Yung Kee Restaurant started out over 50 years ago in 1942 from a stall in Kown Yuen West Street. Mr. Kam Shui Fai was renowned for his Roast Goose, which has eventually become an acclaimed restaurant heralding many awards and recognition such as in 1968 as one of the Top Fifteen Restaurants in the world by Fortune Magazine (at that time, the only Chinese restaurant on the list).

Yung Kee

As you can probably tell, Yung Kee Restaurant is always rather busy. Even though it takes up several floors, it is advisable to go early to beat the crowd. (more…)

Mak’s Noodle is a traditional Cantonese restaurant in Central, Hong Kong. It’s Chinese name literally means “Mak’s Stingy Noodles” which are often referred to by the small portions that are served. Some say that they serve it in smaller portions so that the noodles do not expand too much in the soupy broth (however, it is still served in a small bowl, so I’m not sure if it can absorb that much broth anyway). Mak’s Noodle has been serving traditional wonton noodles for many years and it seems as though they are still going strong. This family run business goes back three generations, of which, the wonton noodles were even served to Chiang Kai-Shek.

Mak's Noodle

The noodles and hot broth are served together (sometimes in Malaysia, they are served separately). The soup base used in wonton noodles typically consist of pork bones, dried grounded flounder and dried shrimp roe. As with many of the shops serving these noodles, the dumplings made use of fresh prawns.

Scrumptuous Noodles (with some wonton hidden below)

We also ordered another type of dumpling, shiu jiao, which typically has a mixture of prawns, chicken or pork, spring onions, black fungus and mushrooms. We also had a taste of their tender beef brisket which is definitely a recommendation to also try.

More dumplings!

Beef Brisket

Mak’s Noodle Ltd.

Ground Floor, 77 Wellington Street,

Central,

Hong Kong

Tel: 2854 3810

Opening Hours: 1100-2000

Along one of the small streets in Tsim Sha Tsui, we stumbled across an old man with his cart selling roasted chestnuts. The aroma was rich and we could smell it from a distance. We were drawn towards the scent and thought that it would be nice to have something warm as the weather started to get more chilly towards the later part of the afternoon.

Chestnuts, typically found in more temperate climates, have a hard outer shiny brown hull which is not consumed. After roasting and cracked open, this leaves a lightly coloured sweet treat. Roasting the chestnuts with hot coal in the large wok gives the chestnuts an earthy flavour with a soft texture, very similar to that of a baked sweet potato.

Besides roasting, other forms of consuming the chestnuts include candied form, boiled, steamed, grilled, roasted or even fried. For special occasions, they can also be used as ingredients for stuffing other foods like turkey.

This was quite a nice treat to have whilst exploring the city on foot.

Ahh, the fresh smell of roasted chestnuts on a cold day

This restaurant is one of Stan’s recommendations that he suggested for Japanese food. Itamae-Sushi has a few outlets strewn across Hong Kong such as in Hong Kong International Airport, Granville Road in Tsim Sha Shui, Mongkok or Kowloon. We were walking around in Causeway Bay and the timing was just right for lunch.

Itamae-Sushi Restaurant

They’ve even prepared a step-by-step guide on how to eat sushi! It’s easy as 1-2-3 and I would think that the third step isn’t too hard to follow:

Easy as 1-2-3

If you’re sitting at the sushi train, these are the prices for each of the colour coded plates.

Colour coded

To start things off, we decided to go with the California rolls. As usual, you can’t go too wrong with it, especially if they use fresh ingredients. We also had the egg sushi.

California Rolls

Egg Sushi

Of course, we had to try some of the wide variety of sushi that was available. From the pictures below, you can see that they were very generous with the fresh slices of salmon and tuna (unlike a lot of the sushi places that we see here in Kuala Lumpur). You can’t even see much of the rice under the long strips of salmon! The plate of tuna sushi was about HK$25.

Salmon Sushi

Tuna Sushi

The Eel Spring Roll (HK$25) was labelled under the “Creative Sushi”  and dressed with mayonnaise sauce, it was definitely an out of the ordinary sushi as it was wrapped in a soft rice roll.

Eel Spring Roll

Below are the Fried Soft Shelled Crab and Squid.

Fried Soft Shelled Crab

Squid

I have to say that the Grilled Salmon was done very well. Using very fresh sashimi grade salmon, it was grilled so that it was slightly charred, yet leaving the meat soft and juicy to the point that the meat almost melts in your mouth.

Grilled Salmon

The Saga Japanese Beef Roll is also under the “Creative Sushi” category and having seared the outer layer of the beef, the middle portion is left raw, resulting in a tender beef sushi.

Saga Japanese Beef Roll

A word of caution. During peak hours, you may need to wait for quite some time, so it would be advisable to go during off-peak hours (some have waited for over an hour to get a table). Fortunately, we went later in the afternoon after the crowd had gone so there was no waiting time.

Itamae-Sushi Restaurant

Shop 1-3 G/F., Excelsior Plaza, Yee On Building,

24-26 East Point Road,

Causeway Bay,

Hong Kong

Tel: 2110 8504

Welcome to the first of a five part series of Feedmelah.com! Travels to Hong Kong. In a recent trip to Hong Kong, we are exploring International cuisines and have come across a few restaurants to try.

Whilst searching for a place to eat after viewing the Symphony of Lights (which I suggest is a must-go for first time visitors to Hong Kong), we stumbled across this Michelin recommended restaurant.

House of Jasmine Restaurant

The Menu Outside the Restaurant

This was the Michelin Menu for four people (the price was almost about to hit the four digit mark too); tempting isn’t it? However, we decided not to splurge straight away and to sample the other dishes that they had to offer, of which some were on listed as recommended on the menu.

The Michelin Menu

This upmarket-aimed restaurant has an indoor seating area as shown below as well as an outdoor dining area whereby you can take in the views while having a drink.

Inside the Restaurant

For starters, each table is served is with some snacks of peas and nuts which was slightly sweet and salted.

Starters

Sticking to the familiar dishes, we decided to order a sweet-and-sour pork with pomegranate dish and a crispy barbecued suckling piglet . I found the sauce of the sweet-and-sour pork quite starchy and sticky though the additional of pomegranate balls was a substitute for the usual ingredient of pineapples. The suckling pig was also done rather well. With a crispy skin as you would expect, there was also some meat which was quite salty under the skin (sometimes, the restaurants in Malaysia would typically only serve the skin).

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pomegranate Balls

Crispy Barbecued Suckling Pig

The diced beef with crispy garlic was the best dish of the night that we had. A simple dish, the beef was lightly seasoned and salted which a texture that was very tender and cooked till perfection.

Diced Beef with Crispy Garlic

The steamed tofu and brown fungus in bamboo pith roll was one of the recommendations. It came with a side of asparagus and kei chi (wolfberries) in a thick sticky sauce that was quite bland. To me, the other dishes fared a lot better.

Steamed Tofu and Brown Fungus in Bamboo Pith Rolls

This is their wok fried eggplant and conpoy in crabmeat sauce. The conpoy (dried seafood such as scallops) mixed with crabmeat sauce went very well with the fried eggplant.

Wok Fried Eggplant and Conpoy in Crabmeat Sauce

The last dish that we had came late as the waiters had forgotten to place the order for this dish. All the other dishes were served roughly around the same time except for this one (and it was worth the wait). The crispy beef brisket had a outer layer of fried batter which wrapped around the soft and tender beef brisket which had some layers of fat. For some added information, the brisket is a particular cut of meat that is from the lower chest around the sternum area.

Crispy Beef Brisket

Overall, it was quite a satisfying meal for an introductory start to Hong Kong cuisine and looking forward to more good food ahead.

House of Jasmine

House of Jasmine

Shop 401, 4/F 5 Canton Rd,

Harbour City,

Ocean Centre,

Tsim Sha Tsui,

Hong Kong

Tel: 2992 0232

Non-Halal