Category: Bouffe / Chow

First off, I’ve no idea of the exact address. My host for the past week, who took me to Lung Kee Wonton (龍記招牌雲吞), said that it was a well-kept secret (according to him, has the best wonton in the whole city) that only Japanese publications have covered so far outside of Hong Kong.

Why are its wontons so special? Because they are all-shrimp. That’s right: just the skins tightly wrapping bits of shrimp. My friend was himself taken there by a Muslim person. Wontons are usually pork and shrimp in the Cantonese tradition (those pork-only multiple-skin layers wontons at Chinese buffets are nothing but pale imitations).

Lung Kee’s wontons are almost like boiled har gow, so much the shrimp flavour was dominant.

Your wontons are served as wonton mein 雲吞麵, so wontons with noodles of your choice, which are the classic egg-based thin noodles , in a clear broth.

Better yet, you may also choose thick noodles, also egg-based. Aside from this, there is also the lou min 撈麵 or dry mix version, which is the wontons on noodles and veggies, without the broth and with oyster sauce on top. It’s slightly more expensive but it’s also for a slightly larger portion. So for the second serving, I had a combination of these two options. 🙂

Lung Kee is located somewhere on Carnarvon Road, across from The Masterpiece in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon side. You may find another restaurant of the same name in Jordan, but that’s not the same one (pictures of its wontons also don’t match)… So, good luck finding it!

In the meanwhile, here is the menu.

Every time I come to Hong Kong, I notice some new “alternate” flavour of a familiar product. One time, it was McDonald’s ice cream sundae served with red bean or mango sauce (in place of strawberry or chocolate, which are also available). This time, I was eating at a Japanese chain restaurant called Yoshinoya (吉野家) and one of the dessert options for HKD$3 was… tofu ice cream, distributed by Nestlé!

It looks a lot like a vanilla ice cream. Now, what does it taste like? I would say that it was as if cow milk/cream was replaced with soy milk. So, maybe it tastes like tofu. In a land where tofu is considered as much a dessert (as doufu fa or 豆腐花), the flavour name does not sound weird at all. The other available flavour? Black sesame! (zi ma woo or 芝麻糊, the base of a well-known Cantonese dessert)

However, the one time I checked in a grocery store for these flavours, I did not find any of them under the Nestlé brand…

On the same night that we visited 365 Hennessy Rd, we followed our hosts to the other side of the city to Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon.

What was the occasion? The occasion was pot rice, also called po chai fan 煲仔飯 in Cantonese. Po chai fan is rice in a clay pot served with various types of meat, vegetable, seafood or condiments on top of it. In cities like Montreal, pot rice can sometimes be ordered in a Cantonese restaurant, but usually requires too much work to be considered a typical dish that people order. In Hong Kong, pot rice can be the restaurant’s specialty, as it is the case for 四季煲仔飯 Four Seasons Pot Rice.

You can think of pot rice as a style of Chinese bibim bap, with a different range of ingredients. The pot is sizzling hot and the rice and meat are still cooking when it is brought to your table. You should then add in some soy sauce and let it cook for a few minutes. While you are waiting, it is a good idea to order some side dishes, such as fried veggies or an oyster omelette:

Fried tung choi with foo yu sauce

Oysters omelette

The two girls who brought us here told us that the location used to be a family mom-and-pop hamburger restaurant. The current tenant has done nothing about the decoration: it’s simply a large hall covered in white tiles, with fluorescent lighting and huge fans blowing.

Just like La Banquise has twenty or more types of poutine, you can choose from an endless number of “toppings” for your rice at Four Seasons Pot Rice. My friends had a variety of chicken, chicken feet and other meat, while I went for a classic chicken with Chinese mushrooms.

The price for the single pot is also ridiculously low at $HKD22 for “regular flavours” (see menu), like combinations of two of Chinese sausage, salty fish, sliced pork, liver sausage and chicken.

46-58 Arthur Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon (map)

I am not generally a fan of dim sum or yum cha, the terms usually used interchangeably to describe a Chinese brunch popularized by the Cantonese (and exported to the West by them). Dim sum literally means “bite heart” or “touch the heart” says Wikipedia, while Yum cha literally means “drink tea” and describe the activity of relaxing around a cup of tea (and eating dim sum, sometimes).

I’ve typically only eaten in large dim sum halls, here in Hong Kong as well as back home in Montreal. In Hong Kong, family would bring me to restaurants with overly nice decors. However, my tastes tend to range around the “beau, bon, pas cher”, a French expression from home that basically means “nice, good, inexpensive”.

叁去壹(點心粉麵飯) = Sam Hui Yat = Three Goes One

Steamers

From the tram stop in Sai Ying Pun (西營盤), we walked only a few minutes to get to 叁去壹 (Sam Hui Yat – something like Three Goes One). Located at the very beginning of Pokfulam Road (corner with First St), which eventually leads to the University of Hong Kong, some 200m up the hill, the restaurant is in fact an unassuming eatery, with no more than a dozen tables for about 30 clients at once. It was a far cry from what I imagined, perhaps because I’ve always been used to being served dim sum in large restaurants (here in Hong Kong, restaurants with carts also virtually don’t exist anymore).

I originally horribly missed my first occasion to eat here with Chinese speakers and on the time that I actually went, I was only with my non-Chinese-speaking friend. Why is that so important? Because there is not a single English character in the entire restaurant! Unable to get a good hold of the menu, I resorted to asking the waiter, who was very patient and cordial in helping me out. After listening to the chef’s suggestions, I decided to go for sure bets, namely siumai (燒賣 – seasoned ground pork in wrapper), har gow (蝦餃 – shrimp dumpling) and steamed black-bean spare ribs (豉汁排骨). It’s also a surcharge of $HKD3 for tea per person.

For the record, the siumai was juicy inside and the har gow’s shrimp crunched right under one’s teeth and the ribs were very tender. Don’t feel intimidated by the “minimalistic” setting, because the food is in fact excellent.

At the front of the restaurant was the “steamers station”, where the chef (the guy in a red sleeveless shirt) presumably steamed orders of dumplings and other dim sum. The order came very quickly, as you’d expect for a diner. To pay, don’t necessarily expect the waiter to give you the bill: just hand him the money as if you knew the total price and he will count the number of steamers (they are invariably $HKD9) or lotus leaves that you have spread out in front of you. It’s also a surcharge of $HKD3 for tea per person.

Menu (click for translation notes on Flickr)

Of course, the menu is all in Chinese, and there is another menu in the restaurant that is for non-dim sum dishes, such as fried rice and noodles. Aside from those aforementioned, Sam Hui Yat has a complete lineup of dim sum classics: fong zao (鳳爪 – chicken feet), chiu chow fun go (潮州粉果 – Chaozhou-style dumplings), char siu pao (叉燒包 – pork bun), lo mai gai (糯米雞 – lotus leaf chicken rice) and a variety of cheong fun (腸粉 – rice rolls).

Har Gow (蝦餃)

Shaomai (燒賣)

It is to be noted that the restaurant closes at 2:30PM in the afternoon. To get there, the easiest way is to take the tram going west from Central or Sheung Wan MTR (take the trams going to Whitty Street Depot or Kennedy Town). Then, walk up the slope on Western St., until you get to Pokfulam Road.

11 Pokfulam Road, Sai Ying Pun, Sheung Wan (map)