Wednesday, 08 April 2009
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My Best Meal in Hong Kong
A big reason why I like Hong Kong is the fact that the city is sooo small. When so many people are crammed into a tiny place, everything becomes tiny.
There are stores smaller than my 10x10 single dorm room and restaurants not much bigger. You can imagine then, that living space is just as hard to come by, and with multiple people residing in a few hundred feet for most average homes, people are forced out onto the streets.
Anywhere "out" is more comfortable and interesting than staying at home. This results in crowds on the street you'd expect at music festivals and sports arenas.
This is a typical weekday afternoon.
The push to spend more time out of the house than in comes with some pretty good benefits however. In all the time I've been here, I haven't had one home cooked meal. Not that I don't like home cooked meals, it's just the people I'm staying with aren't really into cooking anyway. The refrigerator is empty except for milk, water, soda and juice. Oh and ice cream.
With so many people eating out the quality of food is outstanding, and the choice is awe-inspiring. Ah, the wonders of economic competition. This allows for a late night (12am) dinner. A delicious one at that. Unfortunately, that meal fell victim to one of my bad habits this trip. It was eaten before I realized I was supposed to take pictures of it. Rest assured, it was simple, satisfying and subject to be craved.
With that said, the best meal I've had the privilege to consume was not from where you'd expect. While Hong Kong is famous for its seafood and Cantonese influenced fusion food, it's also famous for authentic cuisines of all types. This meal came from a small hole in the wall "restaurant" if you could even call it that.My cousin Adrienne found it when she studied abroad at HK University, which is located close to this little gem. It has a simple menu. Noodles and dumplings. I present to you...
Dumpling King
5 Pan-Fried Cabbage & Meat dumplings
Bowl of "Shang hai Noodles"
One cup of freshmade Soy milkBeautiful isn't it? What it lacks in color, it made up in freshness and clean, crisp flavor.
I left feeling satisfied and ridiculously happy. This was the best meal in Hong Kong I've had.Sure HK isn't known for northern China style dumplings and noodles, but like I said whatever cuisine you choose, authenticity is nothing to worry about in this international city. Best of all, both Adrienne's meal and my meal came at the total price of 40 HKD, which equals a little more than 5 American dollars.
I will probably crave this for the rest of my life.Which city/country do you love to eat in? Why?
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Comments (24)
Oh my. Speaking of fresh soymilk...There's a place my family and I always visit. It's just a stand on one of those streets. In translation, it's named "Woman Street" but I'm not sure what it's really called...Anyway, this stand sells fishballs. I know, sounds kind of stupid. NO. It's ridiculously amazing. The fishballs are fried right in front of you, and you can have a spicy curry kabob, or a regular flavored one (whatever that flavor is). Eat that and drink their fresh soymilk. Perfection in the form of food.
Oh, and the wontons are absolutely delicious, as well. There's a certain flavor in them that you really don't get from most restaurants outside of HK.
...I'm hungry. =[
I always like eating at Cafe de Coral when I'm in HK.
i love eating in HK ^__^
out to eat all the time :)
& i love shangha hi noodles :D:D:D
it reminds me of pho which i love ;)
HK is a food heaven!
i love to eat in hongkong too. but the best meal i had was actually a vegetarian meal at the Giant Buddha. I love the veges there, they are so fresh and yummy.
best meal in hk?! you forgot about the wonton noodles, clams with black bean sauce, bbq pork bun(an asian style pastry burger) and the buddha jumping over the wall soup boggles my mind.
I was going to say Hong Kong looks too crowded, but now all these posts about the food makes me want to go. Those noodles look amazing.
My food adventures have been boringish. At least I think they are boring. My favorite food memories are probably from California b/c of the diversity of ethnicities that I was around. That probably explains why I was more adventerous with the types of foods I would eat when I was younger.
Awesome, I miss going to Hong Kong last time I was there I could not get into the city because I ran out of visas. The food looks good and I love the late hours.
haha yum
aw so luckyyy!!! i havent traveled outside of the US .. but one day Hong Kong will be on my list to travel lol
I love HK and its food! (going this summer ^^) I wouldn't say your best meal would be my best though...plenty of other food there that i'd rather eat but i agree i love how cheap the food is and how great it tastes!
Best drink would be the red bean ice drink for me! ~
oooh, those photos are making me super hungry.
wowww I could go for some veggie dumplings right now
OMG. YES. I LOVE TAIWANESE FOOD. Taiwan's pretty goddamnsmall too. The food there's AMAZING though...too bad I won't be able to go back for another two years at least. T__T
I've eaten in places like Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Zaragoza in Spain, which are supposed to be some of Europe's culinary capitals, but to be honest I don't rate them all that much, and I'd much rather come and have a decent late night food session in Hong Kong, just thinking about the food in Hong Kong makes me feel hungry.
i love hongkong.
hong kong is like a food paradise.
um.... Hong Kong do have some really good food
but most of the time are just unhealthy msg laden craps
like the curry fishballs, deep fried pepper, eggplant stuffed with fish
or maybe it's just that i don't like to eat out
and everytime i go back to hk i end up feeling so sick from all the eating out
Hm..the dumplings look really good..!!!! Where did you have them? I would love to try them when I go to hk this summer.
HONG KONG IS FOOD HEAVEN
but Hong Kong doesn't have good Mexican food, Indian food, or affordable Japanese food. HK summers also feel like hell. in fact sometimes it even gets hot in the "winter"
oh i should've answered the question. my fave city to eat in is Bereley CA and its bordering parts of Oakland because it has cheap places like Manpuku and Gypsy's, it has nice places like Trattoria La Siciliana, Flavors of India, Dopo, Oliveto, it has specialties like Crepe Vine, Cheeseboard Pizza and Berkeley Expresso. My fave Indian place is House of Curries.
i always wonder with all the variety of food that HK has to offer, how do the people stay so thin. cantonese people eat a lot yet they're not fat and i know for a fact theres a variety of food in HK. the pictures dont do justice.
I love food in Hong Kong.
So good.
cafe de coral!!!
cool :D