220 Minced Beef HK style

Ever since I moved to Shangwan, I've been exploring the area for its restaurants and food shops, and had many fruitful new findings and numerous re-discoveries. This very unusual HK style cafe run by Mr. Steak is one of those interesting spots in this area.

I can't say this is a very good place to eat, nor the food deserves extra attention, yet this is for sure a pleasant twist from the everyday ordinary HK style cafes you'll find elsewhere in the city. The place mimics decor from good old days in the 60's with a modern touch. Nothing too hard to appreciate, it's done with the most lighthearted attitude, you just won't be intimidated by it in any sense.

The food on the other hand, is also a bit of a twist from those at ordinary cafes. I tried the minced beef with raw egg on rice, maybe I was affected by my impression on Mr. Steak, this dish feels Japanese to me. It's not bad, not excellent but really not bad, a nice alternative to the standard ones, and the quality of the beef is definitely above average.

219 Sweetness amidst hectic lifestyle

I'm so glad to receive this Mid-Autumn Festival gift from a friendly PR. It lightens up my hectic days.

Mooncakes from the Chinese Restaurant of Peninsula is probably one of the best in HK.

218 Assaf

This Lebanese restaurant in Central has been there for quite some time, it survives and not only surviving, it seems doing quite well. But if you don't use some effort to search for something like this, you might just be always going to the same restaurant day after day, eating the same dish repeatedly, and saying that you don't have a lot to choose from.

Yet, even if you find your way to this tiny restaurant, the food there might not be something you'll come back for more, I mean for average HK people. That's what we discussed on the table that evening. The food there are quite ok to me and to my 2 friends, but we believed that most of our friends just won't appreciate this kind of 'exotic' flavour.

Anyway, I like everything starting from the tea. It's just pure mint, and a lot of sugar. I put a lot of sugar into it, they're supposed to be very sweet.

Tabbouleh, a very common dish from the Middle East, people from many countries in that area make this dish, this is Arab food. The main ingredients are parsley, bulgur wheat, tomato, mint and spring onion. It's pungent and strong, exciting taste.

This is Kalaj, which is made with Halloumi cheese, one of my favourite cheese. Kalaj is just simply cheese inside pita bread pocket, a cheese sandwich. Halloumi is a kind of cheese which won't melt even if you grill or pan fry them, it's made from goat and sheep milk together, and seasoned.

This is Sujuk fried with tomato. This Sujuk is made from lamb meat. Sujuk is a kind of spicy sausage from the Middle East / Central Asia. This dish is very very tasty, we three love it.

Middle Eastern dessert is impossible to be introduced to HK people. It is saturated with sugar, it's so sweet that the sweetness will 'burn' your tongue. I just like it... it's condense, fragrant and full of character, though even I cannot eat too much at a time. This one is called Halva, made with pistachio and rose water

217 Beijing at Taipei

Months ago I went to Taipei for a very short trip. Most of the time I was at work, but managed to free up a late afternoon, and went to the Palace Museum.

I wasn't going there for the exhibits, but for the tea place on the top floor named after one of the beloved chambers 三希堂 SanXiTang of the Forbidden City in Beijing.


The decor is modern Chinese, and is benefited a lot from the very high ceiling of this space. Tea is the main fare here, to go with traditional Chinese tea cakes / desserts.

The tea is so so, I went there mainly for the dessert...

御品豌豆黃兒 Sweet soy bean jello (as written on the menu). Actually I think 豌豆 isn't soy bean, but should be pea. So I believe these are made from dried pea or lentils. Very delicate and nice, this is always one of my beloved Chinese desserts.

內廷雪藏芝麻糕 Sesame cake (cold). Normally I'm not too crazy about dessert made from black sesame, but this one is really good. The cake mold marked with the characters 京兆尹, the name of a famous Pekingese restaurant in Taipei, which tailor made all these beautiful desserts for the tea place.

This is a star: 紅豆養生綠豆皇 Green bean cake with Adzuki nuts. Adzuki is red bean, made into paste and filled the green bean cake. Again very very delicate and classy, superbly delightful.

The other star, this one got even more characteristic: 松子養生綠豆皇 Green bean cake with pine nuts. You can see the pine nuts in the middle.

An elegant spot to sit down and relax as time passes.

216 Flat chicken

The diarrhea I am having today is annoying, though I didn't experience any cramp, but still it's very unpleasant.

The food in this post has nothing to do with my diarrhea however. I had this lunch at Wanchai a few days ago. I always want to try this very famous char grill 'chicken steak' shop at Anton Street. It used to have a more general name, but I guess the 'chicken steak' is just too famous that they eventually changed the name of the shop to 'Wing's style char grill chicken steak 榮式燒雞扒'

'Chicken steak' is probably something a HK invention I guess, it's actually the upper part of a chicken thigh, de-boned and flattened. It's all chicken red meat, juicy and flavourful.

Water crest soup. A 'chicken steak' rice with soup cost HK$40.

The 'chicken steak' is trimmed into rectangle.

The chicken is quite nice I think. I read a lot of bad comments on it from food discussion pages on the web, but I think the dish is totally decent. The skin is crispy, meat tender and moist, just a tiny bit over-seasoned for me. I don't know why it receives such bad comments. The portion is very generous too.

215 Black and Salty

I'm not really familiar with Beijing cuisine or the so called 'Beijing flavour 京味兒', but I think, to a certain extend, I do have admiration towards it . Maybe it's the rich cultural heritage, or maybe it's the capital of my country for the last six centuries.

The past April, I were in Beijing for a few days of work, so I had the opportunity to savour some 'Beijing flavour' between works. In some of my last posts (188 and 189) I'd been chasing for a bowl of 炸醬麵 in Hong Kong, so naturally I had continued my quest in Beijing, where 炸醬麵 Zhajiang Mian is considered to be one of the original Beijing flavourite.

I asked friends in Beijing and their old Beijiner parents recommended me to try it at the main shop of 老北京炸醬麵大王 at 崇文門. So there I went.

The place is eye piercingly bright, and crowded too. Actually the place's quite neat, I remember I walked passed this shop some 20 years ago when I first went to Beijing, and it changed quite a bit over decades, like the huge neon sign for example.

Claimed to be 'wild grown' sour date juice in bottle. Tastes quite good.

This is the dish. The waiter will perform a fast mixing of 麵碼兒 into the bowl of luke warm noodles right in front of you, check this youtube video out. The authentic Beijing zhajiang mian has quite a number of 麵碼兒 toppings, including fresh soy beans, cucumber, Chinese Lo Bok radish, Chinese celery, bean sprouts and many more.

This is the most essential 炸醬 zhajiang, made from 黃醬 and mince meat, sugar and a lot of salt. The authentic ones should be black and salty like this.

Northern Chinese cuisine uses a lot of garlic. This is raw garlic in Chinese rice vinegar, quite strong. It goes into the noodles, vinegar and the garlic all together. The garlic after being immersed in vinegar, tastes sweet.

Mixed noodles. Salty and strong, luke warm, contrary to common perception, the dish doesn't have a bit of sweetness in it, the taste is raw and straight forward, very different from those delicate and complex flavour from most Southern Chinese regional cuisines (e.g. Shanghainese / Cantonese)

214 My Michelin-starred neighbour

This is a very seriously done 冬瓜蟹箝 steamed crab claw on a piece of winter melon with master stock. It's actually very good.

I had this a while ago at 桃花源, a very small Cantonese restaurant located just one block from where I'm living now. This tiny and humble looking restaurant has been there for quite a while, and had secretly gained its fame amongst highbrow foodies and celebrities or alike over the years. It became more known to the public for its gaining one Michelin star in last year's first edition of Michelin guide Hong Kong.

Though I'm not crazy about this restaurant at all (not that it's not good), I'm still somehow feeling grateful for having a least expected Michelin-starred restaurant so close to where I live, even though I personally like those starless shops from the vicinity better (e.g. 生記).

But still, I have to say, that steamed crab claw is one hell of a great dish. Below is another famous dish from 桃花源 - 玻璃蝦球 giant prawn with Chinese ham. Again, not bad at all, but if I have to be picky, I would say the flavour of the peanut oil used in this dish was a bit overwhelming, seems to compete with the natural flavour of the prawn. That's why I prefer the crab claw, especially winter melon was just in season.

213 Happy little things

1. Number 13


I can't say I'm a big fan of inner organs of livestock, nonetheless I highly appreciate and enjoy really well made and delicious tripe and chitterlings (and more) dish, like this simple 牛雜串 (assorted beef inner organs in master sauce) from a renowned street stall in Northpoint. This one is cheap, hot, neat and flavourful. All the different parts from the animal's gut are cooked to perfection. I particularly like the small long stainless steel plate they serve you with the beef chitterlings skewer, so that the sauce won't end up all over you, very thoughtful.


2. Tea biscuit


You have to be amazed by the creativity of Japanese. This Jap version of the Brits' export 'McVitie's' has a green tea filling. They are also just 1/4 of the original McVitie's biscuit in size. They are just too cute...

212 Cheap meat

It's typhoon season again. The past Friday, I went to record a percussion demo at Kwun Tong, and was almost soaked from heavy rainfall.

Felt hungry after recording, naturally. APM was nearby, and I had always wanted to try this cheap Shabu-shabu place there called 牛陣.

It's a 放題 kind of restaurant (like most cheap places), I ordered a fix 150g beef Shabu-shabu set, which you get 150g raw beef, and can go to pick up unlimited vegetables and rice and ice-cream from the buffet counter. It's just HK$50, quite a bargain.


My selection of Veggie from the buffet. There were quite a number of choices there, and most of the food looked okay.

The 150g beef, not bad, it's definitely not from the more desirable part of the animal, therefore the meat is quite tough after being cooked, but the flavour is okay for its HK$50 value.



There were a family of 5 sitting next to me, three children and two adults, they obviously ordered unlimited meat sets, which I saw them keep on asking for more and more meat. I think I saw them finished at least 5 - 8 plates of large portion raw beef and pork (5 times larger than my 150g share). Amazing, and very Chinese - 冇蝕底.

211 Swine

豚組 has been there in the heart of Causeway Bay for a while. I didn't have the chance to go until last week.

It used to be called 和幸小料理, and I've been there when it was still using this name. The food wasn't impressive at all back then.

Japanese Cutlet pork chop meal is always one of my usual choice for dinner, it's good for eating alone as well as with a small group, perfect for busy city life, and decadently tasty if made right. It brings out the child within everyone of us.



You get to grind your own sesame here, just like at とん吉, and this point makes 豚組 just a notch higher than 近又 at Mongkok.


And the Japanese Cutlet sauce here is good too, it's mixed very much to my personal taste at least.


And they have other interesting side dishes here made from every part of the animal, like this 赤味噌豬大腸 Pig colon cooked in dark Japanese miso.

Unfortunately, the pork chop itself seems to be the weakness of this restaurant. Yet, I saw someone sitting nearby having a dish with a massive piece of pounded cutlet chop, it measures 16 inches long according to the menu, and that is certainly a temptation for me, I'll probably return for this giant cutlet.