kl1191 wrote:

David Hammond wrote:On a totally non-food theme, I'm thinking I might have a jacket or suit made in Hong Kong. The most excellent Kevin Pang suggested Simpson Sin tailors...but we're only there two days, and one of those days is a Sunday, so may not have time.

You should still have time. Get to the tailor as early in the visit as possible for measurements. They should be able to have a partial mock-up within a few hours. Then, you can have them ship you the finished product. It might not be the perfect fit you'd get if you went in for multiple fittings, but it should still be the best fitting jacket you own. Many Hong Kong tailors work predominately through the mail, with a representative coming to you to do initial measurements and then the rest of the process taking place via mail. I wouldn't think it would be much different to just have those measurements taken at the establishment. If there's then time for an initial fitting, icing on the cake.

And actually, I'd rather ship it than carry it home anyway. Good thought, kl1191!

kl1191 wrote:
You should still have time. Get to the tailor as early in the visit as possible for measurements. They should be able to have a partial mock-up within a few hours. Then, you can have them ship you the finished product. It might not be the perfect fit you'd get if you went in for multiple fittings, but it should still be the best fitting jacket you own. Many Hong Kong tailors work predominately through the mail, with a representative coming to you to do initial measurements and then the rest of the process taking place via mail. I wouldn't think it would be much different to just have those measurements taken at the establishment. If there's then time for an initial fitting, icing on the cake.

When I did mine, they had me come in for a fitting the next day, and what they fitted wasn't a finished garment by any means. It was more like a mesh pattern. Once they fitted that, the next time I showed up, it was a finished suit that fit me like a glove. I loved the clothes I bought in Hong Kong. Once you've had custom tailored clothes, its tough to go back to wearing off the rack stuff...but what's a poor boy to do?

David, if you do want to go to Tim Ho Wan, I'd suggest the new branch in the IFC mall. Yes, you lose out a bit on the atmosphere of the original, but there is NO WAIT (!) and it feels like the food there is actually better.

Also, this place: http://www.metropolasia.com/Sweet_Dynasty if you're interested in desserts.

stevez wrote:

kl1191 wrote:
You should still have time. Get to the tailor as early in the visit as possible for measurements. They should be able to have a partial mock-up within a few hours. Then, you can have them ship you the finished product. It might not be the perfect fit you'd get if you went in for multiple fittings, but it should still be the best fitting jacket you own. Many Hong Kong tailors work predominately through the mail, with a representative coming to you to do initial measurements and then the rest of the process taking place via mail. I wouldn't think it would be much different to just have those measurements taken at the establishment. If there's then time for an initial fitting, icing on the cake.

When I did mine, they had me come in for a fitting the next day, and what they fitted wasn't a finished garment by any means. It was more like a mesh pattern. Once they fitted that, the next time I showed up, it was a finished suit that fit me like a glove. I loved the clothes I bought in Hong Kong. Once you've had custom tailored clothes, its tough to go back to wearing off the rack stuff...but what's a poor boy to do?

Right, it's more an outline to get an idea of how things will hang, etc. I haven't had anything made in Hong Kong, but my experience in Vietnam (Hoi An) was spectacular. It's just so effortless to wear the suits I had made there. Not worrying about oh, this is slightly too long or too tight. Thankfully, while they're still a good deal cheaper than Hong Kong prices, they also kept my measurements so I can order new stuff down the line without making the trip.

kl1191 wrote:Right, it's more an outline to get an idea of how things will hang, etc. I haven't had anything made in Hong Kong, but my experience in Vietnam (Hoi An) was spectacular. It's just so effortless to wear the suits I had made there. Not worrying about oh, this is slightly too long or too tight. Thankfully, while they're still a good deal cheaper than Hong Kong prices, they also kept my measurements so I can order new stuff down the line without making the trip.

Well, I will be in 'Nam on this trip, but the problem is that my time is so short in each place, I'm not sure I'll get the full benefit if I go for just the one fitting and then have it sent to me (without the second fitting that stevez describes).

We spent a couple days in Hong Kong recently. As this was our first trip to Hong Kong, and there were just two of us, we stuck to the local hole in the wall places rather than trying the out the fancier banquet-style places.

The city is covered in restaurants and quickie places to eat. The most common type of restaurant has a relatively small menu and seating for about 30-40 people. Once you enter you are immediately seated, handed a menu, and expected to order within 5 minutes of sitting down. Once you've ordered, they write up your bill and drop it on the table. Almost immediately your food is brought out. Once you're done eating, you walk to the front of the restaurant, hand them the bill, then pay the cashier. None of the food is cooked to order, but there is so much throughput that everything is fresh and delicious. And piping hot.

For our trip we used openrice.com for recommendations. The recommendations were excellent across the board. It's a cool website where people post pictures of the food and provide long writeups, though mostly in Cantonese.

BREAKFAST

Lin Heung Tea House



We were up early our first morning (jet lag) and set out to Central for dim sum. It's a neighborhood famous for its old school charm, and this recommendation couldn't have hit it more on the money. Apparently cart service dim sum is a dying tradition in HK so we felt like we had to try it. The place was filled with elderly Chinese men sipping tea, reading the paper, and snacking on dumplings or steamed buns. We arrived shortly after 7AM on a Saturday morning and were seated at a table with another party (a common occurrence in HK). Once we were situated, the server brought us a pot of tea and directed us to clean our utensils and bowls with the steaming hot tea (there's a discard bowl as well). The carts would come out of the kitchen and rarely would make it back without getting cleaned out. When I asked to see what was in the bamboo steamer the server would lift the lid and close it in a split second. I guess they don't want to let the dishes get cold. The offerings were typical of what you'd see in dim sum places in the US, but the quality was very high across the board. The steamed bun stuffed with quail egg, scallions, and pork was soft yet chewy, and very filling. My favorite item was the chive dumpling which featured an excellent wrapper and crunchy fresh chives. It was an authentic and delicious way to start our trip.

Tim Ho Wan



Though it hasn't been around very long, Tim Ho Wan is something of a local institution in the same way that Hot Doug's is here. People line up an hour before they open and lines can get as long as 3 hours later in the day. We arrived at about 9:30AM, a half hour before they open. At about 9:50AM someone comes out of the restaurant and hands out menus so people can mark up their orders before they get in the door. We were handed a menu (in English) with a number at the top indicating that we didn't make the first seating. We were told to return at 10:40AM and were eventually seated close to 11AM. If you arrive after 10, there's no need to wait in line. Just go to the front, get your menu and a number, and they'll estimate a time for you. I get the hype because the quality of the dim sum is extremely high, particularly considering the price. The dumpling wrappers were delicate and soft, the stuffings were lean and tender. But something about the food just didn't work for me. I've had excellent elevated dim sum before, and I was just coming off a soul satisfying dim sum experience the day before, so this mixture of the two just didn't work for me. It lacked the heartiness and attitude of traditional dim sum and the artistry of elevated dim sum. The dumpling wrappers were great though, and the crispy bun had a remarkably light and crispy texture, I'll give it that.

Australia Dairy Company



This is another place that is famous for its long lines, but it's much larger than Tim Ho Wan, and the food comes out fast. We arrived a little after 8AM and were seated right away, though by the time we left the line had formed. Many tables were eating tomato soup with elbow macaroni in it, so we felt we had to try it. In the kitchen we could see boxes full of Campbell's condensed tomato soup, so I can't say we were surprised to find the soup uninteresting. The scrambled eggs, on the other hand, were awesome. They had a fluffy texture and rich eggy flavor. They were served with toasted, thick cut milk bread. In a city with so much great food it's hard for me to recommend people try a "western" style breakfast joint, but this place got the simple combination of scrambled eggs with toast exactly right. And it really is what the locals are eating.

Congee off of Woosung Street



We were up early to catch a flight out of HK so we searched around the neighborhood looking for a quick breakfast option. Around the corner from our hotel (located near the intersection of Saigon and Woosung Streets in Jordan), we found a shop specializing in congee and rice rolls. Jackpot! Without meaning to, we ordered the rice rolls stuffed with fried dough. It was tasty, but not the best accompaniment to a rice porridge. Next time we get the chance, I'll opt for rice rolls stuffed with bbq pork or something like that. That said, the rice rolls were terrific. Soft yet toothsome, and topped with a sweet soy sauce. The congee was easily the best bowl I've ever had. It had a remarkably rich and satisfying flavor, presumably from some kind of animal broth. There really is nothing quite like a steaming hot bowl of congee on a cool and misty morning.

SNACKS

Yeong Heong Yuen



There wasn't as much street food as I was expecting, but what they did have was excellent. We came across 4 or 5 "snack" shops that all served more or less the same assortment of foods. These included grilled fish balls, sausages, and octopus. All the snack shops we saw were crowded with people, so they're popular even if they're not quite as ubiquitous as we were expecting. Everything we tried was delicious, next time I'm in HK I hope to sample more.

Kam Wah Cake Shop



Kam Wah is a bakery that sells all kinds of baked goods, but they're most famous for their pineapple bun. I was expecting a pastry stuffed with pineapple chunks stewed in sugar, but this was nothing like that. There's no stuffing at all. Just a light and flaky pastry that's slightly sweet and completely delicious. It was pretty rich on its own, but apparently people order it with a pad of butter in the middle. Something to consider for next time.

Tai Cheong Bakery



No trip to HK would be complete without sampling one of HK's famous egg tarts. A lot of bakeries sell them, but easily the best rendition we had was at Tai Cheong. They specialize in egg tarts, and we were lucky enough to show up just as a fresh batch was coming from the oven, though I suspect a new batch comes out every 10 minutes or so. The crust was crumbly and soft, the custard was luscious and eggy. This really was the egg tart that puts the rest to shame.

Yuen Yick Oyster and Shrimp Sauce



Not really a snack, but a worthwhile stop. It's located in the heart of Central and was the only shop that was specializing in oyster sauce that we saw. It's an unassuming store front, with boxes of bottled oyster sauce stacked next to the register. The bottles themselves have no label on them, so you're basically at the mercy of the person at the register. When we were there, they had two options for oyster sauce: the cheap stuff, or the slightly more expensive stuff. What's the difference? One is better. At least that's what the guy told us. So we bought the better one and popped it open when we got home. Oh baby, now that's oyster sauce. Thick, creamy, almost chewy and full of rich and complex flavors. I didn't see any shrimp sauce when I was there, but I bet that stuff's great too.

Lee Keung Kee North Point Eggette



Cantonese egg waffles, often called eggettes, are a common sight throughout Hong Kong. Many vendors make them to order, so never settle for a lukewarm eggette. We sampled many on the trip, but one stood far above the others. Lee Keung Kee has a bunch of pictures of celebrities eating eggettes posted on their wall and a long line of customers at all hours. So it was no surprise their eggette was easily the best we had. The outside is crispy while the inside is gooey and custardy. The flavor is more intense than all the others, and the textural contrast is executed to perfection. It inspired my wife to pick up an eggette iron at the local store.

MAIN MEALS

Mak's Noodles



Tsim Chai Kee



There's a lot written about where to get the best bowl of wonton noodles in HK. Mak's is probably the most famous, but as it turns out, there's a competitor, Tsim Chai Kee, right across the street. Naturally we opted to try a bowl of both. We tried Mak's first, and I have to say, we were quite impressed. The noodles were fresh with great texture and the wonton wrapper was thin and delicate and stuffed with beautifully plump and sweet shrimp. Perhaps most impressive, though, was the broth. Per wikipedia it is made with powdered dried flounder, dried shrimp roe and pork bones. The result is a rich and umami broth that had us considering a second bowl. We remained disciplined though, and crossed the street to see what Tsim Chai Kee was all about. It was a little busier and has a decidedly more local vibe. I thought the bowl of soup was worse in every way except that it was a little cheaper. The broth tasted mostly like salt and was much thinner. The noodles were a little soggy and the wonton wrapper was thicker which made it taste more bland. I've read a lot of accounts saying that TCK is better than Mak's so I have to wonder if we hit them on an off day. Either way, the bowl from Mak's is easily my gold standard for what defines a great bowl of wonton noodle soup.

Se Wong Yee



Se Wong Yee is most famous for their snake soup and duck liver sausage. The snake soup is filled with shreds of snake meat that have little flavor and a similar texture to shredded chicken. The broth is complex with prominent mushroom and citrus flavors (I've read they use kaffir lime leaves). I particularly enjoyed the crispy wontons and the tangy chrysanthemum petals that garnish the soup. Cantonese soul food, perfect for a brisk day. The duck liver sausage is pretty funky and offset with sweetness from chunks of something sweet and crunchy (I thought possibly lychee) that are mixed in with the meat. It's a pretty unique flavor that I really enjoyed. They also served a side of iceberg lettuce, boiled in snake broth, and topped with oyster sauce. Se Wong Yee is a good place to try some of the more interesting dishes in Cantonese cuisine.

Joy Hing Roasted Meat



There are shops all over town with various meats hanging in the window, much like Sun Wah in Chicago. I googled around looking for the best place to try the local specialty, roasted goose, but there were simply too many options to sort through. The most famous shop is Yung Kee but much of what I read indicated that they serve their best to regulars and tourists are frequently served substandard goose. So I figured might as well try a cheap and local spot that's convenient to where we'll be. A quick look through openrice yielded Joy Hing, and once again their recommendation was spot on. We were on something of a food crawl so we only got to try the goose, but man was it spectacular. The skin was not crispy, but what it lacked in texture it made up for in flavor. The goose meat was extremely moist and the fat was mostly rendered from the skin so that it had a nice balance of sweetness from the glaze and richness without being heavy or chewy. The goose was so good we found ourselves sucking on the bones. I wish we would've had more time (read: stomach space) to try more of their items, but I'd return just for the goose in a second. Great stuff!

Tak Fat Beef Ball



Our last night in town we were hoping to get some soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung, but the line to get in was ridiculous. So we figured might as well check out the food stalls a short walk away from there. It's incredible how stark the contrast is between the ritzy high-end shopping of Canton Rd and the dingy, hole-in-the-wall vibe of the food court a five minute walk away. There are 5 or 6 different stalls serving up cheap eats to the locals. We opted for the famous beef noodle soup shop and we chose well! The broth is probably the best beef broth I've ever had (and I've had a lot lately). It has an intensely rich beef flavor accented with anise and ginger. The beef balls and stewed beef worked well together to provide interesting textures to go with the soft noodles. It's the perfect antidote to the hyper-commercialism of Canton Rd.

A most excellent report. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.

Across the street from Mak's, maybe down a few stalls, is a fish ball noodle place. Their specialty though, is a cuttlefish ball hor fun (rice noodle) with seaweed in the soup. I have been going there since I was 11 and everytime I go back to HK, I stop in. They also serve fish skin dumplings, where the wrapper is actually made of fish paste, and the filling is pork and fish. The storefront is very bright ("white") and there are plastic flappy things (like at Restaurant Depot's produce dept) at the entrance...

Must admit, it took me a little while to appreciate the eggette; I liked it a lot more when I added hot sauce. It's a rather odd street eat (I like how this sign visually communicates that the eggette is the next phase of waffle evolution):



Beautiful and informative report, turkob; thanks.

Well, I got my Lei Yue Mun fix

Going from Guangzhou to Tokyo, I spent about 14 hours in Hong Kong, and in a shocking bit of good timing, those 14 hours happened to overlap with the two days a pair of food geek friends from our group in Phoenix were there on their honeymoon. Trying to cram some good food and atmosphere into a few hours? The perfect opportunity to return to LYM!

Lei Yue Mun is a little fishing village on the harbor, a long, narrow alley lined with fish vendors and restaurants running along a typhoon shelter, where the seafood probably isn't the best you can get in town, but it's pretty damn good, and man, what a cool experience. It used to be more of an actual fishing village, where the vendors would congregate at the water's edge in the morning to buy fresh seafood right off the fishermen's boats. It's a little more touristy now -- more domestic Chinese tourism than international tourism -- but it still has a lot of the old charm, and the hook, of course, is that you shop for your own seafood before eating it.

I was probably 14 or 15 the first time I went to LYM. It was back when my father was first working with factories in Hong Kong (before they were all moved over the border into the mainland), and I'd occasionally tag along on a business trip. I have these incredibly fond memories of walking the narrow aisles as the fellows we worked with would pick out fish and shrimp, haggle over prices, pay the vendors a little cash before they'd go running off to the restaurant with our catch. It was the first place I had shrimp stir fried so hot you could eat the whole thing -- shell, head, tail and all -- the first place I had clams with black bean sauce, probably the first time I had shrimp that hadn't been frozen, getting that incredible natural sweetness that disappears when they get cold. We went a lot in those early days, but as we started working with other people and spent less and less time in Hong Kong, we stopped. It's one thing to point at a menu. It's another to try to shop and haggle when you don't speak the language (a fear, it would turn out, that was wholly unfounded). But until this trip, I hadn't been to LYM in at least 15 years, and I really wanted to give it a shot.


It's a bit of an uphill and then downhill hike from the Yau Tong MTR station. I remember it being a fun ferry ride from Sai Wan Ho on Hong Kong island (LYM is on the Kowloon side), but I was a little concerned with timing given the last-minuteness with which this outing came together. At any rate, as you approach, there's a long tunnel of brightly-colored streamers that I probably should have gotten a photo of (it's gorgeous), and then as you get out to the water it starts to look like this -- market stalls interspersed with restaurants covered with bright, colorful signage, trying to draw you in.


As you move down the pier, the path quickly narrows. It's rarely more than four feet wide, and runs the length of the typhoon shelter, snaking back and forth, for about a quarter of a mile.


I should have gotten some better photos of the tanks. There are lobsters, shrimp, crabs, fish, mantis shrimp (weird-lookin' fellas), clams, abalone... all kinds of stuff. Stall after stall of tanks filled with live seafood.


We eventually settled on one and got to fishing. I really wanted to cover a lot of the basics, make it a feast of traditional Cantonese seafood. And you have to have a good fish for that. This guy will make another appearance shortly.


When you pick out your seafood, they fish it out of the tank, drop it into a bag, and then weigh it on these traditional scales, using simple counterweights to set the price. I haggled a little. She knocked off 10%. I considered that a victory given that I don't speak a word of Cantonese.

The restaurants in LYM will happily supply you with the seafood -- most of them own a stall next door -- but where's the fun in that, right? It's a whole lot more fun to walk in the door hauling bags of still-live seafood and watching them drop it into buckets to take back to the kitchen. The restaurants don't charge by dish. Rather, they charge a flat fee per person at the table to cover the preparation of your food. And depending on the restaurant (we went to Happy Seafood), that includes some freebies as well.


Man, I've really come to love century eggs. They have this wonderful, creamy consistency and a deep flavor that's far mellower than their appearance would suggest. I've had them with pickled ginger before, but I'm not sure I've had them with sugar. And it works surprisingly well.

I did the ordering. Our waiter really, really wanted to steer us in a certain direction. Thankfully, that was mostly the direction I wanted to go. And after displaying a little bit of knowledge, it seemed like he was willing to give me a little more latitude.


Oh, yeah. That's the stuff. Our massive pile of shrimp, simply steamed and served with a chili-soy sauce for dipping. I think we had two pounds, and I think I could have eaten them all myself. The trick here is to skip over the bigger ones in favor of the little guys. They're sweeter. And they're so sweet. There's nothing in the world like that natural, fresh, sweet shrimp flavor. Rip off the head, remove the shell, dip and bit the meat, squeeze and bite out the bit in the tail, then slurp whatever you can get out of the head. So perfect.


This requires a little explanation. I agonized over this one a bit. I almost did a really straightforward lobster with ginger, but the lobster with cheese sauce is one of those dish enigmas from many, many years ago. Maybe a decade ago, while having lunch at a really nice restaurant in Shenzhen, our hosts ordered a lobster dish that looked really, really odd to us when it came out. It was in a sauce that didn't look Chinese at all. It was pale, but really, really thick and clingy. And when we asked, they said "cheese sauce." Which sounded completely crazy. But oh wow, did it work. One of the most memorable dishes we've had during our travels in China. So in reading about LYM, I noticed that lobster in cheese sauce seemed to be catching on as a modern favorite. So that's what we were hoping this would be. And this wasn't quite it. Closer to a pre-processed cheese sauce with Chinese touches, further from the Chinese sauce made gloopy with a bit of cheese that we remembered. Which isn't to say that it wasn't tasty, but for me this was the low point of the night. Should've stuck with the basics.


This. This, to me, is the most iconic Cantonese dish. A simple steamed fish with oil, slivered spring onions, shaoxing and a splash of soy -- maybe a touch of ginger or the faintest hint of sesame oil. But just light and fresh and tender, all there to bring out the fish.


This preparation is also popular with the giant razor clams you find all through the market, but I love to do scallops this way. They're there, tender and sweet and buried under the pile of vermicelli rice noodles, garlic, and spring onion. The only thing that made me sad was that the stall we bought from removed the coral. Bummer.


I love this dish. The crab is first fried, then stir-fried with lots of garlic and chiles. And the trick is to get that coating crisp and hot and spicy while keeping the meat inside tender and fresh, without it drying out. And unsurprisingly, this was right on the money. As I was telling everybody at the table, you can't be shy with this stuff. When you get a quarter of the body, perched on the end of a leg like a lollipop, you take a big bite, cartilage and all, suck out the good stuff and spit out the chitin. It's a tough mental leap for Westerners, but it gets the job done.


These guys are almost like dessert, which works since we got them last. Again, the trick here is to avoid the big, tough clams in favor of the little, sweet ones. It's like doing shots. One little clam after the next. Slurp. Slurp. Slurp. Sweet black bean sauce, a little nugget of clam in every slurp... so good.


On the way out, I paused to get a good look at the typhoon shelter with the city in the background. This epitomizes Hong Kong. This city is one of those places that kind of magically straddles old and new. There's a little more of the new and a little less of the old every time I go, but the old is still there, floating in the harbor in the light of the highrise apartments. And I suppose Lei Yue Mun isn't quite what it was when I first went nearly 20 years ago. But the spirit's still there. And the food's still awesome.

Beautifu, Dom, really beautiful! Damn, I haven't been to HK in waaaay too long. You've really kindled a new fire. (You and Josephine's exploits in Yunnan.)

Tnx!

Geo
PS. Your shrimp eating techniques are a bit wußy! In Shanghai I was taught to eat the *whole* shrimp, if it were small; but to crunch the larger shrimp in my mouth and extract the shell with my tongue, then spit the pieces on the floor. Which I learned to do, albeit with some Western shame at spitting on a resto floor...

tyrus wrote:Although this article from today's Trib is about a month too late for me, perhaps someone else could use this info:

[i] Roasted goose at Yung Kee Restaurant

32-40 Wellington St., Central district

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, the first place I demanded the taxi driver take me was Yung Kee. This restaurant, shoehorned within Central's bustling business district, needs no adjectives, descriptors or superlatives. Locals revere it; out-of-towners pack it like a tourist trap. They're here for the goose, which is massaged, marinated, then roasted over a charcoal fire. The glisten of plum sauce, shellacking the tender, luscious, just-fatty-enough meat, induces swoons. Recent business expansions have dulled its "authentic" luster a tad, but people still deem the restaurant worthy of waiting in line for an hour.

Veal goulash at Islam Food

1 Lung Kong Road, Kowloon City

You may not pair Islam with China, but the northwestern part of the nation is largely Muslim, with some 20 million people of that faith. In Kowloon City district, the aptly named Islam Food reflects that region's hearty halal cuisine. Famous is the curry mutton, which is spicy and thick and pungent in the best sense. But even more renowned is what's listed as veal goulash, which is incorrectly translated. It's more like a beef fried bun. Imagine a xiao long bao (the indescribable Shanghai soup dumpling) that is pan-fried instead of steamed and filled with a minced beef patty the size of a hockey puck. Bite into the crispy bun, and an explosion of soup and sauces fills the mouth, full of juicy marinated beef. Warning: The line to get in this cramped restaurant may be ridiculous.

Two locations now of Islam Food: http://www.islamfood.com.hk/en_p2.html I hope to hit one of them.

Also looking to try Yung Kee for some roast goose.
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tyrus wrote:Although this article from today's Trib is about a month too late for me, perhaps someone else could use this info:

[i] Roasted goose at Yung Kee Restaurant

32-40 Wellington St., Central district

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, the first place I demanded the taxi driver take me was Yung Kee. This restaurant, shoehorned within Central's bustling business district, needs no adjectives, descriptors or superlatives. Locals revere it; out-of-towners pack it like a tourist trap. They're here for the goose, which is massaged, marinated, then roasted over a charcoal fire. The glisten of plum sauce, shellacking the tender, luscious, just-fatty-enough meat, induces swoons. Recent business expansions have dulled its "authentic" luster a tad, but people still deem the restaurant worthy of waiting in line for an hour.

FYI, a regular to Hong Kong stated:

Just an update to Yung Kee fans not residing in Hong Kong.

The family breakup is done. The branch who ran the kitchen along with the best helps have opened Kam Kee on Hennesy Rd in Wan Chai. The Michelin star left Yung Kee and followed them.

https://nahmj.wordpress.com/2014/08/08/ ... -wan-chai/
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OK, who would like to take me to Hong Kong. I have my passport!

razbry wrote:OK, who would like to take me to Hong Kong. I have my passport!

Heading there next week. Yay me!

Dave148 wrote:Heading there next week. Yay me!

sorry to miss you, I'll be there this Fri/Sat/Sun. FYI American Airlines is running a double miles promo on flights to Asia if you are flying AA, registration for the promo required prior to travel.

FYI, for a harborside dining experience, I've been getting positive feedback from a number of travelers that Tai O fishing village is well worthwhile to visit & eat at: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see ... houses.jsp
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Sweet Willie wrote:

Dave148 wrote:Heading there next week. Yay me!

sorry to miss you, I'll be there this Fri/Sat/Sun. FYI American Airlines is running a double miles promo on flights to Asia if you are flying AA, registration for the promo required prior to travel.

FYI, for a harborside dining experience, I've been getting positive feedback from a number of travelers that Tai O fishing village is well worthwhile to visit & eat at: http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see ... houses.jsp
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Thanks for the dining tip. I'll add it to my list.

We're flying UA using miles for this trip.

There's a lot to go on in this thread, but as I am headed to HK this spring, are there any seasonal dishes or new spots I should not miss? Also - is there a taxi app? Or would Uber or an Uver clone work if I need an alternative to conventional taxi or subway?

Josephine wrote:? Or would Uber or an Uver clone work if I need an alternative to conventional taxi or subway?

UberX just started in HK last Dec. Uber Black never priced well over local taxis (this was true as of Oct, the last time I was there). Obviously, with the traffic congestion, subway + walking mostly beats taxi if you're aiming to go places near the MRT.

Also, Uber runs in China, but Uber China drivers ALWAYS ALWAYS call your cell before heading over for a pickup. And they do NOT like to call American numbers (obvs, because long distance), so make sure you have affordable calling plan (and you speak Mandarin) if you do not procure a Hong Kong number.

Uber China is bleeding $1B a year fighting local on demand taxi providers and this is benefitting travelers -- but mostly non-American -- greatly. In except the CHEAPEST of the taxi cities (Tianjin), Uber China is fantastic -- wealthier drivers, way nicer vehicles.

TonyC wrote:

Josephine wrote:? Or would Uber or an Uver clone work if I need an alternative to conventional taxi or subway?

UberX just started in HK last Dec. Uber Black never priced well over local taxis (this was true as of Oct, the last time I was there). Obviously, with the traffic congestion, subway + walking mostly beats taxi if you're aiming to go places near the MRT.

Also, Uber runs in China, but Uber China drivers ALWAYS ALWAYS call your cell before heading over for a pickup. And they do NOT like to call American numbers (obvs, because long distance), so make sure you have affordable calling plan (and you speak Mandarin) if you do not procure a Hong Kong number.

Uber China is bleeding $1B a year fighting local on demand taxi providers and this is benefitting travelers -- but mostly non-American -- greatly. In except the CHEAPEST of the taxi cities (Tianjin), Uber China is fantastic -- wealthier drivers, way nicer vehicles.

Thanks, TonyC for the useful info. Looks like the hotel where we are staying in Hong Kong provides a local iPhone to the guests, so Hong Kong is covered. I am not so sure about Shanghai, although apparently there is an Uber English category in the app. So if I am within the typical foreigner radius, I may not need any Mandarin. And one might guess that the Uber English drivers are OK with US phone numbers. I should be able to figure out right away if it works or not. I can always pick up a local phone if necessary. Again, xie xie.

Contacts: HK

Just wanted to thank everyone for all the tips in this thread. I'll be there this coming weekend and I'm so excited.

I never did make my trip upthread as I made a total newbie mistake, my passport had expired. After all the years of international travel and I make that mistake (facepalm ). That said, I'm heading fist week in Jan and plan for sure to hit up a roast goose place, here is an updated article (June 14, 2018) of four places in Hong Kong to get roast goose: https://www.scmp.com/magazines/48hrs/ar ... estaurants

A friend who lives in Hong Kong has been wanting to try some Chinese Halal restaurants, found this list and I think we are heading to Islam Food for dinner one night: https://www.havehalalwilltravel.com/blo ... hong-kong/

Any LTHers have some recent Hong Kong food experiences they care to share?
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