There’s so much I want to say about our trip to Hong Kong. But given that you don’t actually really want to read any of it, and that I don’t believe in sequels and three-quels, I’m just gonna summarise a whole bunch of stuff, show you some photos and be done with it.
Granted, this is still going to be one mammoth post and here goes…
How it went down in Hong Kong!
Hui Lau Shan
Let’s start with hands down my very most favourite thing about Hong Kong: Hui Lau Shan (links to the US site because the HK site is in Chinese).
Hui Lau Shan is a drinks/dessert joint that uses a variety of fresh fruits and jelly/sago accompaniments to make the most toe-curlingly delicious refreshments ever. And you know how I don’t ever exaggerate.
Their menu is expansive to say the least, with a myriad of combinations. My favourite? Aloe jelly with fresh mango, topped with coconut milk. At HKD$18 (circa £1.50) a pop, I had one of these babies every. single. day.
OMGDELICIOUS.
Durian desserts and other fantabulous things!
In between, or rather, on either side of my daily Hui Lau Shan, I also managed to consume a ghastly amount of durian, followed by an inhuman amount of breath mints because otherwise no kisses for me.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with durian aka The King of Fruits, check out wiki, and scroll down to the section on flavour and odour. Despite it smelling like a sweaty sock, I love durian. More than you can imagine. And a lack of it in London left me panting for more every single day in HK.
Yes, poor Panu.
One of the first places we hit up for durian was Lucky Dessert, right by Time Square. I actually didn’t even know the place was there but I shit you not, we were walking along the street and like a magic piper, I was drawn in by the scent (not stench) of durian.
The “durian soup” – served in a bowl with pomelo and chunks of durian flesh was ridiculously good. My cousins tried the “durian shaved ice”, a new dessert trend taking HK by storm (but didn’t taste nearly as potent as my soup) and Panu very safely had the mango pancakes.
I thought I was satisfied with the durian soup and had initially planned to return day after day for my fix, but my friend Karen pointed out that there existed a more magical durian dessert in the land of HK, one which can be found at Tim Yee Yee (translated as Sweet Aunty) in Tin Hau.
This, my friends, requires that I use expletives. It is FUCKING AMAZING.
The “Ultimate Durian Dessert” ~ durian sorbet, durian ice cream, durian wafer, dried durian, all topped with chunks of fresh durian. I mean really, shoot me now and send me to durian heaven.
Tim Yee Yee also has an extensive list of desserts and this time we did come back for more the very next day where I tackled the “durian soup” which also contained masses of durian flesh.
Panu and my cousins opted for safer options including matcha sago with black sesame ice cream, and banana with tofu and black pearls.
Yum.
Last but not least of my favourite dessert haunts in HK is Honeymoon Dessert in the World Trade Centre. Again, durian features highly on the menu but egads! This time I opted for a grass jelly concoction.
Honeymoon Dessert is a little more polished than Tim Yee Yee but the pricing is still cheap as chips. Aside from my grass jelly with vanilla and matcha ice cream, we also had mango pancakes, mango mochi and some weird seed-things with vanilla soup and matcha ice cream.
Did I eat anything savoury?
Why yes, yes I did.
I discovered the Tsui Wah chain during my first visit to Hong Kong in 2002. My cousin Jane and I would go out partying in Lan Kwai Fong til the wee hours of the morning and at some point, we’d get hungry. Tsui Wah is open 24 hours a day and hola, I’m in love.
Tsui Wah is a remarkable food creating machine. They serve all sorts of weird and wonderful things from foot long hot dogs to wonton mien and even buns covered in condensed milk (yes, you can serve that as a dish in HK).
One of my favourite things from Tsui Wah (and sorry, I will move onto savouries soon, I promise) is the artery clogging “HK style French toast”.
A thick slice of toast, buttered and fried, covered in condensed milk with a lump of butter and further drenched in maple syrup. HOLYMOTHEROFGOD, right? I could have sworn though, that the first time I had this it was two slices of bread with peanut butter in between, but who knows, maybe people actually had heart attacks from those and they had to tone it down…
Anyway, Tsui Wah offers an awesome selection of local food too. We had satay beef with instant noodles for breakfast, and other yummies like wonton mien, fish ball noodles, Hainan chicken rice and crispy noodles.
And look, there’s a photo of Panu eating because see, I’m not the only piggy in this relationship
Any other savouries?
Yes! On Sunday night, I met up with my friend Karen who took us out to dinner in Wan Chai. She wanted to take us somewhere local, so we had dinner at Kam Dau Kee Seafood Restaurant, one of those hidden floors above the street and you really wouldn’t know it was there unless you knew it was there.
It was sorta funny, we were trying to order a bunch of odd stuff but when the waitress saw Panu she was like “um, I’m not sure if he would like it” insinuating that y’know he’s white and all that. I was like dude, he goes out with me. He eats everything.
And so we ordered everything.
We had soya chicken, century egg with pickled ginger, fried lotus roots, pomelo peel (I know, weird), salt and pepper prawns, and scallop with vegetables. I don’t really know what was so weird about the dishes – Panu had had century eggs before and well, the pomelo peel thing was weird to all of us, but anyhoos, it was all delicious.
Aside from this dinner, every other night we were hosted by my aunty and taken to crazy amazing banquets. We ate at some of the best Chinese restaurants in town, including Maxim’s Palace and ate some awesome dishes like this King Crab noodles:
Is that it?
Of course not! Did you forget I was in Hong Kong for a wedding? A wedding which included a fourteen course banquet?? It was a fantastic night. My cousin managed to convince a fabulous girl to marry him and we celebrated by eating like Kings. No complaints.
Now is that it?
Yes. So this is about as summary as a summary is going to get. Sorry it’s still mammothly long! I’ve left out heaps of stuff but before I sign off, just a few notables!
When in Hong Kong, eat an egg tart (or several):
And don’t forget to stock up on yummy Asian snacks!
Oh and when you’re at the airport, hit up Crystal Jade for a serve of xiao long bao. Lovingly created on the spot, these are some of the best I’ve ever had!
Ok! If you’re still with me, thank you for your patience. I’ve made myself all hungry now so I better go feed me.
I {heart} HK!
ps. if you want to check out more HK pics, click here.
pps. and for more wedding pics, click here.