Hong Kong China Street Food 香港街頭食品

My cousin Tammy and I went on a food mission to seek  Hong Kong’s best street food treasures! Departing Discovery Bay to  Hong Kong Island (by ferry) as soon as we arrived to Hong Kong Island our minds immediately became stimulated by the fragrant aromas of ginger and popping sounds of oil in hot woks.  I knew I hadn’t died, but was about to be in food heaven!

We ventured into Kowloon neighborhoods that are nestled between the massive sky scrapers.  It was interesting to see (unlike Shanghai & Beijing) the foreign business men & tourists snacking on the street with the Hong Kong locals!  Great, why not join the crowd?

We blew through the first set of small street front eateries, munching on curry fish balls, noodles, dehydrated chili pork (Bee Cheng Hiang), and cow’s stomach soup. The curry fish balls had the texture of a raw butternut squash that was hot tubing in a opaque curry broth. (See picture above)

The Bee Cheng Hiang was semi soft, translucent, cured, charred, and had the consistency of a tough fruit roll up.  I ate an entire square.  The salt cure made my mouth dry out so felt a glass of boba was in order!

We took off to meet my cousin (Tammy’s husband) for lunch (Part XX of eating frenzy!)… OMG, so full, we went lite, heading to a vegetarian restaurant high up in a sky scraper.  We managed to put away six different dishes and enjoyed great conversation.  Then the three of us went to walk the local food markets.

First stop, wet market (live seafood), 2nd stop, produce markets, 3rd, pastry shop!   The foul smells and abundance of produce transported my mind back to the Asian markets in San Francisco. We nibbled our way through the market, drinking freshly made soy milk, and chomping on egg custard pastries.  They are the “hot thing” in HK, apparently.  Not the biggest fan, but managed to consume 4 while walking around!  Yes it was a 5,000+ calorie day (packed into 4 hours).  Call the cardiologist please!  I will never know how the Chinese can stay so thin with all that great food at their finger tips!

Tammy LIVES to EAT! Don’t miss the intoxicating food scene in Hong Kong!  Look forward to returning, stay tuned for the next adventure into food!  Where, when, with whom…

see the gallery below for more shots from the street.

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Fresh Chinese Noodles (Lamian) & Restaurants in Shanghai, China

Living in Shanghai, China has opened my eyes to much of China’s deep food culture. China is the birth of all things gastronomic, don’t be mistaken and think the Italian’s came up with pasta, it was a spin on the ancient art of Chinese noodle making, Lamien. The restaurants I frequent around Shanghai  (Pudong) by the Expo Village have been given nick names. This is simply because we can not read Chinese, so it is much easier to just call them by a memorable or identifiable names, such as Purple Chair, Crystal Underground, Duck Face…and so on.

Lamian noodles, known in Chinese as Lamian or Lamiantiao are popular with many ethnic groups both in Xinjiang and the rest of China. The name “Lamian” means “pulled noodles”.  These noodles are the best I have ever had!  It took me a while to find a recipe , but they are made with simple ingredients. Click on the LaMian link above to read more on the process.

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The Best Peking Duck in Bejing China at “Daffy’s” Restaurant

Just back to the hotel from one of the best food experiences of my life, Peking Duck!  I am convinced the atmosphere and ambiance takes the restaurant dining experience to a whole new level. Whether that means sitting on a beach in Thailand eating BBQ fish or walking the narrow back alleys  Beijing, China eating the famous Peking Duck.

A hot shower and quick shave, I strolled down stairs to the front desk and asked them where to go for the best Beijing Roast Duck.  I got a few random responses from the team, it seemed as if they were being paid to plug a few places (robot responses), not convinced by their body language.  I had a quick chat with the front desk manager off to the side and asked her where does she go when is craving this local delicacy?

“Susie” the front desk manager, mentioned eating in a more local restaurant with no tourists, would I mind? “That is what I am looking for!”, She quickly wrote the name and address in the “magic language”, and sent me on my way.  No more than a 5 minute cab ride from the hotel I was dropped off in front of this massive restaurant buzzing with locals.  Perfect!

Luckily the restaurant had a menu with pictures, so it was the perfect time for me to do the “point and nod” exercis, which I have become rather proficient at after 4 months.  What a shocker nobody spoke English that worked at the restaurant so leave it up to the owners 15 year old daughter to come by and assist me in ordering. She wanted to practice her English and I wanted photos of the separate duck kitchen, fair trade, right? The 3 chef team dressed the ducks and move them around with this steel rod & hook system that is built inside the brick oven (powered only by charcoal and wood).

The duck itself was cooked to perfection, not to sound so cliche, but it was outstanding!  The crispy skin (most sought after part by the Chinese), the meat just soft enough, and flavor was spot on!  The duck was served with  Chinese pancakes, julienne scallions, and hoi son sauce.  There was not one morsel left after I devoured it all, along with a fresh green salad that had a ginger/soy dressing, and some marinated cucumbers.  I was in complete heaven, not sure how tomorrow nights dinner can top this!

Off to The Great Wall of China (Mutianyu section) tomorrow morning, will I be able to find anything to tops this Peking Duck experience?  To be determined.

Beer Fish Restaurant on West Street (Yangshuo, Guilin China)

West Street Eating Part II!

Rachel and I ventured back to West Street  to find the best BEER FISH and enjoy our last night in Yangshuo, China.  The street was twice as packed with locals and tourists alike than the previous evening. Restaurant hostesses outside literally pulled us to be seated as we simply walked by.   It was like being the perfect 10 girl at the bar with a bachelor party 5 feet away!

We ended up going on a locals recommendation to a particular restaurant famous for their beer fish ( Pigiu Yu in Mandarin).  Both of us were starving  (can’t imagine why???) and allowed our stomachs do the ordering.  First 2 cold píjiǔ (beer)  please, then we began to explore the menu.  I jumped for joy over the large selections, Rachel focused on the beer fish and duck.

I chose dishes that were random, Rachel stuck with what sounded normal (to her), we both agreed that we over ordered by 75%!  Trying a bit of everything of course!

Steamed Rice and Pork- in bamboo came out first.  This was perfect to have with the Harbin beer!  The rice was sticky and had a very mild undertone of sweetness, the pork was nice and spicy kick, perfect balance of flavors.  And besides poking it all out of the bamboo was the best part.

Wok Fried Duck- The flavor was ginger, garlic, and scallion packed.  Each piece was absolute punch of perfection.  The pieces were cut so small and had all the fragments of bone inside.  Using chopsticks became quite a challenge when navigating.  Neither of us could handle gnawing the bones for minimal meat then spitting them on the table (common in China), well at least not in the company of a Western woman

Fresh Bamboo Shoots- AMAZING!  The bamboo shoots were locally harvested and cooked in the wok with some secret spices.   They had a pink hue to them, just to show how fresh they really were.  Soft and silky texture, nothing like the shoots we see from Mr. Choy’s cans in the US.  AWESOME!

The Famous Beer Fish- By this I had eaten about 8 of the rice & pork pieces, nibbled on the duck, and had my fair share of the bamboo shoots, stomach on overload!  How could I not, when the beer fish arrived it was booming with strong aromatic aromas, fresh tomato, scallions, ginger, garlic and the deep layered beer sauce..  The fish was fantastic, fresh and perfectly cooked.  I would suggest eating some rice with the dish, unless you want the locals to look at you funny. We passed on the steamed rice because there was not room for another grain of carbs!

Yangshuo is a excellent destination for all travelers in search of Southern China’s best cuisine and beauty. Keep following as Beyond the Kitchen explores Beijing in the future!

Eating in the Old City (Part II)

China has been great to me so far… We went to this restaurant in old Shanghai (post street snacking.. poor Lassie). It was beautiful… nobody in the joint spoke a lick of English-so we pretty much had the luck of faith!  One of the chefs that was with me had on some Australian board shorts and sure enough a familiar dialect was heard.  Someone jumped in after we had ordered about half the food- it was the voice of a Chinese guy saying that he studied in Kangaroo nation for 10 years- and how could he help us order….

Now we were really in business!  We went from pointing at a few pictures, drawing a pigs face on the back of the servers guest check book (to let her know we wanted some pork), to just plain rolling the dice.  Not even remembering what we had ordered up to this point we just let this new found friend finish out our order.

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