East to west

An unexpected restaurant closure this morning left us scrambling to find a venue for early dim sum, and we ended up arriving at Hoi King Heen (海景軒) in the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong.  It was not yet 11 a.m. and the lobby of the hotel was completely empty, with no a guest in sight.  We also ended up being the first table to be seated at the restaurant... but hey, we had our choice of tables under the new social-distancing regime.

Baked bacon puff pastry with spring onion (香蔥煙肉燒餅) - not great.  I normally love these copies of the Shanghainese 蟹殼黃, but the problem with this version was that bacon bits were used instead of Chinese ham, and the flavors were kinda overpowering.

Salmon spring rolls with leeks (京蔥三文魚春卷) - I don't think anyone liked these.  The salmon was pretty fatty and again, the flavors were kinda strong thanks to the "fishy" flavors.  The Worcestershire sauce became necessary to tone down and neutralize those flavors.

Honey barbecue pork bun (蜜汁叉燒包) - the reliable choice.  Nice and fluffy on the outside with pretty decent filling.

Fish maw dumplings with Chinese cabbage (花膠白菜餃) - yes, there were little bits of fish maw, but the flavors were kinda overpowered by the shrimp.  OK la.

Pan-fried rice flour rolls with bean sprouts in X.O sauce (X.O醬銀芽煎腸粉) - their version is usually just OK.  I would have preferred slightly crispier rolls.

Glutinous rice dumplings filled with peanuts and chicken (狀元茶粿) - they do a good job here, and so I always order this whenever I come.

Fried rice with braised diced abalone, octopus, and chicken in abalone sauce (鮑粒鱆魚雞粒飯) - OK la.

Sweet and sour Spanish Duroc pork with pineapple and bell peppers (鳳梨咕嚕西班牙紅豚肉) - pretty decent, but I wish the batter was a little crispier.

Steamed rice flour rolls with minced beef and deep-fried dough (脆皮牛肉腸粉) - nice dried mandarin peel (陳皮) flavors in the beef, but the deep-fried dough wasn't crispy enough.

After finishing our dim sum rather early, we slowly made our way to Harbour City.  It's been exactly 3 months since we went to the pre-opening party at Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel (當文歷餅店), and I thought it was time to go back and do a little take out... and check out a few things I didn't get to try last time.

Hello Kitty kinda freaked out at the sight of me buying four items, as she shuddered at the thought of me devouring all of them by myself.  So she made a quick phone call to find some partners in crime, and we ended up with Mr. and Mrs. Cane in no time.

Soup dumpling (小籠包) - I finally got around to trying this...  The shape didn't look exactly like a xiaolongbao (小籠包), but OK la... Still cute enough.

Inside the "dumpling skin" made of vanilla Marscapone mousse was a layer of mango mousse, which enclosed a liquid center of mango coulis and diced mango.  The whole thing sat on a "cabbage leaf" made of white chocolate.  Pas mal.

Har gow (蝦餃) - I was sad that I waited too long to come back, and now the other half of the pair - siu mai - is no longer available.  This looked very cute, although it didn't quite have the classic 13 folds that a har gau is supposed to have...

The shell was made of white chocolate, with peach mousse enveloping a strawberry and rose jam center.  This was pretty good, and of course strawberry and rose is a pretty classic combo.

Lemon juice box (紙包檸檬茶) - this was one of the highlights on my last visit, and because we were there for pre-opening, the juice box we had didn't even have the Dang Wen Li logo etched on the outside.  Still very good with that nice balance of acidity.

Milk tin panna cotta (黑白奶罐) - one of my favorites here.  I noticed that the both the English and the Chinese names have been changed since pre-opening, and I'm guessing it's a trademark issue with the name Black and White / 黑白淡奶.  But it is still very, very tasty... with that salted caramel panna cotta balancing the baba au rhum in the middle.  Slurp!

It was fun visiting Mr. and Mrs. Cane with the goodies.  I hope they enjoyed the DKAs I left them!