Hong Kong Trip - Part I

Hong Kong is one of my favourite cities to visit! I've been making the trip here nearly every year for the Hong Kong 7s since 1999, missing one year due to SARS and missed another two years when the Singapore 7s were on and my friends were too busy organising it to make it for the HK7s.

The trip here for the HK7s gives me the chance to do all my favourite things - eat and shop... and I get to watch some fantastic rugby!

This is the first time that I've been there since I started my food blog so I decided to try out some places that I've read about on other people's blogs, and also take this opportunity to tell everyone about my favourite eating places in HK.

Rong Yuan
I was first introduced to this place years ago when my friend, Jade, brought us here to eat... and what a great recommendation! I've been here every single time I've been back to HK. If you're looking for street-side stalls, it doesn't get any more authentic than this - this place is located in an alleyway, and only locals eat here...

What is good here is the Beef Brisket Noodles (ngau lan meen) HK$17 (S$3.30) :

You can also order it with hor fun (ngau lan hor)... but what totally kicks ass at this stall is the chilli. In HK, chilli is eaten out of the spoon - scoop some chilli into your spoon and dip the food into the chilli before taking a bite. Gets kinda tiring holding the spoon throughout the whole meal so the alternative is dunking all the chilli straight into the soup. The chilli is a bit on the salty side, but it's seriously good...

The other good thing to order here is the Wanton Noodles (wanton meen) or Wanton Hor Fun (wanton hor) HK$17 (S$3.30) :

I don't have the exact address but here are the directions : take exit E2 at Mongkok MTR station and you will see Body Shop on your left when you get out of the MTR station. There is a Hui Lau San (the mango dessert shop) diagonally across from the Body Shop and this stall is at the alley just behind the Hui Lau San. You *must* check out this place if you are ever in HK!

Street Food
Before this trip, my favourite street food was Egg Balls HK$10 (S$1.90). I would always buy one to eat while I walked from Causeway Bay to the Hong Kong Stadium. Also a great snack to have while you're shopping :)



But on this trip I discovered something new - Spicy Fishballs (Yu Dan, Lat) HK$6-7 (about S$1.30). For that price, you get one stick with about 6 fishballs. The best one I had was at the street stall near Rong Yuan (see above for directions) - the one here is so spicy that my mouth takes a good half hour to recover, but it's so good that I can't help but eat more of it despite the discomfort! My mouth is watering just thinking about it now...



Another one of my favourites is the Deep Fried Squid Tentacles HK$10 (S$1.90). Also a great snack to have while you're shopping :)




On this trip, I finally decided to give Smelly Tofu (chow dow fu) a try. The one from this stall used to be really smelly - approaching it, I would wonder if the smell was coming from a drain - but for some reason this time it wasn't that bad... and as expected it wasn't smelly when I bit into it. It was pretty much just normal deep fried tofu, a bit of a let-down really... but maybe I will change my mind when I try a really good one.

Hui Lau Shan
I love my mango desserts so Hui Lau Shan is one of my favourite things about Hong Kong. I patronised the stall a few times when it was open in Singapore but it just wasn't the same and was considerably more expensive.

My standard choice is the Mango with Sago and Pomelo (lup lup mong gor sai) HK$20 (S$3.90). Unfortunately I didn't plan my eating too well and only managed to go to Hui Lau Shan once this trip :(

More Hong Kong eats to come in the next few posts!