Asia Flavours

Island Tang ... again (8/10)

My first experience of lunch at Island Tang was rather underwhelming. The sophisticated decor was great and the atmosphere lively with the buzz of a Parisian cafe, but the food was expensive and lacked an edge. I felt at the time that it might be the fault of the set menu, having a little bit of a churned out feel to it, so this time we made the point of sticking with the dim sum menu. It was a hundred times better. 

The menu isn't huge but is sufficient for a filing lunch, and the dim sum was fresh and flavoursome. In particular, the prawn rice paper rolls were excellent, filled with huge and juicy prawns. 

Surprisingly the bill wasn't as large as I'd expected (not that I'd go as far as to say that it was cheap - you pay for the setting). All in all, it's relative good value for a sophisticated dim sum lunch in a smart, sophisticated setting. Definitely a place to take visitors to in Hong Kong... 

Island Tang

Shop 222, The Galleria,

9 Queens Road Central

Tel: 2526 8798

Gong Guan (9/10)

Yet another excellent meal at Gong Guan, the Shanghainese private kitchen in Sheung Wan. The menu wasn't vastly different from last time (Gong Guan: First Visit) but was still fantastic, with great flavours and presentation. A couple of photos for you to savour: 

Dragon-i Dim Sum (7/10)

The problem with dim sum restaurants in Hong Kong (if you’re not a Tai Tai or a tourist with plenty of time on your hands) is that hardly any of them accept bookings and so the queues at lunchtime are invariably hideous. This is one good thing about Dragon-i: they accept bookings. The dim sum is pretty good too.

The lazy instincts inside me always query my choice of restaurant as I walk through Lan Kwai Fong and up the steps by the LKF Hotel but they are quickly cast aside when I reach the sheltered terrace decorated with all those bird cages. It is a really inviting venue for lunch, even the inside is nicely decorated with the large round tables and comfy leather seats.

 

The dim sum itself is pretty good with the BBQ pork buns and steamed shrimp dumplings with bamboo shoots being particularly stand-out. I also liked the steamed squid with minced garlic and the steamed spare ribs with black bean sauce, a slightly salty sauce made from fermented black soybeans. Another flavoursome addition to the table was the steamed rice flour rolls with BBQ pork. The rolls were quite small with quite a high ratio of filling to flour roll which probably added to the flavour! Although the pan-fried Beijing dumplings were only ok (Wang Fu has nothing to fear), the deep-fried shrimp dumplings with mayonnaise were actually rather good. The dumpling mixture was extremely crispy which contrasted nicely with the juicy prawn in the centre.

While most of the food was great, some aspects of our meal were not so good and they slightly undermined what would otherwise have been a fantastic experience. The deep-fried squid was quite unpleasant - the squid overcooked to the extent it was difficult to bit through and the batter was this horrible soggy, floury mix. The Shanghai dumplings were also a bit cumbersome, lacking the delicacy of the versions I’d had at Din Tai Fung in Shanghai (or even Crystal Jade in the IFC). Finally, the service really let the side down. The food came quick and fast but it was not necessarily what we’d ordered. We ended up with three boxes of Shanghainese dumplings when we’d ordered one box of Shanghainese dumplings and one of steamed rice flour rolls with prawns. This sloppiness occurred a couple of times and rather smacked a little of arrogance which was somewhat off-putting. Still, it won't stop my puffing my way up through LKF another time... 

Dragon-i
UG/F The Centrium
60 Wyndham Street
Tel: 3110 1222

Island Tang

Island Tang, the new sister restaurant to The China Club, is a visually stunning restaurant - probably more so, in my opinion, than The China Club. There is a real sense of elegance as you walk through the heavy wooden doors into the dining room, and at lunch that was matched by a very elegantly dressed set of diners (a high ratio of ladies-who-lunch to businessmen). Despite the sophisticated elegance of the decor, the atmosphere is far from sterile with a good noise level and a hustle and bustle of activity from the attentive waiting staff.

The menu is pretty extensive and has two set lunch options at HKD300 and HKD400 - the more expensive one of which we wrote off straightaway as the emphasis is on shark’s fin. As a bit of tangent, I still find it quite surprising that people are prepared to eat shark’s fin given both the cruelty in the way that the sharks die and the terrible, unsustainable impact such fishing has on the ecosystem. Rant aside, the second option was basically the same but with a pork and sea conch soup replacing the shark’s fin (which, before you shout at the screen, I’m now feeling guilty about - I’ve just googled it and apparently sea conches are not endangered yet but are seriously threatened due to over-fishing).

Our set included some spot-on dishes like the flavoursome pan-fried diced Wagyu beef with sweet and sour onion sauce and the delicate sautéed scallops with Chinese zucchini, as well as some ok dishes like the steamed Garoupa with soy sauce, braised egg noodles with BBQ pork, ginger and spring onion, and deep fried bean curd rolls with crab meat. The dishes felt a little sloppy, perhaps showing a little bit of the lack of attention to detail that can occur with set lunch options - the noodles were rather over-cooked, the garoupa a little non-descript in terms of flavouring and the bean curd rolls, while delightfully crisp on the outside, were a little slimy and flavourless in the middle. Having said that, I was a bit on my own with that one and I’m probably being a little bit harsh on the cooking because of my recent culinary experiences in Guangzhou where everything we ate was stunning (and a quarter of the price).

Despite the moans above, I do think Island Tang will be on my “visitors in town” list as an alternative to The China Club or Hutong because the atmosphere was buzzy and the décor impressive. Perhaps at night when there is less of a set-lunch conveyor belt in the kitchen the food output will be turned up a notch but even if it isn’t, it still constituted good Canto cooking in a great setting.

Island Tang
Shop 222
The Galleria
No. 9 Queen’s Road Central
Tel: 2526 8798

Yellow Door Kitchen

Unfortunately I started my meal at the Sichuan private kitchen, Yellow Door Kitchen, on completely the wrong foot and it took until the main course to rectify my mood. It didn't help that we rocked up at the venue a little bit late having failed to locate the entrance (not that it was that complicated to find, it turns out) and were immediately unsettled by the lighting. Sounds strange but inside is incredibly over-lit, giving it the unfortunate air of a (small) canteen, a problem not rectified by the Ikea-esque tables and chairs. Then, to make matters worse, the staff kept rushing us, reminding us that we didn't have that much time left within which to eat the meal. All a little conveyer belt like...

The feeling that we were in the staff's bad books did not lift when the starters were unceremoniously dumped on our table. That is probably a little harsh but there was no interesting presentation, everything was piled on white plates, and the waiting staff really didn't seem that interested. To be fair, the meal took a dramatic turn for the better when the main courses arrived but I was not very excited by the starter course. We had a selection of Sichuan dishes from pickled cucumber to sliced pork with spicy garlic sauce, from sliced lotus root with aroma oil to beef shank with spicy chilli sauce. The nicest dish in my view was the boiled Shanghai beans in distilled liquor dregs - a sort of Chinese edamame but drenched in sweet rice wine. The diced tofu with pickles and scallops were also rather good, very flavoursome. While tasteful, I was expecting the food to be spicier. The only starter that got my throat a little bit was the silver fish and bean sprout with spicy sauce. However, it didn't even slightly compare to Hutong's soft shell crab in a chili basket where my ears are burning after only one crab!

The main courses were a dramatic improvement and not one of them was a disappointment. The sour and spicy soup with tomato and squid was great - delicate with a slight spiciness to give it a bit of interest. The chicken and shredded leek with spicy sauce topped with minced peanut was really flavoursome although the puddles of red oil were somewhat off-putting. The best course was definitely the smoked pork rib with honey and tea leaves. I had been slightly concerned when it first arrived that it would be all fat and no mean but I was totally wrong and there was plenty of tender pork on the rib. The flavour was beautiful and the meat just fell off the bone. The fish course of steamed silver cod fillet with pickles was delightful, just as beautifully cooked as the meat. It had quite a full flavour which meant that it stood up well to coming after a heavy meat course. The winter melon braised with Yunnan ham and Chinese wolfberry pretty much finished me off meaning that I didn't do justice to the Shanghai stuffed duck or the Sichuan "Dan Dan" noodles. According to Wiki, the spicy sauce in a "Dan Dan" noodle dish contains preserved vegetables, chilli oil, Sichuan peppers, pork and scallions. Interesting fact of the day from Wiki: "Sichuan pepper" isn't what you expect - it's the

outer pod of the tiny fruit of a number of species in the genus Zanthoxylum which has slight lemony overtones and creates in the mouth a kind of tingly numbness (caused by its 3% of hydroxy-alpha-sanshool)

that sets the stage for the chilli it is often combined with.

It is such a shame that I had a bad start to the meal because the main courses were delightful, really well-cooked. I can't help but feel that the chefs were rather let down by the front of house (and the over-zealous lighting!). Perhaps if I went again I would have a better experience because I would be pre-prepared for all the non-culinary issues. However, now that my tastebuds have coped with the "fire" of this Sichuan food, I reckon it's time to try one that is a bit more hard-core!

Yellow Door Kitchen
6/F, 37 Cochrane St.
Central
Tel: 2858 6555

Mak's Noodles

Wellington Street is such a great place to head for if you're looking for a quick, cheap meal at lunchtime. There are so many options from Wang Fu's Beijing dumplings (Link) to Nha Trang with its great Vietnamese Pho. If you're looking for a quick bowl of Wonton Noodles then Mak's Noodles is a good option. Like the others, it is pretty basic in terms of decor and there really is no option of hanging around - the food arrives almost instantaneously and the next people want the table as soon as you're done. However, while it's not the cheapest place to get wonton noodles in Hong Kong, it is accessible for non-Canto speakers and the food is tasty.

E. and I went there for lunch last week and had their prawn wonton noodles with a side plate of pak choi. The wontons were fresh and flavoursome, the noodles beautifully al dente and it was great value for money. Apparently Wonton noodles are a Guangdong speciality although there are different takes on the dish across Asia. Wiki reckons that in Hong Kong:

There are four distinct features: First, the wontons are predominantly prawn, with low amounts of pork mince, or no pork at all. Second, aficionados will insist on fresh, smooth thin noodles which are al dente, free from the taste and odour which is characteristic in many egg noodles when cooked. Third, the bouillon is light brown (prepared from dried flounder) and is usually steaming hot. Lastly, garlic chives are used as a garnish. The first two give the dish a wet but crunchy or crispy mouthfeel. The last two give the dish a unique bouquet.

As an interesting fact, Wiki also reckons that the current owner's grandfather served wonton noodles to Chiang Kai-shek (Chairman of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 to 1948). I'm presuming that he didn't do so in Hong Kong but apparently the recipe is still the same, with the soup base still made from "powdered dried flounder, dried shrimp roe and pork bones".

Definitely a good option if you're looking for a quick, tasty bowl of wonton noodles.

Mak's Noodles
77 Wellington Street
Central

Gong Guan

I came to the startling realisation the other day that, despite being in Hong Kong for some time now, I'd never actually eaten at one of the many private kitchens I'd read about. Feeling that this gap in my knowledge needed to be plugged and spurred on by an article in HK Magazine, I decided to try out Gong Guan, a Shanghainese private kitchen on the 12th floor of an office block in Sheung Wan.

A good recommendation by HK Magazine - I can’t praise Gong Guan highly enough. It was truly excellent, both in terms of the quality of the food and the dining experience as a whole.

Like all unlicensed private kitchens, Gong Guan is hidden away without much advertising or even a sign board - in this case, in an office block on Des Voeux Road. As a general concept the idea of going to an “unlicensed restaurant” should not be that appealing - after all, it all sounds a bit back-street dodgy. However, in Hong Kong the private kitchen provides something that is really not necessary anywhere else in the world - the possibility of holding some semblance of a dinner party for those without a kitchen or enough room in their flat to seat their guests. Gong Guan, for example, has a minimum booking of 8 (maximum 10) and has two private dining rooms available for your "dinner party". The room we were given had a large round table and was nicely, if non-controversially, decorated with the sole, and rather large, exception to the non-controversy of the decor being an odd purple sequinned and feathered affair that constituted the lampshade.

There is no menu at Gong Guan; you get what the chef has prepared that day. In our case, we started with a selection of cold appetisers which were interesting and varied, perfectly complimenting each other. Each of the starters, and indeed the main courses, were beautifully presented with dramatic serving dishes adding to the visual feast.

Our starters included soft tofu, ox-tongue, eggplant with pork floss, bamboo shoots and cucumber with a fantastic mustard and peanut dressing. This was quickly followed by a slightly uninspiring looking fish soup which turned out to be fantastically flavoursome, and then what turned out to be most people's favourite dish: bready pancakes with honey ham and beancurd sheets fried in egg yolk. It was really simple but the soft pancakes, crunchy beancurd and thickly cut ham made the texture as interesting as the flavour.

Next came the fresh abalone course. It was served on soft turnip with shredded dried scallop. I have to admit to not expecting to like it but it was a great combination of flavours (even if my chopstick skills seriously let me down when it came to handling the abalone/turnip combination!).

Although a Shanghainese kitchen, the chef indulged (successfully) in some fusion cuisine in the form of what, apparently, was "Yellow Flower Fish", Thai style with a sweet and sour sauce and served with deep-fried Shanghainese bamboo shoots (literally "plastic bamboo"). The fish was crispy, the sauce slightly spicy. This was followed by rice pudding made out of red rice with pork belly, soya bean sheets tied in a knot and snow peas, and then by beautifully cooked chicken in Zhenjiang sweet vinegar with scallion oil.

In case there was any remote chance that we were still hungry they brought out some steamed and then fried rice sheets. They really didn't look like anything but were in fact seriously morish - my friend V. thought they were the most surpisingly dish of the night. Then to finish off, they brought through some mixed vegetables with wolfberry and finally, mango pudding with strawberry and basil compote. The strawberry flavour was beautiful but it rather overwhelmed the basil which I couldn't taste and the mango which was rather weak. Still, a non-too heavy end to a delightful banquet.

The other advantage with a private kitchen is that it allows for a bit of opulence in terms of wine. Normally when I go to a restaurant I’m selecting wine from the cheaper end of the wine list but with Gong Guan charging only HK$100 for corkage, regardless of amount consumed, we felt it was only fair and just to drink several bottles of supermarket-bought Moet. After all, it’s unlikely my half-Scots/half-Yorkshire thinking would allow me to go to an “official” restaurant and purchase Moet from the menu!

The cost of dinner at Gong Guan is HK$350 a head plus a share of the HK$100 corkage which is excellent value for money. The food was stunning without one duff course, and the service enthusiastic. I look forward to going back.

Gong Guan

12/F Fung Woo Building

279 Des Voeux Road Central

Sheung Wan

Tel: 2577 9789

Gong Guan's website

Hakka Ye Ye

A visit to the history of Hong Kong exhibition at the Heritage Museum fired my enthusiasm for trying Hakka cuisine - on the grounds that, along with the Cantonese (or "puntis"), they were the original immigrants to Hong Kong. So, when my friend S. wanted to go to a restaurant with a cuisine which his visiting friend wouldn't easily find in London, I seized the chance and booked a table at Hakka Ye Ye on Wyndham Street. A good decision, if I say so myself.

(As a random aside, it turns out that Hakka cuisine is not quite as novel as I had thought - apparently, well according to Wiki, most of the Canto restaurants in the UK are owned by ethnic Hakkas. I've never come across a Hakka Chinese restaurant in the UK before so I guess those restaurateurs work on the idea that everyone in the UK knows what Cantonese food is and so they serve that (or tell you they're serving that), not Hakka cuisine. Hmm...)

Back to the restaurant, it continues the theme of restaurants in Hong Kong being situated in bland shopping malls / office blocks. In this case, Hakka Ye Ye is on the second floor of an office block, accessed via a rather non-descript entrance. Although the entrance is not encouraging and the "trendy decor" is somehow rather clinical, the second floor location does give it a fantastic view of the old police station on Hollywood Road which is shown off perfectly through a glass frontage.

The Hakka people supposedly originated from central China (although this seems to be somewhat debated) and, according to various sources, their food is a twist on the classic Chinese dishes, the twist being a heavier influence of both fresh and fermented vegetables. The menu, which seemed to cover all of the key Hakka dishes I found during some Internet research, was reasonably extensive, as was the monthly specials list, and both included symbols which identified the house recommendations. The wine list wasn't particularly extensive but did include some very reasonably priced bottles.

On the grounds that it sounded unusual, we started with steamed shredded radish puffs. I don't normally like glutinous dishes but the slightly sweet-tasting puffs were really interesting. Like many of the other dishes we had, you wouldn't want to eat many too many of them but they worked well as a sharer dish.

For mains we had a variety of dishes from steamed emperor chicken topped with ginger and green onion to golden pumpkin cooked with salted egg yolk, from Ye Ye minced pork stuffed tofu cooked in a clay pot to sweet and sour pork. The chicken dish was particularly nice, simple with a lovely ginger flavouring. The golden pumpkin was also nice, an interesting but surprisingly effective combination of sweet and salty. If you like soft tofu, then the tofu dish would have been right up your street but I, personally, just can't get that excited by the flavour (or lack of) of soft tofu. One thing I did notice was that we found ourselves drinking quite a lot of tea and water throughout the meal to compensate for the seemingly high salt levels.

I'm glad we went to this restaurant - the food was interesting and quite good value for money for Wyndham Street. However, given the salt levels and strong flavouring, I would choose to come back in a group to benefit from having a little bit of a lot of dishes.

Hakka Ye Ye
2/F Parekh House
63 Wyndham Street
Central

Tel: 2537 7060
Hakka Ye Ye's website

Wang Fu's Beijing Dumplings

In keeping with my new obsession with "local" cuisine, I had lunch at the original Wang Fu on Saturday. This tiny little cafe specialises in Beijing dumplings and, unlike the newer Wang Fu further up Wellington Street (Link to post), doesn't have much more on its menu beyond those and a couple of noodle dishes. Cheap as chips, it is a fantastic place for a quick fix of quality homemade dumplings.

And yes, before you say it, I know a Beijing dumpling cafe is not exactly "local" to Hong Kong but it is "local" to China and that's how I'm justifying it...

You could quite easily walk past the entrance to this narrow restaurant, not least because the name is not written in English anywhere on the outside. Fear not though, the menu and special have all been translated into English and so there is no need for pot-luck ordering!

Yet another hangover prevented me from meeting my friend D. for lunch at a traditional lunching time but that was probably a good thing as they only have a handful of tables and even mid-afternoon they were rarely empty. The decor is, well, basic with the kitchen taking up a large chunk of the room.

Today's special was pork and courgette dumplings which were really flavoursome, the soft casings having a nice homemade feel to them. The dumpling options come in sets of 10 although you can do 5 of one variety and 5 of another if you want. We had a mixed plate consisting of pork and chinese cabbage dumplings, and shrimp, scallop, pork and yellow chive dumplings. As a slight tangent, according to about.com, yellow chives are

garlic chives that have been grown under cover, without any exposure to direct sunlight. This prevents the leaves from turning green, as the plant’s chlorophyll-absorbing molecules never kick into action. Yellow chives have thick flat leaves, a yellow color, and a mild, “oniony” flavor.

Although the dumplings with their soy-vinegar dipping sauce are great, there is a slight danger of dumpling overload. On my last visit we got round this by having some noodles and a delightful fresh cucumber dish with a sharp soy-vinegar sauce. To be honest though, I thought the noodles were rather bland and so I didn't bother with them this time. Not being totally sure what the cucumber dish N. and I had last time was, I plumped for the cucumber with sesame sauce. Wrong choice, although admittedly it was exactly as described. I think, but can't confirm, that the hot and sour cucumber is the one that tasted so good as an accompaniment to the dumplings (we did order it after our disappointment with the sesame cucumber but it never arrived and by the time we'd remembered that, we were totally stuffed!).

Although you might have to share tables, there is quite a lot of personal space at Wang Fu. Having said that, it's not the sort of place you're going to go to for a lengthy lunch. It is, however, a great place for cheap, tasty dumplings should you find yourself wandering along Wellington Street with a rumbling stomach. Also, they do take-out of the pre-cooked dumplings which is rather useful.

Wang Fu
Wellington Street

Lan Fong Yuen

My friend C. has, probably quite rightly, decided that I have not sufficiently embraced "local" Hong Kong cuisine during my time here and has decided to act as my guide in the ways of all things noodles, rice or dumplings.

So, lesson no. 1: Lan Fong Yuen

This is one of those places that you walk past on a regular basis, wondering what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look that much from the outside and yet there is always a massive queue of people standing, waiting for a table at lunchtime.

There are actually two versions of Lan Fong Yuen on Gage Street - the original one at the top near Pizza Express and a second ("slightly smarter") one a little further down. Both were absolutely heaving when we arrived and, given this was only lesson no 1, we went to the "slightly smarter" version. Although the queue was quite lengthy, they generally let people in as soon as the right number of stools come free at a table and so being two persons actually worked in our favour, allowing us to skip through the queue.

If claustrophobia is a problem for you or if you really need your personal space, don't even think of trying Lan Fong Yuen. The inside is as small as you imagine it will be from the outside and yet, somehow, they manage to fit most of Central's office workers round tables of six inside. A feat of pure magic.

While the "look at what everyone around you is having and point at what you want" method is probably the most effective one, there is a short menu which has both photos and English translations. C. chose the braised ramen noodles with chicken breast and scallion oil for us. I have to admit to being a little sceptical as to what exactly you were going to get for the money (after all, the whole meal - two chicken noodles, some bread and two iced teas - came to HK$85) but it tasted surprisingly good. The turnaround is unbelievable and so there is virtually no time delay whatsoever between ordering and the food arriving. Once mixed, the combination of crispy pan-fried chicken, al-dente instant noodles and a light covering of slightly sweet sauce was great. It's not haute cuisine but it is formidable value for money.

C. also ordered two iced teas, not the usual jasmine tea but, rather, "pantyhose tea" or "silk stocking tea". Made with black tea, evaporated milk and sugar, and filtered for extra smoothness through something that looks like a silk stocking, this stuff is truly hideous. Naturally, C. thinks I'm a philistine and certainly, on the criteria that it is supposed to be "smooth", this one was good but, wow, was it sweet. I could only manage a few sips.

One thing that I did think was rather brilliant was that they got round the problem of the ice cubes watering down the tea (god forbid) by using ice cubes made from the tea itself. Genius.

I was seriously impressed by the quality and tastiness of the food given the incredibly low cost involved and although it is probably not the place to go for a bit of a gossipy lunch, it was great for a quick and filling bite to eat. Plus, amazingly given how crazy the place was, the staff were really friendly and welcoming, and I think would probably be really helpful if you were a couple of non-Canto speakers there without a Canto speaking mate!

Lan Fong Yuen
Gage Street
Central