A Taste of Hong Kong

Hong Kong (HK) is a city that needs no introduction.  It reminds everyone of a vibrant island city with bustling traffic and people.  When you see pictures of HK you see businesses with their neon lights protruding into the middle of the street.  You sense excitement and anticipation when you land at the airport.  Its economy is a model of what a laissez-faire system should be.

The last time I was in HK was in May 2014:  Hong Kong - a local neighborhood

I was on my way to an exciting trip in China that included a cruise on the Yangtze River, holding a panda in Chengdu, riding a camel on the Silk Road, seeing the Terra Cotta soldiers in Xian and cruising the Li river and seeing karst formations in Guilin.  You can see these postings in the May and June 2014 section of this blog.

But this trip is different.  A couple of high-school friends and I decided to come to HK just to enjoy the local delicacies.  Among Chinese cuisine, probably the most creative are those from the Pearl River delta in southern China.  In HK the predominant Chinese cuisine is Cantonese.  Americans may be familiar with Cantonese-style restaurants that were started by early Chinese immigrants.  These were popular until the 90s' when more immigrants came from other parts of China and opened Sichuan, Mongolian, and other northern Chinese-type restaurants.

Jimmy and Eric flew in from Singapore and I flew in from Taiwan.  We met at the new Hong Kong International Airport on Chek Lap Kok Island.  This new airport replaced the old terrifying Kai Tak Airport in 1998, a year after the British returned HK to Communist China.  We took a taxi to the Stanford Hillview Hotel in Kowloon.  It costs about HK$300 or about US$38.  It's easy to get from the airport to either HK Island or Kowloon.  You can take a taxi or an Airport Express train to key stops, then take buses or taxies to the hotels.  It's wise to buy an Octopus card, which is used mainly for taking public transportation, but can be used at restaurants and other establishments as well.

Our taxi-driver was generous in sharing information about HK, especially where to shop and eat.  Since all three of us are conversant in Cantonese, it was an easy conversation.  Our hotel is in the Tsim Sha Tsui area in Kowloon.  This is a very popular area, especially the very touristy Nathan Road.  Fortunately, we are a couple of blocks away from Nathan Road, in a relatively quiet hillside neighborhood.

Based on tips from the taxi-driver our first stop was at a local market to buy Chinese sausage and salted fish.  You may wonder, what's the big deal with these two food items?  For those unfamiliar, Chinese have been preserving food for generations when there was no refrigeration.  One of the ways to preserve food is to salt and then dry them.  To some the flavor is heavenly when you cook them.  To others it stinks like rotten food.

Stall selling dry preserved food

Among the preserved food is scallops (in the middle) and sausage on the top-right

Our first tourist stop was Victoria Peak, the highest mountain on Hong Kong Island.  From here you can see HK Central (downtown), Victoria Harbor and Lamma Island.  It has the most expensive real estate in all of HK and sometimes the world as well.  Tourists flock to the Peak because of its views.  The most popular way to get to the top is taking the funicular.  However, the line is often very long, with the wait sometimes over 2 hours.  To get around that, we booked a "tour" through a company called Klook (klook.com), which gave us fast access to the tram.  It is worth a small service charge so that we don't have to wait in line for too long.

View of Central HK and Kowloon from Victoria Peak at dusk

Then it was a late night supper at a restaurant in Kowloon that specializes in clay pot rice.  Cooking rice and other ingredients in a clay pot is a specialty in Chinese cooking.  The pot retains the flavor of the rice and the ingredients, typically some kind of meat or sausage or salted fish.  The food is not meant for those who are not used to the pungent flavor of some of these ingredients.

Menu for Clay Pot Rice restaurant

Clay Pot Rice with Chinese sausage

A restaurant selling dessert made solely from soy beans

Our intended destination the second morning was Lantau Island.  Unfortunately, the cable car to the island was not working.  We switched plans and went to Cheung Chau Island, where the main occupation is fishing.  We took an hour ferry from the ferry terminal in Central Hong Kong.  It was a nice pleasant ride through Hong Kong's busy waterways.

Ferry Terminal in Central HK

Idle fishing boats

Then it's back to the central district, commonly called just Central.  It's the central business district with all the office skyscrapers on the northern shore of the island.  You can see the buildings in the picture above taken from Victoria Peak.  Behind all these skyscrapers are old businesses that have been around since the beginning of HK.  You find narrow streets and alleys, some needing escalators to get up from point A to B.  In the area called Sheung Wan are old shops that have been around for as long as a hundred years.  In this bustling area you also find young professionals from all corners of the world working in this exciting city.

One of the narrow streets

A food stall in the Central district

Our dinner plan that night is a popular upscale restaurant known for its roast goose.

Roast goose on display

Dim Sum is arguably the most popular Cantonese comfort food.  The bite-size food come in small plates, served by waiters and waitresses pushing carts around the restaurant.  If you see a dish that you like, you stop the cart and pick whatever you want.  The waiter/waitress will mark down on an order sheet the size of the dish that you took.  Each size corresponds to a certain price.  The food is mostly steamed but some dishes are fried or stir-fried.  Dim sum follows the tradition of "yum-cha," which literally means drink tea but is an occasion for friends or family to have tea together.  It is a wonderful way to socialize with everyone at the table (usually round) and enjoying some delicious food at the same time.  We went to Lin Heung Tea House on Wellington Street.  It was started in 1889 in Guangzhou, China and opened its HK branches in the 1920s'.  As expected it was very popular and crowded.  We arrived there around 9 am and most of the popular dishes were already sold out.

Dim sum dishes, including steam buns, stick rice, sponge cake, etc

Customers fighting over the food

A couple of waitresses pushing their carts

Li Heung Tea House on Wellington Street

That afternoon we went to a restaurant in the Wan Chai area that specializes in snake soup.

Snake soup

In the evening it was a feast of a different kind:  chili crab in the touristy Temple Street.  This is an area where a lot of of tourists come to for the night market.  Besides selling souvenirs and knick-knacks in an open-air market there are many well-known restaurants in the area.  This chili crab restaurant is so popular that it has 3 separate dining rooms across the street from each other.  However, our unbiased opinion is that the Singapore chili crab is even better.

On the morning of our departure (4th day) we made a last run for a traditional Cantonese breakfast dish:  congee.  It comes with choices of many ingredients:  pork, preserved eggs, fish, etc.  It also has other side dishes like fried noodles, taro cake, soft rice cakes, fried crullers, etc.

Congee and other side dishes

Congee choices

Fried crullers or Yau Char Kwai (in Cantonese)

Needless to say we were stuffed when we left HK.  But we were joyous to have tried all these popular HK dishes.  Thanks to our friend Eric who spent 6 months planning this gourmet itinerary.  I am still trying to lose the 4 to 5 pounds that I gained on this trip to Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong.