World Foodie Guide

This is the second in a series of Postcards from the recent Hong Kong, Macau and Beijing traveleating trip. Rather than writing up each food experience in separate posts, which would have taken me up to Christmas, I thought it would be more fun to outline the trip in diary form, to include travel and sightseeing tips as well as food recommendations.

Day 2 highlights:

• Sheung Wan
• vegetarian dim sum at Lock Cha Tea Shop
• dinner at Yung Kee

Sheung Wan:

On our first full day in HK, I wanted the husband to see a bit of ‘old Hong Kong’, so I chose Sheung Wan, the ‘Chinese heart of old Hong Kong’. I could have started even further west in Western District, but didn’t want to overdo it on day one. A tip on travelling in HK – buy an Octopus card from any MTR Customer Services counter as soon as you arrive (it costs HK$150, but the HK$50 deposit is refunded when you return the card). It’s so liberating, because you don’t need to worry about having the right change for any form of public transport (MTR, buses, trams etc and even the Peak Tram, which means avoiding the long queues). It’s easy to top up as well, and you can also use it in shops displaying the Octopus sign.

We stopped by at the Western Market (in a building dating from 1906), which houses many textile sellers on the second floor. There was no one else there apart from us, which made it a little awkward to simply browse without being pounced on. I did succumb by buying an incredible Shanghai Tang-style scarf (double-sided in navy and lime green) for HK$380, which is much cheaper than buying it from Shanghai Tang itself.

Cat Street (Upper Lascar Row) was our next stop. There are many antique shops and stalls selling curios, memorabilia and ‘antiques’, including opium pipes, calligraphy brushes, alarm clocks and all manner of Mao products. It’s fun to browse, but I think I can safely say that it would be cheaper to get these things from Beijing. If you’re only going to be in HK, then you can find some great souvenirs and presents here.

Walking past many traditional shops and little restaurants (including hole in the wall eaterie Wing Hop Shing on Jervois Street, famous for its claypot rice with beef and egg), we happened across a European-style gourmet shop, J’s Gourmet Sauces, selling fresh porcini and chanterelle mushrooms, as well as many different varieties of dried mushrooms and pasta. We couldn’t walk away without stocking up on dried porcini mushrooms (from Yunnan province) and some dried bean curd strips for soups.

Vegetarian dim sum at Lock Cha Tea Shop:

There are two branches of Lock Cha, but only the Admiralty branch serves dim sum, and not just any old dim sum, but absolutely superb vegetarian dim sum. I’d heard a lot about the dim sum here, so asked a HK friend to book a table for me a couple of weeks ago. If you don’t want to eat, you can simply sample and learn about the good selection of teas for sale here. But you would be mad not to eat here, after what we tried! Although I initially turned my nose up at vegetarian dim sum, I ended up having more than the husband!

Each item was innovative, in terms of both interesting flavours and presentation. The small menu changes daily, and there are only 2 pieces per order, making it a little more expensive than a standard dim sum restaurant. I won’t list what I had, as we had 9 out of the 14 items on the menu! But trust me when I say that the dim sum here was better than at Lung King Heen, which is rated one of the best restaurants in HK for dim sum (UPDATE: January 2009 – and now has three Michelin stars, the first for any Chinese restaurant in the world). We plan to return next week, which shows just how incredible the dim sum was, as we have very few eating slots left. Click here to see the dim sum photos. Lunch for two cost HK$367.00 (£27.50).

Dinner at Yung Kee:

(UPDATE: January 2009 – the recipient of one Michelin star)

Although I had read that the quality of the famous roast goose at this venerable institution (click here for interesting historical background, which I won’t repeat) has gone downhill in recent years, with better goose to be found elsewhere (eg Yat Lok, Po Wah House A, Tai Ming Lane, Tai Po, New Territories, which featured on Anthony Bourdain’s ‘No Reservations’), I still wanted to eat here (see original HK restaurant shortlist). The suckling pig and barbecue pork have also been recommended in reviews. So I persuaded some HK friends to go with us (and more importantly make the reservation!), despite the fact that there wasn’t much on the menu for the vegetarian husband.

I was somewhat disappointed with Yung Kee’s food (sorry guys, I chose the restaurant and you paid for us!). All the floors were packed with diners and even with a reservation made three weeks ago, we had to wait nearly half an hour before we were seated. The menu is substantial, when a simpler selection would have been far better. As I was there for the roast goose, we ordered a quarter portion (HK$120), along with the barbecue pork (HK$100) and four dried goose liver sausages (my mother said it’s famous there) at HK$12 per sausage. We also ordered soya goose wings and webs (HK$100), fried rice with pine nuts (HK$105), deep-fried bean curd with spicy salt (HK$70) and mixed vegetables with bamboo fungus (HK$108).

I think the food is really over-hyped at Yung Kee. The goose wasn’t bad, but I’m more of a duck person, as duck is generally less fatty. As the goose was quite rich, we couldn’t even finish a quarter portion. And I didn’t like the barbecue pork at all. Each piece consisted of one third meat, two thirds fat, and it was really difficult to eat more than a few pieces. I had to resist spitting out the chunks of fat. The barbecue sauce was tasty (stronger than the ones I’ve had in London), and I can tell that it was made from a special recipe, but the meat should have been much leaner. The goose liver sausage was good, but again quite rich, and in retrospect, we should have asked for it to be simply cooked with some greens.

I did like the fried rice with pine nuts though. The rice was light and fluffy with just the right amount of egg, and the pine nuts made it a truly delicious and special dish. The starter of preserved eggs with ginger was also good. Preserved egg isn’t to everyone’s taste, so if you don’t think you can eat half an egg, try it in a smaller dose in congee to test it.

Well, I did what I set out to do, which was to try the roast goose at Yung Kee. As I can’t compare it with other roast goose eateries on this trip, I can’t tell whether it’s gone downhill or not. I can only say that it wasn’t spectacular by any stretch of the imagination.

Onto the next traveleating day in Macau!

N.B You’ll find all the China Postcards under Restaurant Reviews – China, and the entire set of food photos on Flickr.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Wing Hop Shing
G/F, 113-115 Jervois Street
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong
Tel: 852 2850 5723

Lock Cha Tea Shop (they accept reservations)
Ground Floor
The K.S. Lo Gallery
Hong Kong Park
Admiralty
Hong Kong
Tel: 852 2801 7177
www.lockcha.com

Yung Kee (they accept reservations)
32-40 Wellington Street
Central
Hong Kong
Tel: 852 2522 1624
www.yungkee.com.hk

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Tags: China, dining out, food, Hong Kong, Lock Cha, restaurant review, restaurants, travel, traveleating, vegetarian, Yung Kee