Delicious Hong Kong

MILLIE: Karla and I flew to Hong Kong for a three-in-one celebration with our Why Not? friends. It was nonstop laughing and eating, which started on Chinese New Year. Arriving past noon, we checked in at the Conrad Hotel in Pacific Place and our room had a fabulous view of both Victoria Peak and Hong Kong Harbour. We had a late lunch at Thai Basil at Pacific Place mall with my best friend Verne and her husband Hector. The golden fried soft-shell crabs were so crunchy and delicious, we should have ordered a second one! The phad Thai was superb and so was the duck curry and roti bread. After lunch, we split ways: Karla and Hector went off to Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon while Verne and I checked out the shops in the mall and had coffee at the Conrad’s lobby lounge when we both got tired from walking.

We had originally planned to meet up with the group at Yung Kee restaurant but it was closed for Chinese New Year, so Luscious suggested dinner at Full Moon at the Elements mall in Kowloon. Had we all known how much walking we’d have to do, we would have taken a cab instead of the MTR!

Verne and I met up with birthday celebrant Ramon Tan of Classic Savory and Photoline fame for cocktails at Wildfire Bistro in the Elements shopping mall in Kowloon, while the rest of the crazy bunch were either shopping or watching the fireworks. Dinner to celebrate Ramon’s birthday was at the Full Moon Chinese restaurant in the same mall. We realized Luscious had misspelled it as Fool Moon when she sent us test messages and it brought about nonstop teasing and laughter. The place was so packed that we were lucky to have landed a table. For good luck, Ramon ordered two noodle dishes and fried prawn balls (gold and round for more good luck), stir-fried vegetables with taupe or fresh bean curd and sweet-sour fish.

Renowned for its roast goose and roast duck: Karla Reyes outside Hong Kong’s 70-year-old Yung Kee restaurant

KARLA: When dessert time came, my eyes lit up as our favorite Tong Yuen was served. Tong Yuen are bite-size glutinous rice-flour balls with sweet filling. The chewy exterior somehow reminds me of the Japanese mochi minus the ice cream filling. On Wikipedia it says that a dish related to this is the Philippine bilo-bilo, which we add to ginataan. Mom and I fight over the bilo-bilo all the time.

The different fillings of Tong Yuen we’ve tried are red bean paste, ground sesame seeds, chopped peanuts and our favorite, ground lotus seeds. Tong Yuen is served with soup — usually almond soup. The version without soup is called Masachi, which is often filled with chopped peanuts. According to Chinese tradition, Tong Yuen is commonly eaten during the Chinese winter solstice festival. It also symbolizes “reunion,” which is why it is also served during family gatherings, reunions, weddings and the like, to signify togetherness.

MILLIE: Lunch the next day was at Peking Garden in the Pacific Place mall with Verne and Hector since it was more convenient for us. I immediately noticed its upgraded interior and features with its fine linen and bone china from Villeroy & Boch, no less! We wanted to have Peking duck, but it would take 40 minutes so we opted to order selections a la carte: vegetable rolls in bean curd wrapper with pine nuts, for starters. From the dim sum menu we ordered xiao long bao (pork dumplings with soup) and it was so delicious, we ordered another basket. The delightful find was the deep-fried prawns in sweet and chili sauce!

There was no room for dessert but shopping was in order, so we all headed to Central. We met with the rest of the group at the Landmark three hours later and the plan was to enjoy sunset at The Peak, but we were told we would have to queue two hours for the cable car ride, so we scrapped the idea and instead went for snacks at the Landmark atrium café.

KARLA: After our merienda at the Landmark atrium café, we walked towards Lan Kwai Fong for happy hour. But when we got there, we realized that a lot of the bars were still closed, probably because of Chinese New Year. So the group split up since some wanted Japanese ramen at Ippudo at Central Square, while Mom, T. Verne and I went to Lux Bar for sunset tapas and happy hour. Tito Hector went shopping and came back hungry. I accompanied him across the street to Ebeneezer’s for lamb and chicken kebabs served in Lebanese pita bread, while I ordered the lamb biryani with salad. Tito Hector enjoyed his order so much that he actually ordered a second one, saying that he hadn’t had a shawarma that good in Manila. So this is definitely marked as a must for our upcoming trips to Hong Kong. 

MILLIE: The crazy bunch met up at the Conrad for a mega laugh session and around 10 p.m. we all went to Dan Ryan’s at the mall and had more drinks and pica-pica like nachos, chicken wings and strips, and quesadillas. If you’ll notice, the Why Not bunch never stops eating!

KARLA: The next day, a late lunch was planned for 3 p.m. at Tim Ho Wan at the IFC Mall in Central, reputed to have one Michelin star for its signature baked sweet crusted pastry buns with pork barbecue. We waited for an hour and a half just to get a table. The waiting area had no chairs, so some of us sat on the floor while others bravely stayed on their feet. I was getting hungry and distracted myself by reading a book. But then I couldn’t concentrate, so I bought finger-shaped gyoza rolls from the shop next door as we were famished! Mom bought these awesome cheese balls from the grocery next to Tim Ho Wan.

Our dim sum lunch consisted of steamed beef balls with bean curd, traditional steamed fresh shrimp dumplings, steamed pork dumplings, deep-fried dumplings filled with meat, steamed pork balls topped with sea moss, dried oysters and pig’s tongue, steamed rice rolls stuffed with barbecued pork and, of course, the signature dish, baked pastry buns with pork barbecue. We were so tempted to take our time eating since we had such a long wait, but felt guilty in the end. So we said our goodbyes as half the group was leaving for Manila that evening.

MILLIE: We celebrated Valentine on our last day in Hong Kong over lunch at Yung Kee restaurant on Wellington Street in Central. It is famous for its roast duck and roast goose and we learned that it was celebrating 70 years! Since we forgot to reserve a table, we had to wait an hour before we could be seated. But it was worth the wait! Ramon did the ordering and chose the barbecue platter, which consisted of the barbecue pork and the roast goose. We also had crispy fried noodles with mixed meats, a plateful of steamed spinach and prawns with XO sauce plus yummy Yang Chow fried rice!

What a way to celebrate, happy that we came to Hong Kong. We truly enjoyed the camaraderie, the good weather and left, not with a sigh, but a big burp!

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To savor the featured restaurants when in Hong Kong, visit:

Thai Basil - Shop LG 001, Pacific Place, Admiralty, Hong Kong (852) 2537-4682

Full Moon – 1 Austin Road West, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon (852) 2955-5113

Tim Ho Wan – Concession Hok 12A, Level 1, MTR Hong Kong Station, Central (852) 2332-3078, luckytim09@yahoo.com.hk

Yung Kee Restaurant – 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong (852) 2522-1624, www.yungkee.com.hk.

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie and Karla Reyes.