Seven Things You MUST Eat In Hong Kong

Rather than bore you senseless with loads of blog posts about Hong Kong I thought I'd lazily rehash some Instagram shots put together a list of must-eats. It's not an exhaustive list and nor is it ranked in any order; it just consists of some of my favourite foods that just so happen to capture the soul of Hong Kong.

SEAFOOD
Hong Kong was originally a fishing village, and while those days are long gone, the love of fish and seafood lives on in the many eateries specialising in the life aquatic. Dishes such as lobster in superior stock with e-fu noodles (上湯龍蝦伊麵); steamed scallops with garlic & glass noodles (粉絲蒜茸蒸扇貝); chilli salt mantis shrimp (椒鹽攋尿蝦) and typhoon shelter crab (避風塘炒蟹) amongst others are all classics.

Left: lobster noodles, Right: steamed scallops

To spot places that serve seafood, look for the characters: 海鮮酒家, which means seafood restaurant, or if your Chinese is ropey just look for giant fish tanks by the entrance. Hong Kong isn't just urban sprawl so why not take a trip to quieter seaside spots such as Sai Kung or Lamma Island to eat seafood? I can recommend Rainbow Seafood Restaurant (天虹海鮮酒家) on Lamma Island, where I took the photos of the lobster and scallops.

Left: roast goose, Right: braised goose

GOOSE
It breaks my heart that Chinese restaurants in London don't serve goose, which is why when I'm in Hong Kong I eat it like there's no tomorrow. My favourite is Cantonese roast goose (燒鵝), prepared in much the same way as roast duck is, with crispy skin and succulent meat that's served with plum sauce. Whisper it, but such is its richness I prefer my roast goose on a bed of rice rather than noodles. I also love the Teochew/Chiu Chow-style braised goose in master stock (鹵水鵝). I especially adore gnawing on goose wings cooked in this way known as lou sui in Cantonese.

Left: dace fishballs, Right: cuttlefish balls with noodles

BALLS
By balls I don't mean the testicles of various animals, I mean meatballs and fishballs. Think of balls on sticks, balls in soup noodles, balls in congee, balls as dim sum and so on. When in Hong Kong I like to sample the balls that aren't easily found back home. During this trip I was seduced by dace fishballs (鯪魚球) with their alluring citrusy scent. These fishballs can be deep-fried but I prefer mine boiled. Another favourite of mine is cuttlefish balls (墨魚丸) served in a bowl of soup noodles.

DIM SUM
There are excellent dim sum restaurants all around the world but there is something special about eating these tiny morsels of delight in their natural habitat of Hong Kong and southern China. Why? Well, for starters the dim sum masters are continually innovating. A good example of this is the flaky baked cha siu bao (酥皮焗叉燒包) as invented by Mak Kwai Pui, he of Tim Ho Wan (添好運) fame. These buns are always served freshly baked and they are good, damn good although I'm not sure if the rest of Tim Ho Wan's offerings are anything that special based on my visit there.

Left: baked cha siu bao, Right: lau sa bao

Other dim sum that are worth trying include lau sha bao (流沙包), a variant on the more common custard bun known as lai wong bao (奶黃包) - the difference being the former has a molten filling. And in general, I recommend trying dim sum that you haven't come across before. Some of these might be trendy new creations while others might be some old specialities from the dim sum master's ancestral hometown across the border in China. Regardless, you'll be in for a good time.

Left: bolo bao, Right: mango jelly drink

HONGKONGER POINTS
To properly explain the difference between Hong Kong culture and Chinese culture, I might need to do a dissertation. Even Cantonese culture, with which Hong Kong shares a common language, is not quite the same thing. In a food context the bakeries, cake shops and dessert shops found in Hong Kong are very much a local creation due in part to exposure to western ideas. That said, while there are western influences the food has taken on a local flavour. For example, creations such as the pineapple bun (bolo bao 菠蘿包) and egg tarts (daan taat 蛋撻) are very Hong Kong despite utilising western baking techniques. Other stuff that you should try in order to accrue Hongkonger points include a trip to a dessert shop such as Hui Lau Shan (許留山) to try various desserts and drinks like mango jelly drink.

Left: French toast, Right: ham and egg in crispy bun

'WESTERN' BREAKFAST
What do Hongkongers eat for breakfast? There are those that go for traditional Chinese fare such as dim sum or congee, but many people eat a 'western' breakfast in a cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) or an 'ice room' (冰室). These places serve a mix of Chinese and Hong Kong-style western food – sometimes on the same plate (macaroni with cha siu in soup, anyone?). Popular breakfast items include HK-style French toast (西多士) and various sandwiches containing ham, SPAM, egg and other things. To drink, coffee, HK-style milk tea, lemon tea as well as the half tea-half coffee drink called 'yin-yang' are all popular. It goes without saying that eating this kind of breakfast results in further Hongkonger points!

Left: sui gow noodles, Right: beef brisket noodles

NOODLES
Oh come on now, you didn't really think I was going to omit noodles from my list? These are the ultimate convenience food, as you are never more than five minutes away from a noodle shop in Hong Kong. My favourite are the various noodle dishes served in soup with stuff like wontons, fishballs and sui gow dumplings. My choice of noodle depends on the topping served, but I tend to plump for the thin fresh noodles commonly served with wontons and sui gow (see photo above left). Over the years I've been ticking off the famous noodle shops of Hong Kong and on this visit I finally got to visit Kau Kee (九記牛腩) famed for its beef brisket noodles. I went for the classic beef brisket noodles in superior stock (上湯牛腩麵) and I also had a taste of brisket and tendon noodles in curry broth – both were excellent!

Is It Me? Or Is Granger & Co Bloody Expensive?

After a stressful, and ultimately unsuccessful, Christmas shopping trip to High Street Kensington, I hopped on a bus to nearby Notting Hill for a late lunch at Granger & Co. This casual all-day eatery is the brainchild of Aussie chef, Bill Granger, who has an awesome (forgive my slip into Antipodean vernacular) reputation. Not only has he opened popular restaurants in his homeland and Japan, but he's also published acclaimed cookbooks, and appeared on the telly.

I had heard good things about the sweetcorn fritters (£11.90), and I promptly ordered this dish along with a side portion of avocado salsa (£2.40). Now I know I was in posh Notting Hill, but I thought that spending nearly £15 would get me more than two sweetcorn fritters, two small roast tomatoes, a single rasher of bacon, a few spinach leaves and a few chunks of avocado. Given the price and portion size, the food really had to sing. It didn't. Whilst the overall combination worked, the fritters were a tad underseasoned and a bit burnt at the edges. On the plus side, the roast tomatoes were packed full of flavour.

I was still starving so I ordered some lemon cake (£4), which was, in fairness, bloody delicious. So much so, I temporarily forgot that I was a victim of daylight robbery. In total, I spent £23.40 (including 12.5% service) on two courses and a coffee. If I'd ordered a beer or a glass of wine then the price would’ve easily crept up to around the £30 mark.

Now some of you are probably thinking that these are Notting Hill prices, and I should stop bloody moaning. I would be inclined to agree with this point of view if Granger & Co wasn't a casual, drop-in, no bookings eatery. But it is, and if I'm going to spend this kind of money then I'd much rather do so at a proper restaurant. Somewhere like Launceston Place (in nearby Kensington) that does a three-course set lunch for £23. Come to think of it, the set lunch at The Ledbury, Notting Hill's finest, is only £30.

And at risk of banging on about how much of a rip-off this place is, the menu is studded with overpriced dishes. Piss-taker in chief has to be the Full Aussie breakfast (£13.25), which costs more than the Full English (£12) at Hawksmoor. And based on my experiences at these two places, I'd much rather go to Hawksmoor. In my opinion, if you want to check out Aussie-style casual dining then you'd be much better off going to somewhere like Lantana, where the sweetcorn fritters cost less than a tenner, and prices are generally 20-25% cheaper than Granger & Co.

I know I've had a bit of a rant about this joint (and I've not even mentioned the bipolar inattentive/enthusiastic service 'til now) but I doubt very much if Bill Granger gives a toss. After all, Granger & Co was pretty busy at 3pm on a Tuesday. However, just because there are some people willing to pay an arm and leg to eat there doesn't mean I have to.



Granger & Co, 175 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2SB (Tel: 020-7229-9111)
Nearest stations: Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate, Westbourne Park

The Golden Noodle Awards 2010-11

Eat Noodles Love Noodles is two today! And to celebrate, it's hosting the awards ceremony that nobody is talking about: The Golden Noodle Awards.

The Golden Noodle – awarded to the best noodles in the world

Winner: No.1 Special Noodles (特製らー麺) by Kudan Ikaruga (九段 斑鳩)

Well OK, not necessarily the best noodles in the world, but the best I've tasted. I've decided to go global this year to encompass the amazing noodles that I've come across on my travels.

I mean it would be criminal to exclude places like Kuala Lumpur's Soo Kee where I had shan har mein, a dish of giant river prawns atop crispy noodles. And noodle joints like Mak's Noodle and Tsim Chai Kee in Hong Kong, where you can pick up a bowl of wonton noodles for less than the equivalent of £2. But as good as these places are, they fall just outside the medal positions.

Taking the bronze medal is the very posh Steamed Fresh Flower Crab with Aged Shaoxing Wine, Fragrant Chicken Oil & Flat Rice Noodles at The Chairman. This Hong Kong restaurant's signature dish has a rich Shaoxing wine based sauce that is soaked up by some very special rice noodles (chenchun fun 陳村粉). By the way, the flower crab was pretty tasty too!

We stay in Hong Kong for the silver medallist, the prawn roe noodles w/cuttlefish balls and shui jiao dumplings at Lau Sum Kee. These noodles are made the traditional way with a bamboo log and come with a prawn roe topping that is ever so addictive. In any other year, this dish would've been a certain winner.

As much as I enjoyed the noodles from Hong Kong, they're eclipsed by Tokyo's finest: No.1 Special Noodles (特製らー麺) from Kudan Ikaruga (九段 斑鳩). What's not to love about this dish? Springy ramen noodles, chashu pork, menma, nori and a perfectly boiled egg were all superb but what really made these noodles special was the amazing broth – a blend of tonkotsu (pork bone) and gyoku (fish).

The Golden Restaurant – awarded to the best London restaurant new to me

Winner: Launceston Place

I'm not what you call a dedicated follower of fashion, which is why the likes of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Pollen Street Social and Spuntino are absent from the shortlist. Judging by my past track record, I might end up checking these places out sometime in 2013, assuming they're still around then.

What I have been doing is sampling dim sum in unlikely corners of London. It'd be fair to say that Teddington, Earl's Court and Mayfair aren't exactly the kind of places that you'd expect to find dumplings of a higher order. But find them I did at Imperial China, Dragon Palace and Princess Garden of Mayfair respectively. Of this trio, the latter is a cut above and takes the bronze.

The trend for regional Chinese cuisine in London shows no sign of abating. In addition to the increasingly familiar flavours of Sichuan, I've checked out London restaurants specialising in the food of Beijing, Fuzhou, Hunan, and Shanghai. Of these I'm a big fan of New Aroma, whose Fuzhou offerings came close to getting a medal. However, it's the Hunan menu at Soho's Ba Shan, which deservedly picks up the silver medal in this category.

Years after every single other London blogger, I finally got round to visiting Launceston Place. To me, this classy yet understated establishment epitomises the best of British with dishes like duck egg on toast with Somerset truffle (as pictured). Quite how this superior restaurant hasn't got a Michelin star is beyond me. But you know what? Loads of places can get a Michelin star but there's only one winner of The Golden Restaurant. Take a bow, Tristan Welch!

The Golden Dish – awarded to my favourite (non-noodle) dish of the year

Winner: Fish-skin dumplings (魚皮餃) by 花好悦园酒家

To be eligible for this award, the dish has to be one that I've eaten for the first time. So for example, the typhoon shelter crab from Hong Kong's Under Bridge Spicy Crab and the chilli crab from Singapore's No Signboard Seafood are both ineligible, as I first sampled these dishes years ago.

However, one crab dish that does qualify is fried crab with sambal belachan. Now one might think that this is a dish indigenous to Malaysia, but in fact it was created in Hendon at a Malaysian Chinese restaurant by the name of Gourmet Garden. Belachan, a fermented shrimp paste, is an acquired taste but I defy anyone not to be knocked out by the fiery shrimpy flavours that makes this dish a worthy bronze medallist.

I visited Japan for the first time this year and I ate like a king. Rather surprisingly, one of my favourite dishes was kara-age aka Japanese fried chicken served with mayo and a squeeze of lime. Now I've eaten kara-age before, but to all intents and purposes, the fried chicken at Tokyo's Charari Charari might as well have been a different dish. I know I'm bending my rules, but they're my rules to be bent, so it's silver for the kara-age.

Guangzhou's 花好悦园酒家 is, in my humble opinion, one of the best restaurants that I've ever been to. Any number of dishes that I sampled there would've been a worthy winner of this award, but for the fact that I've eaten many of them before. However, there is one dish that I fell in love with: fish-skin dumplings (魚皮餃), made with a fish-skin wrapper and filled with pounded fish meat. Served in a broth with vegetables, this dish encapsulates the soul of Cantonese cuisine.

The Red Card – awarded to who or what I want to send off the field of food

Winner: 'Laksa' by The Providores & Tapa Room

I always try to be positive on my blog, but every now and then I get the hump. In particular, I got angry at Marks & Spencer's third-rate attempt at dim sum. And San Pellegrino's World's Best 50 Restaurants sent me apoplectic with rage - whilst there are some excellent restaurants on there, much of it reads like a list of where Russian oligarchs like to hang out with their arm candy.

However, the winner of The Red Card award, by a country mile, is the 'laksa' served at The Providores & Tapa Room. Or to give it its full name: smoked coconut, tamarind and liquorice laksa with a chicken lime leaf dumpling, green tea noodles, crispy shallots and coriander.

It's this kind of crap that gives fusion a bad name. Notwithstanding the incompatibility of subtle green tea noodles with a flavoursome aromatic broth, it was also poorly executed – the noodles were overcooked and the dumpling virtually had no filling.

Perhaps if I was richer and had the appetite of a quail then I wouldn't have been so pissed off at the high price tag and miniscule portion size. But for me, the laksa from The Providores & Tapa Room should be sent-off now!

Song of the Year – awarded to my favourite song of the last year

Winner: Blackout by Anna Calvi

I'll just let the music do the talking. Suffice to say, if there were any justice in the world then Anna Calvi would be a global superstar.

If you want to check out last year's Golden Noodle Awards then please click here.

Lunch @ The Providores and Tapa Room

Is this the most pretentious bowl of noodles in London? Well if it isn't then it's almost certainly the one with the longest name: Smoked coconut, tamarind and liquorice laksa with a chicken lime leaf dumpling, green tea noodles, crispy shallots and coriander (£9.30).

Is this a laksa?

Full disclosure. The very notion of a fusion restaurant in chi-chi Marylebone High St appropriating the term, laksa, to describe a bowl of noodles, costing nearly a tenner, offends me on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. That said, there was something about this dish that intrigued me and I just knew I had to give it a try.

First impressions weren't good. I wasn't expecting a large bowl of noodles but nor did I quite anticipate being served a kid's meal from Lilliput. On the plus side, the broth was different class with the liquorice adding another dimension. But was it a laksa? I'll leave that question to my Malaysian friends to debate further, but in my eyes it wasn't.

World's smallest dumpling

Sadly the rest of the dish was a bit of a letdown, the green tea noodles were overcooked and any subtle tea flavour that they might have had was lost in the aromatic flavoursome broth. The chicken lime leaf dumpling (singular) was nothing short of a joke. The chicken wasn't so much minced but ground to an almost powdery consistency. And could they have made it any smaller?

Joining me for lunch was El Greco and I asked him to see if he could spot anything vaguely Greek on the menu that he might feel was an affront to him or his forebears. He struggled but there was some feta in the sweet potato, feta, spinach, and herb tortilla with yoghurt, basil pesto dressing, pine nuts and greens (£8.80). This was a finely balanced dish that was better suited to summer rather than winter but it was good quality nonetheless. El Greco just wished there was more of it.

At least they were generous with the salad leaves

Has my hand grown?

We also shared a glazed baked duck char siu bun with chilli jam (£6.20). The name of this dish is confusing, if not potentially misleading. I asked the waiter if the bun contained pork, as char siu is taken to mean honey-roasted pork in Chinese. He checked. It didn't. The bun contained just duck. I tell you, this lax use of Chinese food terminology is something that really gets on my tits. To be fair though, the management took on board my constructive criticism of their misuse of the Chinese language with good grace.

Duck but no char siu!

Ignoring char siu-gate, the bun was the best dish that we sampled. It was freshly baked and filled with juicy roast duck but yet again, it was a complete rip-off. Given how small the bun was, it wouldn't have been unreasonable to be served three, in the style of dim sum, rather than one for £6.20. The only other (minor) complaint was that the chilli jam was slightly overpowering. In my opinion, plum sauce would've been a better accompaniment.

The Details
The Providores and Tapa Room is one of London's most celebrated restaurants and needs little introduction. It consists of two separate dining rooms, the first floor Providores restaurant and the ground floor Tapa Room. We dined at the latter, which being a more casual café-style operation is the cheaper of the two.

The owner, Peter Gordon is a famous Kiwi celeb chef and a champion of fusion cuisine. These influences can be seen throughout the menu, which is quite possibly the most irritating menu ever. For God's sake, is there really any need to list all the chuffing ingredients in each and every dish?

The bill came to £27.34 including 12.5% service – this was just for the food, as we drank tap water. Even allowing for its Marylebone High St location, this was bloody expensive for what it was.

The Verdict
Restaurants like The Providores and Tapa Room aren't my natural habitat. However, it wasn't the fusion cuisine that I disliked – our food was by and large fine – it was the relationship between portion size and price.

We could've easily eaten double the amount of what we ordered or to put it another way, spend nearly £30 each (without drinks) on a quick workday lunch. For that kind of price, there are many other places that I'd rather visit.

But hey, what do I know? Despite the exorbitant prices, this is a very popular restaurant and in the 45 minutes or so that we were there, it was never less than busy. No mean feat for a Tuesday lunchtime.



The Providores and Tapa Room, 109 Marylebone High St, London W1U 4RX
(Tel 020-7935-6175) Nearest Tube: Baker St