Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Hong Kong

Author: My Husband

After having our 糖水 at Hung Fa Lau, we stepped out of the restaurant and went into the one right next door. Dinnertime!!

Tai Ping Koon (太平館餐廳) is one of the oldest ongoing dining establishments in China/Hong Kong, and is the originator of quite a few HK-style café dishes that are so ubiquitous today. For this reason, many consider it to the forerunner of the HK-style café or “茶餐廳”. Some even consider it to be the very first one.

Tai Ping Koon Restaurant. Established in Guangzhou in 1860.

The restaurant wears its history proudly, and the first page of the menu tells its story in three languages.

First page of Tai Ping Koon’s menu. The gist of their history: Founded in Guangzhou in 1860 by a guy who was a chef in a western trading company. Boasted a stable of customers who were famous in Chinese history. Moved to Hong Kong in the 1930s and still managed by the same family today. Famous dishes include: roast squab, smoked pomfret, Portuguese style baked chicken, and Swiss sauce chicken wings.

Because we already had so much to eat in the afternoon, we really weren’t feeling very hungry at all. However, that didn’t prevent us from trying out some of their specialities…

Fried Beef hor-fun or “乾炒牛河”. Look at the color and caramelization on the hor fun; it’s perfect – the cook really did an excellent job of controlling the wok-hei when frying up the noodles. This was easily the best beef hor-fun I’ve had. Although I wasn’t hungry, I wolfed down more than my fair share of this.

Swiss sauce chicken wings, a HK-style café standard. These were very good – plump chicken wings with a good balance of sweet and savory in the sauce. There was a small blurb in the menu about the history of this dish. Apparently, this started off as a chicken dish prepared with a sweet soy sauce. Upon trying it, western guests gushed about it, and kept saying “sweet sauce, sweet sauce!”. Since the chef back in the day wasn’t conversant in English, he adopted that description as the name for this dish – except he mispronounced it as “Swiss sauce”. So there you go – Swiss sauce chicken doesn’t have anything to do with Switzerland.

Roasted squab. My wife loves squab, and she really knows a good one when she tastes it. She really liked Tai Ping Koon’s version – the meat was tender and succulent, and the flavors were very good. The sauce was excellent. The only downside, if you could consider it that, is that the skin wasn’t crispy because of the method of preparation. Most other restaurants deep fry the bird instead of roasting it. Note the contraption for squeezing the lemon wedge – you don’t see this in other HK style places.

GIANT soufflé. We saw this at quite a few tables, and we had to order it. I’m not sure if the perspective comes through in the photo, but this soufflé is the size of a human head. There’s no fancy preparation here – just a giant soufflé that was perfectly baked. It didn’t come with any sauces or accompaniments, which was ok because it tasted fine by itself.

I ordered some tea to finish off the meal and expected the regular HK-style milk tea. But the above was what I got instead – loose-leaf tea, steeping in a pot. A tea strainer was provided, along with a small pot of evaporated milk.

Tai Ping Koon was a really interesting experience. It serves HK-style café dishes, but in an environment that isn’t quite HK-style café. The waiters wear buttoned-down shirts under waistcoats, and go about their work in a professional demeanor. As you can see from the way tea is served, some vestiges of traditional western dining are preserved, yet there are no real “western” dishes served. Suffice it to say, we really liked the food at Tai Ping Koon, and we’ll be back the next time we’re in Hong Kong.

Next post – our visit to the one and only Michelin three-starred Chinese restaurant in the world.

Location: Hong Kong

Author: My Husband

On the day we travelled to Hong Kong, we woke up at 5:30am to catch the 8:45am SIA flight. 5:30am is waaay earlier than when we wake up on work days, so we were really kicking ourselves for not selecting a later flight. At the time of booking, it seemed like a really good idea to get into Hong Kong earlier in the day…

We checked out of the Pan Pacific at 6:15am, and were pleasantly surprised to see a line of cabs already parked at the hotel’s taxi stand. We jumped into the first one, which turned out to be driven by a Michael Schumacher wannabe; as soon as he got onto the East Coast Parkway, he kept the taxi well above 100 km/h while expertly weaving around slower-moving traffic. I considered asking him to slow down, but he was doing such a good job driving that I decided to leave him be. Had he been like the cabbie who took me to the airport on a previous trip – a guy who seemed to think a car should be driven on the lane-markers instead of between them – I would have told him to drop us off on the shoulder of the expressway. The cabbie got us to Changi Terminal 3 at 6:35am, which was quite a bit earlier than expected. Had I known, we would have slept in until 6:00am…

My aunt and uncle were already waiting for us at the airport, and it wasn’t long before we were checked in and getting some breakfast in the Star Alliance lounge. My first visit to Hong Kong in two years had begun.

Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport is located quite a distance away from the city centre, and there are really only four major modes of transportation available to get you downtown: Taxis, the MTR subway, public buses, and shared hotel coaches. If Christina and I were travelling by ourselves, we would typically use the hotel coaches for our transfers to the hotel. However, if you are travelling in a larger group, and your luggage can fit in the trunk of a cab, it is more economical to cab it. In HK, all the cabs are Toyota Comforts, which offer lots of room in the cabin and lots of room in the trunk (way better than those little Corollas being used in Vancouver now). Our cab took the four of us, plus our luggage, to the Park Lane Hotel on HK Island for about HKD $380.

The Park Lane is one of the grand dames in the Hong Kong hotel scene; it’s been around forever, and while very clean and well-maintained, could use a round of updating. As it stands, the hotel has this old world luxury vibe that’s about 20 years out of fashion… Having said that, the staff was helpful, housekeeping was great, and the location couldn’t be beat. Situated right in the heart of Causeway bay, it was only a few minutes walk to places like Time Square, Sogo, and a whole lot of shopping and eating places. One feature of the hotel that all of us found funny was this:

A glass-walled bathroom. Thank goodness for the curtain.

After dropping our stuff in the rooms, the first order of business was to go and get lunch. 10 minutes after checking in, we were out and about, making a beeline for one of Hong Kong’s most famous “Kees” – Mak Un Kee (or simply Mak’s). Mak’s is renowned for its wonton noodles, and rightly so. It’s the best that I’ve had in a long while.

The most popular Mak’s is located on Wellington Street in Central, but they have another branch that is just across the street from Sogo, on Jardine’s Bazaar. It’s slightly more than a hole in the way, but it was at least a pretty clean hole.

Menus are mostly in Chinese, and are displayed under a pane of glass on the tables.

Wontons are made in house, which explains why they are so good. Unlike the prawn fetish that many other places seem to have, Mak’s wontons have prawns and ground pork in them. We much prefer this over the all-prawn wonton.

For us, a bowl of wonton noodle can be judged on several things: the noodles themselves, the broth, and the wontons. Imho, Mak’s overachieves in all three areas.

The broth is clean, loaded with umami, and has a hint of smokiness/spiciness. This is one of my all time favourite. Unfortunately, none of the wonton places in Vancouver even comes close.

The noodles are very thin, has very little lye water in them, and cooked to just before al-dente. Because the noodles are thin, they crunch in your mouth. In the top photo, we have “zha jiang” noodles. Bits of pork mixed with a wonderfully flavourful sauce, this was great. In the bottom photo, we have prawn-roe noodles, which is my favourite. The prawn-roe gives the noodles a wonderful pungency, and a strong prawn-y taste. You can also see that the serving sizes are extremely small; at almost CAD $6 per plate, the noodles aren’t cheap.

A bowl of mixed dumplings. Wonton and 水饺. Each was bite-sized, and wonderfully textured. The meat and prawn filling were seasoned well, and in the case of the 水饺, some crunchy “cloud ear” mushrooms were added.

A plate of wonderfully tender gailan. Not stringy at all.

A plate of blanched pork liver, served with lots of ginger and scallions. A spicy soy sauce (soy with little chilli padi in it) accompanied this dish. Very old school Chinese. It was cooked just right, and was very rich.

After lunch, we went for a little shopping therapy. But in Hong Kong, because of the number and VARIETY of shops, a little shopping actually took a long time. I actually enjoyed myself, unlike in Vancouver (where you have the same shops carrying the same products, just in different locations). Before we knew it, the sun had set, and we were feeling peckish again. So we went looking for a snack before dinner. As all of us really like Hong Kong style sweet soups (糖水), we decided to step into the nearest Hung Fa Lau for a little sweet indulgence.

Yin-yang mix of Sesame and Almond soup. Strong sesame and almond flavours, with just the right amount of sweetness. This could be ordered in hot or cold versions.

Baked sago pudding with red bean paste in the middle. This is one of my favourite Chinese desserts. The pudding part is very rich and buttery, and the sago gives it an interesting texture. The sweet red bean paste provides a sweet counterpoint for the pudding.

Double-boiled double-skin milk. The milk turns into a panna-cotta like state after the double boiling; this was less dense than panna cotta, and had a very strong aroma of milk. Very nice.

It wasn’t all sweets that we had at Hung Fa Lau. Their pan-fried rice rolls are also pretty popular, and we had a serving as well.

The caramelized bits, and a crisp outer layer, provided a good textural contrast for this dish.

After snacks, we went next door for dinner – at possibly the world’s first HK-style western restaurant. Watch out for it in my next post…

To finish off this post, I’d like to write about a restaurant in Metro Vancouver that is related to HK’s Mak’s. It is called Michigan, and is located in a strip mall along Richmond’s Alexandra Road. Christina and I went for a quick lunch there recently…

This text describes Michigan as the only restaurant in North America managed by HK’s Mak Un family. The guy who owns Michigan is the son of the guy who owns Mak Un in HK apparently.

Braised beef brisket. This was very nice – the beef was tender, and very flavourful.

Prawn-roe noodle. The noodles were very good – thin and crunchy like the HK Mak Un noodles. However, there wasn’t enough prawn-roe, and what was there wasn’t very strong in taste. Not even close to the HK version…

Wonton noodles. Prawn fetish again – only prawns in the wonton, no pork. Noodles were good, but broth was disappointing. Again, not a patch on the HK version…

So while Michigan might do in a pinch (especially for prawn-roe noodles – do any readers of this blog know where else we can find prawn-roe noodles in Vancouver??), it is but a shadow of Mak Un Kee in Hong Kong.

Location: Singapore

Author: My Husband

After spending several days in Singapore to visit with family, it was time to move on to our next destination. As alluded to in a previous post, my wife and I did not do anything touristy on this trip; we spent the majority of our time accompanying our family members on shopping and eating excursions.

To wrap up this series of posts on Singapore, I thought it might be interesting to share some of the more notable hawker fare that we had, as well as our impressions of the city’s newest “gourmet” food court.

Singaporeans from all walks of life have one thing in common. No matter their station in life, the language they speak, or whether they are young or old, ALL Singaporeans LOVE hawker food. Over the years, the appeal of hawker fare has become so widespread and accessible that even first-time visitors know it is the thing to have. A case in point: when Christina and I were waiting for our flight in the Star Alliance Lounge at Charles de Gaulle, we overheard a middle-aged guy from the US, a first-time visitor to Singapore, sharing a tip with his travelling companion. He said, “My colleague in San Francisco told me that the local guys would take us to the nice restaurants for the business meals, which is all right. But to get the really good stuff – he said we have to go and eat the local street food.” Well, hawker food isn’t exactly street food anymore, but he already had the right idea.

Two of my favourite hawker dishes can be found at Thye Hong, and they have branches at most of the Food Republic locations.

Thye Hong is renowned for their fried Hokkien Noodles and Char Kway Teow. There may be better versions of these dishes at some faraway old-styled open-air hawker center, but I’d prefer to eat Thye Hong’s version in a nicely air-conditioned place.

Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles. Thye Hong serves a slightly “wetter” version with plenty of “wok hei”. The two or three whole prawns in the dish are not much to write home about. The focus of this dish is the noodles; they absorb much of the prawn stock in which they are cooked, and the resultant flavours are simply spectacular.

Char Kway Teow. This is rice noodles (with some regular noodles mixed in) fried with Chinese sausages, cockles, eggs, and beansprouts. This dish can be ordered in either a dark (fried with dark soy) or light version. They dark soy version is slightly sweeter, and to my taste buds, a bit more flavourful.

Hokkien prawn noodles being cooked in a large wok. Part of the cooking process involves adding prawn stock, and then covering the wok to let the stock reduce and slightly thicken.

We also couldn’t resist the breakfast set at Toast Box.

Coffee and soft-boiled eggs. “Traditional” SE Asian coffee is brewed using liberica coffee beans, which are grown mostly in Malaysia. Unlike other coffees, traditional SE Asian coffee beans are roasted with some butter and sugar, which results in very dark, caramel-y beans. The flavour profile of a SE Asian coffee is also different than that made with arabica beans; while libera coffee is very aromatic and full-bodied, it does have a slightly harsher, less well rounded finish compared to arabica coffee.

Toast with kaya (coconut jam) and butter. This is a rather nice way of eating toast.

On this trip, after an afternoon spent shopping with my Aunt at Singapore’s newest “Ion Orchard” mall, she took to the new “gourmet” food court in the basement.

Food Opera is part of the group that also operates Food Republic. While Food Republics are designed with the nostalgic road-side hawker feel of days gone by, Food Opera is a lot more contemporary.

Contemporary setting.

We had the following dishes at Food Opera:

Fried Hokkien Noodles again. This isn’t from Thye Hong. This is a “drier” version, and is also pretty good.

Hakka Yam Abacus from Mei Zhen. It’s a little like the Shanghainese “nian gau”, but softer and more gooey. Flavours are pretty good, but people who dislike soft, gluey textures should probably stay away.

Fried Radish Cake. Got the “white” version this time. It can be ordered in a “dark” version that is prepared with dark soy. This is another “must try” dish for first time visitors to Singapore. The locals call this dish “Fried Carrot Cake” or “Chai Tow Kuey”.

Fried Oyster Omelette. This is very similar to the Taiwanese oyster omelette dish; the Singaporean version is not cooked with the rice-flour slurry that is found in the Taiwanese dish. I like the Singaporean version better (as I find the slurry very greasy and flavourless), and this is yet another “must-try” for visitors.

Here is a look at the cooks frying up “Radish Cake” and “Oyster Omelette”. Look at the huge burners and woks used to make these dishes – there’s no way these can be made at home and yet still taste as good.

Finally, dessert. An ice kachang (on the left) and “ching teng” or “clear soup” (on the right)

Food Opera is pretty nice. It has a different feel compared to Food Republic. The food quality and variety are pretty comparable to Food Republic’s, but the prices here are a bit higher. As things stand, I wouldn’t purposely make a trip to eat at Food Opera; for now, Food Republic remains my food court of choice.

There is a HUGE variety of hawker foods in Singapore, but the above are some of the “staples” that every visitor to Singapore should try. These dishes are ubiquitous, and can be found in the majority of food courts and coffee shops in Singapore. Trust me, you will not regret trying them.

Singapore will always have a special place in my heart, and I really enjoy all my visits to the city. It is always a treat to visit with family, and my wife and I really enjoyed the food on this trip. We hope to be back again soon, and until the next time, “zai jian” Singapore….

Here are a few shots of Singapore for our readers…

Skyline by day, circa 2003.

Skyline by night, circa 2003.

Singaporeans just can’t resist a good sale (basement of Ngee Ann City).

And only in Singapore will you see a “No Durian” sign in the Metro stations.

Our next stop? Recognize this skyline?