Old School Chiu Chow Cuisine

The decor in Lok Hau Fook hasn't changed in over six decades!

This evening my relatives and I headed to Kowloon City to eat at one of their favourite haunts, Lok Hau Fook, a Chiu Chow restaurant that dates back 65 years. The decor inside has hardly changed, one of the walls features a giant dragon and phoenix, with a double happiness sign in between them for weddings, though probably no one celebrates their nuptials here anymore.

I heard some Hong Kong films have used this restaurant as a setting for scenes involving triads -- who knew they liked to hang out in old school Chiu Chow restaurants?

In front deep-fried crab mousse and shrimp balls in rear

On a Friday night, the restaurant is almost full and we take our seat -- we get cold very fast from the air conditioning and the fans blowing the cold air.

There's a lot of dishes to choose from, and my uncle already has in mind what he'd like to eat. He hasn't been here for many years and reels off some of his favourites to the waiter.

Pretty soon the lo sui duck arrives with some vinegar and it looks overcooked by it's not -- very tender and juicy, and flavourful from the master sauce. Underneath the thin slices of marinated duck are pieces of tofu that are equally delicious.

We also order some seasonal vegetables and choose chun choi, a Chiu Chow vegetable that is a skinny version of choi sum that was cooked in a broth together with chunks of radish and pork rib bits and ginger for flavour.

Super plump baby oysters in a rice soup with pork

Then came some deep-fried items -- a ball that was a combination of shrimp mousse mixed with finely diced water chestnut, and the a rectangular package of crab meat mousse. Both were so lightly deep-fried that their texture was very soft inside, the hot oil obviously fresh.

Probably one of my favourites is the baby oyster congee. The plump oysters are practically poached in the rice soup along with chunks of minced pork, Chinese ham and mushroom. We each had seconds of this giant tureen.

Another interesting Chiu Chow specialty are dumplings where the wrapper is actually made of a very thin fried egg white, and inside the filling is diced chicken, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots, and tied  together by a thin piece of chive topped with shrimp roe. This is such an interesting dish especially in terms of execution; interestingly it tastes of butter, and the bamboo shoots inside are a nice textural highlight.

Dumpling wrappers made of fried egg white are impressive

We were almost full -- but not before we tried some desserts. First up was wok-fried taro covered in sugar -- this is very difficult to execute, as the taro needs to be constantly moving in the hot wok otherwise the sugar on top will burn. Here the slices of taro were practically white with some scallion bits.

Another was a soup of green beans with some translucent jelly cubes. Not a favourite, but a fantastic finish was a taro pudding, again constantly stirred in the wok which is challenging because the grounded taro is so sticky. The end result is a very smooth and sweet hot pudding that's practically screaming to be called comfort food. The small bowl looks deceiving, but really one or two spoonfuls are all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.

In the end our bill came to just under HK$1,000 for four. We will surely be back again as my uncle already began thinking about what to order next time...

Stir-fried slices of taro covered in sugar is difficult to make

Lok Hau Fook
1-3 Hau Wong Road
Kowloon City
2382 7408

Reminder of the Past

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church with Huawei behind it

I have arrived in Berlin for a few days and so far it's been colder than I thought! I have had to put on more layers just to keep warm.

Nevertheless the city is an interesting mix of old and new, though most of the city was bombed out during World War II and some sections of the city had to rebuild from scratch.

The extremely intricate ceiling decorated in mosaics

But there are a few places that are purposely left in its damaged state as a reminder of what happened to the building.

One of them is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. The project was initiated by Kaiser Wilhelm II to honour his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I, and construction started in 1890, and completed in 1894. It was officially consecrated 1906.

However on November 23, 1943, the church was severely damaged by an air raid. Parts of it were salvaged and when you first see the building, there are parts of it that are completely bombed out, others in tact.

A mosaic on the floor shows an angel slaying a dragon

Upon entering, visitors are blown away by the intricate mosaics on the ceiling of the foyer -- most of it is still in tact and glittering in gold. There are mosaics on the floor too, painstakingly put together, including an image of an angel slaying a dragon by the entrance.

Flanking the bombed out church are two parts of the new church designed by architect Egon Eiermann. He preserved the spire, incorporating it into the new tower. However we weren't able to see it, as it is covered by scaffolding sponsored by Huawei -- which is intriguing. Have you seen Huawei sponsor the renovation of a cultural landmark, let alone a religious one?

Or did the company find that tower to irresistible for advertising to care that it's actually the church spire?

The new church has a wonderful glow from the stained glass

In any event, the lower building, the rebuilt church, features a honeycomb design of over 21,000 stained glass inlays.  The glass designer, Gabriel Loire, was inspired by the cathedral at Chartres, and at night when the glass is lit up, has a wonderful dark blue glow.

Picture of the Day: People Day

A captivated crowd watching the tail-end of the dragon dance at lunchtime

Today is the seventh day of the Lunar New Year -- which means it's 人日 (ren2ri4) or "human day" or in Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speak "peoplekind day"; in other words, everyone's birthday.

How people want to be automatically a year older during Chinese New Year I won't quite understand, but Times Square shopping mall in Causeway Bay celebrated with four lions and a dragon.

At lunchtime the piazza was covered in people watching the lion dance and my colleague and I walked by as it was finishing up. The lions did dramatic acrobatic leaps up on poles while the dragon ran around in circles.

Near the end there was a pop sound and the lions and dragon spewed out rectangular-shaped tissue paper confetti for a dramatic finish. They also threw small stuffed red dogs into the audience.

Here's a picture of the crowd watching the dragon doing its last dance before the show was over.

Happy 人日 everyone!