Jackie Miao

DAY 3: KOWLOON (Part 4-1)

Last Wednesday, I made an impulse trip to Hong Kong for the first time. What started out as my soul’s plea for new landscapes became a whirlwind adventure that opened my eyes, challenged old perspectives, and shifted personal paradigms. This is the fourth part of a series of stories about my four days in the most densely populated city in the world.

Dubbed as “The Dark Side” by some expats, Kowloon looks nothing like Hong Kong Island. I was given the impression that it is really rough, ethnic, seedy and scary but I don’t think I saw enough of Kowloon to make a fair judgment. That said I did get “perved” at in Tsim Sha Tsui twice in four hours.

On Friday morning, Rachel and I headed to Kowloon via the Star Ferry. I was really excited to go because I wanted check out the bird market in Mongkok.

When we got to Kowloon, I got a peek of the venerable Peninsula Hotel, checked out the flagship Shanghai Tang store, and also walked around the newly refurbished Heritage 1881 building. It is to Hong Kong what Raffles Hotel is to Singapore.

We proceeded to walk toward Nathan Road, and on the way we got sucked in by the amazing deals at Giordano. You know how they get you in Hong Kong? Get a pair of jeans for $120 but have two for $180. By the time we decided to stop, we were $12 short of getting a free bag but nothing in the store costs that little. Needless to say we went downstairs in search of an item we don’t need to make up for the lack. It just never ends and we’re such suckers for bargains!

Lan Lan Noodles

After getting suckered in broad daylight, we went to have lunch at this place called Lan Lan Noodles. They were featured on the food guide booklet that Rachel had and I thought it would be fun if we went to eat some local Kowloon food. We followed a map on foot and it seemed like forever before we finally got to the eatery.

When we finally got there, Rachel said “Look Jackie!” It was a really small Dai Pai Dong style operation in a shop lot, which wasn’t what we expected but as we’ve walked a half hour to get there we went in anyway. We tried asking the waitress for recommendations. Since our Cantonese are poorly, it was challenging trying to tell her that we wanted their signature noodle bowl, the one that was photographed in the booklet. The chef stuck his head out of the kitchen, we pointed at the book pic and he nodded and shouted the order to his assistants loudly. After putting our orders in, I went to the front of the shop to get some Yong Tau Foo-like stuff.

The Yong Tau Foo stuff was delicious! However, the noodle soup that we got served isn’t what was photographed in the booklet! We got two huge bowls of offal noodle soup which consisted of intestines, tripe, and spongy brown chunks that was probably pancreas or spleen. I wonder how what we wanted (strips of chicken meat) got lost in translation, but we didn’t want to be rude and ate it anyway.

Do locals even eat that stuff?

I look to my left and the local person next to us was having chicken noodle soup, I look to my back and also saw a glorious bowl of something normal. What business were two foreigners doing eating big bowls of offal meats like Mongolian soldiers about to go to war for Genghis Khan?

Nevertheless, though it was torturous the taste of tripe and intestines weren’t as gross as it sounds, but the spongy brown stuff was just NASTY. I guess in a sick way we enjoyed not enjoying swallowing those rubbery chunks down our throats.

Anyhow, though I felt really sick after the gross lunch I managed to smile for a photo op.

It was already 3:30pm and a little too late for Mongkok. We arrived at this overhead bridge with a dude sitting directly below a paper-printed map of the area. We were discussing which way to go and both agreed to walk onward, when the dude said, “I believe Salisbury Road is over there” and pointed behind us…

Euh, okay… Hahahah. We’re definitely not contenders for Amazing Race Asia!

After Sogo, we headed toward the ferry station via Avenue of Stars and stopped to absorb the picturesque view of Hong Kong Island.

It was hazy but so beautiful. It felt a little bit like looking at Manhattan from New Jersey or Queens, Asian-style. I wish I had time to check out the Symphony of Lights that comes on at 8:00pm every night. Unfortunately I had already made plans to meet people that evening, so we headed back to the city.

Here are two more pictures I took while on the star ferry ride back to Wan Chai. This concludes my trip to the “dark side” which really was just Tsim Sha Tsui (not very dark at all hahaha). I’ll be sure to go to Mongkok on my next trip but for now, let’s meet some people!

Part 4-2 of 6 will be published tonight.

Day 2: Central Hong Kong (3-3)

Last Wednesday, I made an “impulse” trip to Hong Kong for the first time. What started out as my soul’s plea for new landscapes became a whirlwind adventure that opened my eyes, challenged old perspectives, and shifted personal paradigms. This is a 6-part story about my 4 days in the most densely populated city in the world.

After lunch, we headed to Rachel’s favorite bakery Kee Wah. Ever since she got me some of their shortcakes as a gift a year ago, I have been curious about bakeries in Hong Kong. I knew I wanted to get some local munchies but didn’t expect to spend a few hundred dollars at a bakery!

Kee Wah Bakery

Guys, say hello to Hong Kong’s finest munchies! From traditional favorites to contemporary originals, Kee Wah has been baking Chinese pastries for its customers for more than 70 years. What started out as a humble mom-and-pop shop in the 1938 is now a multinational operation in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and the United States. Originally famous for their mooncakes, Kee Wah now boast a variety of 500 confections so you are bound to find something that will seduce, impress, and compel you to leave their store a little poorer than when you entered it.

Jackie at Kee Wah

Even if their baked goods do come at a hefty price, the quality does make up for it. I have found that most Chinese bakeries either sell low-grade versions of old-style pastries or simply abandon them altogether. What I love most about Kee Wah is their commitment to offer gourmet versions of classic Chinese pastries while keeping very current with the times.

One bite of their crispy eggrolls and I was transported back to a moment in my childhood. Memories of my grandmother opening a Chinese biscuit tin with rows of eggrolls inside came rushing back to me. The difference this time was that the eggrolls tasted even better than how I remembered it, because it is better!

What I ended up getting a ton of are their crispy Tea Cookies. I love how each of their tea cookies have bits of tea leaves in them, and biting into one of them releases distinct aromas of Red, Green or Jasmine tea. Love them!

If you don’t have time to head to Central to get munchies, no worries. Kee Wah has a branch at the airport! If you do, then here’s where to go to get poorer but happier:-

Kee Wah Bakery
30 Wellington St., Central
Tel: 2537 0178
Business hours: 0730 – 2000 (mon – sat) | 0830 – 1930 (sun)

Although the day didn’t quite end there (more shopping and an awesome foot massage), I can’t wait to introduce you to some folks so I’m wrapping Part 3 up with a photo I took from dinner!

So... anybody want some snake soup?

Do you have the guts to order that? Obviously we didn’t, but I thought I’d show you what an exciting menu we were presented!

Follow me to “The Dark Side” next and meet some cool folks in Hong Kong…

Part 4 of 6 will be published (hopefully) on Monday, 30^th Nov 2009. Got a little busy suddenly.

Day 2: Central Hong Kong (Part 3-2)

Last Wednesday, I made an “impulse” trip to Hong Kong for the first time. What started out as my soul’s plea for new landscapes became a whirlwind adventure that opened my eyes, challenged old perspectives, and shifted personal paradigms. This is a 6-part story about my 4 days in the most densely populated city in the world.

After Rachel and I had breakfast, we proceeded to explore the streets in Central Hong Kong. Some of the things I saw made me question how much the environment we’re presented with dictates our value systems, whether the luxury of choice can be manufactured at all by some people, and ultimately to evaluate my own contextual thresholds and limits with reference to time, circumstance and place.

When I saw this grandma vegetable seller shivering from the cold and rocking back-and-forth to keep herself warm, I felt that besides offering some momentary relief to her I really couldn’t do much to change her life. I tried offering her a hot drink but she rejected my offer. Instead she agreed to a picture, so I inched in to get a shot with her before wishing her well and moving on with my day. I felt bad walking away but knowing that she has to sit out there tomorrow and the day after, all I could do is hope that she wears more clothes and that the temperature improves in her favor.

Why Were You Tied Up Kitty?

Along the way we also came across a disturbing sight of a kitty on a leash.

Do you think Kitty is for dinner or are they trying to find Kitty's owner?

Admittedly this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a cat on a leash, but the last time it happened it seemed less inhumane. You see, that other cat wasn’t tied to a post. It was jogging with its master at Gunnersbury Park! (True story, and one of the weirdest things I ever saw while out on a run.)

So Kitty, what did you do to deserve this?!

I just hope the shop owners weren’t trying to sell it off to someone hungry to have kitty for dinner!!

Tai Cheong Bakery

Couldn't get a shot of the tart but here's Tai Cheong's other pastries

When we got to Tai Cheong, the small bakery had a queue so I stayed outside while Rachel squeezed in to get an egg tart for me.

Tai Cheong Bakery is said to have the best egg tarts in Hong Kong. It is also said that the last governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten loved this bakery dearly.

I liked that their freshly-baked egg tart has a silky smooth flan, cradled so perfectly by a buttery, flaky crust. It has all the elements of a great pastry without being too sweet or rich.

The flan doesn’t have much structure so you have to be careful to avoid making a mess on yourself. Although I can’t claim their egg tarts are the best in Hong Kong just yet, it’s definitely one of the best I have ever had! I’d readily recommend this tart to anyone passing through Hong Kong.

So here’s where to go for some really yummy buttery egg tarts:-

Tai Cheong Bakery
Address: 35 Lydhurst Terrace, Central, Hong Kong, China
Phone: +85225443475

Yung Kee Restaurant

Before long we were ready to have lunch.

The real thing didn't look like the plump goose on their website!

Growing up, my parents used to always talk about how delicious the roasted goose in Hong Kong is. In fact it was one of their obsessions, not so different from the way Westerners feel about streaky bacon.

This was something I needed to have, so Rachel and I headed over to the Michelin-rated Yung Kee for some Siu Ngor. Too bad the goose failed to impress. Perhaps it was the years of overhype from my parents, or maybe we got a skinny goose and even skinnier pig on our plate, but I really didn’t think much of it. I much prefer the juicy roasted duck at Four Seasons in London (Chinatown and Bayswater) and the even juicier Char Siu from Ho Kee in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.

If what we had was good enough to get a Michelin star and was also a factor to being voted as the 10^th Best Restaurant in Asia for 2009/2010 by the Miele Guide (beating Nobu?!), I now have major questions about the quality of their Asian food reviews. Do they have cuisine-specific epicureans on the panel? Are they eating enough of the same thing all over the world to make a fair judgment?

That said the century egg was really aromatic and exquisitely good.

Very stinky and very nice

You can tell it is fresh because part of the yolk is still yellow and runny, and this preserved duck egg is quite lovely with the pink ginger pickles. The wontons were fresher than most any wonton I’ve ever had, but the noodles were nothing to write home about and neither was the broth. To me broths are all about the umami factor.

Rachel paid HKD $400 for our meal (about RM $175 or £31) which I thought was extortionately expensive even by London standards. It was after all just a plate of roasted meat on rice, a century egg, a bowl of wonton noodle soup and some kailan, something we could have gotten easily for about £20 in Gerard Street or RM $70. I rarely give a bad review but the goose didn’t warrant the premium prices she paid. With that in mind, the service was excellent and the restaurant was very well-managed. I liked how genuine and friendly the staff was to us.

Moral of the story? A bad cut of roasted goose is not always better than a good cut of roasted duck, food in Asia is not necessarily cheaper than food in the West, and sharing a so-so meal with a good friend is arguably better than having a dozen gourmet meals alone!

If you prefer to judge for yourself, here’s where to go:-

Yung Kee Restaurant

Address: 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 2522 1624
Fax: (852) 2840 0888
Email: info@yungkee.com.hk

Part 3-3 (final part of Part 3) will be published at 8pm, Sunday 29th November 2009. Stay tuned for Part 4 on Monday (the most exciting part) where you get to meet a celebrity!

Day 2: Central Hong Kong (Part 3-1)

Last Wednesday, I made an “impulse” trip to Hong Kong for the first time. What started out as my soul’s plea for new landscapes became a whirlwind adventure that opened my eyes, challenged old perspectives, and shifted personal paradigms. This is a 6-part story about my 4 days in the most densely populated city in the world.

The next morning, Rachel took me to Central Hong Kong. Seeing the market scene for the first time felt like I landed on the mother of all Chinatowns, the one that most all others I have depended on in the West were modeled after.

There was a sense of wonder that ran through my veins as I imbibed in my virginal experience of the market scene in Hong Kong. Everything from the stalls to store signs, atmospheric chatter to the sound of exhaust fans from nearby restaurants added to the magic of Chinese people selling and buying in a marketplace. I just couldn’t believe that it took me this long to come here, especially since I love Chinatowns!

I felt Chinese, I felt foreign. I felt like a half-cast banana being given a pass to explore my Chinese side and it switched my exploratory mode on. Though I would have loved to shop for groceries like a local, we were there for a specific reason and that is to have a typical Hong Kong breakfast at Lan Fong Yuen.

Lan Fong Yuen

Purported to be endorsed by Anthony Bourdain, Lan Fong Yuen‘s road from Dai Pai Dong (food stall) to shop lot is a story of blood, sweat and tears over 50 years.  Though you see the sign on the food stall behind me (in the main photo above), the unit we went to was the new shop; a few lots down from the original stall. 

Lo-Ting
Rachel insisted that I have Lan Fong Yuen’s signature Pork Chop ‘Lo-Ting,’ which is kind of like an Indomie on steroids, à la Hong Kong-style. This simple dish uses a base of instant ramen noodles that has been boiled, drained, and dressed with a fried pork chop, fried egg, some boiled carrots and a ginger-spring onion condiment. The pork chop was succulent and tender, and it went well with the noodles. This is not a bad dish to have once in a while though it isn’t something you would want to indulge in on an everyday basis if you’re health-conscious.

Chu Bao Bao & Condensed Milk Toast
What I really enjoyed at Lan Fong Yuen was the pork sandwich the locals call Chu Bao-Bao.

Chu Bao-Bao is a fusion burger made with a Chinese-style pork fillet sandwiched between a Western-style hamburger bun. The marinated meat which had a hint of five-spice was really juicy, flavorful, and tender to the bite. I’d say that it tastes like a Sino-cized steak sandwich but it is not so ethnic that non-Chinese people would find difficult to accept. That said the tenderized pork is definitely characteristic of Chinese attitudes toward meat so if you like yours tender, you would appreciate the extra work that has gone into the treatment of the meat.

To complete our spread, we added hot lemon tea and a condensed milk bun toast. Though the latter sounds unconventional, it made me go “mmmmmm.” I think it helped that the texture of the hot toasted bun was like a round version of a really “crispy-on-the-outside” and “chewy-on-the-inside” baguette from Paris.

Bastard-Jazzing the Right Way
What was really eye-opening about this experience is how unafraid Hong Kong food operators are in bastardizing favorite foods from other cultures (i.e. Japanese ramen, French rolls, American buns). By reworking the originals into fusion combos, Lan Fong Yuen had created items that appeal best to the tastebuds of Hong Kong diners.

If there is anything to be learned from this outlet is that the taste vote doesn’t always go to cuisine purists but sometimes to those whose desperation to survive pushes them to invent tasty mongrels from the use of food items from other cultures. Perhaps this may serve as a light at the end of the tunnel when you run out of ideas?

For a good brekkie in Hong Kong, go to:-

Lan Fong Yuen
Gage St. 2, Gage St, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2544-3895
Hours: 7am-6pm

Still to come is a kitty with an unknown fate, the best egg tart in Hong Kong, a Michelin-star lunch, and an exotic dish from my nightmare…

The next half of Part 3 will be published at 11am, Fri 27th Nov 2009.

Day 1: Tai Tam Country Park & Wan Chai

Last Wednesday, I made an “impulse” trip to Hong Kong for the first time. What started out as my soul’s plea for new landscapes became a whirlwind adventure that opened my eyes, challenged old perspectives, and shifted personal paradigms. This is a 6-part story about my 4 days in the most densely populated city in the world.

I never imagined in a million years that Hong Kong’s landscape would be so mountainous. That’s the kind of thing I imagined buried deep inside the heartland of China.

My friend Rachel met me at IFC when I got to Hong Kong Island and we took a taxi to her place. When we arrived at her condo, sat majestically in clear view outside her windows was one of the most beautiful compositions I have ever seen from an urban hide, the Tai Tam Country Park.

This natural wonder attracts local hikers and tourists alike to meander through its many trails. The amazing thing is that you don’t have to drive two hours to see this confident display of geographic virility. Tai Tam is just 20 minutes from Central Hong Kong.

It was quiet up there, the air was chilly but it wasn’t cold enough to make steamy breaths. I was really happy to see and catch up with Rachel briefly, and not long after I had settled in, we got changed and headed to Wan Chai to meet her husband SJ for dinner.

Sang Kee Seafood Restaurant

We met SJ at Sang Kee Seafood Restaurant for a typical Cantonese dinner. Since nobody wastes any time at restaurants in Hong Kong, after an initial hello, I followed Rachel downstairs to the tanks to pick some live seafood. We picked a fish and some live prawns, and added pork patties, pork & watercress soup, fried spinach, and congee to the spread.

Being a Guangdong-Chinese descendant myself, the flavors of the dishes were not that foreign to my tastebuds. What is worth noting however, is the freshness and natural flavors of the ingredients that was brought out beautifully by Sang Kee. All the dishes we ordered had the hallmarks of the very best of Cantonese cuisine; texture, flavor, and most of all freshness. This really came to the forefront of our dining experience.

I really enjoyed my first meal in Hong Kong. More than anything I enjoyed the company of the people I dined with. Thanks to SJ’s generosity, I had a wonderful primer to the quality that this city of 7 million expects from its chefs.

Here’s where to go if you would like to have some fresh seafood in Hong Kong:-

Sang Kee Seafood Restaurant
Address: 1/F, Hip Sang Building, 107-115 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong, China
Phone: 25752236

After dinner, we headed back and turned in early in anticipation for Central Hong Kong the next morning (which is when the fun really begun!)

Part 3 of 6 will be published on Wednesday, 25^th Nov 2009 at 10pm MY/SG/HK time.