After leaving the Maldives, we flew into Hong Kong for seven nights. After checking into our hotel in Sheung Wan at lunch time, I knew my first meal in Hong Kong was going to be yum cha. I wanted to experience traditional old-school yum cha and had read that Lin Heung Tea House (open since the 1920s) was a good place to visit and it was close by.
The restaurant was absolutely packed. You basically need to find your own table so the two of us wandered up and down with what seemed like the entire room watching, thinking we’d have to arrange a Plan B, until some people waved us over as they left a communal table. We joined two groups of men who watched us sit down and settle in for what seemed like forever. Washed cups, bowls and plates were placed in front of us.
Behind us, an elderly man hurriedly came towards us warning people on either side as he was carrying a very hot and very large tin kettle. Wearing a white smock, he looked like he’d worked at the teahouse most of his life. He was great at his job flitting from table to table and refilling without diners having to ask.
As it was a traditional tea house with trolleys, we waited for one to come by our table. That strategy flew out the window as the first trolley that came near us was soon swarmed by a mob of hungry customers. The dockets that each table receives is taken up to the trolley lady who marks it off with her own stamp hanging from a piece of string on her apron. I remember thinking I was not going to be able to get through.
After the majority of bamboo steamers had gone, and the swarm dissipated, I managed to get this shot of what was left below. I did get up to have a look but there wasn’t anything appealing to me.
Apart from the trolleys, some people came by with trays of goods. One of them was a hot pot of glutinous rice with lap cheong, pork and mushroom. I loved the sauce that seeped into the glutinous rice. It was so moreish.
When the next trolley came near, I grabbed my docket and joined the swarm. I was still quite far back and several locals, who are pros are getting through, pushed their way ahead of me. Mr FPJ told me to get my elbows out but I just couldn’t. I did manage to get two bamboo steamers – fish dumplings and chicken wrapped in tofu skin.
Our last dish was the rice flour rolls stuffed with pork liver, one of the eatery’s prized dishes.
Lin Heung Tea House was chaotic and loud. We seemed to be the only tourists in the whole dining room surrounded by locals. I loved the entire experience. There didn’t seem to be any more food coming and our bellies were nicely satisfied, so we walked around Hong Kong to explore.
That night, I was actually in search of a popular noodle shop to find the door closed and a sign stating it would be shut for a few months (nooo!). There wasn’t anything else on my list of places to try that were nearby so we wandered until we stumbled across Shugetsu, a Japanese ramen joint. Shugetsu has received the Michelin Bib Gourmand for inspector’s favourites for good value so we were lucky to come by it. We walked in to be greeted by all the staff and took our seats on some stools along the counter. It’s a traditional ramen joint set up with a wooden interior and long counters facing the wall or kitchen. I really wanted to try the special scallops shio ramen but as the dish was limited to only 20 orders a day, and it was dinner time, this wasn’t available.
Instead, I ordered the Shugetsu Ramen (HK$89) with pork belly, bamboo, a gooey egg and scallions. Specialising in shoyu broth, I was able to pick either a traditional or a light broth, and I picked the traditional. Shugetsu adds mackerel and sardines to its shoyu giving it a fishy taste but I was pleased to find it wasn’t too strong. It was a tad salty but I honestly didn’t mind.
Mr FPJ ordered the tsukemen (HK$89) where you could pick either 100g / 200g / 300g of ramen. He picked the 200g ramen which was a pretty large serve. This came with three slices of pork belly, a gooey egg and the shoyu broth on the side.
The great thing about tsukemen is that you dip your noodles in the broth at your own pace without worrying about losing the texture and chewiness of the noodles.
The next day, we queued up to take the tram to Victoria Peak, one of the mountains with a viewing platform in Hong Kong. As we got there around 10am, the queue wait time was about 40 minutes (hint: get there early!)
After finally making it to the top and enjoying the views, we tried the famous rainbow cheese toast from Kala Toast (approx HK$26 for a regular). It consisted of different flavoured cheeses so there are hints of tomato, basil, lavendar and a cheddar/mozzarella combination. It was actually really tasty as was the crunchy buttered toast.
The afternoon was spent strolling through the Ladies market in Mong Kok which had souvenirs and trinkets galore.
Dinner that night was at Dim Sum Icon in Tsim Sha Tsui. I had read that it makes some adorable character based dim sum. Except when we got there, the only theme was Sponge Bob Square Pants. Not exactly the cute character I was after, but we made the most of it and decided to just have a snack and go exploring to find something else to eat. Apart from a few dim sum items, there were also burgers, fried appetisers and various drinks.
I ordered the glutinous rice with chicken and fried egg (HK$49). It had a thick fried omelette square on top, and a thin layer of film with Sponge Bob’s print on it. The rice itself had flavour but the portion size was quite small, and the single broccoli and single cherry tomato was a little sad. How is that meant to fill someone up?
We also ordered har gow (prawn dumplings) shaped in little bunnies. These were nice but not the best we’ve had.
On our way back to the hotel in Sheung Wan, we passed by a few people waiting in front of a brightly lit shop in a small unassuming road. On closer inspection, I found out that it was a Hong Kong egg puff/waffle shop called Mammy Pancake. Still a little peckish after a small dinner, I had a closer look at the menu. There was a creative egg puff section with items like pork floss and white sesame, matcha and chocolate, salted seaweed and corn, and organic chestnut.
I decided to just stick with a classic matcha (HK$22). It was warm and had an awesome matcha taste but I found it was a little dry. I should have asked whether I could have added ice cream.
The next day, we headed to Hong Kong Disneyland for the day. As with other theme parks, there were plenty of snack carts available. Our first snack was the caramel popcorn, it was an unmissable sweet scent wafting down the street.
I also tried one of the Mickey Mouse shaped vanilla ice creams covered in chocolate which was pretty simple.
As it was mid- December, a weekday and not yet school holidays, we noticed a few cafes were closed which was disappointing. By lunch time, there was nothing that really tickled my fancy so we stopped in at the Royal Banquet Hall which seemed to have the most variety – dim sum baskets, fried rice, curry, sushi, burgers, pizza and pasta. It seemed to also be the largest food venue with plenty of indoor and outdoor tables.
There were various Mickey Mouse shaped food items such as these colourful jellies on display.
We chose the royal seafood fried rice with scallops combination (HK$135) which came with a soft drink, a vegetarian pizza in the shape of Mickey Mouse’s head (HK$125) combination with a soft drink, and piggy shaped steamed pork buns (HK$35).
Typical of most theme park meals, the food wasn’t amazing. The fried rice was salty but pretty bland and there wasn’t much seafood. The steamed buns had minimal fillings inside with more bun than filling. The pizza wasn’t too bad but you can’t really go wrong with melted cheese. Expensive below average meals, but it gave us fuel to enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
While waiting for the fireworks show at the end of the night, we walked along Main Street which we had hurriedly skipped at the beginning in our rush to get to the best rides. I could smell freshly made waffles being made and we queued up to buy one. These were my favourite snack of the day – soft and fresh with a seriously most tiny bit of whipped cream on the side. A scoop of ice cream would have been great but there was no ice cream option, probably to enable a faster queue and more customer turnaround.
Next up, some fine dining at Amber – Hong Kong’s best restaurant and #7 on Asia’s Top 50 Best restaurants (2018) list…
Recap of eateries around Hong Kong:
- Lin Heung Tea House – 62 Wellington St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
- Shugetsu Ramen: 5 Gough Street, Central, Hong Kong
- Kala Toast – Shop 6, G/F, Cheong Tai Building, 4 Tsuen Hing Path, Tsuen Wan, New Territories, Hong Kong
- Dim Sum Icon – L308, 3/F, The ONE, No.100 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
- Mammy Pancake – 32 Bonham Strand W, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
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