Suggestions: Hong Kong

I’m heading to Hong Kong in April (also, Sydney for the search nerdery of SMX, KL for a stopover and Cambodia to placate Phnomenon fans).

I don’t even know where to start in HK apart from what I trawl from Diana Kuan’s Appetite for China.

Any suggestions?

15 comments

  2. I don’t have any HK tips I’m afraid, but you should definitely ask Jackie from the blog Eating With Jack, she’s the HK food authority!

  3. i would say mango sago, peking duck, under bridge spicy crab, thick toast, and then more mango sago. oh, and dim sum obvs.

  4. Definately seafood in Sai Kung, roast goose somewhere, and Maxim’s at lunch. The latter is by no means HK’s best dim sum, but it is absolutely Hong Kong, and Hongkies (it’s OK, they often call themselves that) in microcosm. And the coffee-chocolate layered jellies are nice.

  6. I was in Honkers in the middle of last year.
    I haven’t managed to post as many dining adventures as I’d like but dined out at some fantatsic key places.
    If I was in HK again, I definitely would revisit Atelier de Joel Robuchon, sit at the bar overlooking the kitchen and order whatever looks good as it goes past, but make sure you don’t miss the Robuchon mash, the mini burgers with foie gras and the most amazing cheese trolley outside of Paris (BTW I’ve dined at the original Paris Atelier as well and I think this one might be better!)
    I also loved Hutong for fancy Sichuan food. Have a drink upstairs at Aqua Bar first and watch the light show before down to dinner on the lower level. The soft shelled crab in dried chilis made my brain melt from heat and the pigeoon two ways was superb – don’t forget to eat the brains!
    I had roast goose at Yung Kee (see my blog for write up) but the century egg was the highlight.
    As for Yum Cha, my favourite of the three places I visited was City Hall Maxim’s Palace, trolleys and the whole sheebang but not too OTT fancy as the others where that I dined at, I really do like to pour my own chinese tea!
    Also I’d advise to say in Kowloon as I spent most of my time traveling there from the Langham where we stayed, though the area where the Langham is is more local focused the hot dining was all in Kowloon area.
    And lastly, sorry Austin but I hated Macau apart from the cheap flights to Vietnam and the portuguese custard tarts, it was lacking any food culture -or any other type of culture- that I could find. I ate bar nuts for dinner, just couldn’t decide between bad overpriced or really bad overpriced.
    Love to hear how you go, make sure you do a better job of the write up than me!
    Jack

  8. Thanks all. I’m not going on assignment (although will probably write a bit about it all for SBS). I forgot about Cha Xiu Bao.

    I’m not going to make it to Thailand – I picked up some cheap flights through KL

    Sorry I didn’t make it to the blogger meet at the Commoner. Hope all went well

  9. My Honkie family tell me that the best places to eat can change on a weekly basis – though there is a restaurant in Shek O that makes fantastic roast goose, snow crab, and melt in the mouth fresh tofu served in wooden pails, which seems to be a regular haunt of my uncle Wesley.

    My advice, should you wish to avoid the trendy European names and expat Aussie franchises like those attended to by Greg Malouf, Teague Ezard and Jeff Lindsay in order to eat the real food of Hong Kong, would be to talk to Wokipedia Josh Tse (hope the link works). Bourdain and many others have done so, to their great advantage.

  10. BTW – Jack it’s a pity that you didn’t see the true Macau. If you look beyond the in-your-face western oriented places and mainland Chinese targeted vulgarities, there are gems to be found. Phil, if you have the time, please check it out.

    I have great memories of Macau. My grandfather’s company used to make Mui Gwei Lo (rose petal liquor) over there and my great aunt is the local ‘Rupert Murdoch’. The family has shown me a magnificent blend of Portuguese, African and Chinese food on offer over the years. There is a tiny chinese restauarant near the Lisboa where as a child I became hooked on their unique fried rice and Portuguese chicken curry, better than any in HK.

    For rustic Portuguese food, Fernando’s is an institution by the beach, or have bacalhao at Os Gatos, try Feijoada at A Lorcha or crab at Galo, but you need only to stagger beyond the casinos and historic tourist walk to find places such as these. If you get a chance go and watch some Pelota (Jai Alai Palace Stadium).

    When in KL – you must go to Jalan Alor for street food and at night there is small hawker market in a car park on Jalan Imbi which does amazing Malaysian BBQ chicken. There’s even better stuff to be had in the burbs of KL, but it’s virtually impossible to find bad street food in Malaysia.

  11. I’m still up for Macau, regardless of who tells me it is crap – I’ve been fascinated for a while about how Portuguese food spread around the world and why it stuck so resolutly in a handful of ports. I’d be remiss to visit Macau given the chance.

    I’ve only got a day in KL, and I’ve spent almost a month in KL previously, so I’m pretty happy just going to find a good nasi kandar or assam laksa or whatever Robyn and Dave ate most recently.

  12. For me, the best roast meat and perhaps even dim sum is at YungKee at Wellington Road, HK Island. I believe it is also in the Michelin list…

  13. dim sum at lin heung in central is by far the best in hk. traditional settings and traditional dim sums that you wouldn’t find anywhere else in hk. recently had about 11 types of dim sums between 2 of us that cost about 150hkd. go around 2pm when the lunchtime rush has died down a bit. note that they stop serving dim sum around 3.30pm.

    the happy valley hawker above the wet market has good food too. there are 2 restaurants operating in evening and both are just as good. the hawker centre above north point indoor wet market is also similar. there is a enormously popular restaurant up there. i’ve forgot the name but you know when you see the crowds. the fried pork trotters are amazing.

    in the vicinity are also several noodle places. personal fav is the tiny hole at the very top of hollywood rd and lydnhurst terrace. it’s more or less behind the 7-11.

    my fav fish ball noodle shop is in tai po food market. again, dont know name but i’ve eaten them since i was a kid and yet to come across anywhere better. they only do fish ball/slices noodles for $16 a bowl. portions are pretty small so people order 2 in one go. expensive compared to another place round the corner but well worth the money and the wait!

    there’s also a tofu fa place across the rd from the tai po market. it’s called Ah Po tofu fa (阿婆豆腐花). they are famous in tai po. $5 for a bowl of sweet tofu. again, you’ll notice the queues.

    further round the corner is Kwan Kee Beef Brisket. not the cheapest but again, you paying for specialty and something different. queues at weekend.

    personally, seafood in sai kung is overrated and way too expensive. catch a ferry to other outlying small islands such as Po Toi O instead and sample seafood there.

    there are of course plenty of other goodies in hk but those are just my favs. enjoy,

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