Let's Go Dutch

It would be a massive understatement to say that I haven’t been eating well whilst here in Hong Kong.

I have tried so many interesting foods like…

• Spicy Crab (and I don’t usually eat crab but this was delectable)
• Sea Snails (in a beautiful spicy sauce)
• Snake Soup (it actually tastes like chicken)
• Century Egg (blackened boiled eggs that look rotten but actually are quite nice once you get over the rotten factor – I have had them twice! – but can only stomach one at a time).

I have also gotten used to silken tofu – which I never thought I would.

Dim Sum, is of course, a great way to eat with friends and I have been to some fine establishments such as Luk Yu Tea House where the egg tarts were to die for.


One Saturday I was taken to Maxims for a long Dim Sum session (4-5 hours) by Catherine (Administrator at the Fringe Club). She has shown me to some great eateries – that I have become a regular since. My favourite selection of Dim Sum includes Cold Roast Pork with crackling and a mustard dipping (pictured) sauce that is just devine. Char Siew Bao are the pork buns and they come in two sorts of pastry, short and flaky, and steamed and dense …both delicious. The chicken feet (pictured) … are just a bit bony and soft for my liking and I think they should be more crispy like the end of a chicken wing … but hey it’s chicken and those that know me well …


One of my absolute favourite places to eat are the Dai Pai Dong at the bottom of Stanley Street, Central. Dai Pai Dong literally means Big Cooking Place – they are situated out side in a closed off street and the food is prepared and cooked right there in front of you. They are actually quite small but they are also very cheap and serve great Black Bean Squid, Sweet and Sour Pork, Hot Pots, Fried Fish, you name it, it’s all good.


Finally there are the desert restaurants (yes Aaron – this part’s for you). After filling yourself up with all sorts of savoury goodness you then go off to a place like Lucky Desert (Wan Chai) or Honeymoon Desert (Central) and keep eating. The deserts are mostly fruit and sago based and again are mixed with interesting tastes and textures. From clockwise left:

1. Grass Jelly with Mixed Fruits (the grass jelly has a slight herbaceous and medicinal taste but when mixed with melons and mango quite refreshing)
2. Strawberry Pudding, Mango Pudding and Mango Sago Soup (the puddings are drizzled with a thin sweet milk which makes for an even creamier taste),
3. Glutinous Rice Mango Balls (a piece of mango surrounded with glutinous rice and covered with coconut – a sort of mango lamington – the perfect combination of refreshing fruit with a little weight from the rice),
4. Mango Pancakes – again mango (you can also get it in banana and durian flavours) surrounded by a light cream and then a thin heavily coloured pancake layer. The cream is not heavy and overly sweet making way for the original taste of the fruits.

So there you go some taste sensations…next time I intend to take you through some of the wonderful teas they have on offer here.

More soon
Steve