met up with my uncle for the last time this trip, which means it was a day full of food. we had afternoon tea at 2pm and dinner at 6pm with a snack in between.
oh my.
my uncle overheard that i wanted to try toast in hong kong. they make it a special way, drenching it in condensed milk and butter. of course, i had to get lemon iced tea with it 🙂
dinner was delicious. i’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
and my favourite… finally had peking duck 🙂
one of the things i really wanted to try in hong kong was mcdonalds. i’ve been told that mcdonalds is different everywhere in the world, with every country adding their own twist to the fast food favourite.
my dad ordered the big mac combo ($21HKD = $2.72USD … wow), my mom had some grilled chicken sandwich and I ordered something that was called the McSpicy but looked just like the mcchicken as i know it from canada. (those who know me will know that i strongly believe the american mcchicken is an imposter of a sandwich.)
2 combos, 1 sandwich and upsized “shake shake” fries costed less than $100HKD = $12.97USD. crazy!
the mcspicy was good. it tasted and it looked like the mcchicken, except when you bite into the patty, you can actually taste the chicken meat rather than it having been fried and frozen beyond all taste recognition. this was a nice and pleasant surprise. a downside, however, was that since the chicken was fried and battered, the patty was extremely oily. after i took a bite into the sandwich, i could see oil guzzling from the meat. i was blotting my sandwich after every bite!
something unique to hong kong (as far as i know) are the shake shake fries. an upgrade of $4HKD = $0.52USD will get you a paper bag along with a pack of seasoning. the idea is to dump your fries and the seasoning into the bag and “shake shake” it until you have a bag of flavoured fries. i’ve been told the seasonings are set and you don’t have any choice. i was looking forward to trying the seaweed flavour, but when i ordered, they had honey bbq (which was good!)
crab congee
there is a type of crab which is slightly smaller in size than what we’re used to in north america that is very popular in macau. walking down the streets, this dish is often advertised on storefronts. delicious! i’m pretty sure you can’t go wrong with crab congee in macau.
more in detail here: http://lunchbag-hk.posterous.com/macau-is-delicious
shrimp roe wonton noodles
had this at the same place as the crab congee place. less places had this advertised which leads me to think it’s more of a local shop specialty. it was delicious. you could definitely tell by the stringiness that the wonton noodles were homemade. the shrimp roe was light but flavourful. would definitely have this again, and next time i’ll be ordering two plates 🙂
more in detail here: http://lunchbag-hk.posterous.com/macau-is-delicious
roast duck
the best roast duck i have ever had. in my life. ever. it’s marinated perfectly in some sort of black pepper flavoured sauce. the duck is tender, not too fat and not too lean. so perfect. this restaurant is a must if you ever visit macau!
side note: nothing else is that good. the wonton noodles (both mein and fun) were mediocre.
nothing special. the restaurant overlooks the casino floor so as you have each spoonful of your $40HKD bowl of congee, you can watch people lose much more money per hand.
portuguese egg tarts
unfortunately, we weren’t able to make it to either of the world famous portuguese tart places. we arrived at cafe margaret 15 minutes before their closing, but i guess they decided to close up earlier (it was raining that day– maybe they had less business because of it?). lord stow’s shop was too far for us (we were only there for 2 days, 1 night). however, tons of places sell portuguese egg tarts, so we tried a random place. it was better than the ones i had in toronto, and i guess it will be left a mystery just how delicious portuguese egg tarts can be.
beef brisket noodles
our first stop in Taipa, Macau! the beef brisket was absolutely amazing. i have never had brisket that tender and flavourful. the spices of the brisket overflowed into the broth making the soupy noodles a must-have for any visitor!
pork chop bun
these seem to be wildly popular in taipa, with every other shop offering pork chop buns. however, i’m inclined to believe that these shops are only selling these to profit off the popularity of Tai Lei Loi Kei, a local shop in Taipa. known for selling out early, their pork chop buns are cheap and delicious — my two favourite characteristics for food.
i read online that they start serving these buns at 3pm and usually run out by 5pm. we got there at 2:45pm and they had already started selling. the place was packed!
dessert
i read online about this place in taipa that serves delicious mango pudding and durian ice cream. we found the place (9A rua de cunha, taipa) and everything said about the food here was right. the mango pudding was so fresh and delicious — there were real mango bits in the pudding! the durian ice cream, which my dad ordered, was apparently really good too. personally, i’m not a fan of durian. my mom ordered some coconut dessert. we all opened our dessert and took a whiff at the same time. my mom and i couldn’t smell anything but the durian.
koi kei – pastries/bakery shop
there is a pastry shop that is wildly popular among tourists visiting macau. it is touted to have the “best souvenir” to bring back home for your friends and family. the place is called koi kei and it was absolute madness in every store. it is also so popular that there are easily 20+ shops in and around macau. sometimes there are 2 on the same block. each one is as packed as the last.
but its business is well deserved. they make some pretty delicious stuff — the most popular being almond cookies. they are also known for their egg rolls, dried meats (beef jerky, etc) and almond/peanut candies.
the best part is that you can sample anything in the entire store. they easily have over 50 products and each has a sample box. and they are not wiener-sized costco samples. they are full-sized, what-you-see-is-what-you-get. ah, asia.
after we check-in to the hotel, we were hungry so we went hunting for some food. my aunt told us about this restaurant in macau, and all we knew was the name and main intersections. we somehow made our way to the vicinity but had to ask a bunch of people for directions. we finally found the restaurant after a while, and to our dismay, we discovered that it was ..
… closed on tuesdays.
dejected? dispirited? yes we were. it was raining, and we were hungry! so we decided to keep walking and randomly pick a restaurant. it’s a dangerous game of food roulette… you never know what you’ll end up eating…
so a few steps down the road, we stumbled upon a restaurant. the insides were plastered with photos of celebrities (presumably. they were attractive and young and smiling.) posing with the food or the owners. good enough for us.
we ended up ordering their 2 signature dishes, which are shown at the top of the menu. the first one, shrimp roe homemade wonton noodles, and the second one was crab congee. the crab is a special type that is only available in macau (as far as i know). we also ordered a plate of choy..
.. which BY THE WAY was phenomenal. those are whole pieces of garlic at the top. new meaning to garlic cooked choy.
the shrimp roe wonton noodles came. and it was freakin amazing. best noodles i have ever tasted, and i usually do not like that thin, “mein” type noodle. the shrimp roe had so much flavour, too!
so then the crab congee came. and oh. my. goodness. best congee i have ever had. hands down. no exageration.
dat crab. dat flavour.
it took everything in me to not come here again for every meal for the rest of our trip.
pig out time again. within 3 hours of our last giant meal, my uncle took us to another restaurant in causeway bay for dinner.
you know a place is fancy if they give you a wet nap. hahaha.
also, this… advertisement (?!) was under my bowl. lul at the lady.
i hate when they make you drink hot tea out of a glass cup. makes no sense.
appetizer plate! shrimp, scallops, cucumber, beef and “mook yi”
yums, sweet and sour pork. this was probably the best i ever had. it was fried to perfection and the meat was not tough in any way. there was a slight layer of fat between the fried skin and the meat and it was so tender. omg.
obligatory veggie plate 🙂
fish and vegetables in a very flavourful broth. drank that up like nothing.
snow peas! yums.
so much food today. seriously. i was so bloated.
we went inside the times square mall and stumbled upon what could only be described as the whole foods of hong kong. there was so much crazy stuff here!
caviar! i’ve never seen caviar sold in a grocery store before. this was crazy expensive.
foie gras right next to the caviar!
smoked pork of some sort. it. was. delicious. (it was like a costco in there too – free samples at every corner)
oysters on oysters on oysters. yum.
dat geoduck.
salmon and sea urchin box. no big deal.
interesting poster i saw regarding nutritional labels in hong kong. basically says:
my uncle took us to a restaurant in causeway bay and we had afternoon tea.
this was SO GOOD. it was slices of fish paste (or whatever it’s called) in “lai mien” which is like a udon/ramen hybrid in a really flavourful broth. i devoured this like nobody’s business.
this was some imitation shark’s fin soup dish. it was pretty good- it was kinda hard for me to taste the difference between imitation and real.. probably because i haven’t had real shark’s fin soup in ages. apparently places around hong kong are starting to ban the dish.
really good dumpling-type dim sum dish. delicious! there were peanuts in it. i loved the crunchiness 🙂
“seen jook guen” but cooked differently
almond milk dessert
mango pudding :9 (confession: i ended up eating the whole thing)
status: PIG. can’t get enough food.
my uncle doing his thing, calculating the bill before asking the waitress for the total so he’ll know right away if they’re lying to him. so luls.
delay over! im going to sit my butt down here until i churn out all the entries from the last 2 days.
monday
went for a morning run again while my aunt did some tai chi stuff in the park nearby. after a good work-out, we decided to pig out on some carbs.
i seriously can’t get enough of that jook.
i notice the bowls of noodles and congee are much smaller here. they also cost the equivalent of about $2.85USD, so no complaints. that’s what the side dishes are for 🙂
as i mentioned earlier, my dad knows that i want to try foods that are unique to hong kong.
… so when he saw this shop, he knew he had to bring me.
if you can’t tell from the menu… this restaurant serves snake!! and surprisingly, it was very packed. apparently, snake is enjoyed as a soup or fried, usually during the winter months after the snakes are plump and ready to hibernate.
it was not bad! it tasted like chicken, but stringier and a bit tougher. the texture on the meat freaked me out a little and some of the pieces were very long. nonetheless, it was tasty and very filling.
also as a bonus, these jars were placed all over the shop on shelves:
in yuen long, there is a shop that is very famous for their “wife cakes” which is a well-known asian pastry. my mom lined up and we got a few to bring back 🙂
they were very flaky and delicious!!! so satisfied.
lunchbag 