Still no ocean view

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It's been some time since we last had a proper catch up with The Bombay East Indian Girl, and days after stepping away from the kitchen at my favorite opening of the year, we agreed to meet up for an early lunch today near her former workplace. Hoi King Heen (海景軒) is a place we used to enjoy visiting, albeit infrequently, and it's been quite a few years since our last family gathering there.

Imagine my surprise that, after not having been here for a few years, we were directed to go upstairs instead of down to the basement level. Apparently there is some renovation work being done, and the dining room is now temporarily located in one of the function rooms at the InterContinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong. We were the first people to arrive in the empty room.

It's a weekend morning, so that's dim sum in my book. We refrained from over-ordering in the first round...

Shrimp dumplings "har gau" (海景蝦餃皇) - this came with a whole shrimp and without any diced bamboo shoots. The shrimp was fairly crunchy, and the flavors were pretty pronounced compared to other har gau. I was left wondering if it was given a boost...

Pan fried dumplings with lamb (羊肉煎餃子) - this was DAMN good! Loved the cumin in the minced meat, and apparently so did my friend... because she requested a second order!

Pan-fried rice flour rolls with bean sprouts in X.O sauce (X.O.醬銀芽煎腸粉) - this was pretty meh. They didn't use enough X.O sauce so the flavors were pretty weak.

Deep-fried spring rolls with minced pork, shrimp and hairy crab roe (蟹粉春卷) - this was pretty nice. In addition to the usual shrimp and stuff, we've also got some roe of the Shanghainese hairy crabs (大閘蟹) and the flavors were pretty nice.

Braised winter melon balls stuffed with black olives mustard (欖菜玉珠) - this is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant, created by Chef Leung Fai Hung (梁輝雄) years ago. I have always loved how beautiful this looked, resembling a bunch of grapes hanging from the vine.

This tasted a little different from what I remembered though. The outside of the "grapes" - made of winter melon - now seemed thinner and certainly more cooked through, so that the texture was softer. The melon was also a little more mild in terms of flavor, but the stuffing made with olive greens (欖菜) was still pretty nice.

We needed a little more food, so here goes the second round...

Wok-fried turnip cake with X.O. sauce (X.O.醬炒蘿蔔糕) - they used more X.O sauce for this dish so the flavors were certainly stronger and better. I also really loved the diced preserved sausages inside the turnip cake cubes.

Pan-fried glutinous rice dumplings filled with peanuts and chicken (狀元茶粿) - a dish I really enjoy here, where the sweet and sticky wrapper came with savory filling that had crunch from the bits of peanuts.

This was a lot of fun catching up with our friend, and I'm so glad we could spend quality time over dim sum. Looking forward to seeing her more now that she's no longer slaving in the kitchen...