Eat Drink Hong Kong Part 1

Sorry for the lack of update for the pass few days as Citygal took a break to Hong Kong and China with her family. Everyone knows that Hong Kong is a gourmet paradise renowned for its exotic fusion of Eastern and Western flavours along with a wide variety of culinary delights.

Street Food

When it comes to hawker food, theres's a wide variety to be chosen from. Hygenic is not a problem as the high levels of heat required for wok cooking ensures that any bacteria are killed.Most of these stalls do not provide seating but some do. With those few which provide seating, very often you will also find noodles available.

We tried the authenthic HK stinky tofu which is fermented tofu deep-fried. Trust me, the smell is horrendous but it tastes good! Crispy outside and soft inside without the smell lingers in your mouth.

Curry fishball is something common in Malaysia but HK's version is slightly different. The fishball is left boiling with the curry broth for hours to absorb all the goodness of the broth. These are too spicy for my tastebuds but its exciting to have the spicy fishball bouncing in your mouth.

You need a lot of courage for these - deep fried pig's intestines and stew cow's tripe. It may not be mouth watering to you but it's part of HK's street food that you can't miss out! A special mentioned to the gristle balls, shredded gingers are added into the meat with gristle to be chop or minced nicely before it was form into ball shape.

Char Chan Teng

Char chan teng has created a coffee culture in Hong Kong when people here equated that to yin yang (coffee and tea mixed together) with nai jeung do (toast with condensed milk and peanut butter) or gong jai meen (instant noodles). They serves an extensive range of food in set (A chan B chan C chan) or ala-carte.

The portions are too big for us, like A chan comes with a toast with egg and ham, instant noodles with satay pork, a cream of mushroom and a Yin Yong. Gosh, we have to share that among ourselves but some Hongkies are enjoying their food plates by plates.

Shanghai Food

Shanghai food is not popularised around the world. I can spot la mien and xiao long bao specialty shop everywhere around HK. Xiao Long Bao is one of my favourite dish. Unlike the buns in northern China, these buns are very small and easy to swallow. The buns are usually steamed in containers made of banboo. The skin of the buns are very thin and the bun is very juicy.

Frankly speaking, I still prefer la miens and xiao long bao from crystal jade. Wonder why these shops are crowded all the time?

Pig Out Day @ Restoran Meaty House Taipan Triangle

Sorry to my Muslim readers as the following post will be completely non halal. The Meaty House as its name suggests, their menu made out of pork dishes mostly, from Western like German knuckle to Oriental's bak- kut-teh, they have it all.

The chain of restaurant is established by couple Willy and Nina Wong. Quality is ensured with ISO 9001 as they also own their own pig rearing business in Malacca. Their business ranges from rearing and meat processing to wholesale and retailing.

Their house specialty - German pork knuckle which the manager Simon claimed it as the best in town and texas baby ribs (it seems like ribs are getting a lot of attention now with some specialty place like Checkers (Pasankia), Riblees (Pasan Kia), The Rib Shop and the new opening of Tony Roma's at sunway pyramid)

You can get your daily dose of oink oink meat here. They have assorted of sausages, bacons, pork ribs and pork collar.

Simon kept on persuading us to try the Pork Knuckles, but we are not brave enough at the moment. Our greatest phobia is something gelatinous and oily, hmmmm just like pork knuckles or fat belly. (ewww you get the picture?)

Ice Lemon Tea - The colour looks gross because they blended the whole lemon, flesh and skin all into the blender. It's kinda refreshing tough, good to wash away all the fats going in later.

Not an ordinary mushroom soup - It tastes porky which is very much to our liking! Simon told us that they mixed the cream of mushroom into a clear pork rib broth. I'd never tasted something like that before, at least its a new taste for me.

Honey roasted pork collar with coleslaw, pickled carrots and pineapples. The side dish are too sourish that we left it aside.

Look at the pinkish porky! The fats and lean meat are distributed evenly resulting in a chewy and delicate texture. It has a sweet and rich flavour and unbelievable juiciness. Something that is highly recommended by Kgboy.

Vienna foot long sausages with bacons - Nothing to shout about, at least the sauce is nice and goes well with the sausage and bacons.

Meaty House is slightly on a cheaper side, the pork knuckle costs less than rm 30 and their weekday set menu ranges from rm 15 to rm 20 inclusive of a choice of barley or ice lemon tea, cream of mushroom, 3 side dishes and the main course.

37, Jalan USJ 10/1D, Taipan Triangle, Subang UEP, Selangor
03-5633 5634
Open from noon to 3pm and 6pm to 10pm
Non Halal

The making of Pai Tee (Top Hats)

Pai Tee, a Nyonya delicacy is a popular treat in my family. The children will usually bugged my mum for making it. It requires a lot of patience because the making of the cases is tedious and so mum will make it a special treat on certain occasions such as the annual CHINs' gathering.

First, whisk the batter with hand until it becomes smooth. Then the iron mould is heated in oil, then dipped carefully in batter and then back into the oil again.

As the batter gets cooked the edges of the batter will flaired out. Carefully use a spoon to slide the cases out of the mold. Fried it for a few seconds until it turned golden brown. The cases will look like a blossoming flowers, wonderful!

Not to forget the Jeu Hu Char with lots of dry cuttlefish slices for flavouring! Omit sugar if possible as the bangkuang will give the dish a natural hint of sweetness.

We spent the whole morning helping mum with the whisking and frying to get a large batch like this! It's all about your experience and be ready to learn from mistakes. Some cases cracked and some were haywirely out of shape. Eventually we become familiar with the task as time passed, all the cases turned out to be perfect and none was abandoned.

Fill the ultra-thin crispy top hats with one scoopful of Jeu Hu Char, put one in your mouth and whole ensemble disintegrates, filling your mouth with intense sweet flavours. The Pai Tee was heavenly!

P/s: My mum is a spontaneous cook without recipes and I couldn't seems to search for any online recipes, refer to Rasa Malaysia's site for some excellent pictures and simple to follow recipes on Pai Tee.

Hari Raya Open House

We managed to tailed up with some feeling of Raya after the semester break when Kampungboy's coursemate Shaiful warmheartedly invited us to his place for lunch. His family welcomed us with open arms and we greeted them while staring at the table full of food.

Shaiful's mum took up the whole morning to prepare us dishes such as Ikan bakar (Grilled fish wrapped in banana leaf), Ayam goreng kunyit (Tumeric fried chicken), Sayur campur (Mixed vege), Gulai Udang (Curry prawn), Gulai Ikan (Curry fish with lady's fingers), Daging rendang (Rendang beef) and Mee Sup.

We nibbled on the delicious home made raya cookies while we sit and stay, laughing and talking among ourselves.

Thanks to Shaiful and family for the lunch! It's a whole new experience for Citygal as she has never been to an open house before (shame on you :p). Kampungboy who was borned and grew up in Kuala Terengganu becomes the chatterbox of the day with his almost perfect Bahasa Melayu.

A taste of Ipoh Old Town

In the 80s the Kinta Valley tin rush brought an influx of Chinese immigrants to Ipoh. Many of them made money and instill their root here. They have created the best preserved Chinatown which eventually become our Ipoh Old Town Kao Kai Cheong.

Old Town is always a pride of Ipoh people with the origination of White Coffee, curry noodles who made their name to foreign land, hor hee that attracts patrons from other states scrumptious variety of food.

How to have a taste of Ipoh Old Town in one single day? Yeah there isn't any typos, its one single day! Actually we did it in two days because we tried some dim sums in new town as well.

So even if you are stopping by Ipoh for a short moment, you can simply try a bit of everything accompanied by a big gang of epicurians.

Let's get our journey started!

Yik Sang Beef Noodles

Yik Sang is a family runned business who has been existing for 30 years. They are extremely particular on the making of noodles, beef slices, minced beef, gristle balls (the cartilage present in meat), beef balls, and thus it was all hand made.

We called the noodles hakka mee as it was done in hakka style with lots of minced meat toppings. Best to be served with the pickled garlic and chilli sauce. The clear thick soup full of slices of scallion and tripes is KGboy's favourite! I can smell of herbs and spices from having a few sips of it. A special mentioned to the gristle balls, shredded gingers are added into the meat with gristle to be chop or minced nicely before it was form into ball shape.

Can you spot Ang Lee the Oscar winning director in the picture? In fact, old town nostalgic and calming shop lots has become a location for his latest movie "Lust, Caution" stars Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung, Chinese-American pop star Wang Lee-Hom and mainland newcomer Tang Wei. It's just 3 lots away from Yik Sang, remember to capture some pictures and smell the traces of Lee Hom the next time you were there!

Sin Yean Lee - Fried Kway Teow

Do you know what the fried way teow here was crowned with the name of Golden Kway Teow by Ipoh folks? It's just a little joke made on this pricey (RM 3) yet small portion Kway Teow, I have to order quite a few plates to satisfy the pangs.. In fact, they never keep up to the standard ever since it switches owner, it tastes bland and its a tad too oily. So now you can cut this off from your list of "Ipoh Good Food".

Kong Heng - Pork Satay

This oldest Kopi Tiam is forecer so popular with the locals and tourists alike. Every time we visit this eatery, it's a tussle for tables and the hawkers will rushed to your tables and laden you with choices, its a bit irritating for me but yet its their culture.

The main dishes that customers go for here is the pork satay. The old man who runs this stall has a habit of thrusting plates of satay at customers. Just eat as many sticks of satay as you can o want to and the remaining sticks of satay won't be accounted for. I personally recommend the innards satay even if you used to be screaming at the sights of innards! Trust me take a bite and it will be a totally different experience.

The caramel custard is not as nice as last time as they use some manufactured version and omit the yummy caramel.

House of Mirrors (Thean Chun) - Caramel Custard

There's still some little space for some desserts right? Step your feet into thean chun which is just beside kong heng for some ultra smooth caramel custard. It was produced in a small amount so you just need some luck to have a taste of these custards. The lady told me that they steamed the beaten eggs in slow fire in order to get the smooth texture while the caramels are plain brown sugar cooked in slow fire in a large wok.

The Old Town Eating Clans

Thanks peeps for the gastronomical feast, I felt so lucky that I went along to have a nibbles.

Places worth visiting in Ipoh Old Town
1. Nam Heong (White coffee bitter version and toast)
2. Sun Yuen Loong (White coffee sour version and kueh)
3. Yik Sang (beef noodles)
4. Thean Chun (caramel custard)
5. Kwong Heng (Pork satay and hor hee)
6. Nam Chao (curry mee)