Kale

In the final week of April all I want to do is recover. I’ve had the cold, the flu and severe stomach aches most of the month so I’m doing my best to get back to 100% asap. Food choices obviously would make a huge impact on this process, so this week I’ve been opting for healthier options for lunch.

 

Lifestyle Asia had an article on healthy lunch options in this link earlier, so I’ve decided to go ahead and give Kale a try today as I’m really not a fan of the salad places near my office. http://www.lifestyleasia.com/hk/en/dining/eat/feature/nourish-5-healthy-lunch-spots-hong-kong/

 

After about 10 minutes I found Kale in a building that’s quite old near the Gateway Supermarket (actually I’m not sure if it’s still there). Sitting on the 13^th floor this place is quite nice considering it’s located in such an old building. I nervously decided to go for the salad instead of the mini sliders because I had more confidence that the couscous salad would fill me up more than the sliders. I was nervous because I haven’t been a fan of couscous so wasn't sure if I’d end up hating my lunch. For $65 you get a pretty decent sized salad, and you can choose to get everything on their salad board. I hate beetroot so I got everything but that.

 

Conclusion: To my surprise the couscous actually tasted pretty good and I didn't hate my lunch. Was a little disappointed though that they don't pack the box as tightly as they do at Open Kitchen or Simply Life. I was worried that the portion wouldn't fill me up until I saw that they gave me a lot of pumpkin. As a result, I think I was actually fine for the rest of the day. Wing Lok Street might sound really far away, but it’s actually just around 10 minutes from IFC One. I’d recommend you giving this a try if you are looking for something different but still healthy and doesn’t make a dent in your wallet.  

 

Location: Rm 1301, 13/F, Cheung’s Building, 1-3 Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan

Website: http://www.kale.com.hk/

Pololi

I've been struggling to find places to write about lately as I ran out of local places that I haven't talked about. The (unstated) goal of this blog was to introduce people to more cheap local food places, but today I will talk about something not cheap and not local because I think it's a pretty good deal for the quality and quantity of the food.

When I walked in a young lady was extremely friendly and asked if I've been there before or if I've tried Hawaiian food. Honestly the first things that come to mind when people say Hawaii is number 1, my favorite type of pizza, Hawaiian, and second, Lilo and Stitch. Anyway, I said no, and then she proceeded to give me a tasting of all their different flavors of tuna. I think there were like 10-12 of them so don't ask me what all the flavors are because I can barely even remember what I got today. The ones that I do remember are a spicy one, a spicy mayo, spicy avocado, ginger, "HK" flavor (pretty interesting actually and really did taste very Hong Kong because of the spices they used). They have a lot of non-spicy ones too but I only remembered the spicy ones since I like spice. If you are not a tuna fan, they also have a Korean style octopus thing (I did not like it). They may have some other vegetarian options as well but I was obviously not vegetarian so she didn't bother to introduce those to me. By the time I was done tasting all of them I was already slightly full.

She didn't really ask if I wanted the big one for $90 or the smaller option for $60, but I guess it was obvious to her that I could eat and gave me the bigger option. She takes out a pretty big box and asks me what I want as the "base". You can do all rice (white/brown), all salad (only one choice) or half half. I always want to try everything so I opted for the half half with brown rice. They only have one salad dressing but it worked in my favor as I like balsamic vinegar and love honey Dijon. On the tuna side you also get 2 choices, so I went with the first spicy one I tried and the spicy mayo.

To be very honest, $90 is quite steep for lunch, but the fact that the tuna really does taste good (fyi, I love spicy tuna), is fresh and you get a lot of it, I can justify the price tag (unlike TaKorea where it's $90 for one wrap). I can imagine on a hotter summer day or for a lot of girls here the smaller option for $60 would be enough as well. Tuna is protein and... protein is supposed to fill you up right? If you really think about it, this is only $5 more than what I usually get at Mana. It's nice to change healthy things up every now and then as well.

Location: 35-39 Graham Street
Website: http://www.pololikai.com/

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

Mana (Fast Slow Food)

... well actually, more like slow slow food. Seriously there was a while people had to wait 30 minutes for their wrap and this was at 12:00... not even lunch rush hour in Central yet!

I've never been one of those super healthy vegan, gluten free people, and honestly do not think I will ever become one of those people any time soon. However I do feel that every now and then I need to "cleanse" my system and have a healthy day. Some people might think that's useless to have just one healthy day a week, but I feel like at least I'm doing something good for myself every now and then. 

Today was a "stressful" day so I went ahead and spoiled myself and got their lemonade ($45) as well. Someone told me their lemonade is VERY good so I thought I'd give it a try. Well, meh, it was not life changing. Along with the full "Pick Four" wrap my bill was at $130, which is super expensive considering it's self serve fast food kind of place. Oh well, I deserved it today. I will put this price range at $70-100 tag because I normally would never get a drink which lowers the damage to $85, which is still high but once a week I can handle. I think a half wrap is around $40-50, but I really do not understand how that can possibly fill anyone up. I always get the full wrap with hummus, tofu, cheese and rockets (all the filling stuff to make sure I stay full until dinner). My recent discovery is that along with the hot sauce I steal from Nam Kee, these wraps tastes so much more awesome.

Location: Wellington street near the escalator
Website: http://www.mana.hk/