Lamma Mandarin, Lamma Island

Basically, the purpose of my trip to Hong Kong for my electives was for food. Thankfully, there are another 2 elective students here (from London) who came here to travel and sightsee. All I had to do was to tag along with them for the travel and sightseeing bit, and just eat whatever that comes along.

So last weekend we took a ferry to Lamma Island (Hong Kong has a number of outlying islands and Lamma Island was one of them). We landed at one pier, then did the 1.5 hour walk to the other pier and had a seafood dinner there. The walk was pretty interesting (up the mountain and down again), and we dragged it over 3 hours so that we'd reach the other side in time for dinner then ferry back to the main Hong Kong Island.

It was good because I did not have to make any travel plans; all I did was just follow along like an obedient puppy. =)

Lamma Mandarin is one (actually I think it might be the only one) of the restaurants recommended in my friend’s guidebook, so of course we had to go there. We did a set meal for 3 for a total of HKD330 (it was actually a set meal for 4 for HKD380, but they were quite flexible).

No photo of the restaurant, unfortunately. =(

Fresh steamed prawns. Supposed to be dipped in chilli and soy sauce. Neither of them ate prawn heads so I had them all.

Steamed scallops with lots of garlic, spring onions, and flavour. Very tasty. Yes, I also ordered a bowl of rice to go with it, and no they did not take my rice away before the fish arrived (inside joke).

The fish. It looks dead but is actually steamed. They did not fancy the head, so I had that too.

Deep fried squid. Anything deep fried is generally very good.

Fried rice with fairly large prawns in them. To make you full if you’re not already.

And the vegetables. I love stir fried veges.

Very good food and very good company. It was the perfect ending to a very well planned trip. I do have some pictures of the island walk, but that might or might not appear somewhere some other time.

Australian Diary Co.

Australian Diary Co. (not sure if its really from Australia) looks to be one of your typical char chan teng’s around Hong Kong that serve their Hong Kong style breakfast all day. Basically a variety of eggs cooked different ways with some form of toast and some form of meat (ham luncheon meant, sausage, etc), macaroni in soup with meat as well, milk teas, coffee, stuff like that. What’s so atypical about Australian Diary Co. is that its really famous for its scrambled eggs and even has a facebook group dedicated to their eggs as well.

And I love eggs.

This place was recommended to me by my friend who said that its a very popular place amongst the locals and there always is a queue lining up into the place. A quick look on the internet confirmed what she said, and also mentioned that due to the long queues, the waiters in the restaurant are actually quite rude and chase you away as soon as you finish your meal.

So feeling slightly apprehensive (the menus were all in chinese as well), I took a bus to Jordan, got off and quickly found Parkes Street, and walked to the restaurant, prepared to line up and wait. Surprisingly there wasn’t a queue at all, and I got a place immediately (sharing with 2 other individuals who were there each by themselves as well). The waiter was also quite friendly and I’m pretty sure was telling me a joke, but as I did not understand what he saying, I nodded and gave him a smile. Looking around me, I could see a variety of dishes that people were having, from sunny side up eggs with sausages, fried eggs (not sunny side up) and ham, scrambled eggs and ham sandwiches, to macaroni soups with luncheon meat.

I described to the waiter that I wanted scrambled eggs (chao dan) in between 2 slices of bread in cantonese, and he took that to mean that I wanted a scambled egg sandwich, which is exactly what I wanted. I also asked for some form of milk, which they were apparently famous for, and thankfully he knew what I was referring to immediately. Hot or cold, he asked. Hot, I replied.

The milk arrived first. Its like steamed eggs, except that its milk. Like the texture of the egg in egg tarts. It was a new thing for me, and was fairly good as well.

And then the star of the show arrived; their scrambled eggs.

This picture just does not do the eggs justice. It was soft and fluffy eggs, perfectly seasoned (maybe a tad bit saltier; but just a tiny tiny tiny bit, which is the way I like it!) cradled in between 2 slices of pillow soft bread. Deelicious!

Yummmmm. Just look at the eggs. A bit yellowy, but blame my camera for that.

The milk and the sandwich came up to HKD31.

I also found out that at different times of the day, the eggs comes with different forms of bread. Later in the afternoon/evening, you get the eggs in a sandwich, like what you see above. Earlier in the day (breakfast/lunch), they come with a slice of toast.

I liked the place so much that I went back a week later and got the eggs with toast.

It was so good that I had 2 of these. HKD13 each.

If you are an egg lover, then you simply have to come to this place.

Squid balls and seaweed hor fun

I met up with my friends in Causeway Bay 2 weekends ago, and had dinner at this stall that was famous for their hor fun with squid balls and seaweed. I don’t have a picture of the shop, and I also don’t know the name of the shop.

There were actually a lot of other options up on the wall, but everything was written in chinese, and although they had pictures I had no idea what they were. All 6 of my friends ordered this so I ordered this as well (I’m not usually a fan of hor fun soup).

It looks pretty bland, and actually tasted pretty bland (even the soup; I expected the soup to have more taste, but it was actually quite tasteless) that I was looking for soy sauce to go with it (there was no soy sauce available, only vinegar, chilli oil, and sesame oil).

And then I dug around in the bowl a bit and found that there was quite a lot of seaweed in it.

Eaten with the seaweed, the noodles tasted way better. I guess it was probably intended to be this way though. Also, the squid balls tasted very fresh as well. Much better than the squid balls that I buy from the Asian grocery in Melbourne.

I didn’t like it very much, but I would actually go back again if given the chance (probably not though).

I don’t think I appreciated it enough the first time round, and a second go would probably do it more justice.

Lap Mei Fan

I enjoyed the Rice Pot at Temple Street Market so much, that when I met up with my friends (from Australia) the next day in Causeway Bay, and they ate in some Hong Kong restaurant that sold steak with supermarket french fries and mixed veges (peas, carrots, and corn), that I decided to not eat there and went by myself to this other restaurant that I walked past earlier in the day instead.

I cannot read chinese, so I don’t know what its called.

Basically, they sold rice in pots as well, but steamed (rather than cooked over charcoal, I think).

And I got this for HKD38. Not that cheap, but way cheaper than the steak at HKD90.

That’s random preserved meat on the rice. The 2 different kinds of chinese sausage. and the 3rd meat is pork I think, not too sure. Again, soy sauce on top (but no lid to cover it with this time).

It also comes with a bowl of soup.

A very excellent meal again. Way better than crappy steak.

I love rice in pots (just not in KL).

Insides of cows and pigs, Temple Street Market

This is the other part of the meal that I mentioned in the Rice Pot post at Hing Kee Restaurant.

Basically, as we were walking into the restaurant, on the opposite side of the road, I noticed that there was a crowd gathering around a small lighted area in the generally quite dark alleyway that the restaurant was in.

I thus walked closer to have a look at what was going on.

Now, there are plenty of similar places in Hong Kong that sells these things. Cow and pig organs on skewers, boiled in either hot water or some soy sauce broth/stock thing. This was the first one though, that actually had a crowd gathering around it and also a queue lining up for it. Therefore, it must be good. Even my friend and her family confirmed that this stall is generally better than the other stalls out there, although they could not give me a reason why.

Maybe because its situated in a dark unlighted alleyway, in a stall that has no signboards whatsoever.

Either way, I love this stuff.

And thankfully, my friend’s family did too.

Many people look at it and go “Eww”, but I can assure you that its good, albeit and acquired taste.

I don’t really understand why pomelo skins come together with the pork skins. Not that you can tell them apart by looking at them anyway. Maybe they want to cheat buyers.

So I ate quite a bit of this before the Rice Pots arrived, and it did get quite yucky after a while.

I don’t think I’ll have anymore organs while I’m in Hong Kong.