新香園 Sun Heung Yuen

Awesome, a local place again! This is also located in Tit Hong Lane in Central, and probably the last restaurant from this alley I will talk about since I have no intentions of visiting Danish Bakery (I can't justify paying over $50 at a local cha tsan tang in an alley).

I believe this place is famous for its Hong Kong style milk tea and the satay beef. Can't remember which day this was but I wasn't feeling particularly hungry so I wanted to get something tasty and soupy. Satay beef on anything is one of my favorite foods so I opted for the satay beef on macaroni that particular day.

If you are the type who doesn't like the thick satay sauce then you might like this place. I was expecting it to be a really thick layer of satay sauce with beef over my macaroni, but it turns out it's the very runny soupy type. Though the taste was on the light side, I quite liked it because I was having a crappy no appetite day. It was good acting as the bit of fuel to keep me going until the end of the day.

I'll probably be back one day to try the milk tea. In the meantime, check this out when you are also having a crappy no appetite day.

Website: NA
Location: Tit Hong Lane

斗記燒味之家 Dau Ji Roast Expert

Can't remember if this was my second or third visit to this place. Anyway, the first time I was here I was definitely not impressed. Though this was a couple years ago when they first opened in Central, I still remember that the BBQ pork I had was very salty and costs the same if not more than Canteen in Prince's Building (literally 5 minutes away from my old office and tastes much better).

While I still had doubts about this place, their lunch deals appealed to me since it was really cheap. It was $32 for a single dish on rice, and they had my favorite beef briskets with turnip as one of the options. I decided to give it a try and got the veggies as well ($18 - a little pricey in my opinion).

I didn't have to wait for long (since all the dishes are pre-made), and when I got the food I was a little shocked - the box was huge. When I was back in the office at my desk, I opened my lunch box and thought, um, where should I start? In any case, after a little over an hour I finally finished the food. I quite liked the beef briskets as it wasn't too chewy, and the turnip was very tasty. I usually love sauce but didn't enjoy it this time because it was very starchy in a bad way. I saved all my drowning pieces of beef and turnip and put them on my rice, leaving a large pool of sauce behind. The veggies - well it's pretty standard, but then it tasted a bit funky. I'm guessing they cooked it in goose broth or something so there's that... gamey goosey taste to it.

In conclusion I liked my lunch even though it was ginormous (maybe I can be one of those girls who ask for "less rice"). Just kinda funny that I do not recommended their BBQ stuff... Regarding the veggies, I would rather go to Nam Kee to get them if I wasn't in a rush. Cheaper ($12) and tastes better.

Location: No. 15-25 Chiu Lung Street, Central
Website: NA

勝香園 Sing Heung Yuen

I really don't know if this should be considered Central or Sheung Wan, hence it gets 2 labels on the location.

I've always liked tomato soup, so I've always liked Sing Heung Yuen. The reason why I don't visit it much though is because it's outdoors so no AC and it's always packed so you gotta wait in the heat for a seat (basically pre-heating yourself for the actual heat once you start eating the hot food). Anyway, I've been having a very bad appetite lately so I decided to grab some take out from this place last week.

I was greedy so I tried the beef, pork chop and egg on macaroni in tomato soup this time. I don't usually get pork chop but was glad I gave it a try this time because it actually turned out to be quite tasty. The tomato soup was still quite good, but it tasted more Campbell this time. I wonder if my taste buds changed or if they changed... or if I just don't remember the taste of it anymore since it's been so long since my last visit.

In conclusion, I think this is still a pretty cool place to try out if you are looking for a more local and sweating your face off experience. Of course if you don't want a heat stroke mid meal you can always get it to go (add an extra fiddy cent to get the soup in a separate bowl for less sogginess) and eat it in your office. If pork chop, beef, eggs, macaroni isn't your thing, don't worry because they have many other weird things you can choose instead on the menu. The soup though I think is pretty much fixed since it's their signature... so... if you don't like tomatoes... I guess don't come here.

Location: No. 2 Mee Lun Street (across from Kau Kee Beef Briskets)
Website: NA

新興美食 Sun Hing Fast Food

This is a very very local place that I quite like going to because it's fast (food is mostly pre-made), cheap (under $40 for their lunch deals), and has a big menu (they even have a separate Thai menu).

My favorite Thai chicken feet salad

Every day, they usually have around 10 or so lunch deals which ranges from baked spaghetti to beef curry on rice or random Chinese dishes on rice, and includes a hot drink or their daily Chinese soup. If you can't find anything you like on the lunch deals, you can also check out their other menu which includes fried noodles, fried rice, soup noodles, baked rice, and a small but interesting Thai menu.

Given that I'm quite local and that the there's a wide variety to choose from for the lunch deals (keep in mind I usually go for lunch early), I can usually find something I like on that menu (by the way, it's right outside so you don't even need to walk in to decide). My personal favorites are their sweet and sour pork on rice or the beef curry on rice. On the a la cart menu, my favorite has got to be their Thai chicken feet salad. it's only $30 and they give you a freaking full box of it. It tastes so good and makes me so happy. I introduced it to my friend and she sometimes brings it home for her husband too (yes I am talking about you, S), as he too is a Thai chicken feet salad fan.


One of my ex-colleagues commented on this place before and said that it wasn't that hygienic, but I personally haven't found any issues with it. Their kitchen is basically open, so you can see everything that goes on in there while you are waiting for your food. So far I haven't seen anything crazy that turned my appetite off . I've also seen expats coming into this place (though rare like unicorns) before too so I really don't think it can be that bad.

In summary, I really think this is a great place to get takeout food (I wouldn't want to eat there since the place is so small, I don't know how people do it) for those days where you just want to eat alone at your desk and read Yahoo news (which is most days for me).

Location: No. 9 Chiu Lung Street
Website: NA



I like this dish even though it looks kinda gross

Breakfast in Kaohsiung

 One of my favorite things to eat in Kaohsiung is their egg crepe 蛋饼 for breakfast. It's a very local and "standard" Taiwanese breakfast which is served at pretty much all breakfast joints. You can usually choose one of the following to include in your egg crepe, and can add cheese as well if you'd like: bacon, wieners, ham, tuna, veggies. My favorite is the bacon and cheese egg crepe while my nephew's favorite is the ham and cheese egg crepe. You can either eat it on it's own or you can eat it with 酱油膏  and 辣椒酱 (my nephew eats it without).

Another one of my Kaohsiung breakfast favorites is their ham and egg sandwiches. In comparison to the Hong Kong versions (which I also really like), the Taiwanese version's bread is sweeter and toasted by default, there is some mayo present, and also shreds of cucumber present. The end result tastes amazing even if the description sounds kind of gross.

As a bonus, the cost of these delicious breakfasts are very low (from the viewpoint of a visitor).

I was going to post on my other favorite, salt and pepper deep fried chicken 鹽酥鸡, but maybe I will just wait till next time since it's actually quite hard to write about it so many days after... In any case, the point of this post is to say that Taiwan is more than just beef noodles and pineapple cakes. 








Extra large menu here for you to read....

福滿源食店外賣中心 Fook Moon Yuen Takeaway

This used to be my favorite breakfast delivery place until our boss shut down the "breakfast club" at my last job. Oh the memories...

This place used to be on the end of Wellington street near the dumpling places. I guess they got booted out when that area became cool with the arrival of places like Mana and Cali Mex (how on earth have they managed to open up in so many new locations by the way!), and then they decided to move to the dark alley by the Centre (right next to the vegetarian place) - Tit Hong Lane. It took me a long time to track their new location down since I kept typing in the wrong Chinese characters on Google. I knew they weren't gone gone though since I still saw their delivery people walking around Central (yes, I ordered from them so much I recognize their people... plus their logo is a big orange and yellow thing so it's hard to miss).

I really like their breakfasts because

• they are relatively cheap, with a whole breakfast meal for just $25 (used to be even cheaper but... inflation)
• their portions are big
• they are tasty
• they separate the soup and noodles
• they've got a good menu to choose from - from sandwiches to congee to soupy noodles to rice rolls
• they've got soy milk as an option for the drink in meals

This morning I decided to revisit this place. Couldn't ask for delivery since I was the only person ordering (breakfast minimum charge for delivery is $50). I dropped off my bag in the office, called them to order my food, and then timed myself to see how long it would take to pick it up. Around 10-15 minutes assuming the elevators and traffic lights are in my favor (which it was this morning, hallelujah).

I was so happy I wanted to cry when I unveiled my food. Memories of the good old breakfast club days came all back to me. The portions still big, food still tasty, the same creamy soup base for my macaroni separated in a different bowl to avoid sogginess, and my warm soy milk. The only difference was that meal B now doesn't serve the egg/ham/bacon/wiener in a separate box, which is slightly annoying as it makes access to the macaroni a little more difficult.... but then again... let's reduce waste and safe earth right?

Sorry folks, menu is in Chinese only. Time to befriend a Chinese reader/speaker in your office!

Location: No. 10 Tit Hong Lane
Website: NA

福祿壽健康素食 Fook Luk Sau Vegetarian Restaurant

Disclaimer: I did not get vegetarian today because of green Monday. Just stumbled upon this spot when I was on my way to my Crab dinner (post on that later) last Friday. Also, please do not mistaken this as the trendier, more hipster, more baller 福祿壽. That one is Fu Lu Shou (Mandarin pronunciation) and this one is Fook Luk Sau (Cantonese pronunciation).

Master Liu Yut 了一法師 once talked about just aiming to have a vegetarian meal once a day (not breakfast) would already be a good deed versus not trying to have any vegetarian meals at all. Anyway, it's also a good way to switch up your lunch options every now and then. Is it a healthy option? I know I have that as a label, but I don't really know how healthy this is just because there is no meat. I mean... other things such as salt, sugar, carbs, starch etc etc also contribute to an unhealthy diet. Anyway, your call whether or not you find this healthy!

This place reminds me of another vegetarian place that I only had the pleasure of trying once as it shut down days after I went there. It was called 开心素食 Happy Vegetarian, and was also in Central near Pottinger Street. The style is pretty much exactly the same, you get rice and a choice of 2-3 dishes on top of it ($22 for 2 dishes, no soup or $26 for 3 dishes plus soup). If you dine in it's around $30 since you'd be taking up space and I hear you would get unlimited rice.

Today I went with the following, 

• Brown and white rice as the base: given the price, please do not expect a load of brown rice in the mix. Also unlike regular local lunch boxes, the rice only takes up about a quarter of the box.
• "Duck" w/ plum sauce: got 2 pieces, quite tasty and perhaps a little too spicy.
• "Lamb" with tofu curd and turnip/radish: creepy, the lamb really did taste a bit... lamb-ish. Tofu curd was standard, turnip/radish was standard and would have been a little bit more cooked.
• Bitter melon and "beef" scrambled eggs: probably my favorite out of the 3 since I finished it last. Not a fan of the imitation beef but can't really taste it if you eat it with the eggs so it's alright. The egg is scrambled the very Chinese way where it's slightly uncooked (err but what about avian flu...). The melon wasn't too bitter so it's right up my alley.
• Some Chinese melon soup (the daily): UGH! I was expecting some tasty MSG soup but no! it really is vegetarian!! Absolutely tasteless so I'm sorry but you've got to go... down the drain. I won't waste food next time and just let them know that I will skip the soup.

This place is very close to where I work, I was able to get there and back within 20 minutes (fast service since they are just scooping premade food into a lunch box). I would definitely go back since this adds to my lunch options, but I got to make sure I collect enough hot sauce packets to my stash since it makes a huge difference when added to the dishes.

I'm not sure how comfortable you are going there without a Cantonese speaker, but you may be able to figure out what to get without speaking Chinese as they show the dishes behind a glass case with numbers beside it, so you just order by telling the lady what number you want and whether you want noodles or rice (go with the rice. I don't think the noodles will be that good).

Random Chinese blurb that doesn't have anything to do with the restaurant that I can only say in Chinese: 偶爾不殺生去吃素當然是好的，但是如果你心腸不好，或者不吃素的時候瘋狂的吃肉，又或者你經常的浪費食物，我覺得你吃多少素都很難抵消你的罪業。每個人不多不少都會有罪過的時候，但是希望你吃素或做善事的時候是誠心地去做，而不是為了某種回報。

Location: No. 8 Tit Hong Lane (enter through Jubilee Street)
Website: NA

Morning Quickies - Landmark and Co.

When I was working at the Henley, I was eating the macaroni/noodle/congee breakfast sets from the CKC building almost every single day - another factor that contributed to my rapid weight gain. On other days, I liked to grab food from the places below.

Yummy (<$25): It's slightly further away from Henley especially in the morning, but I think their breakfasts are totally worth the walk. I usually go for this when I arrive in Central early (i.e. 8:15am - boy do I miss 9am starts). My favorite is their faux siu mais (fish meat siu mai), which are the best I've ever had in HK (my ex-colleagues really liked them too so.. yah!). On my hungrier days I would go for their congee as well making it a set. Their cheung fun / rice rolls aren't bad either but I guess they just really aren't my thing.

Location: Chiu Lung Street (can enter alley through Queen's Road Central by the McDonalds and Calvin Klein)

Sun Hing (<$25): It's somewhat across from Yummy and next to the 7-11 on Chiu Long Street. They have very good satay beef sandwiches, sweet/spicy/sour noodles (I know, it's heavy in the morning but... great for if you have a slight hangover from the night before), and pan fried turnip cake.

Location: Chiu Lung Street (can enter alley through Queen's Road Central by the McDonalds and Calvin Klein)

Urban Bakery (<$20): Croissants, their croissants are oh so very good. Very close to Henley too so it's fantastic.

Location: 4th (?) floor of the Landmark where 360 used to be. Man I miss 360.

Simply Life (<$20): yes they do have sandwiches for under $20, the only problem is it doesn't really fill me up. The cheese they use is really good though so... that is why I get it sometimes.

Location: Landmark basement near the Fuel.

Morning Quickies - IFC

I am talking about breakfasts. If after work drinks are called happy hours, should morning pre-work breakfasts be called sad hours? Skip the next paragraph to get to the actual food part.

Though I am not a morning person, I have a special fascination with breakfasts. I guess it's a treat to myself for yet waking up on time and making it to work for another day, or a celebration on a day off that I woke up early and have earned myself some extra hours to do something random for the day. I have to admit that I am getting old, and that I no longer sleep in till 2 or 3pm on days off. 12pm has been the latest, and that it really quite early for me because seriously, 2/3pm was the norm for me. Biologically I probably don't need to sleep that much anymore, and mentally as I am getting older, there is more I want to get to during the day instead of sleeping through it (e.g. cooking, eating, cleaning, boxing, errands etc etc).

Anyway, on my well behaved days my breakfast consists of a boiled egg brought from home (made the night before) and a herbalife milkshake. On my non-behaving days or colder days, I like to go with one of the below.

Listed in order of how often I visit them, with the first being the most frequent.

Maxim ($23.5): Maxim fast food has replaced Café de Coral's place in my heart, because their staff is much nicer and their food is quite good. I usually like to get the A2 meal, which has a macaroni in soup, ham and egg, toast or turnip cake (in HK, apparently these things are interchangeable), and a drink. I really like this on cold mornings, and it reminds me of the good old days when mom made me breakfast every morning. Other times, I get the set with 2 eggs with ham/BACON/wieners with toast and a drink. Good for days when I don't want to behave but still kinda want to be good. Their coffee is also very good for some reason.... like unusually good. Not a big fan of their congee and noodles as it's tasteless compared to de Coral.

Location: Hong Kong Station, near the exit for IFC 2

McDonalds (<$30): Need I say more? always a good morning breakfast for days when you feel like crap. I alternate between the sausage and egg mcmuffin meal and the pork bone soup pasta meal.

Location: P2 level if you are taking the elevators from the Airport Express area, closer to IFC 1 area.

Hung Fook Tong  ($10): good for super quickies since everything is pre-made here. Their $10 menu includes: faux siu mai (fish meat siu mai), beef siu mai (new item!), chao zhou dumplings, and meat and veggie buns. They also have fried noodles which I've never tried and not sure how much they cost. Maybe I can try it next time.

Location: Hong Kong Station, near the exit for IFC 2 (near the Maxim fast food)

Arome Bakery (<$20): another good place for super quickies as they have a variety of the typical HK bakery items as well as pre-made Hong Kong style sandwiches. I've tried their ham and egg sandwich which was only $14 (much cheaper than Maxim bakery which charges $17 or 18 on Theatre Lane). You can make it a set and get a coffee with it as well which I have yet to try since coffee is free in the office.

Location: Hong Kong Station, near the exit for IFC 2 (next to the Hung Fook Tong)

Starbucks (<$20): I really like their toasted bagel with cream cheese which has gone from $13 six years ago to around $17 or $18 today. I only go for this on very very rare mornings since I try to avoid an overdose of carbs in the morning making me sleepy for the rest of the day.

Location: they are everywhere.... Airport Express check-in, One Exchange Square, and I think second floor of IFC near the Senryo and new juice place.

I'll get to the Landmark area next. I find that area much more interesting for breakfasts.

Yummy

I used to go to Yummy a lot when I was working in Henley Building. The alley it is situated in is called Chiu Lung Street, which can be entered through Queen's Road Central near the Calvin Klein and McDonalds. You know that McDonalds? the one you've been to before when you were absolutely hammered at 3am and wanted nothing more than 20 chicken nuggets / filet o'fish / sausage and egg mcmuffin? The memories are coming back now huh? You must know which McDonalds I am talking about ;)

They are actually just a regular che zai mien / cart noodle place, but they do street food style breakfasts (siu mai, congee, fried noodles, rice rolls), other cool noodles (viet style chicken vermicelli, sesame sauce chicken noodles) and rice (curry, tomato sauce, viet style).

Dishes I liked:

• viet style cold vermicelli with chicken or pork 越式凍米線 (in picture)
• cold sesame sauce chicken vermicelli黑嘛嘛雞絲掛米線
• siu mai 燒賣: I used to get this for breakfast a lot for me and my colleagues. They were always happy to see this on their desks greeting them in the mornings!
• pork bone congee with dried mini oysters and peanuts 旺菜豬骨粥: another breakfast item. Goes well with the siu mai when I'm very hungry.

Dishes that I found were so-so. None of these were bad but just I didn't really like them:

• fried vermicelli 金牌撈米粉
• che zai mien / cart noodles 車仔麵
• yu dan / fish balls 魚蛋
• cheung fun / rice rolls 腸粉
• curry beef brisket on rice

Service: it's an independent local restaurant, please do not expect the baller service like McDonalds next door. You also get what you pay for... for around $40 I don't mind the local service and good food.

Location: Chiu Lung Street, Central
Website: NA

TamJai Sam Gor 譚仔三哥

This used to be one of my go to solo eating spots when I used to live in Prince Edward with my sister. I love their ma-la spicy soup base (medium spice) with the minced pork sauce (ja jeung). Like Nam Kee, you can choose to add other items in your noodles, but I tend not to because just one item, the minced pork is usually enough for me since they are really generous with the portion of noodles. When they say spicy, they really mean spicy, so maybe start with the "small" spicy level on your first try and go from there.

The reason why I kinda stopped going was because I moved to the Hong Kong side, and 5.5 years ago they haven't moved their business to Hong Kong Island. A couple of years ago they finally joined the "bright" side, but they were mainly just in Causeway Bay so I still didn't frequent it much since I find this more of a lunch spot and... well I do not work in CWB so it didn't make sense for me to go all the way to CWB for lunch. Recently I've also been trying to eat healthier, so a big bowl of carbs doesn't feel like the most health conscious choice for me (even with a side of veggies).

I went there on Friday night because I was too lazy to cook and well, I kinda missed the mince pork sauce. It's something I can't really get anywhere else because it's kinda sweet, kinda spicy... kinda awesome.

Other than noodles, they also have some pretty good side dishes like the cucumber (in picture below). Although it's covered in chilli oil it really isn't that spicy and actually quite refreshing. I find it also helps cool me down when I'm sweating from the spice. Another side dish that I really like but don't order unless I'm with a friend is the chicken wings. They have several different types but the one I like the most is the cumin one 土匪雞翼.

I would say compared to Nam Kee this place is even more local, but if you are adventurous enough you might be pleasantly surprised by this awesome chain.

Location: mainly in the Causeway Bay area on Cannon Street across from Tsui Wah and by the Wanchai Firestation on Hennessy Road. 
Website: http://www.tjsamgor.com/ (like Nam Kee, also doesn't have an English website...)

Intro + Nam Kee 南記

(skip to 5th paragraph for actual content on the food instead of BS)

I think I’ve always enjoyed eating, though at some point in my teenage years I wished for the invention of a pill that would be able to satisfy my hunger instantly. I found cooking and looking for food too time consuming, and for whatever reason I was at a really busy point of my life. I also never went out to eat much when I was living in Canada since I as a poor student… and going to restaurants meant asking my sister/dad to give me a ride, until I hit the age of 17 where I was able to drive but still too poor to dine out.

Moving to Hong Kong changed my eating habits quite drastically. For the first 1-2 years, I was living off satay udon with fish balls at home pretty much every single day. There was no longer a sister, dad or mom cooking for me, and given that I was still poor and living in a touristy area, I just cooked whatever was easiest and filled my stomach. If I tracked the number of times I ate veggies or anything remotely healthy in a month, it would definitely be under 5 times. The next 2 years, I became less poor, but I was basically working like crazy so I stuck with the satay udon and fish balls sans-veggies/healthy components. To make life less miserable, I started to dine out much more and gained a load of weight.

Year 4-present is when I feel like I’m at a happy medium. I cook a lot at home, trying to add in veggies as much as possible, cutting down on the processed foods (fish balls & co.), the instant noodles, and started to make Chinese soup every weekend. I still go out to eat, but I don’t go as crazy and always try to include the veggie factor. When I know I won’t be able to include the veggie factor for a particular meal, I would dose up during other meals of the day.

Alright so I don’t know why I spent the past 10-15 minutes talking about my eating habits, because it doesn't actually have much to do with why I wanted to start this blog. The reason really is this, I do like to eat, and friends and colleagues keep telling me to start a food blog. I think I’ve always brushed it off because there are just way, way too many food blogs out there. Recently though, I’ve befriended a number of “foodies” and “food bloggers”, and started reading some of the blogs they recommended and honestly… BLAH. I feel like these bloggers are just reviewing restaurants to show how they are hip and trendy, rather than actually sharing their love for food… or maybe I find their tastes too high end… or maybe I’m just too ghetto. In any case, I am starting this blog because I just want to share what normal people in Hong Kong eat. Not just what the trendy hipsters eat. I have very normal taste, not an expert in anything really, with a salary just slightly above average compared to the typical non banker local. I hang out mostly in Central and CWB because those are the 2 most easily accessible locations for me, but I also frequent MK. I am just a very average person sharing with you where I normally eat, with the possibility of the occasional baller places. That's very normal too, right? I mean it's totally normal to be not normal. You know... Like that motivational poster, you are unique, just like everyone else! I will try my best to include photos, but since I am usually too hungry and attack the food when it's served, it's very likely that you will be seeing half eaten foods or no photos at all.

With that said, today I shall start with one of my lunch time staples. Nam Kee noodles.  They have been around for a long long time, but I never went until one of my "local" friends brought me there one day. I say "local" because he's one of those half Brit international school students who speak no Chinesey. Anyway, he was raving about their "spring rolls" which again are in """" because they are definitely not spring rolls, but more like fish meat rolls wrapped with thin bean curd sheets. I'm not a big fan of it, instead my favorite is the 中辣大腸小鍋米線, which is a sour and medium spicy soupy noodle with pig intestines. It's right up my alley because 1. I wouldn't cook pig intestines at home and I honestly really like it 2. It's spicy enough for me 3. Fills me up and 4. Is easy on my wallet. I know carbs aren't the best thing to eat, so I usually get a plate of veggies on the side to "even it out" slightly. Altogether my bills is usually $44. I steal a couple extra packs of their hot sauce on my way out and proceed back to my desk in the office to begin the attack and leave the area smelling like Nam Kee for the rest of the afternoon. I've mastered the art of eating alone at restaurants, but seriously Nam Kee is too small for me and I prefer to eat slowly at my desk and sweat as much as I need to without feeling gross. Plus there are free drinks in the office so.... Win win!

You have been blessed by the fact that I remembered to take a pic today before the food was all gone.


Locations: They are seriously almost everywhere. In Central alone there is one on Stanley Street and one on Victoria Street. In CWB there are also 2 that I know of, one near the Regent Hotel, closer to the Tin Hau side, and then the other is by the wet market, closer to the Wanchai side. Go on their website and look for the one closest to you and enjoy!

Website: http://www.namkeenoodle.com.hk/nav_content.html (I like how they don't have an English version of the website... truly catering to local Hong Kongers!)