Seafood Dinner & Dessert with Nicola

Nicola brought us to Under Bridge Spicy Crab (橋底辣蟹). It's named as such cos the restuarant is located under a highway and it's famous for spicy crabs. :)))

The resturant spans a few storey and was packed. The first thing that caught my eyes though were the pretty ceiling lamp shades. :)

We started our dinner with oysters porridge which of course Lin & I picked out. We don't take oysters. But Wendy, Nicola & Beanie savoured them. The porridge had minced pork and dried fish in them too, making the broth sweet & flavourful. We heart it!

Nicola ordered bamboo clams for Wendy, Beanie and herself as both of us don't take them as well. It was a little too chewy for Beanie... :)))

We love these vegs. They tasted so gooooood...

The salted eggs prawns was good but wasn't as fantastic as Tung Po's. The deep fried squid was a tad greasy & chunky for my liking.

And the star...deep fried crabs with chilli & garlic. :) You can choose the level of spiciness for this dish. ;) Urm...coke please!

We headed to Tong Pak Fu for dessert. Nicola and I didn't have any in the end cos we needed to go pick up my new toy, a Sony Nex F3. :)

Here's what Lin & Beanie had... :( Lin's the photographer in my absence...

Btw, this is a shop with possibly one of the friendliest bosses.

I'm gonna try in my next visit to HK! Umph! *.*

Details of Under Bridge Spicy Crab (橋底辣蟹) :

Shop 1-2, G/F

414 - 424 Jaffe Road

Causeway Bay

Wan Chai

灣仔謝斐道414-424地下1-2號

T: +865 2573 7698

W: http://www.underspicycrab.com/chi/index.php

Details of Tong Pak Fu:

38 Jardine's Bazaar

Causeway Bay
T: +856 2630 0110

W: http://tongpakfu.com.hk/en/

Congee & Noodles at Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop (正斗)

We first tried Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop in Shanghai with Mary and we really like it. :) So this time round, we tried their homebase outlet at IFC Hong Kong. Thumbs up too!

The restuarant has been awarded the Bib Gourmand in "Michelin Guide Hong Kong Macau" for 3 consecutive years. :)

I'm in the mood for sliced fish congee and deep fried fritters cheong fun. I had not have them for ages...

I wanna preserved veg with shredded pork vermicilli...I wanna wonton & char siew noodles too...who cares if we are gonna have a heavy dinner this evening???

Beanie was extremely satisifed with his beef brisket noodles. :)

Nom, nom, nom.... :)

Details of Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop (正斗):

Shop 3016-3018 on Podium Level 3 of ifc mall

1 Harbour View Street

Central

香港中環港景街1號國際金融中心商場3/F.,3016-3018號舖

T: +856 2295 0101　

W: http://www.tasty.com.hk/index.html

Hotpot Dinner at Megan's Kitchen (美味廚)

Beanie thought we were having dinner at a private kitchen when we told him we were going to Megan's Kitchen. He was hence, a little disappointed Megan's Kitchen serves hotpots instead. Lol! :)))

I give credit to Megan's Kitchen for being so creative in their soup bases. We opted for rainbow soup base which essentially makes up of assorted veg jellies which we added to the boiling water to give it flavour :) Cute eh?

As in all hotpot places in HK, we customize our own dipping sauces. :)

And we were given preserved century eggs & cucumbers to kick start our dinner. :)

We were thrilled by the rainbow cuttlefish balls to take note of their taste. :))) We dislike the ones with corns though.

Lin also ordered pork balls with mangoes for Beanie, Wendy & herself. Xueyi hates fruits and I dislike mangoes; so that's out for us. *.* Anyway they didn't finish them as the mangoes & pork just didn't go. According to Beanie, they tasted weird.

The best balls went to mui choy pork balls. Awesome combi here. :D

The pork & beef slices were irresitable. :) We wiped out all three plates. which wasn't much...seriously. ;)

Every hotpot requires fresh prawns and deep fried fish skins. :) Don't you agree?

As for the dumplings, Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restuarant in Singapore does better ones. ;) Megan's Kitchen was generous with the serving size though.

I really like the cuttle fish noodles which the server squeezed out from a piping bag. They were thick and very Q. Ok...it resembled a maggot in my photo... *.*

I like having two types of noodles for our hotpot and rice vermicilli was our second choice this evening. We had rainbow cuttlefish balls vermicilli. ;) The colourful balls brighten up the plain vermicilli instantly. :D

Some healthy stuff... :)

And we were totally stuffed... :)))

Megan's Kitchen earned a Bib Gourmand in the Michelin Guide. I wouldn't say this is the best hotpot we have eaten but Megan's Kitchen is definitely creative in its offerings.

Lastly for dessert (as we have room for any), we headed to Hoi Tin Tong (海天堂) because Wendy's down with a bad throat! Xueyi recommended Gui Ling Gou as it has cooling properties that will help soothe the throat.

Details of Megan's Kitchen (美味廚):

5/F Lucky Centre

165-171 Wan Chai Road

Wan Chai

灣仔灣仔道165至171號

樂基中心5樓

T: +856 2866 8305

W: www.meganskitchen.com

Details of Hoi Tin Tong (海天堂):

W: http://www.hoitintong.com.hk/

Most Affordable Michelin Star Restuarant, Tim Ho Wan

Thanks to the heavy downpour this morning, we were number 2 in the queue at Tim Ho Wan today! :D

It was our first visit and I was pretty excited. :))) 

These baked bbq pork buns were amazing. :) The fillings were moist and flavourful.

Chiu Chow Fen Guos, one of my fav dim sum. :) See how translucent the skin is. : O

I favor har kows over siew mai anytime. :)

The pan fried carrot cake was average, nothing impressionable. So were the shrimp cheong fun. The pork ribs were tasty and so was the bowl of pork & peanut porridge.

I'm not into deep fried dim sums but decided to give these two items a shot. The first being spring roll with beef. Oooo crispy... :) I don't really like the beef fillings though. It would score if it's filled with turnip instead...





















The second deep fried dim sum we had was pumpkin & red bean paste balls. Too much for me. But it would score with people who love deep fried stuff. :)





















Now to wash down the greasiness, we need the osmanthus cake with wolfberries. All I could say it's flowery and refreshing.

Tim Ho Wan doesn't have an extensive dim sum menu. But the quality of its dim sum is above average with some really outstanding ones like the baked bbq pork buns. That's all that matters isn't it? :) And most importantly, they are inexpensive. ;)

Details of Tim Ho Wan:

Shop 8

Taui Yuen Mansion Phase 2

2-20 Kwong Wa Street

Mong Kok

旺角廣華街2-20號

翠園大樓2期地下

8號舖

T: +856 2332 2896

東寶小館 (Tung Po) Again

Couldn't help going back to Tung Po for dinner. :) The place was packed even on a Tues nite. *.* We couldn't hear ourselves cos it was too noisy!

We began our dinner with a pot of daily soup of the day. Lots of corns, carrots and pork in it. Sweet. :) We didn't expect the veg to be served with soup too. It was nice. The veg was fresh and I love the fish cakes that came with it. :)

These black pepper and garlic fish fillets was very tasty too. We were given bite size toasties so that we could top them with black pepper and garlic bits. Nice! Perlin doesn't take fish but was very satisfied with just eating the bread and the peppery & garlicky topping.

We forgot to reserve the roasted chicken 南乳風沙雞 but managed to get it nonetheless. Yippee! :D

The skin was crispy and the meat was juicy...

These salted egg prawns were crispyly good!

And my fav ginger fried rice! It's so fragrant and the asparagus gave the rice extra crunch.

The complimentary ginger chin chow is really not Wendy's and my cup of tea. :) Thank you very much anyway. :)

It's amazing how we had to watch what we eat when there's so much good stuff here!

Details of 東寶小館 (Tung Po):

2F Municipal Services Building

99 Java Road

North Point

北角渣華道99號 渣華道市政大廈2樓 T: +852 2880 5224

Two Reasons for Going to Kwai Chung Plaza at Kwai Fong

There are two compelling reasons for us to head to Kwai Chung Plaza at Kwai Fong.
1 - Cheap thrill shopping
2 - Food

We heart the claypot noodle (小鍋米線) and marinated chicken wings at 小雨天 (Xiao Yu Tian). :)

This stall has possibly the cheapest ice lemon tea we had so far. :)

We like snacking at 輕鬆一下 (Relax Restaurant) too. Once you start munching on the deep fried fish skin, you can't stop. Oh and the lovely cheong fun with three different sauces: peanut butter, sweet sauce and soy sauce.

Details of 小雨天 (Xiao Yu Tian):

Shop C33A-C37

2/F Kwai Chung Plaza

7 Kwai Foo Rd

Kwai Chung

Hong Kong

Details of 輕鬆一下 (Relax Restaurant):

Shop A16 

G/F Kwai Chung Plaza

7 Kwai Foo Road

Kwai Chung

Hong Kong

Piping Hot Claypot Rice at Kwan Kee Claypot Rice

Back in Hong Kong for summer and the first thing we did was to catch up with Xueyi over piping hot claypot rice at Kwan Kee Claypot Rice. Yum...

We opted the following flavors:

1) Pork ribs & preserved sausage

2) Salted fish & pork patty &

3) Chicken & preserved sausage

Each pot of rice is so flavourful! :)

The stir-fried seasonal greens was fresh & crunchy. I wonder how they are able to cook such seemingly easy dish so perfectly.

As it's Wendy's, Tina's and Perlin's first visit at Kwan Kee, we ordered the  stall's signature Gui Fei Chicken for them to try. :)

I don't think anyone of us in the group can master the art of eating a fish, but Xueyi does it brilliantly. We cleared the soup and tofu while Xueyi cleaned up the fish. ;) Awesome teamwork here!!!

Singapore Airline misplaced Wendy's baggage. :( So we hit the stores right after dinner...A great way to start our summer vacation. Thank goodness we were in HK...

Details of Kwan Kee Claypot Rice (坤記煲仔小菜):

Shop 1, Wo Yick Mansion, 263 Queen's Road West, Western District
西環皇后大道西263號和益大廈地下1號舖

T: +852 2803 7209