添好运 Tim Ho Wan ~ 160411

On our last day, we woke up at 615am with the intention to head out to look for the 3 Michelin starred restaurant, 添好运 Tim Ho Wan (literally translated as "add good luck"). We were all geared & excited about having the dim sum there since there were so many raving reviews & most importantly, it was a Michelin restaurant with very AFFORDABLE prices!!! After walking and asking around, we reached there at about 740am. Haiz, but guess what?! The place was only open for business at 10am! So we could only peeped around & took some photos for remembrance sake! :(

添好运 Tim Ho Wan

We found this interesting notice pasted on the glass outside the shop. It stated that when the place is opened for business at 10am, they will issue 130 numbers to customers and if you were lucky to get one, you have to utilize it before 3pm. Subsequently, at 4pm, they would issue another 60 numbers and these have to be utilized before 9pm! I have read reviews of people who waited 2 hours to get in & now I finally found the answer! The entire place can only sit 28 customers at one seating so you can imagine the arduous waiting & queuing outside! *Amazing*

Rules of this place

I was truly disappointed but then again, I do not think that I have the patience to wait for 2 hours for my food so we decided to head to 稻香超級漁港 (Where we had our dim sum on 1st day) to satisfy our dim sum cravings!!!

Good luck & be sure to get there early to queue folks! ;)

添好运 Tim Ho Wan is located at Shop 8, 2 - 20 Kwong Wa Street, Mongkok.

太平館餐廳 Tai Ping Koon Restaurant ~ 150411

We headed to the restaurant, 太平館餐廳 Tai Ping Koon Restaurant that Bestie recommended for our dinner. This restaurant serves up Western dishes infused with the local taste. It is apparently famous for its Swiss Chicken, Roasted Pigeon & Baked rice stuff! We had a hard time finding this place as it was located in one of the small lanes (which even the locals had trouble finding themselves let alone to direct us!). Haha, however, being the smarties we managed to find the place! Look at the old building that it was in! If without the neon signboard, I doubt it was eye catching at all. FYI, do not underestimate this restaurant! It was established in 1860 & had a long standing history of 150 years & still counting!!! Since it has managed to survive for decades & centuries (almost!), I can't wait to see for myself the quality of food they served! ;)

太平館餐廳 Tai Ping Koon Restaurant

Established since 1860! *WOW*

Look at the Opening hours 

We reached there at around 605pm and the restaurant was pretty empty. However, we saw quite a number of tables with the reservation signs. Luckily we were here early as by the time our food was served, the crowd was slowly streaming in & when we were done an hour later, there was a long queue forming outside! The minute I saw the interior of this place, it reminded me of the Shashlik restaurant in SG (which I wrote sometime back). There was no fanciful decor & the furnishings were kept simple. Even the waiters (hehe, we did not see any waitresses here at all) were of the matured group. Everything seemed so old school here!

Old school right? ;)

Roasted pigeons on the wall ;)

That's how old this restaurant is! 

Since we reckoned the portion would be rather big & we were not too hungry, we ordered a dinner set to share which came with a seafood soup, swiss chicken & baked rice. We were first served with the hot cross bun (yes, still piping hot!) The bun was soft and the outer layer was pretty crispy. We like! :)

Haha favourite hot cross bun ;)

The seafood soup was in a tomato based broth & it was rather rich in taste. There were quite a number of ingredients in there as well for e.g. fish slices, prawns, crab meat (& I mean REAL crab meat) & some shell fish! What I like about the soup was that it was served piping hot & the ingredients used were really fresh & generous!

Seafood soup

This meal took us like an hour (not because we were taking our own sweet time but...rather, we had to wait very long for the food to be served). We waited for at least half an hour before the Swiss chicken came. Hehe, during this time, since we were so restless, we were camera whoring! LOL. The chicken wings were soaked in black sauce & there was 2 broccoli that came along with it as side garnish ;) The smell was so fragrant (guess by the time it was served, our tummies were growling thus that explained why everything looked & smelled good! *chuckled*). I must say that the wait was definitely worthwhile! The chicken meat was juicy & succulent and the black soy sauce has simply gone into the meat (really well marinated!). The Swiss chicken was meant to have a sweet taste so for those of you (like my bestie) who prefer a saltier version, you may not like it that much as I do! ;)

Famous Swiss Chicken

Least we did not have to wait another 30 mins for the baked rice to arrive, it came about 10 mins after we were done with the chicken. The baked rice was not what as I had imagined it to be. I thought it was going to be those creamy sauce type with a thick layer of cheese on top of it. I must say this baked rice turned out to a very PLEASANT surprise! The sauce was yummy & I loved how those tomatoes melted in the mouth! Beneath those tomatoes were....big chunky slices of pork chop (which I forgot to take peek of as we were too engrossed in eating!LOL). Despite the chunkiness of the meat, the pork chops were really tender & retained the juiciness of it! It went very well with the rice, tomatoes & sauce! To be honest, I am not a big fan of baked rice but this one totally won me over! We finished it in no time! *Slurped*

Baked rice!

Woo, I forgot to mention that the set came with a dessert & drink too! The dessert for the day (I presume everyday is the same, haha) was the small piece of old fashioned looking cake! I was commenting to YP that I had these cakes when I was young when there was a happy occasion in the family for e.g. people getting married or newborn's 1st month! Really brought me down memory lane! How nostalgic! Aww.... =)

Old fashioned looking cake!

I loved this hot lemon tea drink! The tea was brewed and the lemon gave it a citrus fragrance & taste. Comforting drink to end off a good hearty meal!

Hot Lemon tea drink

By the time we are done, the restaurant was fully packed! This meal cost us HKD197 (SGD32.30) & we totally enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend you to pay this restaurant a visit if you are looking for good authentic Swiss chicken & lovely baked rice! ;)

We visited the one at 19 -21 Mau Lam Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon.

They have 3 other branches at:

- 40 Granville Road, Tsim Sha Tsui Kowloon
- 6 Pak Sha Road, Causeway Bay, Hongkong
- 60 Stanley Street, Central, Hongkong

You can also visit their website, http://www.taipingkoon.com/.

澳洲牛奶公司 Australia Dairy Company ~ 150411

On our 3rd day, we decided to head to 澳洲牛奶公司 Australia Dairy Company for breakfast. We got to hear of this place from our friendly hotel staff. We only knew that the staff love the scrambled eggs here & told us to try it ourselves! We reached there at about 835am & luckily, there was not much of a queue outside. We waited less than 5 minutes & were ushered in (really typical trait of HK cafes, 茶餐厅 which was fast turnaround time!) The inside of the place was bustling with activities with people eating (obviously), ordering & serving of food. I was truly amazed by the sight & noise! LOL. (This peek was taken after we were done with the meal at 912am & looked at the queue forming!)

澳洲牛奶公司 Australia Dairy Company

We were ushered to sit at one corner & facing the wall (literally!) The menu was pinned to the wall & we took our picks from there! They serve only 1 type of breakfast set which consisted of the butter toast, scrambled eggs, Macaroni ham in soup & a beverage. All this for HKD26 (SGD4.26). We took this set & ordered another scrambled egg sandwich & a hot milk. =)

Menu

I ordered a hot milk tea which came with the set. The milk tea was fragrant & smooth. A perk me up drink in the morning!

Milk tea

The Macaroni ham in soup was a tad too salty for our liking! But seemed like every table was having this since it came along in the set. Typical breakfast for the locals!

Chicken Macaroni soup

YP ordered the Hot milk & it was very smooth & creamy. Haha, I was commenting to YP that it tasted like those Anlene milk powder drink. If you are a milk lover, you would love this!

Hot Milk

This was what we came for! Scrambled eggs!!! The eggs were light & fluffy & they were really well seasoned! Not too salty & texture was still slightly moist *Thumbs UP* I always feel that to test a chef's culinary skills, all you have to do is to get him to do the simplest dish like fried rice & scrambled eggs! Now I fully understand why the scrambled eggs were a HIT with the locals & tourists likewise (",)

Scrambled eggs set

The Scrambled eggs sandwich was equally tasty. The bread was thick & soft & can you see how generous they were with the eggs fillings inside? Haha, I am drooling along as I am writing this posting! This was really the best scrambled eggs that I have ever eaten!

Scrambled eggs Sandwich

This cost us HKD54 (SGD8.85) which was cheap for such quality scrambled eggs. We were totally sold by the breakfast here! This is definitely a MUST TRY when you are visiting HK! =)

澳洲牛奶公司 Australia Dairy Company is located at 47 -49 Parkes Street, Jordan (Nearest MTR: Jordan MTR, Exit C2)

镛记酒家 Yung Kee Restaurant ~ 140411

One of the highlights for this trip was to have dinner at the famous 镛记酒家 Yung Kee Restaurant at Wellington Street, Central. The 1st thing when we reached our hotel on the 1st day was to have our hotel phoned them to help us make a dinner reservation for tonight! We initially wanted to have dinner at 7pm but as this restaurant was really famous, the earliest dinner reservation they could take in was at 845pm so we had to settle for that. As we were hungry wanted to be in time for the dinner reservation, we reached Central about 7pm & decided to try our luck. When we reached @ 730pm, the staff mentioned that we could go in & take a seat! YEAH!!! ;)

镛记酒家 Yung Kee Restaurant

These century eggs were an appetizer dish for all guests (keke, of course not FOC). Look at the colour & texture of the eggs! YP & I loved them! The texture of the yolk was slightly runny & creamy. If you love century eggs like I do, you would certainly fall in love with them! These must be the BEST century eggs that I have ever eaten! *Slurped* (We were seriously considering whether they sell this so that we can buy them back home! That's how good it was!)  =)

Century eggs!

Here came the STAR of the night! Famous Roasted goose!!! I must confess that this was my 1st time having roasted goose *blushed* I did not have this 4 years back when I came to HK & bestie was like "WHAT?!" So this time round, this was definitely TOP on my To-do list! LOL. Since this was my 1st time having this dish & there were so many raving reviews, I honestly can't wait to get my hands on this dish! The skin was crispy & when you took a bite, the oil simply oozed out! I found the meat to be rather tough & took quite a while of chewing. By the end of the meal, it got really tiring. Overall, I must admit that I am not really a fan of this.

Roasted Goose

We ordered the Braised beancurd to go along with the rice & meat. A good choice indeed! The beancurd was very soft & the sauce (with mushrooms & carrots) complemented the beancurd. Haha, we were joking that this was a good choice as there were not much chewing required as compared to that of the goose! LOL.

Braised beancurd

This meal was our most hefty one on this trip! In all, it cost....HKD298 (SGD48.85)! If you were to ask me whether it was worth it, I would say "not really" BUT...if you are already in HK, you might as well try the famous Michelin restaurant that is so raved about & haha, least when people ask you whether you have tried Yung Kee, you can happily answer with a "YES"! ;)

镛记酒家 Yung Kee Restaurant is located at 32 - 40 Wellington Street, Central.

Do call (852) 2522 1624 to make reservations to avoid disappointment! ;) 

You can check out their website, http://www.yungkee.com.hk

池記雲吞麵家 Chee Kei Wonton Noodle ~ 140411

Since we had a heavy breakfast & were busy shopping still full, we only had our next meal at 4pm. How can one miss eating the Wanton Mee (Shrimp dumpling noodles) when one is in HK?!!! And so we headed to the famous 池記雲吞麵家 Chee Kei Wonton Noodle at Causeway Bay.

池記雲吞麵家 Chee Kei Wonton Noodle

They offer set menus whereby you can choose either noodles/ congee with your choice of side dishes/ boiled vegetables/ desserts just for HKD42 which is indeed value for $. I vaguely remember if you wanted to have a glass of homemade barley, you can also purchase it for just HKD6 when you order the set.

We ordered 2 sets for sharing. The 1st set was the Wantan mee with Swiss chicken & the 2nd set, Braised beef tendon noodles with boiled vegetables. The portion was not much and there were about 4 wantons (shrimp dumplings) in there. The noodles were springy & not overcooked. The soup retained the freshness and tastiness of the dried shrimps used. As for the dumplings, the skin was soft and the shrimps were fresh! (If you realized, the Wanton noodles here differ from that of SG as they serve theirs in soup & there are no Char siew meat (Barbequed pork meat) or vegetables that come along with it.) For me, I always have this back @ Crystal Jade in SG where I termed it as one of my "comfort food"! =)

Wantan mee

We loved the Swiss chicken as it was simmered till soft and yet the meat was still juicy! The taste was slightly sweeter than the usual braised chicken.

Swiss Chicken

The Braised beef tendon noodles was delicious. The standard of the noodles remained & the soup was rich with beef stock & collagen! Tendons were braised till soft and melted in the mouth! Simply a MUST order for beef tendon lovers! ;)

Braised beef tendon noodles

We had the boiled vegetables (choice of veg: Kai Lan) with Oyster sauce. We realized that when they served the Kai Lan, the leaves were always separated from the stalk & the vegetables always retained the colour of rich green which made it looked so fresh & crisp!

Kai Lan with Oyster sauce

I would definitely recommend this place if you are looking for authentic HK Wanton noodles! Also, if you have room for more, you can try the Crab Congee (which we saw people ordering & looked really yummy)! ;)

池記雲吞麵家 Chee Kei Wonton Noodle is located at 84 Percival Street, Causeway Bay.
They do not have any websites & I have listed some of the other branches as below:

- Langham Place, 4th floor, Mongkok
- Telford Plaza, 33 Wai Yip Street, Kowloon Bay
- Maritime Square, 33 Tsing King Road, Tsing Yi
- 37 Lock Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

翠华餐厅 (Tsui Wah Restaurant) ~ 140411

For 2nd day of Breakfast, we headed out to 翠华餐厅 (Tsui Wah Restaurant) which is a popular chain of restaurants in Hongkong also affectionately known as "茶餐厅" by the locals. They have 3 different breakfast sets to choose from. Each breakfast set comes with a main (macaroni/ noodles), eggs, a bun & a beverage. There's the ala carte to choose from as well. The reason why we came here was because my bestie insisted that I had to come & try their 猪仔包 (Toasted bun with butter & condensed milk)! Keke, sounds sinful delicious ya! And so we ordered a Set A (Abalone & shredded ham of Macaroni in Soup), 猪仔包 & 菠萝包 (Toasted bun).

Breakfast menu

The Sunny Side up & bun came along with the set that we ordered. A pity the egg yolks were fully cooked & not the runny types that we like. Haha, subsequently, we realized that for other tables, the egg yolks were all very "pretty" & were those of the runny types! We reckoned that's because we couldn't speak a word of Cantonese and thus by default, this would be the eggs served. LOL.

Sunny Side UP & bun

I realized that this soup macaroni is like one of the MUST have for locals here during breakfast time! Looked around & almost every table ordered one! The only ingredients that came with it was the shredded ham & abalone. Wahaha, abalone! (guess they used those imitation types). The portion was pretty sizeable & YP was commenting that HK people really eat alot since this came with the set! *chuckles*

Abalone & shredded ham of Macaroni in Soup

Next up, came the piping hot 菠萝包 (aka Polo bun) which is YP's favourite! The bun was huge! This was indeed yummy! The outer part of the bun was so crispy & has a sweet taste to it while the inside was so soft & fluffy! We absolutely like this! :)

Polo Bun

We ordered a Yuan Yang (coffee mixed with tea) which came with the set. The Yuan Yang is also a typical drink found in Hongkong. It has more of the coffee & milk taste rather than the tea.  

Yuan Yang

I can't resist taking a peek of the cup they used here! Cute, aint it? I termed it the "Happy Cup" ;)

Happy cup

Lastly, came the 猪仔包 which was what brought us here! Look at the crisp golden colours! One can't resist taking a bite! Woo...When I bite into it, I can totally understand why Bestie loves this so much & insisted for me to try! The butter & condensed milk simply oozed out in the mouth & the bun was toasted till crispy & yet retained the softness! You have to try it yourself to experience this goodness!!! FYI, you have to use your hands to eat (rather than the knife & fork) to have the finger licking experience! LOL =)

猪仔包

YP gave me a treat for this (Thanks sweetie!) & I think it cost about HKD 58 (SGD9.50)? It was indeed a sumptuous & filling breakfast & after this meal, we were all CHARGED & ready to take on the streets of HK!!!! =)

翠华餐厅 (Tsui Wah Restaurant) has many outlets and you can check out the full listing at:
http://www.tsuiwahrestaurant.com/

義順牛奶公司 (Yee Shun Milk Company) ~ 130411

While walking back from Mongkok to our hotel, we passed by this famous shop selling steamed milk desserts. I was telling YP that when I was here 4 years back, I had to have this every night before I go back to my hotel! So you can imagine my HAPPINESS (Yes, with the Capital letters) when I saw it again (haha, seems like long lost love found!) LOL.

義順牛奶公司 (Yee Shun Milk Company) 

YP ordered the signature Hot Steamed "Double skin" milk pudding (about HKD22).  There was a thin film of skin when it came and this layer is the curdled milk from the steaming process. The pudding was very smooth and texture was light. If you have always been a great fan of milk, you would definitely love this! ;)

Steamed milk

For me, being a fan of Ginger, I ordered the Hot Steamed milk with Ginger juice (about HKD23). The taste was exactly how I remembered it! The ginger juice was strong but not overwhelming and the texture was so smooth that when YP tried to use her porcelain spoon to scoop it, it was rather difficult. Now we finally understood why we were given 2 different spoons. For mine, it was a plastic spoon. I finished this in no time as it was simply a comforting dessert for my tummy! *Thumbs UP* ;)

Steamed Milk with Ginger juice

義順牛奶公司 is located at 513 Nathan Road, Yau Ma Tei.

澳門九記清湯腩王 ~ 130411

Is dinner time! We decided to head to this place,澳門九記清湯腩王 (Supreme Beef Brisket soup) recommended by our friendly hotel staff! (To sidetrack: We stayed at M Hotel @ Portland street, Yau Ma Tei, just 5 mins walk from the MTR, new hotel, friendly staff, clean room! Definitely will recommend to fellow travellers!)  =)

澳門九記清湯腩王

We ordered the Stewed beef with rice (HKD38) and the Kai Lan vegetables (HKD12) as side dish. The Stewed beef here is slightly different from the usual ones. It is actually clear beef soup with radish. The soup was sweet and the radish further enhanced the sweetness of the soup! YP & I simply loved the radish *slurps* One can really taste the goodness of this soup which most probably has been boiled for long to achieve this kind of tastiness! As for the beef, it was too chewy for our liking (hmm, seriously, I wonder why it was called stewed beef since the meat was still so tough & lacking in tenderness). Anyhow we still finished every bit of the soup as it was way too tasty! ;)

Stewed Beef soup

Almost all HK restaurants would have this side dish! There are usually several types of vegetables to choose from. For us, we chose the Kai Lan with oyster sauce. The vegetables were crisp & sweet! :)

Kai Lan with Oyster sauce

We realized that most people ordered the Stewed beef as well as the Chicken rice (which YP was intrigued by the colour of the chicken skin as it was yellowish & not the type seen in SG) LOL. Apparently, these 2 were the popular orders!

Overall, I really love the soup (minus the beef)! In total, we spent HKD50 (approximately SGD8) for this meal which I found it to be reasonable (considering the high cost of living in Hongkong).

They have several outlets & we went to the one at 46 Portland Street, Yau Ma Tei since it was within walking distance from our hotel =)

You can check out the full listing at http://www.beefbrisketsoup.com/

稻香超級漁港 ~ 130411

Yes, I am back from the Paradise of Food, Hongkong!!! :) Will be documenting my food adventures bit by bit when I have the mood time ;)

My 1st meal in HK was at 稻香超級漁港 where I indulged in my dim sum craving! This is one of the restaurants belonging to Tao Heung Group. Under this group, they have many different Chinese restaurants which serves different cuisines. Over here, the prices of Dim sum are catagorised into Small (HK$8.8), Medium (HK$11.8), Large (HK$14.8) and Special (HK$17.8). These prices relate to the type of dim sum & has nothing to do with the portion so do not be mistaken when you are ordering! ;)

稻香超級漁港 

As there were only 2 of us (YP & I) & we were not that hungry, we ordered only 4 types of dim sum. Haha, FYI, being the gluttony us the rule of the thumb of this trip is not to over order! ;) We ordered the Har Kau, Fried Carrot Cake, Custard buns & Steamed Dumpling.
  
Next up was our all time favourite ~ Fried Carrot cake(香煎蘿蔔糕) (Medium)! One can really taste the freshness of the radish, dried shrimps & chinese sausage! The texture was really smooth. I was commenting to YP that if my mum were here, she would definitely be very happy as she absolutely loves this dim sum! ;)

Fried Carrot cake(香煎蘿蔔糕)

The Har Kau (aka 蝦餃, Shrimp Dumpling) (Special) was very tasty with lots of fresh shrimps inside. The skin was very translucent as you can see! *Thumbs up* (Got to eat it piping hot to ensure that the skin does not harden when turned cold!)

Har Kau (aka 蝦餃, Shrimp Dumpling)

Custard bun(香滑奶皇包) (Medium) is one of my many favourites which I never fail to order, LOL! But it is not easy to find one that is good! I had this dim sum 4 years back when I was in HK & absolutely miss it! The custard bun here is soft & the custard filling is really smooth! Simply delicious! ;)

Custard bun (香滑奶皇包)

Look @ the custard *drools*

Lastly, we had the Steamed Dumpling 灌汤饺 (Big) which is also one of my favourites (keke, seems like I have lots of favourites ya)! I had this 4 years back & till now, I still vividly remember how good this was! *slurps* The soup was made with the freshest ingredients which gave it the sweetness & taste! The skin was very soft & smooth with lots of ingredients inside. In there, one can find chicken meat, bamboo shoots & mushrooms! This was definitely a must order ! =)

Steamed Dumpling 灌汤饺

It was a very good meal & we totally enjoyed the food. Guess what was the best part?! All these for a mere HKD 75 (which was equivalent to about SGD13)!!! Unbelievable right?! 稻香超級漁港 is definitely value for $ if you are looking for reasonable priced & quality dim sum choices! ;)

To be continued folks.... (",)

稻香超級漁港 is located at Shop A, 3/F & 4/F., Grand Tower, 639 Nathan Road, Mongkok, KLN.
Business Shop A 3/F & 4/F., Grand Tower, 639 Nathan Road, Mongkok, KLN.
Business Hours: 7:00am - 12:00am(3/F)

As they have so many outlets, you can check out the full listing at their website,
http://www.taoheung.com.hk/eng/main/index.jsp