teochew chilled mullet冻乌鱼

had the worst meal in entire hong long trip 2-6jun2015 at chao inn 潮楼 at the airport on 6.6.2015.

our jetstar flight was 8.25pm. we received message earlier that flight was delayed 1hr. anyway we already planned to take A41 around 5pm & arrive airport about 6pm.

(fortunately for us check-in counter opened at 6.15pm & i did the internet check-in & managed to check in at the web check pin counter with zero queue while the normal check-in counters already had >10pax queues. & similar queue at the web check-in also after i had checked in)

airport chao inn 潮楼

since we were early & we had a really great dinner at chao inn 潮楼 @ kwun tong, we decided to give it a try here. alas, wrong decision! this chao inn NOT that chao inn 此潮楼非那潮楼！

teochew chilled mullet冻乌鱼

fortunately the teochew chilled mullet冻乌鱼 was still ok! at HK$98 though it was more expensive than eating at lao ah tee 老阿弟 at whampoa boon keng etc.

teochew chilled mullet冻乌鱼

this mullet was still sweet just slightly fishy, more or less singapore standard unlike chao inn @ kwun tong which was basically perfect.

not to mention what we had at kwun tong was just HK$48, of course that was 40% discount after 9pm, this was airport.

braised goose hopeless, like reboiled or overnight microwaved

the braised goose though was hopeless, like reboiled or overnight & microwaved.

braised goose hopeless, like reboiled or overnight microwaved

basically, moral of story is don’t eat at airport if possible, and don’t order items where turnover maybe low & likely to be kept overnight & not fresh.

c.h.e.f andy

har gao & teochew dumpling combo

our last day in hong kong, returning singapore in the evening 8.25pm flight (later delayed by 1 hr) & checking out royal park hotel at 1pm.

went to mongkok for dimsum breakfast on 6.6.2015. took a while to locate taoheung super 88 稻香超級漁港 as the signboard display outside the building had been removed.

taoheung super 88 稻香超級漁港

anyhow we were seated before 9am. place was crowded.

our order & the mixed up

we were assigned a 4pax table 135A, apparently with another 2persons. but 135A already had 2 persons seated. so the other 2 were assigned table 136. but the card (eft of photo) was not amended. and our orders & the other 2 guys were all entered as 135A (right of photo).

because of the mixed up some orders came to us on 135A. not a big deal really. they were soon sorted out, & they brought us a order chip showing difference in order timing & demarcating which were our orders & which table 136.

har gao & teochew dumpling combo

we did not quite notice, but our order of har gao was actually an order of a har gao & teochew dumpling combo. we were quite happy with it.

har gao & teochew dumpling combo

teochew dumpling 潮州粉果 was better. har gao was ok but below the standard of timhowan fuk wing street shamshuipo (everything was below timhowan anyway) & any of the good dimsum place in singapore like crystal jade, imperial treasure, canton paradise.

char siew fun cheong (bad)

cahr siew fun cheong was bad!

char siew fun cheong (bad)

after the even more horrendous beef fun cheong at 旺角小肥羊 LittleSheep at agile street, it became painfully obvious to me that you don’t take fun cheong in hong kong unless you are at timhowan or some better name chains. steamed pork ribs, chicken feet & rice generally ok, though even the rice don’t take it here!

spicy trotters

the spicy trotters were ok.

spicy trotters

nothing special to talk about, just ok.

chicken mushroom rice (the poorest so far)

this chicken mushroom rice was the poorest so far. looked pathetic.

timhowan’s was great. but the claypot version at 旺角小肥羊 LittleSheep at agile street. the rice was fragrant & flavourful.

chicken mushroom rice (the poorest so far)

here we basically rescued the rice with earlier orders of steamed pork ribs & chicken feet.

we also had the worst horrendous service in hong kong here. table & order mixed up ok la..but there was this server, 40s or maybe early 50s, who was downright rude & belligerent. first she glared at me when i passed her the order chit earlier waiting for her to read out & confirm the order, and she said like “lor chow lor lo” meaning “give me order chit just give la, why look at me”. i told her i also want to order steamed pork ribs & chicken feet. she said “you mai wad lor” in an extremely rude way meaning “if you want just mark it”.  i told her i could not find it. she pointed out to me.

then the server again forgot the rice order by an old couple which were at my table before we arrived, when we already had the rice. some other server came & gave them a different rice. they told the server it was wrong but they would take it as they did not want to wait. the rude server came later & gave the old couple another rice. they said they already had the different one before their order was forgotten & they told the other server but agreed to take the wrong rice. rude server literally argued with them why they took the wrong one. the old couple asked “so it is our fault you forgot & then gave us the wrong rice?”. here i was not going to let her off but told her yes exactly you guys forgot the wrong order & gave the wrong rice.

after the rude server left i told the old couple we all come here to enjoy & are not going to waste time with these people & not going to let them affect our good time, just what needs to be said has to be said.

& this part is going into the food reviews so the management can read about it should they do. haha!

steamed pork ribs

luckily pork ribs was great.

steamed pork ribs

we emptied the entire plate with sauce onto the rice. ^^

steamed chicken feet

chicken feet was fine too.

steamed chicken feet

just a tad salty.

so lesson learned in HK dimsum is steamed pork ribs & chicken feet almost can get anywhere about same standard, in any case quite ok. fun cheong on the other hand better take only from timhowan or other more well know places. haha! just kidding la..as the title goes, hits & misses.

dimsum was HK$116, so basically quite same prices, all the 4 dimsum we had. likewise all the dinners or bigger meals we had about HK$220.

c.h.e.f andy

eggplant with minced pork (1 look) HK$68

after a hot climb to see the 10,000 buddha monastery in 32degC though we were more sheltered from the scorching sun than the past 2 days, i had a sudden lost of motivation, a running out of steam.

so after lunch at LittleSheep mongkok 小肥羊旺角, we decided to ga back to royal park hotel at shatin to “recharge”. 🙂

i googled where to go for dinner & found this 富记大排档tai wai.

富记大排档tai wai

so we went on a dinner thrill (a pun on trail) to 富记大排档tai wai, just 1 stop from shatin on the east rail line 东铁线 on 5.6.2015.

have google map will travel. it would not have been possible otherwise. the “thrill” led us to a market & food centre, just like we had at HDB estates. haha! 🙂

富记大排档tai wai kitchen

the kitchen was like any of our zi char 煮炒 kitchen. 🙂

富记大排档tai wai

we took the last table. place was full. say about 7 or 8 tables.

look at the plastic sheets covering this eating place, right next to the wet market. it is exactly like a korean pojangmacha 포장마차包藏马车 (those you see in korean dramas where the girl always get drunk & got piggyback home); or the japanese yatai at fukuoka, or izakayas 居酒屋。

there were some fresh seafood displayed. i did not see the tanks, so perhaps it was not the live seafood in some of the hong kong daipaidongs like what we had at chan kun kee 陈根记 the evening before.

i read several good reviews on openrice hk, like the hand-tear chicken 手撕鸡 & steamed turbot.

we wouldn’t be able to take 1 chicken & not even 1/2 chicken if we want to try other dishes. also we just had salt baked chicken 盐焗鸡 at chan kun kee 陈根记 the evening before.

eggplant with minced pork (1 look) HK$68

i ordered the eggplant.

on the board it showed “1 look”. pronounced in cantonese this means 1 whole roll. 🙂

eggplant with minced pork (1 look) HK$68

this dish is actually nothing new. we have it in most zi char stalls here, except that they are always cut brinjals & sometimes served in claypot. this “1 look” was quite an interesting presentation that in a way showcase the interesting, not-always-traditional cooking.

it was very expensive though, HK$68 for this dish at a market stall daipaidong..haha! whatever i am happy!^^

steamed egg with minced pork HK$52

the 三式蒸蛋steamed egg with minced pork HK$52 was also a most reviewed dish. 🙂

steamed egg with minced pork HK$52

not sure where the 三式 3 styles were. the egg was quite nice, smooth, nothing special really, can do anytime at home. the sauce a bit salty, fortunately egg ok, so not ideal.

steamed egg with minced pork HK$52

& again HK$52 was very expensive for this simple dish in this kind of market stall daipaidong.

steamed turbot with 陈皮

the steamed turbot was only HK$98! ^^

steamed turbot with 陈皮

so shiok!^^

steamed turbot with 陈皮

港蒸steamed HKstyle. it was very nice, though for comparison, turbot flesh was more rough 粗 c/w grouper so it was not quite the level of the steamed grouper at we had at chan kun kee 陈根记 the evening before.

steamed turbot with 陈皮

still, it was excellent dish for HK$98. i would take it again anytime! 🙂

富记大排档tai wai

富记大排档tai wai

it was a great find for me. the thrill if the food trail!

i would not order the egg the next time, but i am ok to pay HK$68 for the eggplant. it was good even though not super & not unusual.

i would definitely try the hand-tear chicken 手撕鸡! just look at the photo of the standing chicken here, diners in plastic gloves ready to tear it apart!

dinner was HK$226 for the 3 dishes. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

盐水铰

went to 10,000 buddhas monastery (man fat sze 万佛寺) in the morning.

my hiking shoes have been serving me faithfully for 5-6years. now the left shoe sole has open up. someone that affected my mood. maybe also running out of steam, or just destroyed by the scorching sun the past 2 days at cheung chau & lama islands.

decided not to go far so ended up in mong kok around noon on 5.6.2015.

旺角小肥羊 LittleSheep at agyle street

saw this place 旺角小肥羊 LittleSheep at agyle street. didn’t want to walk around too much so just try our luck.

小肥羊mongkok dimsum menu

we ordered 4 dimsum items – 3 were HK$9.80, only the beef fun cheong was HK$12.980.

beef fun cheong (this was horrendous!)

the first dish we were served, the beef fun cheong was absolutely horrendous!

beef fun cheong (this was horrendous!)

the skin was tough, and at the end of it we did not find 1 single piece of beef.

the char siew fun cheong i had at taoheung super 88 稻香超级渔港 the next day was just slightly better (meaning very bad too!). all the singapore restaurants like crystal jade, imperial treasures, canton paradise, tunglok etc were all miles better, made me realise that in HK do not order any fun cheong in dimsum restaurants except at timhowan & some other more notable places.

spicy pig stomach (just as horrendous!)

the spicy pig stomach was equally horrendous, maybe more!

spicy pig stomach (just as horrendous!)

totally dry & tough, not quite edible.

盐水铰

we thought we got into a wrong place, luckily there was redemption.

the hum shui kok 盐水铰 was good, nice crispy skin, nice filling, great texture.

teochew dumplings 潮州粉果

& so was the teochew dumplings 潮州粉果!

teochew dumplings 潮州粉果

same nice skin, nice filling, great texture.  the chefs from 2 different worlds!

claypot chicken feet pork rib rice HK$26.80

not satisfied we ordered the claypot chicken feet pork rib rice HK$26.80.

claypot chicken feet pork rib rice HK$26.80

unlike timhowan the little metal bowl type this was a larger serving, and it was very good.

claypot chicken feet pork rib rice HK$26.80

both the chicken feet & steamed pork ribs were very good, almost same as treasure lake restaurant 宝湖 at central (chicken feet at the latter was better i think).

but best was the rice! it was so very fragrant!^^

beef tripes 金钱肚

we simply had to order more dishes to go with the super tasty rice.

there was a ma bo 孖宝 which means a twin treasure order 2 dimsum items for HK$24.80.

beef tripes 金钱肚

so we ordered the beef tripes 金钱肚. it was excellent but just wee bit salty, just like the chicken feet here.

steamed pork ribs

the steamed pork ribs though was quite perfect.

steamed pork ribs

we emptied the whole plate onto the rice. so shiok!

lunch was HK$126 for 7 dishes, a bit cheaper than timhowan fuk wing street sham shui po, but less refine, and spoilt by 2 horrendous dish.

c.h.e.f andy

steamed live grouper for HK$128

the night before we went to chao inn at kwun tong for dinner (very good teochew 打冷) at 9pm & got back 11pm+.

this evening decided not to go far. also staying at royal park hotel at shatin, we had not walked around shatin park right behind the hotel. so we decided to take a 20mins walk along shatin park 沙田公园by the river 城门河 on the way for daipaidong dinner at chan kun kee 陈根记大排档 on 4.6.2015.^^

chan kun kee 陈根记大排档

it was quite straight forward. just walked along the river until the stadium part (need google map on the phone though else won’t know when we were at the stadium!) then got onto the yuen wo street.

anyway we found it!

chan kun kee 陈根记大排档

place looked great! good traffic almost all locals.

salt baked chicken盐焗鸡HK$48

we ordered the salt baked chicken盐焗鸡HK$48.

salt baked chicken盐焗鸡HK$48

this place is actually famous for the wasabi hand-pulled chicken手撕鸡, but sis not really into it so 盐焗鸡 which is a hong kong specialty will do.

salt baked chicken盐焗鸡HK$48

it was good, very sweet, tasty, came with ginger sauce like the samsui chicken.

steamed live grouper for HK$128

best was the steamed live grouper for HK$128. it was large, maybe 700g or more. very fresh, very tender, sweet.

steamed live grouper for HK$128

we made very good steamed fish at home, almost same, & we get very fresh fish (not live though) from chinatown, so i eat this often. still i found it very good!^^

fried mixed veg HK$48

we had a fried mixed veg, quite non descript i supposed. still i liked it, very good balance to the meat dishes.

dinner came to HK$224 = about S$40. really good meal!

after dinner we tried to take a bus back to royal park hotel but could not really find out which bus to take. my internet search says 85, but the bus at yuen wo street was 85k & driver not very helpful.

in the end we took a taxi back, anyway it was very near so just flag down price of HK$22.

c.h.e.f andy

steamed chicken feet

after pouring enough sweat walking 2hrs+ at lamma island 南丫岛 in the relentless scorching sun, we took the 2.35pm ferry arrived central pier about 3.05pm on 4.6.2015.

we thought of having dimsum (enough of beef briskets noodles type or 牛仔面, which we just had very nice ones in the morning at  lamma island 南丫岛, & not wanting heavy meal), so walked to central station via IFC with the comforting thought that we could always go to yat lok 一乐 for roast goose if need be.

we decided to try the dimsum at this treasure lake restaurant central 宝湖海鲜酒家, just because it was about the first ok looking dining place on the way to stanley street. haha! 🙂

treasurelake restaurant central 宝湖海鲜酒家

it was the typically bad service place. i asked to have a look at the menu, and the restaurant manager or lead waiter showed a black face. to is & other servers’ credit, they did later show more cheerful service.

treasurelake restaurant central 宝湖海鲜酒家

dimsum items were small HK$16, medium HK$19, large HK$22, special HK$27. there was a higher one i did not bother with.

steamed chicken feet

we ordered 5 dimsum dishes only – chicken feet, steamed pork ribs, chiu chow fun guo or teochew dumplings, char siew fun cheong & 4 treasures.

and waited very long, like >1/2hr, maybe 40mins? & 2 dishes we ordered, first char siew fun cheong after waiting for 1/2hr & then chiu chow fun guo after eating the other 3 dishes, were sold out.

not so satisfying experience eh? luckily the food was good.

steamed chicken feet was very tasty, & the first deep-fried type we like. we ordered a second portion

steamed pork ribs

steamed pork ribs was a large helping, tasty & quite meaty. 🙂

4 treasures

4 treasures

4 treasures

4 treasures

4 treasures was good too. chicken extremely smooth & sweet. mushrooms was the thick type, good.

bill was HK$109 for 4 dishes. food wise pretty satisfied.

c.h.e.f andy

车仔面

we took the 1010am ferry from central pier 4 to young shue wan 榕树湾 lama island 南丫岛 & arrived about 1040am on 4.6.2015.

walked towards suk ku wan & stopped by choy kee 蔡记 for breakfast = wow, it’s a very good find!^^

choy kee 蔡记小食

nice stall, good choices, and inexpensive, good value.

choy kee 蔡记小食

stall was nice & airy.

choy kee 蔡记小食

at a road turning.

select 4 for HK$38 车仔面

车仔面good selection 4 items for HK$38 (noodles can be included as 1 item).

车仔面

this one had large intestines猪大肠, 红肠 (which was ok like luncheon meat), pig’s blood 猪红(very smooth & tender), & pig’s skin (the yongtaofu type not braised pig skin so not our favourite).

车仔面

车仔面

this lone had large intestines猪大肠, braised briskets 牛腩, noodles. i ordered 肠子 at first think it was small intestines. when i came it was 2 like chicken sausage (already fried).

the stall ladies were super nice. i asked to change it to 牛百叶& they agreed!

车仔面

that’s about 1/2 the amount of 牛百叶 they gave me.^^

生菜鱼肉

生菜鱼肉

we ordered the 生菜鱼肉, asked & was told it’s cat fish 鲶鱼。。haha..i thought i heard anyway. we were having the idea of sliced dish, but it turned out to be like fish cake or patty. anyway it was just HK$18, huge amount.

spicy pickled radish

they had this spicy chye poh. pretty good with the meat items & in the soup too.

the noodles were very qq, like any good beef brisket noodle stall, & the soup just as good though nothing special.

ginger tau huay 姜汁豆花

my sis had the ginger tau huay 姜汁豆花. 🙂 i did not order as i wanted to try the one most recommended on guides, Fai Kee 辉记阿妈豆花 which i found further down the road.

as it turned out the tau huay here is even better than Fai Kee 辉记阿妈豆花.

c.h.e.f andy

yat lok 一乐 roast goose drumstick quarter＝HK$150

leaving cheung chau island长州岛, we got to the jetty at 3pm & again just missed the fast boat (next at 3.45pm), so took the slow boat deluxe (HK$20 with aircon), normal HK$13 no aircon at 3.20pm & arrived central pier 4.20pm. we walked over to stanley street via the IFC.

yat lok roast goose at stanley street

we found yat lok 一乐 roast goose at stanley street w/o much difficulty. 🙂

yat lok roast goose at stanley street

place had a constant turnover of patrons, even at 5pm. 🙂

yat lok 一乐 roast goose drumstick quarter＝HK$150

we ordered the roast goose drumstick quarter＝HK$150

yat lok 一乐 roast goose drumstick quarter＝HK$150

it was super delicious!^^ wow! the aroma. so very intense, yet the meat is moist, tender, flavourful & not really strong taste. really love it! ^^

dumplings=HK$48 for 7

dumplings=HK$48 for 7

the dumplings were pretty good. i guess not really cheap at HK$48 for 7, but quite ok. 🙂

shing kee daipaidong 盛记

stall before shing kee daipaidong 盛记

after that we walked further down stanley street to shing kee 盛记daipaidong…they only opened at 6pm. unlikely to come here as not so convenient from our royal park hotel at shatin to come here in the evening just to eat at the daipaidong.

c.h.e.f andy

mullet 乌鱼

had a most shiok teochew “her bun” dinner at chao inn 潮楼 at kwun tong on 3.6.2015….超爽！^^

after 9pm, they have 打冷 40% discounts 6折. so it was great value too! 🙂

don’t usually want to take teochew porridge (expensive & not nice) or even teochew “her bun” (expensive & not great) in Singapore. this one at Chao Inn (潮楼)super nice…

chao inn 潮楼 queueing system

chao inn 潮楼, like the other taoheung group restaurants, has a electronic queueing system. 🙂

chao inn 潮楼 queueing system

we waited 2 minutes. 🙂

chao inn 潮楼 @ kwun tong

place not really packed at 9pm.

chicken feet 粉葛soup

there’s a special soup chicken feet 粉葛soup for HK$19.

chicken feet 粉葛soup

it was was very good really, tasty!

chicken feet 粉葛soup

we ordered just 1 soup as we were greedy & intended to order 2 fish. haha! 🙂

mullet 乌鱼

the mullet 乌鱼 was really, really good! the best!^^ it was so sweet & fresh. i used to take a bit with my sister at lao ah tee 老亚弟 at whampoa boon keng which was good too, but not quite so tasty & a bit more fishy. i did that myself at home too, same.

mullet 乌鱼 – meat came off easily from scales

this one, the meat just fell off the skin/scales.

braised goose

braised goose

the braised goose was quite ok, above average, good flavours, just slightly tough.

braised goose

but that’s a long way from the yat lok roast goose kind of satisfaction.

yellow croaker 小黄鱼

we wanted the big eye snapper 大目紅鰱but it was sold out. so we had the yellow croaker 小黄鱼.

yellow croaker 小黄鱼

it was super good too. we still placed the mullet 乌鱼tops!^^

yellow croaker 小黄鱼

in singapore, unlike mullet 乌鱼, yellow croaker 小黄鱼flesh is more tender & softer & falls apart when you pick up with a chopstick. not so here, it held up quite nicely.

maybe it was just chilled..冻乌鱼 & 冻小黄鱼！

杨枝甘露

i took the 杨枝甘露. it was just HK$16.

杨枝甘露

as good as the 许留山 and maybe cheaper? the whole dinner was HK$213 = S$37nett. so good!

c.h.e.f andy

cheese onions lobster

we were late setting out for lama island 南丫岛 on 3.6.2015. we arrived at the central pier no 4 at just past 11am. the next ferry to lama island was at 12pm. so we walked over to pier no. 5 & managed to get on the ferry to cheung chau island 长州岛 instead. i forgot to check though for fast ferry so we got onto the slow ferry (1hr) journey to cheung chai, perhaps no difference anyway. we arrived at cheung chai 12.15pm. the morning porridge shop at the market which we intended to have was already closed.

Sea king 海龙王海鲜 on cheung chau island

we saw seaking 海龙王海鲜.

HK$198 4-course set

and had a look at the 4-course HK$198 promotion menu. it looked ok. i asked the grumpy fella if there were any other charges. he told me HK$25 all in for tea etc.

海龙王海鲜 on cheung chau island

海龙王海鲜 on cheung chau island

we decided to sit down & try our luck (maybe have our throat slashed…haha!)

cheese onions lobster

i saw cheese lobster on the menu, thinking it was cheese gratin. it seemed pointless when i tried to ask him for other preparation, so i told him to add less cheese. anyway it turned out to be a cheese onion sauce, and it was actually quite tasty. i added quite a bit to my rice too. haha! 🙂

cheese onions lobster

lobster was small, like 300g? but it was ok. very low price leh…let the shop earn some money. 🙂

pan fried cod

the pan fried cod didn’t look great.

pan fried cod

but taste was good. not that i think they cooked particularly well. just that it was a very good fish, and OMT (oh my 天) they did not destroy it! good, good. 🙂 it was tender & oily flaky like cod should be, of course not talking about teriyaki cod at mikuni. my own teriyaki cod etc also better, but this will do. 🙂

steamed scallops with garlic & tanhoon

we had 4 steamed scallops with garlic & tanhoon. this the same preparation as the razor clams at keung kee chicken porridge 强记鸡州。 their menu & signboard showed HK$35 for 1 for this dish alone was HK$140! (later i saw tons of bad comments on openrice & even a seaking Facebook site).

steamed scallps with garlic & tanhoon

similar to keung kee, somehow they slightly over steamed the scallops. but actually it was pretty ok dish. no complaints at the price.

fried lettuce

fried lettuce

lettuce pretty ok too. overall lunch cost HK$223. to me it was a very good value set. & the food was above average really, not cheap & bad. afterwards i saw loads of very bad reviews on both openrice & strangely a seaking Facebook site (probably not by seaking). in fact i think it was like 100% poor comments & i can totally understand why. service, cut-throat etc.

for us on the day though with this set, it was pretty good, and i would think much better value vs the HK$198 at keung kee the night before.

c.h.e.f andy