明記甜品 Ming Kee dessert shop Sai Wan Ho HK

Got disappointed with the recent visit at this shop.  Too much coconut milk in almost everything.  They should concentrate on their herbal jelly rather than making too many other food like the snowy ice and hot meaty food.  It's really not the same humble Ming Kee which used to be adored by the neighbours, especially the students who spread the word of mouth to earn this shop a name.

砵仔糕 Mini bowl steamed cake, outside of Tak Kee Western District

On walking out of Tak Kee Chiu Chow restaurant in Western District, a cheerful granny asked for trying her mini bowl steamed cake, HK$4 for 1. It smells so good that I had to eat it right away. The red beans are very aromatic and in a very nice texture. The cake itself is not too sweet. So we can taste the original cake flavour too. Have to come back for another try.

常餐, 特餐, 快餐, 全餐, ABC 餐, 金鳳茶餐廳 Various meal sets with Kam Fung restaurant, Wanchai HK

某一個下午，路過金鳳，撲鼻而來蛋撻，雞批，菠蘿包熱烘烘香氣，這刻完全背棄什麼高纖低脂低納。傳統菠蘿包再加片鮮油，火腿蛋奄烈加沙爹牛米，腸仔意，凍啡，華田，雞批加蛋撻。感謝還有像金鳳這些茶餐廳，帶給我們最回味的這些。金鳳的咖啡甚有當年茶餐廳的檀島咖啡的神韻﹣用煲煮的，焦香無澀味，菠蘿包非常有麵粉香，最讚嘆的還是他們的雞批，酥香惹味!
Passed by Kam Fung on one afternoon. There came the hot aroma from the freshly baked egg tart, chicken pie and "pineapple" bun. Decided to put aside all those high fiber, low fat, low sodium. Got a "pineapple" bun with a slice of fresh butter, ham omelette, satay beef noodle, sausage noodle, iced coffee, ovaltine, chicken pie and egg tart. Thanks to such local classic tea rooms as Kam Fung for bringing back all those flavours. The coffee of Kam Fung still keeps the classic making of the old time so-called "Honolulu" coffee (a name to be referred to a western coffee) - boiling to be with roasted aroma without the bitter taste. The "pineapple" bun has a nice flour flavour. The best is their chicken pie, so buttered aromatic.

Local snacks at prices of 20 years ago, Lei Yue Mun Kowloon HK

I was surprised to see all these local snacks at an amazing pricing level. I gotta ask the shop sales lady why they could sell BBQ pork at prices more than half of the market price in downtown. She proudly told me they own their shops and don't need to bother the rent! I bought some "chicky" pastry 鷄仔餅 and (photo 2) "wife" pastry 老婆餅. It was still very warm and of course I took it right away. Then I also bought some BBQ pork (HK$25 for half lb vs HK$50 half lb in other shops) and local snacks. HK$10 (vs HK$20-30 in town) for one pack of mini-egg pastry and others. Good to come here for this kind of local snack instead of going to visit Ku Kee or Ki Wah/Wing Wah...etc.

Traditional Cantonese snack, 陳意齋 Chan Yee Jai

Our senior generation wouldn't find this shop a stranger. The shop has been famous for its various local snack including the dried shrimp roe vegetarian roll 蝦子扎蹄, bird's nest sweet cake, barley sweet cake and the classic almond drink as well as a wide selection of preserved snack. As I noticed they have a sugar-free almond drink, there I went in for shopping more than just for that. As it's going to be a dry season, our throat will get some itchy for some coughing. The below "winter" ginger is a good choice for itchy throat. Note that the almond drink has French translation.

Shanghai fried noodle 上海粗炒麵 by Juen Hwu Dumpling 君滬鍋貼, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong

Shanghai fried noodle is not my favourite since I don't like the udon texture-like noodle unless it's a very high heat quick fried one. In my memory, there's one in Yue Man Fong of Kwun Tong back in my high school time. Glad to find another good one from this shop in Sai Wan Ho. This one is just at around HK$15. Very nice and high heat quick stir fried with what we call "wok aroma"鑊氣 in Cantonese quick stir fry.

The first time ever I tried pan fried beef bun 邂逅牛肉包

Not sure if I was 7 or 8. My aunt brought me to Tai On Mansion (I even forgot what the purpose was). We passed by this market street (Shing On Street) in Sai Wan Ho. There I smelled something very aromatic. My aunt noticed it and brought me in. She ordered a soy drink plus a pan fried beef bun for me. There I fell in love with this shop. Whenever I went to the public swimming pool of Tai Koo dockyard, I would stop by for the same.

1. This evening I passed by it again. The shop may still look the same, but the old man who used to pan fry the beef buns is not there anymore. 2. It is serving more than beef buns.

3. The stairs is still there. 4. Tofu sweet HK$7.5. It's not as good as before. The people simply don't carry on the old time traditional tofu skill. No matter what those images were still deep in my mind for the first beef bun I ever tried, though I didn't feel like having it tonight.

安利魚蛋粉 On Lee Fish Ball Noodle, Shaukiwan, HK

40 years ago, On Lee was one of the street stalls selling fish balls noodle at a corner of Tung Tai Street in Shaukiwan. To me it was not that interesting as Shaukiwan was a fishing village and there were a lot of seafood I could see at home. I prefer something not found at home - the trolley noodle. As people talked about eating local and exotic in recent years, On Lee was one of those attractions. Not only the fame and glory has brought the family of On Lee a fortune, but also the greed and jealousy among the family members and split the business into 3 different shops. The hatred didn't end and hostile harsh words were spoken against each other.

1. actually the street stall was once next to this shop before the fight. 2. the shop still claimed itself as street stall.

3. Beef brisket noodle HK$21. 4. Fish ball noodle HK$19. Well, there are quite many people who often thought On Lee is so good at fish balls. The fish balls are not bad but what made On Lee so popular in the old time were not fish balls. They should be the everyday freshly made flat rice noodle and the fish stock in white. As you can see, none of these was carried on. However, still a lot of people came here for the name.

Five Dragon Congee and Wonton shop, 五龍粥麵店, Central, Hong Kong

Remember the Lee Tung Street 利東街 (the so-called "greeting card street"囍帖街) of Wanchai? There was an old shop called five dragon selling some nostalgic wonton and shrimp dumplings and congee over 40 years at least. Some tycoon rich men even asked their drivers to go to this shop for a quick snack. That was my high school time I ran in this shop with school mates and noticed that, after my bicycle riding in Bowen Road. When Lee Tung Street was under re development in 2005, the shop moved to Central. So tonight I got to re-visit this old friend.

1. Ordered a satay beef on stir fried flat rice noodle HK$38. The noodle is a fresh one and stir fried aromatic but not burnt, not oily either. Personally I don't like satay sauce but this one is pretty good. 2. Phoenix city shrimp dumplings 鳳城水餃 HK$20. I think this is still the only few ones I have found they put very little bit of chicken liver in it. Very classic style of the origin. Besides, some bamboo shoot and soaked dried mushroom slices bring the shrimp taste so sweet. The only minor thing I can complain is the soup base. Should have been a bit more "five spices" to go with this one.

3. Fish patty ball congee HK$25. Wow, they still the classic way of congee boiling. High heat boiling without cover 明火。It has a very nice rice aroma indeed. The fish patty is their home made too, with some dried tangerine peel. 4. The chefs and the waiters are very senior and I believe they also moved from the old shop. The shop appeared to be a bit quiet though.
5. the new shop is on Jubilee Street.

Uncle Steamed milk restaurant 燉奶佬, Wanchai, Hong Kong

1. Familiar with this name? Yes, this uncle is coming back with more than his renowned steamed milk and it's expanding to quite many districts, and this one is on Tai Wo Street (side street of Hang Seng Bank on Johnston Road, quite close to the closed down Lung Mun Chinese restaurant).

1. Lime soda. 2. Hainanese chicken rice. The rice is very coconut flavoured but quite oily to me. The soup is pretty nice. Chicken not bad either. This set is at HK$40.

3. Black pepper steak on rice with drink at HK$42. When I first looked at the sauce, it didn't look appealing but when I tasted it, my high school memory came back! This is it - the black pepper sauce and it's very black pepper aromatic. The rice is cooked to a nice texture, also very hot. It geared up my appetite.... 4. yes, this is my further order for a stir fried squash with beef in XO sauce on flat rice noodle HK$35 (with drink). Again, the flat rice noodle doesn't look good either, but it surprised me. Very smooth texture and it's slightly stir fried in the wok. Quite aromatic. The beef and squash were stir fried nicely. The sauce is good too.

5. When we wanna order their renowned steamed milk, oops... too late (just 8pm) that it's sold out. So the shop maanger offered a free dessert to cheer us up. Red bean and herbal jelly in coconut milk. Very chilled and the coconut milk is not too sweet but very aromatic. So they really know how to keep customers. For sure I will go back for trying the steamed milk.

My cooking - turnip cake, 蘿白糕

Haven't made it for almost 2 to 3 years. It used to be something I regularly made for the Chinese New Year, together with the "year" cake, taro cake...etc. So yesterday I passed by a grocery and saw some very nice dried scallop and therefore I bought more than that.

1. The right one is the half half dried sausage (half fat vs half lean). The left one is 70/30. Why 2 different sausage? It's because fat is the source of aroma and without it, this cake wouldn't taste good. So the 70/30 sausage is to bring the "meat" sweetness to the cake. 2. Dried scallop. Soak it with water just covering it. Remember to use room temperature water to soak it (same to all other dried stuff). This way it will not make it too chewy.

3. When soaking the dried mushroom, I would use something to press on it to sink the mushroom to soak in the water. 4. Rice Flour from Thailand. Don't know why it uses a Kangaroo as the brand. Should be Chang or Coconut... :)

5. Chinese yellow wine - I would use the 3 year old yellow wine as it is more aromatic. 6. I don't shred turnip. I prefer slice it as it would have some texture. Besides, slicing the turnip would train you on the cutting skill. So this time I bought 3 catties of turnip. BTW, choose turnip which is heavier and with less small "air" roots. Remember there wouldn't be any sprout growing on the head of the turnip.

7. Ok, dice the sausage as much as possible. So for health sake, I would take out some fat. Then you would ask why choose 50/50 sausage. It's because the fat aroma is already in the lean part of the sausage. Then put the scallop slices into it. Put some yellow wine and some soy sauce (1 table spoon) and 1 table spoon of sugar to marinate it. 8. Dice the soaked mushroom. Dicing all these ingredients to as tiny as possible. Then put 1 table spoon of sugar, some cornstarch to marinate. This way the mushroom wouldn't absorb the salty taste easily. It also makes the mushroom tender.

9. Pan fried the sausage/scallop first until it's slightly brown. Then put the mushroom to let all of them be medium brown. ... ooops.. I was too concentrating on the rice flour mixing part as it's a very important step. OK, to recap, I don't count how much flour and water I put. Just feel it to be a bit sticky on your hand but not too sticky. Anyway, I would put some cornstarch together with the rice flour. More cornstarch would bring a more "jello" texture to it but I don't use too much. Normally it would be 1/4 to 3/4(rice flour) or 1/3 to 2/3. Then stir fry the sliced turnip on a big wok. Don't use the non sticky wok. We need the stirring effect and the texture. Then pour water to cover the turnip and cover it to cook it until soft. Then put the sausage/scallop/mushroom and cover it for cooking for 3-5 minutes. OK, turn to low heat. Pour the rice flour water mix into it. Then stir stir and stir to make everything evenly spread. Then prepare a big round metallic container. Clean it well and dry it well too. Put some oil on it and spread it evenly on the inside. Then pour this soft cake mix onto it and spread it evenly. Put it on a wok to steam at high heat for over 1 hour. I steamed this one over 1 hour 20 minutes. 10. Done!

11. OK, let it cool off for a few hours. Don't cut it when it's hot and warm. I would recommend putting it to the fridge to cool it for overnight. Then cut it in slices for pan frying. Eat it with some Chinese chilli sauce (余均益 brand is the best). Alternatively Thai Siracha chilli sauce is also good. Yummy!