滬江飯店, Wu Kong restaurant, Causeway Bay HK

 Every time if I had quite a no. of unhappy meals, I would immediately go back to some of my favourite restaurants for a healing.  Wu Kong is one of the healing "hospital".  This time they had something new on the menu.  Photo 1: Jasmine smoked duck - as noted, it's quite moist with a strong duck meat flavour with the right amount of smoked aroma.  See the cutting skill - very evenly thin cut.  The chilled cucumber lifted the strong meat flavour to a fresh sweet drop to the dish.  Then on photo 2, they made this renowned deep fried yellow fish in sweet and sour sauce.  Highly recommended.  Photo 3 is the  sesame dumpling in ginger sweet.  Nice dumpling wrap but the ginger was a bit too strong that I had to dilute it a bit.  *the last 2 photos were taken at close to 11pm.  That's why no one was around.

日月樓 Sun Moon Dumpling shop

 This place doesn't offer any fancy food but the way they cook is very classic and I like the way they made all the food to the order.  The pan seared "four season" string beans 干煸四季豆 was done in a right way.  The dumpling is so good with a nice flour flavour of the wrap and chunky filling.  The tossed noodle with meaty sauce is nice too.  Interesting that all the food were not heavily seasoned.  Very down-to-earth.  Made me so happy and so are the other customers (see the last photo).

雲腿蒸鷄，吊片蒸肉餅 (美心皇宮大酒樓) Steamed chicken with Chinese golden ham & steamed pork patty with dried squid by Maxim's Palace Restaurant Taikooshing, HK

 Tried ordering the dish on photo 1 many times but sold out.  I then called to reserve one.  That told why it was sold out that easily.  Glad that this one was made in such a classic way.  No fancy thing of XXX chicken plus YYY Chinese ham.  The 2nd dish is also a classic one and see how the original Cantonese steamed patty (the thickness and the just right juicy).  I really don't agree to those super thick patty as that would have a strange "suffocating" meat odour.  Don't know why those fusion "mini volcano" patty is such a talk of the town.

2012 Autumn Review: Maxim's Palace restaurant Taikooshing HK

 4-5 years ago Maxim's group was really a pain to me with those contemporary fusion food.  The situation has turned back with more classic Cantonese dishes and cooking style.  Though the first one   (deep fried pig's knuckle in preserved tofu sauce) isn't very Cantonese but the way it was made is quite Cantonese.  The 2nd one is a very home cooking - steamed chicken with preserved veggie 沖菜蒸鷄.  The 3rd one is braised garoupa fin in casserole 班翅煲 - a very nice one and a classic cooking with roasted pork, dried mushroom and Chinese lettuce.

寛窄巷子 (Wide and Narrow lanes), Hysan Place, Causeway Bay HK

 I got told that Wu Kong has a new subsidiary restaurant in Hysan Place.  For sure I went check but made a hilarious misunderstanding from the shop's name being a bit Northern China.  As I had the first bite, sorry I was a bit too rushing from not checking further if there are other similar Chinese provincial restaurants' names.  The food is just so so, but the deco. was good for those who like some old Chinese stuff.  Reminder: don't try the dessert, esp. the mini sticky rice dumpling in wine rice sweet.  Coming here for a tea and a bowl of rice is ok, but not the other food.

Back to ours - there's no place like home. A special dinner at Big Shanghai restaurant, Suk 24, Emporium BKK

Passed by this place hundred times and puzzled if I should go in.  Finally the clock was turned back...  Back to something we used to have...
And here we had a special dinner.  The most surprising thing is the classic and the original cooking of hot and spicy soup which the Shanghai's hot bean paste was used, instead of the white pepper that nowadays most restaurants use.  The other nice one is the stir fried eel, also a classic cooking with raw chopped garlic with hot burning oil to bring out the aroma.  The other dishes aren't the best, they are still pretty classic.  Most of all, we could be here on a special day, and right next to Emporium.

Xin Tian Di 新天地 Crowne Plaza Bangkok

Finally we could try this restaurant. The must-try dish is their Peking duck. It's roasted so nice and aromatic and yet it's thinly sliced without a thick layer of fat. Somehow in Bangkok the Beijing scallion 京蔥 can't be found. Otherwise, it would be much better to my personal favourite. Another highlight is their tofu dishes (photo 6) and this one reminds me of the one 老皮嫩肉 made by Kiki 老媽 in Taiwan - deep fried tofu first and then soaked in a sweet soy sauce, but this one is with some seaweed to absorb the sauce. Overall, it's good to have a nice Chinese restaurant in Silom area.