Hong Kong: Street Eats
We started our first day in Hong Kong with very limited sleep. We weren't, however, about to let that stop us from eating as much as possible. T was leaving the next day, so we had to fit in as much as we could in the time that she had.
AF was waiting for us at our homestay. We dropped off our luggage and then we hit the streets. Our homestay, which we found through CL's relatives in Hong Kong, was conveniently located right by the Jordan metro station. We started off by exploring the vicinity.
When we walked past this window, we were caught by the delicious aroma wafting from the window:
AF was the only one of us who spoke Cantonese, so we let her handle all the ordering. CL helped out by pointing to things she liked. We ended up with this tray of assorted goodies:
Large intestine, small intestine, fish balls, octopus tentacles, and lobster balls came stewed, curried, barbecued, or roasted. Grab a stick and skewer away!
That served as our introduction to street food in Hong Kong. We quickly discovered that while there aren't a lot of food carts like in other parts of Asia, Hong Kong boasts of an abundance of shops that sell food to go.
Later that night, we randomly found Chun Mei Mei after leaving the Ladies' Market:
Same kind of stuff that we found at the window earlier in the day:
We bought a bunch of stuff and then happened across a community soccer field with bleachers to sit in to enjoy our bounty. While families cheered on their soccer player fathers/brothers/sons, we were engrossed in stuffing our faces.
T wanted to try stinky tofu for the first time:
Fried and pillowy and very mild for stinky tofu. It was missing some soy sauce and pickled veggies.
Our curried fish balls came in a bowl:
As did the cutest little shu mai I've ever seen:
We were curious about the eggplant, but ended up less than impressed:
Deep fried without batter, the eggplant was flavorless and oily.
We managed to catch the lights show at Victoria Harbor and afterwards, stopped at a Hui Lau Shan on a whim (my whim, to be exact):
So I could order an H4:
Which consists of sago, mango juice, coconut milk, and diced mango. The coconut was a bit lost amid all the mango.
The next day, we set out for even more food. We managed to fit in dim sum and some more street eats before T had to catch her flight home.
I'm a sucker for coconut milk, so I could help but be attracted to this juice shop:
Coconut milk combinations as far as the eye can see. I went with the simple coconut milk and grass jelly:
Right next door was this little shop:
I spotted a pan fried bun in the display counter and I had to have it:
We all agreed that it was delish:
All too soon, T had to leave and then we were three.
We met up with CL's friend and waited two hours for a tram up to The Peak. The Peak turned out to be a tourist trap with so-so views and lots of shops. I bought a shot glass in one shop and found the same one the next over for 20 HKD (about $2.50) less. Argh!
AF needed to earn 7-11 points to get her mom the prize she wanted. To help her reach her goal, we each chose a Vitasoy:
I was really excited because I'd never seen these flavors before in the States. The Super Sour didn't turn out to be very sour at all. The Cookies 'n Cream was like sweetened milk and the Tiramisu was just sweet. Oh well, it was fun all the same.
CL had to spend the next day with her relatives, but even though it was just AF and I left, we did plenty of damage between the two of us. As usual, we made lots of bad decisions, ate way more than we should have, and ended the day in pain.
In-between meals, we also managed to walk all the way down to the harbor from Jordan and back. We also found Indonesia Restaurant, which CL's family claimed to offer good lemper:
There was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity to have more lemper in my belly. The restaurant was closed the first time AF and I swung by, but persistence pays off:
It was a total letdown. It didn't taste nearly as heavenly as what we had in Jakarta:
To offset my disappointment, we got some eggettes:
There were different flavors to choose from like taro and chocolate, but we opted for the original:
AF requested that our bag of eggettes be blown by a hairdryer-like contraption. I didn't understand why until AF explained that this made the outside additionally crispy. One bite into the chewy center of the crispy eggette made me a believer:
I'm blow drying all my eggettes from here on out.
CL told us about this elusive napoleon cake from Maxim's Cakes that she's always struggling to find. AF and I stopped by a Maxim's in a metro station to see if we could find one and rub it in CL's face:
AF asked the lady behind the counter and she told us that napoleon cakes are only available after 1:00 pm. So we went back after 1:00 and lo and behold, we got one:
Layers of flaky puff pastry sandwiching subtly sweet cream and a soft cake layer. Very delicious, but not quite as mind-blowing as CL made it seem.
We told CL about how the cake is only available after 1:00 pm and apparently that answered a lot of her cake-locating issues. Just shows how it never hurts to ask.
Anyway, more Hong Kong shenanigans to come. This is merely the tip of the iceberg.
AF was waiting for us at our homestay. We dropped off our luggage and then we hit the streets. Our homestay, which we found through CL's relatives in Hong Kong, was conveniently located right by the Jordan metro station. We started off by exploring the vicinity.
When we walked past this window, we were caught by the delicious aroma wafting from the window:
AF was the only one of us who spoke Cantonese, so we let her handle all the ordering. CL helped out by pointing to things she liked. We ended up with this tray of assorted goodies:
That served as our introduction to street food in Hong Kong. We quickly discovered that while there aren't a lot of food carts like in other parts of Asia, Hong Kong boasts of an abundance of shops that sell food to go.
Later that night, we randomly found Chun Mei Mei after leaving the Ladies' Market:
Same kind of stuff that we found at the window earlier in the day:
We bought a bunch of stuff and then happened across a community soccer field with bleachers to sit in to enjoy our bounty. While families cheered on their soccer player fathers/brothers/sons, we were engrossed in stuffing our faces.
T wanted to try stinky tofu for the first time:
Fried and pillowy and very mild for stinky tofu. It was missing some soy sauce and pickled veggies.
Our curried fish balls came in a bowl:
As did the cutest little shu mai I've ever seen:
We were curious about the eggplant, but ended up less than impressed:
Deep fried without batter, the eggplant was flavorless and oily.
We managed to catch the lights show at Victoria Harbor and afterwards, stopped at a Hui Lau Shan on a whim (my whim, to be exact):
So I could order an H4:
Which consists of sago, mango juice, coconut milk, and diced mango. The coconut was a bit lost amid all the mango.
The next day, we set out for even more food. We managed to fit in dim sum and some more street eats before T had to catch her flight home.
I'm a sucker for coconut milk, so I could help but be attracted to this juice shop:
Coconut milk combinations as far as the eye can see. I went with the simple coconut milk and grass jelly:
Right next door was this little shop:
I spotted a pan fried bun in the display counter and I had to have it:
We all agreed that it was delish:
All too soon, T had to leave and then we were three.
We met up with CL's friend and waited two hours for a tram up to The Peak. The Peak turned out to be a tourist trap with so-so views and lots of shops. I bought a shot glass in one shop and found the same one the next over for 20 HKD (about $2.50) less. Argh!
AF needed to earn 7-11 points to get her mom the prize she wanted. To help her reach her goal, we each chose a Vitasoy:
I was really excited because I'd never seen these flavors before in the States. The Super Sour didn't turn out to be very sour at all. The Cookies 'n Cream was like sweetened milk and the Tiramisu was just sweet. Oh well, it was fun all the same.
CL had to spend the next day with her relatives, but even though it was just AF and I left, we did plenty of damage between the two of us. As usual, we made lots of bad decisions, ate way more than we should have, and ended the day in pain.
In-between meals, we also managed to walk all the way down to the harbor from Jordan and back. We also found Indonesia Restaurant, which CL's family claimed to offer good lemper:
There was no way I was going to miss out on an opportunity to have more lemper in my belly. The restaurant was closed the first time AF and I swung by, but persistence pays off:
It was a total letdown. It didn't taste nearly as heavenly as what we had in Jakarta:
To offset my disappointment, we got some eggettes:
There were different flavors to choose from like taro and chocolate, but we opted for the original:
AF requested that our bag of eggettes be blown by a hairdryer-like contraption. I didn't understand why until AF explained that this made the outside additionally crispy. One bite into the chewy center of the crispy eggette made me a believer:
I'm blow drying all my eggettes from here on out.
CL told us about this elusive napoleon cake from Maxim's Cakes that she's always struggling to find. AF and I stopped by a Maxim's in a metro station to see if we could find one and rub it in CL's face:
AF asked the lady behind the counter and she told us that napoleon cakes are only available after 1:00 pm. So we went back after 1:00 and lo and behold, we got one:
Layers of flaky puff pastry sandwiching subtly sweet cream and a soft cake layer. Very delicious, but not quite as mind-blowing as CL made it seem.
We told CL about how the cake is only available after 1:00 pm and apparently that answered a lot of her cake-locating issues. Just shows how it never hurts to ask.
Anyway, more Hong Kong shenanigans to come. This is merely the tip of the iceberg.
Comments
Post a Comment