A few days ago I put up a post on social media about something I ate earlier this month, which elicited reactions from a few friends who expressed interested to give it a try. I decided to organize a mini food crawl and asked them to come along. The itinerary would include a couple of places I tried out on my last crawl here, plus other famous places I have yet to check out.
It was less than 5 minutes before the appointed time for our meeting, and I have already received a message about keeping a few hangry ladies waiting. These people are so hard to please!
Hop Yik Tai (合益泰小食) is just across the street from Exit C2 of Sham Shui Po MTR station, so this became our first stop this morning. They are known for street food items like rice flour rolls and fish balls, and we quickly grabbed a table inside.
Steamed rice-flour rolls and fish siu mai (腸粉 魚肉燒賣) - I've never been a fan of these
siu mai (燒賣) made with fish mousse, but the signature rice flour rolls are soft and slippery as always.
Radish, fish balls, and pig skin (蘿白 魚蛋 豬皮) - the radish was amazingly sweet, and I'm always happy to have pig skin that's been braised after deep-frying.
Our next stop was down the street a short distance away.
Lau Sum Kee Noodle (劉森記麵家) is arguably one of the most famous places for
wonton noodles in Hong Kong, although due to their location in this neighborhood, I have never paid them a visit despite Tony Bourdain. The shop on Kweilin Street (桂林街) is their original location, and that's where I chose to take our group.
Wonton noodles (鮮蝦雲吞麵) - having spent decades being accustomed to the bowls at Mak's Noodles (麥奀記) and Ho Hung Kee (何洪記), imagine my shock when this arrived after I asked for a "small bowl (細蓉)".
As the place is famous for their use of "bamboo noodles (竹昇麵)", naturally I had high expectations. I wasn't disappointed. Loved the texture. What's more, I barely detected any alkaline flavors so I didn't need to add any vinegar. In fact the soup base made with flatfish (大地魚) powder was pretty sweet.
The wontons were also bigger than expected, with a whole shrimp wrapped inside along with a tiny bit of minced pork and some shrimp roe for flavoring. Very, very good.
Goose intestine and manyplies tripe with ginger and spring onion (淨薑蔥鵝腸拼黑柏葉) - someone thought getting goose intestines was a good idea, and we ended up have some beef tripe, too.
Our third stop today was, once again, just around the corner.
Kung Wo Beancurd Factory (公和荳品廠) has a long history and has been featured on many TV programs. I have long heard the name but never stepped foot inside, until today.
Tofu pudding (荳腐花) - I chose a cold one as that's what I normally love, even though the hot ones are more fresh. Very smooth texture. The ladies were really, really happy that they came here for this.
Deep fried fish and soya cake (黃金魚腐) - I figured I should give the savory tofu dishes a try, and this was just OK.
Our next stop required a little more walking, but it's the reason why we're on this little food crawl. This is the place which produces some pretty "evil" dishes, including this stuffed French toast...
Lee Hou Fuk Fast Food Shop (利口福快餐店) is a place I discovered by accident, and I quickly realized that they specialize in a number of sinful but delicious-looking offerings. I'm more than happy to come back more often in order to cycle through those.
Lava pork cutlet bun (流心芝士豬扒包) - one of the most popular items here is a burger with a deep-fried pork cutlet.
When cut open, the liquid cheese insided the breaded cutlet oozes out
To be fair, this was pretty decent. Not eye-openingly good, but I'd be happy to eat this any day.
French toast with satay beef (沙嗲牛肉西多士) - BABY, THIS IS WHAT YOU CAME FOR! The ladies finally have the opportunity to taste this for themselves.
Today was my second time tasting this, and I still really like it! The combination of sweetness from sugar and the condensed milk that yours truly skillfully drizzled on top, along with the small pad of melted butter plus the beef marinated in satay sauce that was enclosed in the middle. The consensus was that ¼ may be the ideal portion for this... or maybe ½ at the most.
There are still other things on the menu here that I'd like to try, so I look forward to return visits in the future.
Incidentally, someone noticed that the shop next door has customers lined up and it sells noodles with fried pork lard (油渣). I guess I need to come back and visit 春潤堂, too!
I am impressed by the amount of food you have been able to eat! As French I do eat different types of tripes but never had goose tripes. I am wondering how they taste …,
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ReplyDeleteUnable to register as Fabrice Delorme but I was the Frenchman asking for the taste of goose tripes…,
Hi Fabrice! Goose tripe is normally not in my diet but we eat so much goose here in Hong Kong that some places do serve them. In this case they were blanched so there wasn't much flavor, but the texture was crunchy and bouncy/springy.
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