Hoi Yat Heen 海逸軒, Harbour Plaza North Point, Hong Kong

Hoi Yat Heen, the Chinese restaurant of Harbour Plaza North Point and almost most other Chinese restaurants in Harbour Plaza Hotel (e.g. Hung Hom) are the very few restaurants which have been able to constantly provide high quality Cantonese cuisine. Almost none of the meal I have tried, since their establishments, has turned out a disappointment to me, not even this time I tried with my business associate 2 days ago.

1. Abalone and veggie dumpling (HK$48 for 3). Some may say it may be quite expensive but it's much worth it for me as the abalone (though quite tiny) did give a very nice aroma in the dumpling (who said abalone doesn't taste needs to have an exam. on his taste buds, or he may have taken some cheap or fake abalone.). The dumpling wrap is excellent! My business associate also spoke highly of this dumpling. 2. Soup dumpling (HK$45 for 3). This one is also nice but the wrap is a bit thick and it doesn't matter much to me.

3. Shrimp dumpling (HK$45 for 3) - also very nice. Their XO sauce is so good to be with this one. 4. Stir fried bean sprouts HK$88. Very good stir frying and the chicken stock for the stir frying is awesome and making the veggie so fragrant.

5. Siu Mai (pork/shrimp dumpling) HK$45 - another delight. I like the very tiny bit of fat inside of the dumpling making it so aromatic. 6. fried rice in lotus leaf - HK$108. Again, the price looks a bit expensive but the portion of this rice is almost double the size of the others. I took 4 bowls of the rice! So good - not salty at all and I can taste nice fragrance of the lotus leaf.

7. Minced pork, eggplant stewed with rice noodle HK$98. The portion of the stir fried noodle/rice is very big and next time no need to order 2 dishes (for 6 people). I took 3 bowls of this one and still almost half of it left, while the others took 2 bowls. So it turned out it's around HK$130 to 140 for each person for this meal. If we cut out one stir fried dish, it would be around HK$120. However, the food quality is much much worth over HK$300! Highly recommended!

American Restaurant (Beijing cuisine) 美利堅京菜, Lockhart Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Haven't been to this restaurant for quite many years. Their shred chicken is still up in my mind; so tonight that specific ram memory drove me to taste it. So the restaurant name is apparently very American. So why "American" for serving Beijing cuisine? I was told it's simply because the restaurant is located in the section of Lockhart Road and Fenwick Street which leads from Fenwick Pier which is used for the American Navy landing HK. So in order to make it easy to remember and for making the navy feel like home, then name it as American. However, the food is not American at all.

1/2. The restaurant still makes you feel like you are in a Chinese restaurant in some overseas China Towns. See the printing on the chopsticks paper bag.

3. My most favourite dish from this restaurant - Shang Dong Shred Chicken HK$108 (for a whole and you can't get a half order), 山東手撕雞. Among all the similar grade Beijing restaurants I have tried (e.g. The Deer, Beijing Restaurant (鹿鳴春, 北京飯店), American made this one the best! The chicken is nicely smoked and cool enough and the meat is very tender and with chicken taste. The soy sauce dressing is just to the salty/sweet taste with a nice strong raw garlic aroma. Underneath there are some very nice crushed cucumber, making the dish so refreshing from the heavy meat taste. Must try! 2. Stir fried Vegetarian stuff HK$48 - pretty nice though a bit oily. That's the typical thing of Northern cuisine - a bit too oily.

5. stewed pan fried tofu on veggie HK$48. Also pretty nice but also a bit too oily. 6. Pan fried dumplings HK$50. The filling is nice but the pan frying is a bit too semi-fried - a bit too oily. Not recommended to try - better save the room for other dishes.

7. Baked Man To (plain bun) 烤饅頭 HK$22 - it's another favourite food I like but tonight they didn't make it too well. A bit too wet on the bottom and the top isn't crispy enough.

My cooking - 1 soup, 2 dishes 一湯兩餸

1. Don Sum, Wong Kei with pork soup 黨參北芪. This soup makes me quite drowsy every time I drink it. It's good for my stomach I guess. The soup tends to be warming up your body. I kind of like the taste of this combination. So the best to make this soup is to use the lean pork but this time I added some lean spare ribs to make it even more tasty, though spare rib is said to be "hot" character.

2. Kai Lan stir fried with beef (grand mom style). Why grand mom style? I slightly shimmered it a bit and as you can notice the "yellow" on the veggie. So again the beef needs to be massage well so not as to make grand mom chew too much.

3. Old and Young be blessed (老少平安), as Tofu and fish paste patty (豆腐鯪魚肉). The name of this dish is quite interesting but it does mean a way for the old and the young kids to eat this one without trouble as it's very soft and nutritious (but not good for those old people who have protein problem). So my preference for this dish is to use 1 portion of tofu and 1 portion of fish paste. Then I would put some corn starch, very slight sea salt, quite a plenty of sesame oil, some white pepper powder (but if there are some kids, use less). A few drop (or less than 1/2 table spoon) of soy sauce. Also some chopped scallion or parsley (depends which one you prefer.). Then put more cooking oil in it. I would put at least 1 to 1.5 soup spoon as this way it would give it a nice tender texture. Then clean your hand thouroughly and squeeze and stir it until you can't see the tofu or at least the tofu is squeezed into very tiny bits. Normally it takes 5 minutes for this squeezing and stirring process. Then flatten it on a plate. Steam it for 10 minutes at medium heat. When it's about 9.5 minutes done, sprinkle few more chopped scallion and cover it for the final 30 second steaming.

Tak Fat Beef Ball Noodle shop, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon

Not sure if any of you would know the street stalls (Da Pai Dong大排檔) under the fly-over between Langham Hotel (was Renaissance/Great Eagle) and Ashley Road are still there. The HK Gov't tried to push them out by not issuing the air-conditioning facilities to them. So in the summer time, this place is like a hot oven. As I had a very lousy noodle in Quarry Bay, then I went to TST for trying this exciting beef ball noodle shop called 德發牛丸. Oh, the quality is still the best for their renowned beef ball and yet the taste is very nostalgic!

1. See the Da Pai Dong style food stall. 2. The nice beef balls are so good - soft but yet chewy and the shop put some very slight dried tangerine peel in it! The soup base is very nostalgic - salty and sweet just to the balance and some bean sprouts in it.

3. more stalls. 4. I ordered beef brisket and beef balls. The beef brisket is the traditional scattered brisket 碎腩. Though it's the cheapest one, if you can cook it well, the taste is really good. Yet, it is in the old time mini-cart style.

5. the veggie may not be too good but the sauce is! 6. menu on the iron net.

7. another view to the shop. 8. the entrance near Ashley Road.

Craig Road/Noodle Plus, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong

Craig Road may not be familiar even to those who have lived in Quarry Bay for a long time. It's a just a small road leading to two old Tai Koo dormitory mansions next to Bo Fung Garden and Nan Fung Sun Chuen. However, this road is still much in my mind. Why check the below as I think every kid liked this old old time primary school activity. Anyway, I went in a hip noodle shop called Noodle Plus as recommended by my business friend.

1. iced coffee. 2. iced milk tea. HK$20. It's a bit bitter - why? It's because the water is not refined or distilled enough and also the boiling water is just too hot to make it a bit dry.

3. Shrimp roe on (stir) noodle with fish cake HK$45. Quite below average as the noodle is a bit too alkaline and the fish cake is a bit too tough and the soy sauce is a bit too sweet. 4. "Big Earth" fish on (stir) noodle with fish cake HK$45. Not nice either and the noodle was served at around 40 degree celsius which made it a bit strange. Besides, we were asked to sit on one side and share the table with the others. Considering the price, it'd be a mid-priced restaurant, they shouldn't treat customers like a HK tea restaurant selling HK$8-10 for a coffee/tea and HK$15 for a noodle! Besides, the kitchen work flow is very slow.

5. the soup is like a size of Yakult. Yes, about 100ml! However, the soup is not that nice and I really didn't know why it's that mini-sized. 6. I think it's all about the black/grey/metallic deco. attracting a group of customers eating "environment" rather than the food itself.

7. the shop outside. BTW, I noticed they promoted what they called the U-shape (tendon) beef brisket 坑腩. When the customer next to me ordered that, it's just the common beef brisket. Even the customer noticed I told it's not U-shape (tendon) beef brisket, she still didn't complain; so you would see some people care about the shop deco. rather than what they have been cheated. Yes, apparently it's cheating. 8. This section of Craig Road is with quite a no. of restaurants. I think I will try this Japanese restaurant next time as I noticed their name for quite many years.

9. Another expensive building called "Yat Wah Yuen" (now over HK$10k per sq. ft.). 10. ok - guess what it used to be? Swire Coco-cola factory - remember at our primary school that there was a trip to visit this factory and a free coca-cola would be given to each pupil. It's the most exciting program for me at that time.
11. Tai Koo Dormitory mansion but now open for public rental or sale.

Times Square - Christmas greeting, Hong Kong

In stepping into the middle of November, most of the malls in Hong Kong have been shaping up with their Christmas decoration.

1. Times Square has put on a few longer escalators in the main hall to diverse the customers to go to their destinations faster. 2. decoration in the main hall.

3. Looking up to the bottom of the crossing escalator and the ceiling light.

4. more light.

5/6. friends from the South Pole.

7. A big rabbit. 8. Emperor put on a very interesting metallic screen showing their ad. What a big thing made of big money.

See Fah Restaurant 世華餐廳, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong

See Fah Restaurant was one of the first few Singapore/Malay restaurants I tried back to the 80's. So much memories of it. The restaurant has been renovated for several times but still at the same old location on Hart Avenue across Prat Avenue.

1. Need to check with TC if the logo of See Fah is the same as that one of See Fah BKK. It claimed it's since 1937. 2. Iced lemon tea HK style and it's on a lunch set at HK$33.

3. Red Soup or White soup? 4. Spring Chicken with rice in curry sauce. So in such a nostalgic restaurant, I should try curry. Quite nice and the coconut aroma is pretty strong.

Festive China 又一棧, Festival Walk, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Festive China is a Shanghai/Beijing cuisine restaurant of Maxim's Group. The decoration is a bit Shanghai style. The food is a bit derivative.

1. snack before the meal. 2. the table ware.

3. the menu. 4. the table and lamp light.

5. the ceiling. 6. Jelly Fish top part in vinegar HK$75. The jelly fish is a bit over-washed. Good is that it's much cleaned but the bad it lost all the taste. The vinegar is a bit too sweet though.

7. Cold chicken in scallion/oil HK$78. A bit disappointed that the chicken is not a fresh one. The dressing is a bit too bland while the scallion is not fresh aromatic enough to outstand it. 8. bean sprouts stir fried HK$78. This one is pretty good - very quick stir frying in making every bean sprout evenly done, but not watery.

9. Hot fried five belly pork (回鍋肉) HK$88. The five belly pork wasn't pan fried enough to get a bit burnt on the sides. The chef used the Beijing black bean paste instead of the red chilli bean paste 豆辦醬. The taste is also a bit too sweet. The original cooking of this dish is to ahve the red chilli bean paste and some rice vinegar (but remember it's now sweet and sour sauce as this one is supposed to be salty sour and hot with a very slight touch of sweet). Then there is no bamboo shoot which is the symbolic ingredients of this dish, though I am allergic to bamboo shoot. I tried this dish quite many times at the old old time, and hope to make it one time soon in order to keep my memory up. 10. mini-dumpling HK$35. At average.

11. Lion Head (big pork ball) casserole HK$98 - the soup is nice but the dish was prepared for almost an hour and it's like a dessert after all the dishes. 12. the table.

13. see how Shanghai style it is. 14. the entrance.