Despite Warnings Crowds Flock to Flower Markets

This afternoon Mongkok people were busy buying flowers

It's ironic that the Hong Kong government cancelled the Lunar New Year fairs, open-air markets selling flowers, snacks and festive decorations when instead people flocked to the flower market in Mongkok today.

Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee said yesterday it was a tough decision to make to cancel the fairs.

Chan says cancelling fairs was a difficult decision

"From a health perspective, we want to control the epidemic as soon as possible so we cannot hold large gatherings," she said.

However, judging from the hordes of people in Mongkok's flower area known as fa hui, it perhaps would have been better to hold the fair anyway.

"How are they supposed to do crowd control in the middle of the road? Why can't we just set up the fairs with social-distancing measures and vaccine bubble requirements?" asked a 62-year-old mandarin plant vendor surnamed Leung.

"It's a big headache. We were all looking forward to selling our produce at the fairs, but now we have to make last-minute changes on how to distribute tens of thousands of mandarin plants."

What a logistical nightmare.

In the meantime the good news is that there were only five new cases of Covid-19 recorded, yesterday there were nine. 

Children can get vaccinated as early as next week

Children as young as five can get the Sinovac vaccine from next week, while those wanting the Pfizer BioNTech one will have to wait until after Chinese New Year.

One health expert is calling for a review of coronavirus measures, saying perhaps the use of partition boards are not helpful in terms of air flow and that tables should be more spaced apart.

Small eateries cannot place tables 1.5 metres apart and instead use partitions as a bid to be able to have more customers, but Dr Gabriel Leung of Hong Kong University says the partitions could block ventilation. He also adds when dine-in services resume, perhaps restaurants could open until 9pm... 

Meanwhile my relatives still refuse to get vaccinated even though that will mean not being able to dine in restaurants if they don't have at least one jab when the social-distancing measures are lifted.

"Then we just won't go to restaurants," she said. 

Maybe partitions aren't a good thing anymore?

While they often eat at home for dinner, they frequent eateries like cha chaan tengs and sometimes have dim sum for lunch, but in the next few weeks they won't be able to do it at all. There will also be a push later for people to have two jabs in order to enter restaurants. Then what?

"We'll see when that happens," she replied.

Completely impractical and irrational... but then again so is this government that is making out Omicron to be a deathly virus and refuses to live with the reality that Covid-19 is here to stay...

Macau Keeping Busy

The view of The Venetian in Taipa from Sheraton Macao

 

I was in Macau yesterday and today and my schedule there was packed with visiting friends and eating (and drinking) that we finished really late last night and I was too tired to blog.

Interesting observations about Macau this trip:

My ticket to Macau (left) and return to HK for only HK$100!

When I went to buy first class return tickets at the Cotai Jet ticket counter at the Shun Tak ferry terminal, the staff said the total amount was HK$393. I was surprised as it's usually about HK$600. I reiterated that I wanted first class tickets and she confirmed. So I paid and then looked at the tickets.

The one going to Macau was priced at HK$293, while the one going back to Hong Kong was HK$100! I wondered if it was because no one wanted to go back to Hong Kong because of the protests and later asked my friend's former colleagues who work in hospitality in Macau.

They said it was because of competition from the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhu Hai bridge that forced the ferries to make their prices more competitive. If you can take a bus along the ferry for about HK$70, it's much cheaper, though it takes around the same amount of time, and logistically to go to the casinos and hotels, taking the ferry is more convenient.

Very tender char siu that may have been sous vide first

In addition, some sailings have been cut. I tried to buy a ticket for the 4.30pm sailing, but they said there were no sailings at that time, so I had to choose between 4pm and 5pm. I chose the former.

Macau in general was not as packed with mainland tourists as before, but many more than Hong Kong. The check-in counter at The Sheraton Macao had long lines of customers, but when walking through the shopping malls attached to the hotels, there weren't many people wandering around, let alone shopping. Maybe they were all gambling.

We met up with a chef of a Michelin-starred Italian restaurant who told us while business was pretty good, it was difficult for some of his Hong Kong-based guests to get to Macau because of the protests. But with this past week being relatively quiet on the protest front because the District Council elections were over, business seems to be slowly trickling back.

Delectable braised vermicelli with prawns in clay pot

Afterwards we had a late dinner with my friend's ex-colleagues at Fook Lam Moon in Galaxy Macau, well known for its refined Cantonese cuisine and the food overall was very good. The char siu was made from black-haired pig, the meat looking more like beef and very tender, which made us wonder if the pork was sous vide before it was roasted.

Other standout dishes were braised vermicelli with prawns in clay pot that had a slightly spicy finish, the signature crispy chicken, rice mixed with crab meat, conpoy and mushrooms, steamed in a lotus leaf, pan-fried boneless chicken wings stuffed with ham, and braised fried bean curd mixed with minced fish with bamboo fungus.

For dessert, the steamed red date pudding was delicious and elegantly topped with bits of gold foil. As it was one of the dinner guest's birthday, we also had longevity buns, fluffy peach-shaped steamed buns with lotus seed paste and slightly salted egg yolk inside.

Fan-tastic tofu with minced fish and bamboo piths

Our table was the last one to clear out of Fook Lam Moon before we headed to the Ritz-Carlton Bar & Lounge on the 51st floor. One of my friend's ex-colleagues who works at the hotel was very surprised to see how busy it was -- practically every seat in the bar was taken, it was very noisy thanks to the crowd and the live singer who was accompanied by a pianist who had competed in America's Got Talent.

After not much sleep three of us had an early breakfast in the 24-hour Cantonese eatery next to the casino. Every other table ordered a bowl of congee (HK$78), while we had a few dim sum to keep our stomachs from growling before lunch.

We noted how mainlanders wandered around in packs of three. There were three men in their 50s who each had a belt with the letter "H" on them; three women wandered into the restaurant, and last night in the bar we saw three young men coming and going several times. What's with that?

Pan-fried turnip cake with XO sauce for dim sum

After lunch I managed to catch the 3.30pm ferry, half an hour earlier than my ticket. The ferry was not full, probably because it was a Saturday afternoon.

Dim Sum Spot: Sun Hing Restaurant

Fried glutinous rice wrapped in egg skins that aren't found in many restaurants

There's a dim sum place called Sun Hing Restaurant in Kennedy Town that opens at 3am -- yes three in the morning -- until 4pm everyday.

A tiny, chaotic place filled with regulars and first timers

Some friends have been there and even gweilo chefs know to go there to eat after they've finished late at night and are feeling hungry.

My relatives suggested we go there this morning as today is Ching Ming and it is on the way to where our ancestors' graves are in Pokfulam.

We got there just before 9am and inside it's very small and very chaotic. People are roaming around with their dim sum cards, staff are carrying out trays of freshly steamed dishes, with lots of shouting for people to get out of the way.

Luck would have it we managed to snag a table for four of us sitting on red plastic stools -- with an extra middle-aged guy calmly taking his time, sitting there playing with his smartphone. He could tell we were newbies and suggested which dim sum for us to get -- but really he meant just get whatever comes by.

Steamed pork topped with quail eggs

Some of the dishes we had include tripe in curry sauce, salted egg yolk steamed buns, braised chicken feet, steamed turnip cake, steamed rice rolls with minced meat, dace fish balls, and siu mai. The kitchen had no time to make har gao, even though everyone was clamouring for it.

However we did have some dim sum that you don't see much these days, like steamed pork topped with quail egg, fried glutinous rice wrapped in an egg yolk skin, pork liver with pork balls, and giant tofu topped with fish paste.

Together with some more steamed buns and Malay steamed sponge cake, the total came to HK$440 which was very reasonable. No wonder people flock here and are willing to wait.

Nevertheless I have to say afterwards I felt very thirsty and wonder if the dim sum had a good dose of MSG in it...!

Sun Hing Restaurant opens at 3am until 4pm everyday

Sun Hing Restaurant
Shop C, G/F, 8 Smithfield Road
Kennedy Town
2816 0616

Last Supper at Lin Heung

The line outside at 7pm this evening at Lin Heung

Lin Heung Tea House on Wellington Street in Central is considered an institution -- and its history goes back 101 years in Guangdong.

Braised goose webs with mushrooms and cabbage

However it will close in a few days and so my relatives and I made one last pilgrimage here for dinner tonight.

It is typically chaotic in the mornings for dim sum, where not only do you have to fight for a table, or rather a seat where you share the table, but you also have to act like a hunter-gatherer and flock to the trolleys carrying bamboo baskets of steamed dim sum otherwise you'll go hungry.

For dinner it's usually more civilized, but this evening there was a line out the door of people waiting to eat. On Sunday evening we heard the line went all the way down to Stanley Street! Luckily some of my relatives got to Lin Heung early just to grab a table and pre-order some dishes.

Eight treasure duck was very flavourful

However, by the time we were ready to eat, one of the dishes, translated as "gold coin chicken" was already sold out. It's definitely first come, first served here. We could only order what was available so trying to order from the menu was kind of useless.

We managed to snag the eight treasure duck dish that was fantastic -- inside the duck are ingredients like chopped pork, lotus seeds, barley, and salted egg yolk marinated in a thick gravy. Another winner was the steamed minced pork with salted fish garnished with finely chopped ginger strips.

Fantastic deep-fried chicken, a pity only a half portion left

The half portion of deep-fried chicken we were able to get was also excellent with shrimp chips, and scrambled egg with white bait was good too, along with braised goose webs with mushrooms and cabbage.

Other dishes like the stir-fried fish strips were overcooked, while the vegetable dishes like stir-fried pea shoots and vegetables in a broth with vermicelli were lacklustre.

By the time we finished around 8.30pm, we asked about dessert and the waiter said there was only water left, no ingredients like red bean or sweet potato. They really were cleaning out the kitchen larder.

Excellent steamed minced pork with salted fish and ginger

My relatives who had arrived earlier bought some of the restaurant's cookies that are sold on the ground floor so we ate those for dessert. The staff didn't mind that we stayed so long -- the customers were clearing out and even gave us fresh pots of tea.

Everyone else like us were taking pictures of the place, from the menus to the tea pots, the dishes and the dining area. It's not much to look at, but it's a piece of Hong Kong's culinary history.

Apparently from March 1 it will become an iteration of itself with a modified name that will include the words Lin Heung.

But as we all know, that new version could be drastically different.

A station with bowls, plates and tea leaves in the boxes

This past year I've been to a few restaurant closings and it's sad to eat at these places one last time because they are being forced out by the landlords. At the same time there aren't any young people willing to take on such laborious work either. It's our fault for not nurturing the next generation to keep traditional cuisine alive because we don't value it, and instead are always chasing the next new thing.

Decadent Dim Sum

Lung King Heen's famous baked barbecue pork buns

Last Saturday three friends and I went to Lung King Heen, the three-starred Michelin Chinese restaurant in the Four Seasons Hong Kong for dim sum. I had booked the table back in late November to ensure we got a table.

It's pretty impressive how this place continues to keep its consistency particularly in dim sum, as I have now eaten it here three times, and for dinner only once many years ago.

Steamed rice rolls with lobster and water chestnut

There were a few new dishes on the dim sum menu and we decided to try some of them as well as order our favourites.

A new one was steamed rice rolls with lobster and water chestnut in fermented bean sauce (HK$230). This was definitely indulgent, but have you had steamed rice rolls with lobster before? This was fantastic -- very meaty but also included chopped vegetables and crunchy water chestnuts too.

Another was steamed lobster dumplings with egg white and sweet corn (HK$120). These dumplings were so large that they were served in pairs per bamboo steamer. Take a bite and inside it was choc full of lobster along with sweet corn. It sounds strange with corn kernels, but works well, again for texture and added sweetness.

Perfectly executed steamed shrimp dumplings

The baked goose puffs with chestnut in XO chilli sauce (HK$99) were topped with bonito flakes, perhaps an ode to the goose's nest? The pastry shell was very flaky and buttery, while the goose was also quite rich too and perhaps needed some acidity to cut the richness, as bonito flakes wasn't going to do that.

As for staples, the steamed shrimp dumplings with bamboo shoots (HK$99) was a star winner, so delicate, the skin translucent and the shrimp meat inside so delicious and filling.

We also thoroughly enjoyed the baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken (HK$84 per piece). The abalone is sliced up so that you aren't obligated to shove the whole thing into your mouth and enjoy it in at least two bites. The pastry here was also top notch.

Pan-fried rice rolls in XO chilli sauce (HK$200) is a small portion for what you get; it is spicy, though that day I was battling a cold and couldn't eat as much as I would have liked. It was a dish that was a struggle to finish.

Baked abalone puffs with diced chicken a winner

The same could be said for the plate of char siu (HK$350). By the time it arrived I was pretty full and could barely finish two slices. 

However, the signature baked barbecue pork buns with pine nuts (HK$99) continue to be one of the best items on this menu. The filling features diced char siu mixed with pine nuts and enveloped in a bun that holds it together topped with a pineapple but dome for a touch of crispiness.

A friend new to Lung King Heen was about to rip the bun in half but we stopped her in time to advise her to eat it in bites instead. She was glad we gave her that tip and savoured each bite.

For dessert we had complimentary bowls of mango pudding topped with pomelo sago pudding! What a combo. It was only when we dug our spoons in did we realize there was mango pudding underneath.

Osmanthus jellies and puff rice cakes for dessert

We also had some petit fours of steamed osmanthus jelly, and puff rice cakes.

I was so full afterwards, but in particular sated by the food and really enjoyed the company too.

Lung King Heen
4/F, Four Seasons Hong Kong
8 Finance Street, Central
3196 8880 

Survived Typhoon Mangkhut

Dramatic scenes in Heng Fa Chuen, with a man by the waterfront

Typhoon Mangkhut has come and gone -- and it was a whole day affair.

Late last night around 1.10am the Hong Kong Observatory raised the T8 signal. Early in the morning I could hear howling from my air conditioner and rain pounding against the windows which was unsettling. Would my windows blow out? Why did I not tape them?!

Outside my flat the elevator shaft was howling loudly along with any fan connected to the walls of my flat -- they were whirling away madly and blowing in any debris that was lodged in them into my flat -- including a broken tiny spring probably from a pen!

Many windows were blown out in a building in Hung Hom

Cooking breakfast was a bit nerve-wracking because the stove fan was making strange noises from the wind. And my building was swaying periodically too...

Meanwhile on social media people started posting pictures of destruction -- first it was the flooding on the waterfront in Heng Fa Chuen, the fast east side of Hong Kong Island, and then an office building in Hung Hom had its windows blown out and with them flew lots of papers too...

There was also footage of a construction crane falling off a tall building, same with a tree that was growing on a rooftop of another building. And one of the front doors of the InterContinental Hong Kong shattered from the powerful winds, while the Mercedes-Benz showroom in Wan Chai was completely flooded.

A tree broke in Tsim Sha Tsui next to The Peninsula

The list goes on and on, but the good thing is that as far as I know, there were no casualties, and the vast majority of people stayed at home. However, my friend YTSL told me this morning her friend went to Wan Chai for dim sum with her family at Hopewell Centre during T10! Apparently the restaurant was half full and mostly elderly people. Guess some cannot do without yum cha...

The only transportation running was the MTR and some taxis so overall the city was dead, which is strange as we all know it as a metropolis that is non-stop. But today it was eerily quiet.

In all my 15 years of living on and off in Hong Kong, this is the worst I have ever experienced! And no I didn't need tape. Nevertheless, today will be an "I remember" moment for a long time to come...

Back at Lung King Heen for Dim Sum

Taking a picture of our dim sum dishes before digging in!

Over a year ago YTSL and I made a trip to Lung King Heen and we were in heaven biting into the barbecue pork buns with char siu and pine nuts.

Still dreaming about them, we came back again with another friend to give us the excuse to order more food!

The excellent rice rolls with char siu and preserved vegetable

We were given a late reservation of time of 2.15pm and we were worried there wouldn't be much food left, but in fact a few other diners trickled in after us. Even Chinese executive chef Chan Yan-tak made an appearance in the dining room.

One of our favourite dim sum this time was the steamed rice rolls with char siu and preserved vegetables (HK$100). That's not a combination you find in other dim sum places and now I'm wondering why not!

The preserved vegetables have a savoury taste and also help balance out the sweetness of the char siu. The crunchiness of the vegetables also adds a nice texture. The rice rolls were so thin and yet they didn't break when we picked them up. Amazing.

While I love har gao or steamed shrimp dumplings (HK$99) with bamboo shoots, I have to say these ones weren't particularly outstanding, boring in fact. Maybe it's because no MSG was added.

Baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken

I ordered steamed assorted mushroom dumplings with celery (HK$99) and this too was almost refreshing in a way, along with a bit of a crunch that was very delicate. The same could be said with the steamed scallop dumplings with vegetables and wild mushrooms (HK$99).

The baked whole abalone puffs with diced chicken (HK$82 each) were YTSL's highlight. She liked the east-west taste as the pastry is very buttery, the abalone cooked perfectly. We also liked the baked beef puffs with mushrooms and preserved vegetables (HK$99).

We eagerly anticipated having the baked barbecue pork buns with pine nuts (HK$99) and upon picking them up I was amazed at how thin the pastry was in holding the hot, sweet, gooey filling inside. When I bit into it, the familiar sweetness of the char siu was there, the fat taken out so it was all lean, but wait -- where were the pine nuts?

Barbecue pork buns with pine nuts

Mid-way through eating the bun I finally tasted them, but I remembered last time there were many more pine nuts in the filling. Was it cutting costs? Pine nuts aren't cheap either. Nevertheless the pine nut taste lingered in my mouth.

In the end with a mango sago cream dessert (HK$90) the bill came to HK$1,370 for three including service charge. It's not cheap but it's not Tim Ho Wan either! Saving up for the next trip to Lung King Heen...

Lung King Heen

4/F, Four Seasons Hong Kong

8 Finance Street

Central
3196 8888

Dim Sum Treat

Some of our dim sum dishes, including a half eaten malai goh on the left

This morning a friend took us to a traditional place in Kowloon for dim sum. It's called Fung Shing Restaurant which is run by two brothers, with the original location in North Point, and the other in Prince Edward. Any other Fung Shing Restaurant is a "fake" one, according to my friend...

Deep-fried dumplings with chicken broth

We got there at 10.30am and we were very lucky to find a table for the three of us in the small dining area on the first floor of the building so we didn't have to share.

The clientele is middle aged, so we were the youngest ones there. No matter -- we were all there to enjoy the food.

The first dish to come out were deep-fried dumplings with a bowl of chicken broth. Even when dunked in the broth, the dumplings were still crispy and soft inside. Next came the steaming hot malai goh or Malaysian steamed cake, and it was stellar. The steamed cake was so fluffy and not too sweet that we enjoyed every bite.

The prized malai goh that was so fluffy and not too sweet

Then in quick succession came several dishes. Har gao, or steamed shrimp dumplings that were quite large and full of shrimp meat, though the skin was on the sticky side. The chicken feet were delicious, and weren't steamed too long, making them more flavourful, while the fluffy char siu baos were not cloyingly sweet.

An interesting dish we also tried was goose webs and taro wrapped with tofu skin. The skin was so thin, while the combination of the goose webs with the starchy taro was really interesting and not sitting in oil either.

We also ordered tripe in a light curry sauce, and the last dish to come was cheung fun, or pan fried rice rolls with scallions, in a thin mixture of peanut, sesame and sweet plum sauce with a generous sprinkling of sesame seeds.

We waited a long time for these pan-fried rice rolls

Needless to say we were so full afterwards and the bill was so reasonable too -- HK$263 for three!

My friend tells me dinner here is very good too and I hope we can try it sometime!

Fung Shing Restaurant

1/F-2/F, European Asian Bank Building

749 Nathan Road

Prince Edward
2381 5261

Michelin Three-Starred Dim Sum

Lung King Heen's prized baked barbecue pork buns with pine nuts

After making a reservation almost a month ago, my friend YTSL and I headed to Lung King Heen, the Michelin three-starred restaurant in the Four Seasons Hong Kong for dim sum. She had tried it and raved about it and so I was curious enough to want to sample it too.

An idea of what the interior of the restaurant is like!

We sat down to lunch at 12.30pm, a bit surprised the place wasn't full already -- but then again perhaps tai tais want to sleep in on a Saturday...

YTSL suggested we order all the signature dim sum dishes, particularly the baked barbecued pork buns with pine nuts. Since there were two of us, the waiter told us most dishes came in three pieces and would we like to have two, with a price adjustment? What a novel idea.

However, we did keep the barbecue pork bun order to three pieces and YTSL was in bun heaven.

Baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken

The bun is fluffy and light, and manages to hold the filling, which is choc full of char siu and some pine nuts for added texture. The end result is a delicious combination that isn't oily or too buttery, meaty and slightly crunchy.

Another delicious pastry is the baked whole abalone puff with diced chicken, the abalone is small, sliced for easy consumption, but very meaty.

Steamed rice rolls are only available on weekends, so we made sure we ordered one of them -- the signature one of lobster and water chestnut in fermented bean sauce. It was very decadent, with lots of fresh lobster meat, added crunch from the water chestnut and very flavourful.

This week's weekend dim sum special was steamed beef balls, and they were executed well, very tender, and moist. We also liked the vegetarian steamed assorted mushroom and zucchini dumpling that was packaged in a translucent wrapper, very delicate and delicious.

1/2 portion of scallops with pear, shrimp paste, Yunnan ham

The steamed shrimp dumplings with wild mushrooms were a minor fault in terms of flavour -- it goes to show that the classic pairing shrimp dumplings with bamboo shoots is done for a reason and shouldn't be altered. We liked the shrimp -- very meaty and crunchy, but the mushrooms didn't seem to go with the shrimps in terms of texture and flavour.

Oh well. Not to fret over. But we did like the scallops with a bit of shrimp in it, on a piece of pear base and encased in a white pastry with shrimp paste and Yunnan ham. Absolutely exquisite how it was packaged and executed.

We got a few desserts to try on the house, including a black sesame and walnut mousse (topped with bits of gold foil), osmanthus jelly, almond cookies, coconut glutinous rice cakes shaped like diamonds, and little balls of mango encased in desicated coconut.

A delicate flower with warm custard inside was delicious!

In the end both of us shelled out HK$460 each and the restaurant still wasn't packed by the time we left around 2.45pm. We were quite surprised to see other people eat quickly and then leave -- they must come here so frequently that it's not something they savour...

Lung King Heen

4/F, Four Seasons Hong Kong

8 Finance Street

Central

3196 8880

fourseasons.com/hongkong/

Picture of the Day: Homemade Dumplings

The wrapped up dumplings ready to be frozen!

Earlier this week I met some dim sum chefs who showed me how to make things like har gao (shrimp dumplings), chive dumplings, soup dumplings, steamed rice rolls with minced pork and siu mai or pork and shrimp dumplings.

They made it look so easy, but when I tried to copy them, my dumplings looked clumsy and obviously amateur!

I immediately gained a new appreciation for dim sum -- that each piece is crafted by someone by hand.

The experience of making dim sum inspired me to make dumplings today -- the northern Chinese ones that are boiled.

It reminded me of when I was in Beijing and my Chinese teacher taught me and my then boyfriend how to make them from scratch. I just remember how exhausted we were after a good part of the day was spent making the fillings and then the dough, wrapping them and then finally getting to eat them!

The first batch of cooked dumplings! Yum!

I skipped trying to make the dough and focused on the pork and chive filling. I read through a few recipes and then went to the wet market to buy ingredients -- including the wrappers.

At the wet market I didn't see any ground pork so I went to the supermarket to buy it and was shocked to find we had to scoop it up ourselves into a plastic bag -- how unhygienic is that?!

The recipe called for a teaspoon of minced ginger but I put much more than that in there, and didn't have any sugar so I put a teaspoon of honey in it!

In the end I almost wrapped one cattie of wrappers (only about five left), so it pretty much worked out. The dumplings were put on plates and then left in the freezer before transferring them to a ziploc bag to prevent them from sticking together.

For dinner I ate a dozen of them and they were delicious!! I was glad I put a lot of ginger in there to perk up the flavours, but also the fresh chives were a nice addition too. The wrappers held up and were quite thin.

Now I can have dumplings whenever I want and wrapping them didn't take too long -- about an hour and a half? There's no excuse to eat store-bought ones now...

Wandering Sheung Wan and Taiping Shan

Clever frontage for a bar hidden behind this "shop" supposedly selling chops

Last Sunday after a delicious dim sum in Sai Ying Pun, some relatives and I walked around the Sheung Wan and Taiping Shan area.

Several piggies lined up with roast ducks too!

We saw a mix of old and new which juxtapose so well together, making Hong Kong a unique place to live in. As we walked along the start of Hollywood Road from the west, we saw a pine of pig carcasses hanging in a row on steel hooks.

One relative, who was visiting had to get a picture and I encouraged her to walk inside. The middle-aged men standing or sitting around invited us to come in, but warned the floor was slippery thanks to all the pig lard on the floor! Hanging above the carcasses were roast ducks too!

A cheerful mandarin tree plant

After climbing up hills and steps, we arrived in Taiping Shan. One deceptive shop front is Mrs Pound, or Pong Tai Tai in Chinese. In front is a display of all kinds of chops and rectangular-shaped stones that can be carved with Chinese characters.

But in fact this "shop" is a front for a bar inside -- if you can figure out how to get in. The hint is to press one of the buttons in the glass display...

Further along I spotted a cute mandarin orange tree plant in a small pot holder by a store front. What a wonderful way to liven up a space!

We also spotted a new restaurant that opened, and had a hand written sign apologizing for the slow service because of Chinese New Year. It looked cozy inside with an international menu. It may be a spot we come back to try.

An artistic homage to Dr Sun Yat-sen

Finally along Bridges Street, a wonderful colourful mosaic featuring Dr Sun Yat-sen in the top left corner and various buildings and street scenes of Hong Kong during the early 20th century.

Picture of the Day: Black Sesame Egg Tarts

An interesting Chinese dessert variation -- black sesame egg tarts

This morning we went to Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant in Richmond for dim sum with some relatives.

The selection featured the usual fare of steamed shrimp dumplings, steamed char siu buns, steamed pork ribs with black bean sauce, pan-fried taro cake, and steamed turnip cake.

We also ordered some different dishes like fish shoulder -- that's what it's called but didn't know fish had shoulders! -- that was deep-fried and then braised, a sanitized version of stinky tofu that was hardly smelly but was deep-fried and slightly crunchy on the outside, soft inside, and a fresh bean curd sheets with bok choy.

But what really caught our attention was one of the desserts the staff were carrying around in trays from table to table -- black sesame egg tarts.

They don't look appealing being black, but the taste is pretty good, the black sesame taste combined with a slight hint of custard complete with a flaky pastry around it.

It wasn't too sweet and had a similar texture to egg custard tarts but lighter.

None of us had ever seen a dessert variation like that before which is why we had to take a picture of it and blog about it!

Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant

8071 Park Road
Richmond
604 278 0873