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.
