Taro Cake

Everybody likes dim sum! And what dim sum meal would be complete without the fried turnip/ radish cake? As Chinese New Year was just around the corner when i visited HKG, almost all the food shops were selling their own version of radish cake.

It is common to find them here, so I decided to buy Taro cake instead. I am not a fan of taro as it is "heavy" and rich. But I do eat it once in a while especially when cooked a special way. So I bought one tub of taro cake from Wing Wah for my parents.

Surprisingly, it was quite "light" and soft. It was also very flavorful. It tasted almost like the normal radish cake except it had the perfumy-ness of taro. Yum!

Hong Kong

I've not really been busy...just plain lazy! Sorry I have tons of stuff to post!

To begin with, I just came from HKG a week ago. You can find some of my pics here. I am yet to post the pics I took last November when i travelled for free using my mileage.

Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop

(a plate of noodles with dumplings)

This shop, I was told had been in operation at the same spot for decades! Fifty plus years, if I remember correctly!

It was my second time at this shop and my parents’ first.

Like most noodle houses, patrons are given a seat at a table, not the whole table. There were five of us and my Auntie Betty, our Hong Kong friend, had to share a table with a stranger.

I ordered the “dry” noodles with dumplings. “Dry” means the soup is served separate from the noodles. Their soup is a clear broth with a slightly peppery taste, with a predominant dry shrimp flavor. The dry shrimp flavor resembled that of the “dried alamang” (small shrimp dried whole with shell) that we find locally, not the “hibe” (dried shrimp meat) flavor.

The small bowl of steaming hot soup was served with a plateful of noodles. For a moment I thought my dumplings would be served on a third plate. Beneath the pile, however were around eight or ten dumplings. Quite a lot for one serving, I thought. I could only dig up two at a time as the plate was so crowded. By “dumplings,” it means wonton wrappers stuffed with a mixture of pork and shrimp with some finely julienned mushrooms. As always, it was superb! There seemed to have been an equal mix of pork and shrimp, yet you could taste the two individually as you chew. The pork was tender and did not have that “off,” porky flavor. The shrimp was crisp, as is the case with freshly cooked prawns.

My father had the shrimp dumplings (pure shrimp with some pork fat), whereas my brother asked for a bowl of beef noodles. I was too busy with my plate, they had finished theirs before I could ask for a taste!

When the words “pork trotters” were mentioned, we begged that we be served a plateful of it! It may not be the healthiest or most glamorous of dishes, but it certainly is heavenly in all its porkiness. My parents have asked for this dish in just about all of the Hong Kong noodle houses we have eaten at.
It is a stew of cut up pork feet, simmered in a delightful sauce - made thick by the pork’s tendons melting away as the meat becomes tender, and reddened by the local favorite, the spicy fermented tofu. We all know this type of “tofu” as “tahure,” although if one reads the label carefully, the mainland Chinese made bottles declare it as being made of flour! I only buy the ones made in Hong Kong, so I know it was made from soy beans.

(pork trotters stew)

Two plates of pork trotters later, we were ready for another round of shopping!

Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop

51 Parkes Street

GF Kowloon

(Jordan MTR Station Exit C2)

Tel +852-2736-5561

Guangzhou Barbecue Restaurant

For the two previous meals, my parents had been too lazy to go hunt with me a lunch or dinner place around our hotel area, and settled for whatever we could find at CitySuper. It had been raining hard in Hong Kong. Come dinner, I demanded we find something other than soggy tempura or salmon sashimi. Not that I did not like those (but not the soggy part), but Hong Kong is known for its authentic Chinese cooking! Even better than Mainland restaurants, I hear.

We ended walking for thirty minutes around the area between Nathan Road and our hotel, The Gateway, arguing what or where to eat. I pointed at a Chiu Chow restaurant, but my father insisted we have something more local. My brother pointed to the adjacent Macanese restaurant, but my father finally declared he wanted roast goose and some suckling pig. So I said, “Yung Kee!” But my mother declared she cannot bear walking any longer than a few meters, and that Yung Kee, which is all the way to the other side was too far a trip. We ended up eating at a place called “Guangzhou Barbecue” near Kowloon Park.

It was the same restaurant where my father and I bought our first roast goose to take home to Manila around 10 years ago. Tourists can’t miss its huge yellow and gold signage. And the staff, though lacking in English skills, are armed with picture menus.
We had our usual fill of roast meats. The barbecue pork was surprisingly lean and tender. Most served here have too much fat. The slices were thick. The seasoning did not overpower the meat. Not that it needed to – the pork was not gamey at all.


(roast pork - nice thick slices of lean meat!)


(roast goose - meat tastes too game-y for me)

(suckling pig - crisp skin and tender meat. the only downside is the layer of fat. then again, how else youl you make the skin crispy)

We also had the mandatory roast goose. Again, compared to Yung Kee’s, this was too gamey (that wild meat flavor). But was tender as usual.

The suckling pig skin was crisp, and the meat was so tender. My only complaint is that the thickness of the layer of fat was the same as that of the meat. Then again, the skin would not be crispy if not for the generous layer of fat.

I was later told by one of our friends that most locals actually prefer their roast meats this way – gamey and cut into thick slices. Home-style, in other words.

Hong Kong's CitySuper

After Singapore’s Cold Storage Grocery, Hong Kong’s CitySuper are my parents’ favorite shopping place. They always pick the Marco Polo Hotels as it is near this grocery where they could buy anything from sliced fruits to meals-in-a-go.

I think it is convenient though a bit expensive. After all, all meals are packaged neatly in elegant (if you could rightly call them) Styrofoam ware. I’m the adventurous type and always prefer visiting the local market and eating at less expensive (street) restaurants.

No doubt that it caters to expatriates as it showcases food, fresh or otherwise from all parts of Asia and the world.
They even have green cauliflower! The picture proves it! My university ecology (would you believe!?!) professor refused to believe me when I told her there was such a thing! No, I did not photo-shop this!

(green cauliflower beside broccoli and the regular white cauliflower)

(These eggplants are cute!)

(One of these days, I’m going to buy some of these mushrooms to take home! All the way to Manila!)