Best kept secret for Thai food in Wan Chai

This is the best kept secret for Thai food in the heart of Wan Chai market.

I used go there everyday and the food would be remarkably consistent and delicious.

Here is a showcase of what they have had!!!

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Daily special:


This was not on the menu but one of those daily specials which you can see at their counter.
It was pickled vegetables and scrambled egg which tasted unusually good together because the pickled vegetables were appetizing and great with white rice.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Mince with beans and basil:

This was another killer dish because it was delicious as well.
You can order chicken or pork but personally I liked the chicken.
Words cannot describe how good it was because it was spicy, yet you could taste the tones of garlic, chili and basil aroma!
Not to mention the friggin perfectly cooked rice which were distinct grains of rice and the soy sauce that they drizzled on it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Sour sausage fried rice:


Sour sausage is a fermented sausage which originates from Northeastern Thailand called Sai Krok Isan.
It tasted amazing with fried rice because the sourness balanced the heaviness of the rice and the sourness tastes natrual a like vinegar infused sausage.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Chicken fried rice:

This was just simply fried rice with pieces of chicken.
Again the fried rice was amazing because each grain of rice was fragrant and the chicken was tender and tasty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Stir fried glass noodles with red beancurd 紅腐乳/南乳:
These glass noodles are addictive!! There are two versions, one is stir fried and the other is in broth.
It was stir fried with so many ingredients that every mouthful is packed with aromatic taste.
There was Chinese celery, chinese white cabbage, morning glory and scrambled egg!



★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Red bean curd soup with glass noodles 紅腐乳/南乳:

This was the same as above but in red beancurd soup, again it was delicious because I love red beancurd.

They also give you extra red beancurd sauce which was very spicy.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fried flat noodles:

The noodles were good with a strong Thai basil fragrance.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Crispy pork:

The pork was a bit dry.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

The spice house:

19, Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai

Softserve with candyfloss at Honey Creme

Finally tried Honey Creme.

The softserve with the honeycomb or honey is probably the simplest and best but I decided to choose the candyfloss one because it looked better.

It was quite difficult to eat because you have to eat the candyfloss first so by the time you get to the softserve it is not sweet enough.

Address:

34 lee garden road.

Causeway Bay

Hairy crab delights at HKCEC's New Shanghai

Every time I go to the exhibition centre I am always busy looking at the leaflets to notice any restaurants here.
New Shanghai on the first floor near the entrance.

The restaurant was spacious with high ceilings that you forget you are at the exhibition centre.

That night we had some special dishes from their hairy crab menu.

Here was what we had.

We started off with the soup.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
蟹粉白玉羹
Winter Melon Thick Soup with Hairy Crab

This was a filling soup with a scoop of wintermelon mash in the middle.
It was warming and light with pieces of crab roe in it which was further enhanced by the vinegar.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed hairy crab:

I really liked this place because they helped you the crab.


Within a flash, the crabs were ready to eat.

The crab roe was sinfully delicious just like sticky egg yolk, while the crabmeat was sweet and made even more appetizing when it was dipped in vinegar.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
湖光泛影 

This was an assortment of Sautéed Egg White with Fresh Crab Roe,sautéed Mandarin Fish Slices and crispy prawns coated in salted egg yolk.

Started off with the mandarin fish slices which were silky and delicious, then I had the sauteed egg white which was topped generously with crab roe and crab meat.
I finished off with the crispy prawns which had the strongest flavour coated in delicious fragrant and crispy salty egg yolk that was not too salty.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Fried Hairy Crab with Bean Paste and Glutinous Rice Cake

When this was served, you could smell the lovely aroma of bean paste, each glutinous rice cake was thickly covered in this deliciously sweet and savoury sauce paired with crab roe rich crabs.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Poached garland chrysanthemum vegetables:

I loved the vegetables because it was in delicious broth with shreds of Chinese ham yet the grassy taste of garland chrysanthemum came through.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Steamed Pork Dumpling with Fresh Crab Roe:

The dumplings were perfect with lots of broth inside and fresh minced pork filling.
When I took a bite, the broth oozed out.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
ginger tea:

Ginger tea is always served with hairy crabs, it had a nice warming fiery ginger taste without being too sweet.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Dumplings in ginger tea soup:

To finish off, dessert was dumplings in ginger soup. The ginger soup was similar to the ginger tea but the fiery taste was amplified.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

NEW SHANGHAI:

L1, HKCEC, 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Menu:

http://www.hkcec.com/catering-and-dining/dining/new-shanghai

Improved noodles at 方便里

On the first visit, the noodles were too sweet because they added the seasoning from the Indomie packet.

This time the taste was really good because the noodles were hot and spicy and the pieces of minced meat were fresh and springy.

Sama Soup curry from Sapporo

Decided to try this place because they offer soup curry from Sapporo.
Their mascot is a hungry bear which reminded me of the tiger at Tiger Curry when I saw this bright yellow logistics van on the way there.
Currently, there are a Jungle of curries in Hong Kong with nearly every beast including Tiger Curry, Cat's eye curry and not to mention the insect world's bee curry!!


It is a compact shop on Gough Road.




The menu has a golden cover with the hungry bear at the front.

Inside the menu, it shows an introductory about the soup curry.

There are three different bases for the curry soup:
tomato, coconut and prawn.

After choosing the broth you select the level of spiciness.

They had green tea salad on the menu which I am going to try next time.

There are two portion sizes: regular/half.
You then choose rice or udon to go with the curry.
It would have been helpful if they told me the rice was unlimited because the rice that went with the half portion was actually quite tiny so I ordered gyozas because I was still hungry.
The only difference between the regular and half is the curry portion, the rice portions are the same.
I felt that the half portion was very sufficient because it was quite salty so more rice was preferable.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Natto curry with prawn broth:





The natto curry with prawn broth was amazing because the soup was very viscous but you could not eat much of it because it was really salty which was why I need more rice.
There was lots of Rosemary in it and aromatic green peppers as well as okra which made it taste like Western casseroles.
The minced meat in the curry was good too because it was fresh and didn't have any weird taste.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Tomato broth curry with chicken:


The tomato broth curry was disappointing because it was very sweet and tasted like Chinese style Western onion soup with pureed onions and not much tomato taste to it.
The chicken leg was smaller than my expectation but it was lovely and soft.
For this one I chose the udon which I did not like because it was chewy and sweet.
It would be great if they had ramen or soba as a choice or proper inaniwa udon which has a thinner strand.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Gyozas:

The gyozas had too much garlic puree and it was like eating a crispy gyoza filled with garlic puree.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
SAMA HK.
51A Gough Street, Central

Instant noodles in mock sharks fin soup at 旦記小食

Came accross this interesting old mall while I was in the area.
Initially I thought it was just a mall selling mobile phone accessories and clothes but at the far corner I found this really old style snack joint.


Stopped by and tried instant noodles in mock sharks fin soup.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Instant noodles in mock sharks fin soup:


When I ate it, the noodles reminded me of some Indonesian pot noodle because the broth was as thick as that.
The instant noodles were a bit foamy for my liking because it was the Indonesian brand which has that texture.
Anyway, the noodles were quite likeable because the broth was not that salty and it probably would have tasted better if I added vinegar.
It was fun slurping the noodles in viscous broth which makes it similar the British pot noodles.
I definitely would like to try it again and eat it faster because the soup goes runny after a while.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

旦記小食

Shop 122, 1/F, Kwun Tong Plaza, 

68 Hoi Yuen Road Kwun Tong.
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Still the King of Pork bone tea!~!~

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:: Singmalay series: No 33 ::
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It has been a while since I last wrote any reviews on Singaporean food or Malaysian food because there are not many new ones about.
The last one I visited was Nyonya Coming in Sai Ying Pun.
Decided to revisit Bak Kut King for their famous pork bone tea and some other dishes.
Here was what we had and it was interesting to similarities of Malaysian food and Thai food.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grapefruit and prawn salad:

Started off with a refreshing salad to begin dinner.
The grapefruit was juicy and the prawns were springy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Malacca Grilled fish cakes:

This looked similar to Thai fish cakes with lots of lemongrass in it, but unfortunately I am not fond of lemongrass so found it a bit too strong.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pork bone tea:

The pork bone tea was served with fried dough stick slices and black soy sauce.
It had a rich herb taste followed by sweetness and a hint of pepper.
As a personal preference I would like the dong gwai to be stronger which can be requested before you order.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Malaysian crispy pork knuckle:

The pork knuckles were amazing because the meat was soft with a hint of saltiness and the skin was extremely crispy with a slight chewy under side!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Stir fried winged beans with prawn paste and squid:

This was amazingly, a delicious combination of pungent prawn paste and squid.
The beans were crisp with a sweet centre.
Winged beans are grown in Asia where the humidity is high, and you can find them in most Thai and Indian shops looking like a long frilly leaf.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Salty lemon soda:

I loved the soda because they gave you imported soda and not lemonade or 7up.
A real thirst quencher.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Grilled stingray in Sambal sauce:

This is my favourite fish because the texture is soft and comes off the bone easily.
The Sambal sauce gave it a delicious kick of sweet and spiciness and the stingray was moist and delicate.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Toast with kaya and ube icecream:
This was a huge cube of toast filled with kaya in the middle paired with ube icecream.

This is a must eat item because the kaya paste is divine and not too sweet and the ube icecream is a perfect match with delicate taro flavours that does not over power the kaya taste.

The only thing that I did not like was the butter because it made it a bit heavy.
Apart from ube icecream, I would also like to try pairing it with unsweetened whipped cream or even better clotted cream!!
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
To summarize I definitely recommend the stingray, pork knuckle, winged beans and the toast as dessert.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Bak Kut King
Address: Shop 1, G/F, Wan Sha Tower, 45 Wun Sha Street, Tai Hang
Phone:2972 2266

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★