We start out our dinner with a yogurt drink. My coworker insists that I coat my stomach to prepare for the fire that will be in my stomach after eating the spicy and sour fish stew. It makes sense right? But I think she just likes yogurt drink because we went for garlic crab earlier in the week and she ordered the same drink and the garlic carb was nowhere near spicy.

After serveral weeks in China, I oftentimes crave raw things like salad and sushi because everything Chinese is usually cooked. So coworker orders some sort of raw veggie side dish for me lightly coated with salt and vinegar. I really don’t remember what vegetable it was but it had a like scent like a cross between shiso and basil. All I know that it was very refreshing.

We ordered a variety of other traditional Chinese side dishes. Chinese pickled vegetables, cucumbers topped with roasted peanuts

Boiled napa

Sauteed bean curd strips

And one of the main attraction, spicy sour fish pot. From the picture, the pot looks mighty spicy with all the chili peppers but it was not an in-your-face hot but more of a slow burn. Very savory, very sour, very delicious. The pot was also twice the size of our torsos and we could not finish it.

Then came the next attraction of the night.duck heads. I did a double take when the plate was set down in front of us. For some reason, I imagined the heads to be half that size but it was the size of my palm. I’ve funky duck parts before such as the tongue with the connectors attached and etc but I was a little wary of eating the heads. The restaurant graciously pre-chopped the heads in half for easier access.I regret not taking a picture of all the glory of the insides.  I ate half of a head and just couldn’t go on anymore. From what I remember, there wasn’t much meat. There was something that had the consistency of egg yolk, maybe the brains? There wasn’t that much taste to it. For those of you wandering, I left the beak alone and just didn’t go there. When I started having gag reflexes, I knew it was my body telling me no more.

Later that night, I felt really nauseated and felt like throwing up the entire night. This lasted until the next morning. I’m not sure what caused that bout of slight food poisoning. Could have been my lunch, could have been the salad or the spicy & sour fish stew but I blame it on the duck heads. To this day, I still gag when I look at this picture. So yeah, gotta go.

My traveling companions and I decided to venture beyond our hotel and walked into one of the city’s many city centers. After looking at a few suspicious rice and noodle shops, we found a nice sit down restaurant on top of a McDonalds. The restaurant had a special priced menu that offered fares that ranged from US$1 to US$ 3. The lotus root cakes where one of the items that were on this special priced menu and for some reason I thought it would be sweet. However, the dish was savory and delicious. It was made with chunks of lotus root and ground pork and looked like thin slices of pork chops. This dish was RMB 8 which is around US$ 1.17.

Another dish off the cheapo menu was the steamed pumpkin with lotus flower petals. Again, I thought this would be a sweet dish but the pumpkin was steamed in a soy sauce base, kind of like the sauce off of the roast duck at Sam Woo’s. The sweetness of the pumpkin was a nice contrast to the oily and salty flavor of the sauce. This cost a whopping RMB 12 (US$ 1.75).

Next up, THE ROASTED GOOSE, which came highly recommended by our waitress as it is their house specialty.I can never tell the difference between duck and goose when they are roasted because the consistency is the same, a little gamey a little fatty. Eithery way, it was one of the best goose/duck meat I’ve had in my life. It was meaty in all the right places.

However, what I loved most about the goose was that it was hiding a pile of Schzewan style pickled turnips and carrots underneath. The tangy and sour crunch of the turnips was a nice refreshing surprise after digging through all the salty goodness of the goose meat.  This dish was the most expensive of the entire meal,  a whopping RMB 26 (US$ 3.85)!!!

I had to order something that I knew would be SWEET for sure so I decided on some sort of a green tea roll with crushed peanuts. It was crushed peanuts and crystallized sugar wrapped inside green tea (or green food coloring) infused rice cake.  This dessert definitely hit the chewy,  sweet and crispy spot that I was looking for to end a nice meal.

After this cheap and delicious meal, Guangzhou almost redeems itself to me, almost.

It was a national holiday in Hong Kong that day so the place was packed with tourists as well as locals.

Right under the Giant Buddha.

We had originally planned to have the vegetarian meal here but since it was a holiday, the restaurant was packed and the wait seem days. I was bummed because I was looking forward to having lunch at the restaurant on the temple grounds. However, we discovered a walk up and order cafe next to the restaurant. We were hungry and the line was short so we ditched our place in line at the restaurant and headed over. No meat was served on temple grounds so everything at the cafe was vegetarian. I was delighted to the case of [crispy] pastries!

They had a “prix fixe” menu for the price of HKD 25 per person (around USD 3.50) which includes a  plate of vegetarian vermicelli or noodles, 2 pastries and hot or cold tofu (the sweet kind that you get at dim sum) We also ordered a plate of vegetarian meat (veggie pork, veggie squid,tofu)  for HKD 20. So our entire meal only cost us USD 9! A steal even in Hong Kong.

For the pastries, we ordered vegetarian egg roll, mochi with sesame filling covered with coconut shavings, cream of mushroom tart and veggie barbeque chicken pastry.

Hmm.sweet tofu. We ordered one hot and one cold. Since the weather was warm that day, I preferred the cold tofu. The consistency was also less jello-y like the hot tofu.

After lunch, we decided to take the local shuttle bus to Tai O, an old fishing village where people still live in houses on stilts over the water.

We walked through the outdoor marketplace where most of the vendors were selling dried fish/sea creatures and their skins.

Of course there were street vendors selling food such as dried squid so we stopped to grab a quick bite. You pick out the dried creatures and the ladies will grill them over an open flame. It’s like a mobile yakitori on a cart!

Before grilling it over the coals, the ladies brush the dried squid with some sort of teriyaki sauce.

Taste like squid jerky.

What is the facination with things on sticks in Hong Kong. Here is something that I had to get because it was on a stick. Can you guess what it was?

Another example of food on sticks, molasses sandwiched between crackers.on a stick.

Ready to eat.

Stepping into the restaurant was like stepping into a cross between Tao nightclub in Vegas and Burke Williams. Lots of reds and bamboo textured seating and I swear I heard a fake waterfall somewhere. . But the food made up for the Asiancentric decor.

My coworker felt like noodles so she opted for a prawn cioppino with noodles. Once my eyes landed on the words scallion pancake and pizza, my mind was already made up. I ordered the Peking duck scallion pancake pizza. That is very CPK-esque but I was taken to liking the fact that instead of regular pizza dough, it’s made with scallion pancake. I have a weakness for carbs that can be both chewy and crispy at the same time. We decided to share a smoked salmon dragon fruit salad with mango dressing. I needed something RAW after all those fishballs on a stick.

As I was still on my infatuations with tomatoes, those cherry tomatoes were sweet and delicious. The noodles were cooked to al dente and there were generous chunks of fresh prawns in the pasta. Luckily, my coworker didn’t seem to mind as I was only eating the cherry tomatoes. Love that the portions were huge for Asia standards.

Here is my Peking duck pizza on scallion pancake.

I loved the texture of this pizza, chewy, cheesy, meaty, crispy. The chef was smart not to overkill the pizza by adding any other ingredients to spice up the pizza as the peiking duck already had a very powering taste and the slight scallion taste from the dough and the sprinkles just added that kick.  Yes my friend, I ate every piece of this pizza, all by myself. I really like that this restaurant took new approaches to Chinese and Western food without completing reinventing the actual dish. Sometimes a little tweak is all we need to make things fresh. Definitely recommend.

My breakfast of choice this time was the instant noodles with a fried egg and ham. Macaroni is also offered if you are not an instant noodles fan. Other toppings include Viennese wieners, canned meat, sausage, and Spam.  Okay, now that I’ve written them down in English, it sounds like something that they would serve in Alcatraz. But it’s actually very tasty and fills the stomach.

Pineapple bread is also popular in Hong Kong for breakfast and also for high tea. It does not contain any pineapple and does not have any sort of pineapple flavoring. It is called the pineapple bread because the top looks like a pineapple. The golden crust is flaky and sweet. The bread underneath is much softer than the white bread we get in the US. The Cantonese will usually put a pat of butter in between the pineapple bread. I decided to forgo the luscious pat. All of the Chinese/Taiwanese bakeries such as Nini’s Bakery and JJ’s carry pineapple bread.

One new breakfast item that I tried on this trip was the steamed sweet egg whites. I like to think that it’s healthy because it’s made of egg whites. The texture is extremely smooth, you can such the egg whites between your teeth smooth. The taste is slightly sweet and I detect a ever so slight ginger flavor. This dish is popular for breakfast and also good as a dessert.

Of course, what is a tea restaurant meal unless it’s accompanied by milk tea. The milk tea in Hong Kong is orange-ish in color and is flavored not with just milk but with evaporated milk and condensed milk. Al that dairy makes me a little nauseous so I usually will have a sip of someone else’s milk tea for taste and order myself a coffee. (Milk tea in background)

There are of course the usual dim sum items also available for breakfast such as congee and fried dough wrapped in rice roll. I’m surprised that there are no food on sticks offered for breakfast. Light bulb! If my day job doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll move to Hong Kong and open a breakfast joint that offers mini pineapple buns on sticks!

One of my must go places is Lucky Dessert in Causeway Bay. They are famous for their mango sticky rice roll. Fresh mango wrapped with mochi like roll sprinkled with coconut shreds. I love the consistency of this dessert, chewy then juicy.

Another one of their house specialty is mango sago with fresh pomelo pulp. However, I always get this when I come Hong Kong so I decided to be different and  add some sweet silky tofu in the mix. I like to think that I got my fruit servings and also my protein intake with this dessert.

Another one of my must go dessert destination is Hui Lau Shan Dessert. These are almost as abundant as Starbucks use to be in the US.one of every other corner. This place is famous for having several variations of the fresh fruit slushee drinks with mango, aloe, coconut, kiwi, strawberry with mini boba balls, rice balls or herbal jelly.  Cantonese desserts of red bean soup, mango sago, fresh fruit with mango sago and the like are also popular at this restaurant.

Here is an example of one of their drinks, red bean soup with sticky rice balls with sago topped with coconut milk.

Here is their variation of their mango sago with pomelo pulp with fresh fruit. They added a scoop of mango ice and a nice dollop of coconut milk.

Next up is Honeymoon Dessert in Causeway Bay at the World Trade Centre. Again they offer traditional Cantonese dessert such as herbal jelly, red bean soup, sesame soup, walnut soup, sweet tofu, rice balls, sago, more mango and pomelo pulp and more. They have an extensive menu but from my keen observation, they are just different combinations of the above items with or without fruit, hot or cold. Either way, it’s delicious and good for you (from a Chinese medicine type of way).

Sweet tofu with freshly grounded sesame soup. Thick and silky texture.

Red bean soup with herbal jelly.

Last but not least is turtle herbal jelly from Hoi Ting Tong. It’s basically an herbal jello made with Chinese herbs and boiled turtle shells. Click here to see the making of this weird but good for you treat. I know I just lost some of you at “turtle herbal jelly” but I think it’s a great treat that is also good for you. The consistency is just like jello and the taste is slightly bitter with herbal aromas. You can add syrup or sugar to suit your taste. However, I like to have it straight up without any other condiments. This place boasts having the herbal jelly will cure many ailments such as constipation, acne, respiratory system problems and generally detoxifies your body.

There are just so many dessert places in every nook and cranny in Hong Kong. Just like Hong Kong, the desserts cover a wide range of tastes and styles.

My favorites are the fish balls dunked in spicy curry sauce. I’ve already 3-4 sticks in the past 4 days that I’ve been here.

My sister is a huge fan of the octopus. She likes her smothered with mustard. Look at those tentacles!

Our most recent obsession with the stall is the styrofoam bowl full of goodness with the likes of pig’s blood, intestines, pig skin, turnip and a few sprigs of chives in a broth. Of course we add spoonful of the spicy curry sauce to give the mixture a little kick.

Here’s the lady cutting the intestines.

Turnips

The masterpiece.

The cost of each stick is around $1 and each bowl of pig’s blood goodness is around $2.50. A good deal for a light dinner if you ask me. More versions of Hong  Kong comfort food to come.