Dined at Maxim’s Chinese Restaurant at Hong Kong International Airport, just before leaving Hong Kong during our October trip.
It was a nice dim sum meal… good presentation, excellent variety, great taste and prompt services. The only downside was probably the price… HK$400+ (US$50+) for 3 adults, probably the most expensive dim sums I have ever had.
Not complaining though… it was our last meal in Hong Kong, and it’s a pretty good feast to end our Hong Kong journey.
Wing Wah (榮華) is one of the two most popular wife cakes makers in Hong Kong. Their first restaurant-bakery (they are famous for Chinese preserved meat too) was opened in 1950, and has now expanded into a catering chain with over 30 outlets in Hong Kong.
Wife cake (老婆餅; lou po beng) is a Chinese pastry traditionally made of winter melons paste. Wife cakes these days came in variety of favours though; such as red bean, almond, coffee, green tea, sesame seed, lotus seed and cheese etc.
We found one of Wing Wah’s branches on Nathan Road in Mongkok area. There were all kinds of traditionally Chinese pastries, cookies and cakes available… some of those were freshly made, while some others were in nice packaging which were pretty convenient as souvenirs.
We only got to taste the wife cakes we bought after we were back to Malaysia. The cakes were quite good and tasty… I guess it would be even better if I got to taste it when it was fresh out of the oven. I can’t quite remember how I managed to forget trying some freshly made wife cakes back then.
Really Good Restaurant is not a really good restaurant… it’s just a literal translation of its Chinese name which should be pronounced as Geek Ji Ho (極之好粥麵茶餐廳) instead.
Actually we went into the restaurant because I was desperately in need of a washroom when walking around in Mongkok. At first glance they had an interesting variety of food (lots of Hong Kong specials) and from their billboard it seems like they were highly rated by local papers.
We ordered a cart noodle (車仔麵), an egg tart and a pineapple bun (菠蘿包). The food quality was quite a disappointment honestly… it was not too bad, but it’s the kind of quality that I would not be interested to visit the restaurant again.
Well, at least I managed to try the cart noodle and pineapple bun before I left Hong Kong… so I shouldn’t be complaining too much.
Cart noodle was one of the food icons in Hong Kong; it got its name from street vendors who used to operate their business on roadsides using carts (I think they no longer exist these days). This restaurant was supposed to be famous for selling this noodle.
There is nothing special about the noodles; the essence of cart noodle is actually the variety of toppings the customers could choose from… the common toppings are radishes, pig blood cubes, fish balls, pig skins, Chinese sausages and beef balls etc. The customers could choose according to their likings or simply include everything (like what we did).
Nam Long Congee Restaurant (南龍粥店) is located at Fa Yuen Street (花園街) in Mongkok, Hong Kong. We were on a food hunt in Mongkok area (looking for stinky tofu in particular) and stumbled on this congee specialised restaurant.
It was odd hours (~11am) on a weekday, but the restaurant was still packed with customers… it got to be good.
We ordered a pork innards congee (猪杂粥) - rice porridge cooked with pork and pig organs like intestines, liver and stomach… and it was great. The ingredients were fresh, and they didn’t add too many additives (pepper, sesame oil etc.) in the congee, so you can really taste the core flavour of the pork and organs.
We also ordered two dessert soups, which was quite tasteless and forgettable… we should have just stick with their congee.
Stinky tofu (臭豆腐; chou doufu) is a fermented bean curd that stinks. It’s an iconic Hong Kong street food and can be found at some other places in China and Taiwan.
It’s not easy to find stinky tofu in Hong Kong these days; luckily we still managed to spot (or smell) some eateries selling it around Ladies Street in Mongkok (旺角) when we visited Hong Kong in October 2007.
This was my first try on stinky tofu (in any places)… the smell stunk but not as bad as expected. Most people who tried it before would suggest that it smells bad but taste ok (or good), and it’s quite true. It’s a bit salty but it’s edible… no way near as bad as how it smelled.
On positive note, Hong Kong style stinky tofu is normally deep fried and had a crunchy texture on the outside, while spongy in the inside… it’s nice.
It’s an adventurous experience, but I don’t think I would ever become a stinky tofu fan… I don’t mind trying other styles of stinky tofu though when I spot it somewhere else.
Tea break at Main Street Corner Cafe during my Hong Kong Disneyland visit in October 2007.
The restaurant had a lovely Westernised deco, but surprising offered mostly Chinese food on its menu. We ordered a spicy stewed beef (with rice) and mushroom soup… nothing superb, but not bad.
I wish the 7-Eleven convenience stores in Malaysia are selling sushi, just like some of those in Hong Kong… but then, I wonder if 7-Eleven in M’sia would be able to make it looks as good…
Cotton candy at Hong Kong Disneyland.
I am not really a fan of cotton candy, I don’t have sweet tooth. It brought back some childhood memories though… it’s always fun seeing the candy vendors making the fluffy candy floss.
