Cheung Fat Kitchen, Hong Kong…the food here is worth the guilt

I am well eaten (and equally well travelled) and still managed to come a cropper in a review of Cheng Fat Kitchen, a cheap, boisterous restaurant in Hong Kong’s North Point. The food is really nice, and really distinctive, reliably tasty — and cheap

Everything about the char-grilled beef short ribs (thick cut, house special pepper sauce) is great.  Meaty, juicy, lick-your-fingers clean amazing. Save room for some of the best steamed clam with wine & lotus leaf. Don’t leave without trying the sweet and sour pork (sauce served separately). There are thousands of Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, but few have sweet and sour pork like this. Savoury and crunchy, sweet and tangy: it’s addictive stuff. Treat with caution.

Your best bet here is to come with a big group of friends and order as much as you can. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Mammy Pancakes, Hong Kong…good but not great

Egg waffle also known as eggettes or egg puffs or egg cakes or bubble waffle is a popular snack in Hong Kong. It’s like what macarons are to Paris or what biscotti is to Italy. Nobody loves egg waffles like Hongkongers do, so much so that there’s an egg waffle festival held in Causeway Bay.

Mammy creates ton loads of flavours like chocolate chip, pork floss, seaweed, white sesame, matcha, cheese and everyone’s most / least favourite salted egg yolk. They are airy and light, super crispy on the outside, and warm and fluffy inside. It is a Michelin recommended snack shop.

Decently nice but I wouldn’t waste 30 minutes of my life queueing for it. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Tai Hing, Hong Kong…the most unpleasant thing I could have ever put in my mouth

Let me be clear: what is supposed to be highly rated Cantonese roast meat in Hong Kong, turned out to the most unpleasant thing I could have ever put in my mouth.

To comprehend the complex awfulness of this Tai Hing meal, think of the actor Rowan Atkinson, in his famous “Steak tartare” skit, contorts his face a thousand different ways while choking down a grayish patty of raw meat. The initial flavor was bland. It was dry and hard. I felt my eyes water up as I chewed. I tried to swallow. I felt my entire GI tract prepare to purge. And then I regained my composure and pulled an Atkinson, which is to say: I spat the nasty bits into a tissue paper and almost stuffed it into my laptop backpack.

Decidedly way below average. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Tsui Wah, Shenzhen…failed to impress me

Tsui Wah is the Shenzhen outpost of a revered restaurant of the same name in Hong Kong. Let’s cut to the chase: this is the place if you want to visit a giant, super-sized neon version of Hong Kong’s humble coffee shop cafes (called a cha chaan teng, literally a tea food hall).

The dishes are pure Hong Kong comfort food, an eclectic and inexpensive assortment of Cantonese, Asian, and Western fare prepared for the Chinese palate. Start your meal with a local favorite—milk tea—followed, perhaps Lamb Chop Curry, King Prawns in XO Sauce with Tossed Noodles and wonton with fish roe in fish soup. And you’ll be missing out if you don’t try the famous crispy bun topped with sweet condensed milk.

Although there wasn’t much wrong, it failed to impress me. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Super super, Hong Kong…They won’t win any awards

There’s a reason wonton soup became one of the backbones of the Hong Kong menu. Beyond being simply delicious, it is a taste that crosses borders.

This trip to Super Super relegated my perspective of beef noodle soup to hard beef balls, tough-as-nails beef tripe and supposedly premium beef brisket dropped into a bowl of soup. However, I got to say that the soup is light and doesn’t just taste like something that came from a can, and the shrimp wontons are slippery and thin and filled with small chunks of shrimp folded into the filling.

The space is nothing too notable, but it’s a calm, not overly cramped room as you would expect in Hong Kong.

It’s not the best deal around. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Dragon-I, Hong Kong…cream of Hong Kong’s club scene

Whether you’re looking to meet someone new, dance to the biggest DJs in the world or just want to have the kind of legendary night you’ll keep secret until the day you die, you’ll find it all in Hong Kong.

Dragon-I is an amazing uber-chic club with a stunning setting. A dining area known as Red Room, a dance floor and bar space with New York-style booth seating called Playground. It doubles as a modern restaurant and the food is surprisingly good. The crowd is those that know and those that want to find out.

Dragon-I is the cream of Hong Kong’s club scene ensuring a great night out in style. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Tai Cheong Bakery, Singapore…very difficult to limit yourself to just one

This beautiful delicacy has no equal in the world. Only the Hong Kong or Portuguese egg tarts can inspire such passion.

Egg tarts are found on every street corner of Hong Kong and Macau. The ones at Tai Cheong Bakery is reputed to be the best in the country. In Singapore, this flavoursome egg-enriched shortcrust pastry provides textural contrast with the wonderfully smooth, creamy custard. It’s a very eggy treat.

The tarts are at their addictive best when they’ve cooled down slightly but are still warm. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Maxim’s Jade Garden, Hong Kong…desirable gastronomic option at HKIA

As the financial and now much-vaunted culinary capital of Asia, with one restaurant for every 600 people, Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita concentrations of restaurants in the world. Amongst all these restaurants, without a doubt, Cantonese food in Hong Kong rocks.

Maxim’s Jade Garden (located at the Departures Check-in Hall Mezzanine, Terminal 1 of Hong Kong International Airport) serves authentic Cantonese cuisine showcasing the best dim sum and local Guangdong dishes. Their shatteringly crisp baked barbeque pork pastry buns beats your everyday hamburger at its own game. It yields a super moist, fluffy interior and I would dare say, offers the ultimate bun experience.

With aeroplane food often a disappointment, Maxim’s Jade Garden is a desirable gastronomic option to spice up your journey. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Yung Kee, Hong Kong…eye-wateringly expensive.

For every awesome restaurant in Hong Kong, there are also a good number of food establishments that make me want to roll my eyes. This temple to charcoal roasted goose is unashamedly, perhaps reassuringly, eye-wateringly expensive.

The quintessentially Cantonese goose comes full of flavor with glossy, lacquered crispy wafer-thin skin, a light chew, and a slightly citrussy mandarin-peel high note throughout the juicy, gamey meat. The char siew (roast pork) meat was so soft could almost feel it melting on my tongue but the sauce lacked flavor.

Honestly, there are many underrated, inexpensive places to grab a bite to eat in HK– just take my word for it. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…

Bombay Dreams, Hong Kong…I devour everything, and all but lick the plate clean

Reviewing Indian food is particularly tricky: not only are there countless regional variations, but their styles also range widely from dishevelled curry houses to high-end Michelin-starred spots.

Housed on the 4th floor in a building on Wyndham Street, Hong Kong Michelin Gourmand 2017 Bombay Dreams makes an immediate impression. The food has no problem living up to it either; high quality ingredients and intricate spicing lead to elegantly presented dishes that boast pleasantly contrasting flavours and textures.

Among the best choices: sweet potato cheese roll, samosa, chicken with yogurt and cream. The tender melt-in-your-mouth galouti lamb is the greatest hit, so that I devour everything, and all but lick the plate clean.

Be prepared for large prices and less large portions, though. This is the true truth as I say it as it is…