1/2 roast BB suckling pig HK$148

after a good day’s walk at cheung chau island + free star ferry ride, and (before that) a very nice stroll at the peak circle walk, we were ready to settle down to a sumptuous dinner on 11.1.2016. ^^

it was not to be such a simple task though.

since we were already at tsimshatsui, we decided to go to tao heung at tsimshatsui rather than take mtr to mongkok.

all our i-sim free 160Mb data were used up & not topped up yet so. we got tao heung google-mapped when i got into isquare wifi network & was happily reaching the carnavon plaza in good time to enjoy the before 9pm promotion. 🙂

but we did not expect that tao heung had moved to 3 minden row. & w/o 3G it was quite difficult to locate just by verbal directions. after quite a long search & about to throw up our hands & go back to mongkok, we found tao heung at 3 minden row & sat down to find that our order had passed the 9pm timesheet log-in. 😦

anyhow, the 1/2 roast goose & 1/2 roast BB suckling pig were priced very reasonably here so i ordered both.

pig head-1/2 roast BB suckling pig HK$148

BB suckling was small & it was very good. at HK$148, it was even cheaper than the already cheap roast goose.

& really nice too. i loved it, as good as ah yat grandstand & hung kang restaurants in singapore.

glutinous rice stuffed chicken soup HK$188 2-in-1 special

there were like 6 different 2-in-1 combo special. one was a dungenese crab combo.

i decided to take the glutinous rice stuffed chicken soup. 🙂

glutinous rice stuffed chicken soup HK$188 2-in-1 special

& the soup was wonderful! ^^

glutinous rice stuffed chicken soup HK$188 2-in-1 special

very intense & tasty, & the chicken & glutinous rice were very good too & i the soup was so intense & flavourful. fantastic!

it’s a bit like the korean samgyaetang 参鸡汤 but no ginseng i think. tasted a whole lot better also.

sliced abalone with sweet beans-part of 2-in-1 special

the HK$188 2-in-1 combo included a sliced abalone with sweet beans which was good too. a pretty good deal!

1/2 roast goose 烧鹅 HK$180

the 1/2 roast goose 烧鹅 HK$180 in this restaurant was just HK$180, cheaper than yat lok (HK$250) & cheaper than fu kee (HK$220)!

1/2 roast goose 烧鹅 HK$180

the roast goose looked great & tasted pretty good too! but it was really NOT as good as flavourful than both yat lok & fu kee. it was pretty good, a dish i would take in this restuarant.

pork ribs mustard leaves soup HK$78

my friends loved the pork ribs mustard leaves soup 芥菜锅. very tasty clear 清 soup.

this a dish i intend to make, together with the samgyaetang 参鸡汤!

stirfried spinach HK$58

the greens was done well here, very nicely garlic fried with wok hae, unlike the “damp squid” tasteless vegetable at tai yun 泰源 last evening!

fried rice

they placed the wrong dish on our table, a fried rice, maybe yangzhou fried rice. it looked good & we decided to order it as well. nice!

blue girl “lam mui”

& the lads decided we should round off dinner with 2bottles of blue girl “lam mui” beer.

i took a small sip. it was pretty flavourful, not bad la..

dinner was HK$931 all in for 6pax = S$29pax, not toforget we had roast goose & roast suckling pig, a very good dinner at a super good price!

& the service in this new restaurant with great ambience was good too!

c.h.e.f andy

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Tao Heung 稻香 (Tsimshatsui)

peak tower

after a most satisfying breakfast at tao heung mongkok  稻香旺角, fair weather returned so we made our way to central station & took 2 taxis (we had 6pax) to the peak 山顶.

taxi fare was about HK$60 to HK$62. this c/w HK$28 one way/HK$40 return by tram. more importantly, there’s usually a long queue at the peak tram going up & some distance to walk from central mtr exit. 🙂

of course it’s cheaper by bus, but taxi up is still the most convenient, & we had the option of tram down which we did.

view from peak galleria rooftop

taxi took us to peak galleria 山顶广场.

we got to the rooftop. sky little overcast. weather was perfect like 17degC.  this direction seems to be looking out to aberdeen & deep water bay.

view from peak galleria rooftop

& stanley?

edvard munch the scream =trickeye museum peak galleria

there was a trickeye museum for optical illusions. 🙂

& a replica of edvard munch the scream at the entrance to the museum.

1 level down there was tai cheong 泰昌饼家, a brand of tao heung group. this the one where the stall at lyndhurst terrace the last british governor chris patten claimed had the best egg tarts in hong kong. trust the guy to know what is a good egg tart? we tried the egg tart. i have done this more than once at tai cheong 泰昌饼家 including the one at lyndhurst terrace but it was still so-so for me, a little too sweet & nothing c/w the burnt portugese egg tart.

victoria harbour & kowloon bay, IFC & ICC

we took the lesiurely 1 hr peak circle walk. 🙂

nice view of victoria harbour & kowloon bay, & the 2 tallest buildings, ICC on kowloon side & IFC on HK island side. 🙂

victoria harbour & kowloon bay, IFC & ICC

i did not take so many scenery shots like my last walk here on 4.4.2015.

& though we had quite many people shots, i do not post these on my public post.

victoria harbour & ICC

great view of victoria harbour,

anchorage, tsing yi bridge

the anchorage & the bridge linking to tsing yi island.

tsing ma & lantau bridges

& further the bridges from tsing yi to mawan island & from mawan island to lantau island.

a very relaxing & refreshing walk. nice air…good cheer…

we finished 2-ish. there was no queue for the tram down. so we took the tram & walked to yat lok 一乐stanley street to have our roast goose 烧鹅 fix!

c.h.e.f andy

HK$250 for 1/2 roast goose 烧鹅

after peak circle walk, we took the peak tram funicular to gardens road & walk to yat lok 一乐stanley street on 11.1.2016.

3pm at yat lok stanley street central

the place was crowded, packed at 3pm. we had to wait like 15mins.

partly because of the very bad queueing system.

we were a party of 6. the servers kept giving tables to parties of 2 & 3 behind us, and we had to wait till a table with 6 vacated. this was unlike at kam wah cafe the next morning where the server ushered us in & got others on a table that could seat 6 to move to other tables to free up 6 seats for us!

3pm at yat lok stanley street central

we were seated at a tiny table very crammed for 6, and the floor was wet at the ends so a few of us myself included had to seat with my feet tiptoed, extremely uncomfortable.

HK$250 for 1/2 roast goose 烧鹅

yat lok 一乐 has been my favourite roast goose 烧鹅 the last few times i was here.

the roast goose is consistently crispy skin & flavourful.

HK$250 for 1/2 roast goose 烧鹅

the waiting, crammed table, wet floor & the overall poor experience aside, the roast goose was still very good.

in fact most of my friends still voted  yat lok 一乐 the best roast goose (we had roast goose twice at fu kee congee 富记粥品, once at tao heung tsimshatsui, and once at yat lok).

for me, my first try at i felt it was as good as yat lok, after the second try, i decided for myself that i now prefer the more flavourful roast goose at fu kee congee 富记粥品 to yat lok.

HK$ 145 char siew + siew yoke

the HK$145 char siew + siew yoke was a complete waste of time.

char siew was more moist than the even worse one at fu kee congee 富记粥品, but equally tasteless. & the roast meat had rubbery skin.

any, i meant any, coffeeshop, hawkerstall char siew & siew yoke in Singapore are better than these.

HK$ char siew + siew yoke

totally convinced me never to order char siew in hong kong.

dry egg noodles

dry egg noodles was HK$25 – steep!

we ordered 2 soup flat noodles also.

lettuce

lettuce was such a tiny portion enough for 1pax.

the whole lunch came to about HK$650, expensive for the food we had & also a very poor overall dining experience.

i think yat lok 一乐 roast goose is still one to try if you are 2-3pax party & order only roast goose & some dumplings like we did last time.

stanley street pottinger street junction

after lunch, we walked to the mid-level escalators to go to central ferry to go cheung chau for a very next late afternoon island hike.

c.h.e.f andy

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siew mai won 烧卖皇

on 10.1.2016 the day we arrived, it started to rain in the late evening just when we kena abducted & fed a forgettable dinner at tai yun 泰源.

how can we be so unlucky? the lowest rainfall in the whole year in january & we ran smacked with a north east monsoon blowing over.

the next day we had planned to meet 830am at central to go up to victoria peak太平山, but it was again raining so we had to switch to wet weather program & met at our hotel royal plaza instead.

fortunately for the remaining time, it was fine weather all the way, & we managed our hike at peak circle walk, cheung chau island, dragonback & then a short stroll at lamma island. ^^

tao heung mongkok 稻香旺角

best wet weather program = breakfast dimsum at tao heung mongkok  稻香旺角 on 11.1.2016. ^^

tao heung mongkok 稻香旺角

hong kong is well connected with covered walkways, so we walked from royal plaza hotel to nathan road mongkok mtr under cover then walked along nathan road to hollywood plaza & to tao heung on level 3. 🙂

tao heung mongkok 稻香旺角

there was no queue but still a good crowd at 9.30am.

dimsum galore

we liked have a dimsum feast! maybe 25 items or more? forgot count but many items we ordered double.

anyway we ordered mostly from the before 11am specials priced at HK$8 & HK$9.

dimsum was very good standard. 🙂

spicy chives dumpling

spicy chives dumplings were good.

some rolls

not were name of the rolls..not my favourite.

潮州粉果 teochew dumplings

the combination 潮州粉果 teochew dumplings was good, great skin, great tasty ingredients! 🙂

炸两

炸两 was perfect. not my favourite fun cheung 粉肠but the 油条were great not like the hard like stone ones in singapore for this dish.

steamed pork ribs

steamed pork ribs were good. lots of yam, less pork.. tim ho wan’s much better!

steamed chicken feet

steamed chicken feet also competent.

fried eggplant with minced meat

fried eggplant was tasty.

fried eggplant with minced meat

not particularly my dish.

fried fupeikuin腐皮卷

i don’t fancy fried fupeikuin腐皮卷, prefer the steamed version. this was good though.

fried carrot cake

fried crrot cake was good, & came with 2 guotie 锅贴very good too… 🙂

char siew fun cheung叉烧粉肠

char siew fun cheung叉烧粉肠 was good, very smooth, but maybe not standout. got good ones in singapore these days.

char siew pao

char siew pao was very good.

char siew pao

so nice! so tasty! meat not too sweet, overal excellent. i hardly ever take char siew pao in singapore..lol..this one i took!

century egg congee皮蛋瘦肉粥

congee was just passable.

after the truly superb congee at fu kee congee 富记粥品 at fa yun street 花园街, nothing ever comes close la…

egg with pork & rice

the pork over rice with braised egg, again one of the HK$9 items…抵食到极 tie sek dor kek….

糯米鸡 lomeigai

糯米鸡 lomeigai i think normal pricing so should be like HKS24 or more….it’s good! so hoot ah!

mala cake马拉糕

& we had mala cake马拉糕 . this like lots of hong kong people like.

i guess it’s quite tasty ka..but not a “dessert” i need.

ginger cake

ginger cake was good too. seldom see this so had some uniqueness value.

overall the humongous breakfast cost us HK$380 for 6pax=S$12 each.

in hong kong they say “先要好食，然后抵食“ ie cheap is one thing, but must be good first la…same same my idea.^^

great thing was as we left the restaurant, rain had stopped & weather was fine throughout the days.

c.h.e.f andy

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Tao Heung Mongkok 稻香旺角

Shop A&B, 2/F, Hollywood Plaza, 610 Nathan Road, Mong Kok
旺角彌敦道610號荷里活商業中心2樓A及B號舖

roast pigeon

one of our eating targets in hong kong was to try out the dai pai tongs 大排档.

i had been to keung kee shatin chicken porridge 强记鸡粥 at tai wai a few times.

during the last trip i went to-

1. chan kun kee 陈根记大排档 at shatin on 4.6.2015. &
2. 富记大排档 at tai wai on 5.6.2015.

so this time i wanted to try new dai pai tongs 大排档. & i read that tai yun 泰源大排档 is not bad & saw photos of the chicken congee & razor clams etc.

850m walk to tai yun泰源

it was a long walk from fo tan station, according to googlemap 850m & 12mins. it was a reasonably nice walk on a lit but quite deserted riverside. great that we had 3G from the free i-sim & the googlemap. 🙂

only that the sky threatens to open up.

tai yun dai pai dong泰源大排档

as we reached shan mei street山尾街, we saw tuk kee 德 记across the street.

the first shop after tuk kee 德 记 with the same plastic sheets cover was tai yun 泰源. the proprietor literally bundled us in. i saw the menu it said tai yun 泰源. i was a bit uncertain so i asked whether this was 泰源大排档 . the reply was like yes 大排档 .

tai yuan dai pai dong泰源大排档

it was just a moment’s decision making, a bad one it turned out to be, like those soccer players in front of goals…haha!

we saw there was a good local crowd & the menu had similar items, and if this was not the 泰源大排档, maybe it was ok since we didn’t know both stalls.

another mistake we made was to order a set (i saw in some reviews they ordered a set but now my view is never order sets la..).

& to trust your instinct (get out!) & to trust other reviewers (better go to one with review than one w/o since we didn’t know both stalls).

chicken congee沙田鸡粥

the chicken congee was bad, worse than any i can concoct on a very bad day la…bad…bad..bad!

terrible c/w with either the fu kee congee 富记粥品 earlier today or keung kee shatin chicken porridge 强记鸡粥.

deep-fried sotong beaks

the deep-fried sotong beaks were actually quite ok. it was a huge helping, so many sotongs! but most of my friends not into this dish. we took maybe 1/4 or 1/3.

fried clams “la a”

the clams were hopeless, overcooked, not tasty!

frid beancurd

fried beancurd just to add to the numbers.

deep-fried fish

& clueless what was this fish. looked totally like a turbot (flatfish) to me but we turned over it was not the white underbelly.

i thought it was a garoupa on the menu but perhaps it was my poor understanding of the hongkish words & names.

fried nai bai

fried nai bai, about as hopeless as the clams, maybe it was poached & not fried??

“free” black sauce noodles 豆油炒面

the “free” black sauce noodles 豆油炒面, mediocre, i guess edible but nothing like the 豆油炒面 at keung kee shatin chicken porridge 强记鸡粥.

one saving grace was the roast pigeon (top photo). one friend liked it especially. skin was crispy & meat was moist. for me though, after roast goose, roast pigeon only so-so to me la..

so this was the worst quite horrendous dinner we had in hong kong. luckily there was no worse & every other meal we had were very good or excellent.

so this was just one to forget la…can’t be bulleye everytime…self-consolation better than no consolation…

anyway just to put a good word in for the stall, not about their food certainly. during our dinner, the rain came, so we were stranded after our dinner, and 2 friends who were not staying at the same hotel as us were quite anxious to get back. luckily the proprietor came to our rescue. he gave us a plastic table cloth each…it was the very thin plastic like the S$2 raincoat kind. we used it to cover our heads & we were mostly dry walking back to fo tan station…would have been drenched without it though it was just a moderate drizzle, no thunderstorm.

i don’t know what more to say. rain cover or not, food-wise i will never go there!

c.h.e.f andy

mango cheng chow with lotus 芒果凉粉加莲子

after our very “shiok” roast goose late lunch at fu kee congee 富记粥品, we walked along the opposite side on fa yun street 花园街 back to our hotel.

hoe kee dessert 浩记甜品馆

passed by hoe kee dessert 浩记甜品馆, just what we wanted after lunch! ^^

hoe kee dessert 浩记甜品馆

long while agp, used to remember only 许留山, & just like my other friends my way of remembering it is “楚留香”, but these days 许留山 expanded to chain stalls, it seems to become expensive & mediocre leh..

i once heard in the streets in hong kong someone saying “guai chor chow ng ho sek” which translated to once it gets expensive the standard deteriorates..which regrettably is often the case…street wisdom is often right…it’s not just the price, but the food quality actually gets worse.,,

mango cheng chow with lotus 芒果凉粉加莲子

well, dessert at hoe kee dessert 浩记甜品馆 were very nice! ^^

the mango cheng chow with lotus 芒果凉粉加莲子  was simply wonderful. i didn’t take it the first evening on 10.1.2016 but we went back on 13.1.2016 & i had this.

the cheng chow is not sweet, the mango is sweet, some parts a bit sour, one piece quite sour, but the lotus was caramelised with sugar so nicely sweetened, & the whole thing blended perfectly. for me, i would think if you don’t add lotus, the dish may not be so nice. 🙂

walnut paste + sesame dumplings核桃糊加芝麻汤圆

all the paste here were very nice. i tried all of them my friends ordered – walnot, almond & also sesame.

walnut paste + sesame dumplings核桃糊加芝麻汤圆

they were just so perfectly smooth & not too sweet. super!

杏仁糊加汤圆

& the sesame dumplings gave a great combination of texture & taste.

腐竹糖水加汤圆 beancurd skin with sesame dumplings

on the first evening on 10.1.2016 i had the 腐竹糖水加汤圆 beancurd skin with sesame dumplings. i think that was the poorest of the lot.

momo馍馍??

our usual cheeky friend asked for bo bo cha cha with coconut, 1/2 in jest? or maybe he was serious?

to my surprise, they actually had some kind of momo馍馍?? dish…like a mixture of items + coconut milk…a bit similar to pulut hitam…not my kind of dessert..haha!

we liked it a lot & went back on 11.1.2016 & 12.1.2016. both days they were closed. when we managed to find them open on 13.1.2016, the proprietress told us the 师傅 chef was on home leave, so basically they are at the mercy of the 师傅 but i guess it is a symbiosis as long as the 师傅sticks with them.

after dinner on 13.1.2016, we went back again at 10pm+ (they opened till 1am) but the tiny shop was full so we skipped it since we already had it before dinner.

c.h.e.f andy

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Hoe Kee Dessert 浩记甜品馆 

hong kong roast goose 烧鹅 (excellent!)

travelled with this fun RI group (6 of us) to hong kong to eat & hike 10-14jan2016. ^^

i guess that was representative of our priority – eat to hike to eat…lol. ^^

roast meat 烧腊station

we were staying at royal plaza at mongkok, checked in by 3pm+ & found fu kee congee 富记粥品 at fa yun street 花园街quite easily.

fu kee congee 富记粥品

place was quite crowded. the servers were efficient & polite enough. 🙂

hong kong roast goose 烧鹅 (excellent!)

we ordered 1/2 roast goose 烧鹅. it was excellent!

after that we had roast goose at yat lok and tao hueng, & then at fu kee 富记again 2days later.

for now, this is the best roast goose in hong kong for me, though most of my friends still line up behind yat lok. 🙂

hong kong roast goose 烧鹅 (excellent!)

the goose was so flavourful & tender. it was a bit oilier than the others, but i liked that also, i think it was the most flavourful.

char siew (bad)

the char siew i would think was a disaster!

char siew (bad)

didn’t think you could have a bad char siew in hong kong, especially when the 烧腊chef produced such excellent roast goose.

but we had char siew again at yat lok & it was almost as bad.

this one here was tasteless & dry. the one at yat lok was more moist but equally tasteless!

my conclusion unfortunately – don’t take char siew in hong kong…Singapore hawker stall char siew just so good! 🙂

beef + liver congee

the congee were just excellent here! the best but where congee is concerned, there are endless supplies of good congee in hong kong.

mixed innards congee

it was so smooth & sweet,

mixed innards congee

both the mixed innards congee 及第粥 & the liver + sliced beef congee were excellent too!

dry beef horfun干炒牛河

the dry beef horfun干炒牛河 had good wok hae, otherwise nothing special – a dish i can do without.

chicken rice

it’s not easy to find chicken better than singapore’s hainanese chicken rice, yet recently i had very good com ga (chicken rice) in hoi an, vietnam; and now again here in hong kong! just perfect!

chicken rice

it was beautiful going with the ginger spring onion sauce. 🙂

fish belly veg soup

we had a fish belly vegetable soup. very good & enjoyable too.

quite super that we were treated to such outstanding hong kong fares on the first day of our arrival. couldn’t have asked for more la… ^^

after the “late lunch”, 1 friend who was staying at the different hotel, found that his hotel was just directly opposite 富记粥品. how very convenient! 🙂

the meal was HK$553 for 6 hungry guys. 1/2roast goose 烧鹅 was HK$220. we could have done away with the char siew & added couple more cooked dishes. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

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