egg tarts. I'm really glad I did though, their take on this dish was superb. I know, the dish has like 4 parts to it. How can anyone really screw something like that up? Well, it's not so much about screwing it up, it's about achieving the right flavor. I suppose I could throw some beef and scallions in a pan and add noodles, but I doubt it'd come out right. When it's properly executed, gan chao niu he has a certain 'smokiness' aspect of flavor. Combined with delicately sliced thin cuts of beef cooked just barely to completion, chewy, yet light, strands of wide rice noodles, and topped with ever so fragrant pieces of spring scallions and bean sprouts, a truly well prepared gan chao niu he is something that I can't even begin to describe. And they did it just that well. Way to go 'Friendly Tofu.' I think it was like 30 HKD (~$4), which is well worth the price of ecstasy methinks.



They also had rice balls. In my mind I was thinking of the HK spin on Taiwanese 飯團. Except it wasn't. It was just a fried cruller that was dipped in some sort of soy broth and rolled inside of sticky rice with a few shreds of pork floss. Except... their sticky rice smelled like feet. Did I really just pay 10 HKD ($1.25) for foot flavored rice? I thought maybe they just messed up royally with my order, but my mom explained that, what I described as the odor of foot was just how they're prepared in Southern parts of China. Well then. Duly noted. I will not be having any more foot flavored rice balls. I'll stick with the semi-sweet, yet savory, Taiwanese variety...
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Egg tarts in Hong Kong

I really love egg tarts. It's hard not to. Going to Hong Kong is like traveling to Mecca, except instead of religious stuff, you get egg custard based pastries. In an effort to see if the reputation was well deserved, I made it a point to try an egg tart from 蛋塔王 or 'Egg Tart King.' Well, I did try, and I walked around like a moron in blazing heat and humidity only to get more and more annoyed. I finally gave up. No egg tart, no matter how good, was worth this kind of idiotic effort (blasphemy... I know). Determined to stuff something egg based in my mouth, I settled for the generic egg tart you see above. Sadness... and failure too.

Except not really. The egg tarts I bought were 2 for 5 HKD (that's like 25 cents per if you're converting). Whilst I obviously can't compare them to the mythical creations of 'Egg Tart King,' these were splendid in their own right. Flaky and light on the first layer, buttery and rich throughout the remainder of the shell, and finished with a custard that still jiggled if you poked at it, this thing was... magical. When I realized that I only paid a quarter for this miniature replica of heaven, thoughts began rushing through my head of how many I could logically fit in a carry-on suitcase (trick question. If you're thinking 'practically,' the answer is actually 0). My conclusion? Don't bother looking for a specific place that sells egg tarts. I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of random places that do a damn good job.

Then again... I'll forever wonder if that place really is that good.
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Pork cutlet sandwiches at Lan Fong Yuen (蘭芳園)

Multiple people mentioned Lan Fong Yuen (蘭芳園)as a place I had to visit during my stay in Hong Kong. They couldn't really explain what was so great about it, aside from the fact that they served some sort of pork cutlet sandwich (from what I gathered, it was essentially an Asian diner). That vague description of a food item just elicited memories of a certain video. "My god did that smell good." Anyway, I happened upon this place by accident when I suddenly remembered I was supposed to eat there. How could this go badly? Pork + bread = good... always.



If the store front doesn't look too familiar, it's because I got lazy and went to the one in Kowloon. I only had 2 days to spend eating stuff, so I really didn't have the time to run off to Hong Kong island to look for the original, although I was dangerously close when I visited Victoria peak. Oh well, I'm sure it tastes the same (or so I tell myself).

Anyway, my order consisted of the sandwich you see at the top, which is called 豬扒包 (zhu pa bao). Basically it translates to pork stuffed bun. Not a tremendously detailed description, but like I said, I like pork, and I like bread. Win.



So what you see is what you get. The sandwich itself is pretty modest in size. I forget what I paid for it exactly, but it was around 15 HKD (~$2), so that seems pretty fair. In all honesty, if you bought 3 and stacked them together, it'd probably rival a Big Mac in size. Hmm, I probably should've done that. Anyway, the bun itself is a plain seeded white hamburger bun, lightly toasted. Nothing special, just a generic bun. Inside, the bottom layer is spread with butter (another thing HK does well... they butter the crap out of everything), a couple of tomatoes, and a thin spread of mayo (not Kewpie, but sweetened). The meat is comprised of multiple smaller pieces of marinated pork chop. Not the thick cutlet kind associated with Japanese cuisine, but rather... the kind you'd find in Taiwanese shops, pounded ultra thin, simmered in pork soy broth, then pan fried. Topped with another dollop of mayo (seriously, they don't understand the idea of heart disease), the sandwich is finally capped with the top of the bun. My opinion is this, it's nothing life changing, and nothing that would make me say "HOLY CRAP I NEED MORE PORK CUTLET SANDWICH," but for $2, it's definitely worth trying, and something I'd definitely eat again if I were in HK.



I also got the HK take on bubble tea. Yeah, there are multiple interpretations of bubble tea in Asia. Go figure. Called 絲襪奶茶 or 'pantyhose milk tea,' the way they make it there is apparently to strain it through a cloth that's as fine as pantyhose, leaving a milk tea that is unrivaled in it's smooth texture. That's cool. I can't really tell the difference in texture. I can tell you that it's probably twice as expensive as a larger cup in Taiwan though. I feel ripped off, but then again, it's one of Lan Fong Yuen's specialties, so I had to at least try it. That said, it tastes fine and good (you're an idiot if you screw up mixing tea and milk), but it doesn't warrant the price tag. Or maybe I've been spoiled by Taiwan. Hm...
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Char siu in HK (源記粥麵)

Asian people love roasting meat and putting it over rice. It's probably coded into our genetic material or something. Roast meat + rice = delicious. In Taiwan, if you walk around, every one of the 燒臘 places claims that they have Hong Kong style roast meats. So naturally I thought, man... the food there must be the pinnacle of roast meats and rice. When I arrived in HK though, everything said their food was 台式口味 or basically 'Taiwanese flavored.' I was thoroughly confused. If Taiwanese people want to cook like HK people, and HK people wanted to eat Taiwanese cuisine... which is better? I had to do some investigating. Also I was hungry.

I think the above plate was 30 HKD (just short of $4), which is kind of expensive compared to Taiwan, and pretty damn cheap when compared to NY (in this, I also came to the conclusion that HK is basically what would happen if Taipei collided with NYC, but in Cantonese). Impressed by the bright red radioactive hue emanating from my strip of pork, I was pretty overjoyed when I tasted it. The char siu that this shop makes isn't made with loins as normally expected, but rather a cut of pork belly. Half fat and half meat might seem disgusting and overwhelming, but quite the opposite is true. A delicate crust formed by the caramelizing of the maltose leads to a crispy layer that is basically fried in pork fat whilst roasting. The meat remains tender and juicy (without question due to the fat content). Slice and throw this over rice (+ greens for more color) and you have an undeniably satisfying meal.

Now... back to that age old (in my mind) debate over meat roasting superiority? Mmm, this round goes to Hong Kong, but I'm not convinced that there isn't truly tantalizing roast meat in Taiwan either. I probably haven't been looking hard enough.

PS - if you're intoxicated by the unnatural red color too... 源記粥麵 is located in the middle of Kimberly Road.
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Dim sum at (稻香超級漁港)

I don't think anyone would believe I actually visited Hong Kong if I didn't make at least one trip to a dim sum restaurant. I mean, it's pretty much the holy grail of the push cart right? The place with which all dim sum hails from and so on. Anyway, since I had put off visiting any dim sum places all the while I've been staying in Taiwan, it was only fair that I'd get to go multiple times. The first time was at a place called 稻香超級漁港 on Nathan Road, which translates to "The aroma of rice super harbor restaurant," or so I think. With a name like that, how could I go wrong?

First dish is always 燒賣 (shau mai). I forget why, but for some reason, all the dishes were considered 小點 that day, so everything was uniform in price. Don't ask me the price, I don't really recall that. I was too happy stuffing my face with pork & shrimp balls.



I pretty much went with all the conventional dishes. I wanted a standard of comparison (which I'll get to later). Their turnip cakes were amazingly soft in the center, but with an impossibly crispy outer skin. Deceptively difficult to pick up with chopsticks, the eventual struggle is ultimately rewarded with the stark contrast in feel. They should get bonus points for the unknown sauce. Not oyster sauce, not soy sauce, and not hot sauce, but some perfect blend of the three.



I don't know what this is called in English. It's 叉燒腸粉 (cha shao chang fen), or basically char siu wrapped in rice noodles. I love this dish so much for a few reasons. Char siu is like the greatest of all meats... it's semi-sweet pork that's bright red, and it's wrapped in rice noodles... which is pretty much the combination of everything good in Chinese cuisine. Plus it's really hard to screw up. I thought that I had already experienced really good takes on this dish in NYC and NJ, but I was wrong. When it's made to order, with freshly steamed noodles and just finished pork, the dish is transcendental in flavor. Nothing against the places in the US that serve it by pushcart, but a lot is lost in time of transit.



Called 潮州粉果 (chao zhou fen guo), these steamed dumplings are filled with water chestnuts and other crap I don't really recall. Why? I didn't really like them. Hm, why'd we order them you might ask? Probably because my grandmother was flipping out that all I was having was fried pork and fried shrimp. Well, this was to appease her. There... healthy food that doesn't taste all that good.



Ahhh, more char siu. In the form of steamed buns. Let me reiterate the fact that HK does a mean char siu. The same sweet bright red pork is stuffed inside pillowy pockets of white dough and steamed to perfection. Softer than Taiwanese 饅頭, and with a filling sweeter than what I've come to expect in either Taipei or NYC, these were definitely good. Nothing life changing, but certainly worthy of use as a standard to which other char siu buns can be compared.



Goddamnit I'm bad at translations. They're called 鹹水餃 in Mandarin, or I guess 'salty water dumplings' if you go by literal translation. Whatever, it doesn't really matter, I'm sure you've seen them if you've been to dim sum. They're fried pockets of sticky rice with shrimp and pork and other assorted elements inside. Normally larger and cut open with a pair of scissors, I was kind of surprised to find miniature golden puffs placed on the table. Still, the concept is the same, and the execution was spot on. The fact that they still squirted hot oil upon biting was a nice reminder that these were just made.



And of course, to close out the meal. Sesame balls. Filled with lotus paste. The one dish I didn't really like. Primarily due to their diminutive size, the shell to filling ratio is skewed in the wrong direction. Yeah, I'm nitpicking a bit here, but given the choice, everyone likes more filling. Although the multicolored sesame seeds were a nice aesthetic touch.

Basically, dim sum in HK is fantastic. Not because they make outrageous changes to any of the dishes or anything, and not even because they prepare stuff more meticulously. Nope, I'm pretty sure the main difference between dim sum in Taiwan, the US, and HK is the fact that they do everything to order. Dishes are made as you request them. None of your dishes arrive lukewarm or steamed to death, but rather... everything is exactly as you'd expect and more. Oh, and it's cheaper. I think everything I ate (which is everything here + doubles of some dishes) ended up being $20 for three people, and that's at a somewhat nice restaurant.
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義順牛奶公司 (Yee Shun Milk Co.)

In a process I won't even pretend to begin to understand, the 義順牛奶公司 (Yee Shun Milk Co.) specializes in making milk based desserts by steaming them into solids. Yeah, I was/still am confused by that whole deal. After a long struggle with trying to order in Mandarin (and ultimately feeling like an idiot when I realized the owner spoke English), I ended up with their trademark dish... a steamed milk dessert accompanied by a layer of floating lotus seeds. I was unequivocally disappointed by what was presented in front of me. I paid like 25 HKD ($3) for this? First off it's hot (I don't want 'hot' desserts when it's 35 degrees outside!), and secondly, it's in a bowl the size of my fist. I DEMAND ANSWERS OWNER MAN!

Well, my answer came in tasting. In a mix of delicate sweetness and creamy dairy, milk is, like I said... mysteriously steamed into a tofu-like matrix. Not quite as firm as silken tofu, but certainly more than just a viscous soup, it's like an amorphous blob of milky goodness. The lotus seeds were an afterthought, but worth a mention in their own right. Stewed in syrup water for more than long enough, they were softer than any I've ever had before, with a sugary layer penetrating the entire seed. As far as it being ordered hot... well, that was my own fault. You have the choice of hot/cold... there was a lot that was lost in translation during the ordering. Anyway, back to the point. Would I get another order? Probably not, I guess I still think it's kind of small and unsatisfying, but did it hold up to the taste test? Yeah, I'd say so.



Intrigued yet? If you're actually planning on going here... just look for the delightful cow. Look how happy he is.



Goddamn, why is toast with condensed milk and butter so freakin' good? Ha, this blog is quickly becoming nothing more than a toast log. Since they serve this everywhere, I was compelled to getting it here too. There's just something different about plain bread in Asia. It's sweeter and lighter... as if a double thick slice of Wonderbread ran into a pat of honey butter. When you add butter and condensed milk on top... well, game over. It's still puzzling to me how people in HK aren't all overweight.
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Mangoes + coconuts + milk (許留山)

Known in Asia as 楊枝金撈 or 'yang zhi jin lao,' that thing you see above is in essence, the illegitimate love child of fresh mango, chilled coconut milk, condensed milk, and tapioca bubbles. It's everything good in the world, combined together into a miniature bowl that has you begging for more. All exaggerations aside, this might be one of the things that I miss most about Hong Kong. At 26 HKD (~$3.25) it seems like kind of a ripoff compared to Taiwan pricing of shaved ice (which HK does a craptacular job at replicating btw), so it might seem stupid that I'd fly to there to have cold mango desserts... right?

Well yes. Normally that'd be really dumb, but that's only the mindset you'd possess before trying it. In the face of overwhelming heat and humidity, this is like an oasis. A mango-coconut flavored oasis. The chilled mangoes dominate the flavor, while the thick coconut milk adds a secondary element of flavor just subtle enough to act as a complementary piece. Condensed milk (which seems obligatory in everything there) provides an appropriate sweetness to remind you that it's a dessert. Then there's the clear miniature tapioca balls. I'm pretty sure they're just there for fun. Ripoff? No. Not at all. Plus if you've ever seen the Taiwanese take on this dish at dim sum places... you'll find yourself staring at a pool of orange liquid with 2 or 3 pieces of canned mango in it. I'll gladly pay that premium for this.



Almost forgot to mention, they also make pimptastic drinks. With every combination of mango, coconut, and 龜靈膏 (something similar to grass jelly, but isn't), you end up with something like 20 different varieties. I ended up just getting a mango juice thing with mango flavored jellies (yes, I am awesome at remembering names). I was under the impression it was supposed to be a slushie, and at some point it probably was, but after a few minutes in 35 degree weather, I ended up with what you see above. I think ultimately it made me appreciate it more.
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翠華餐廳 (Tsui Wah Restaurant)

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.



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.
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