Cheap and Cheerful Thai

The flavourful (and not spicy!) boat noodle soup with pork

 

Earlier this week a friend I haven't seen for a while suggested we catch up over a cheap and cheerful Thai lunch in Wan Chai.

It's a noodle shop called Kin Kao and one may want to characterize it as a cheaper version of Samsen, an extremely popular Thai eatery in Hong Kong that has expanded to two locations in Wan Chai and Sheung Wan.

I ordered the set lunch for the unbeatable price of HK$78: a bowl of boat noodle soup with pork balls and sliced pork in a flavourful dark soup stock with lots of chopped basil, and comes with a drink and I chose an iced Thai milk tea.

A very fluffy crab omelette at Kin Kao

My friend ordered stir-fried broad noodles with prawn, chicken and pork in a dark soy sauce (HK$78) and we also had the crab omelette (HK$88) that was fluffy and light.

The staff there are Thai Chinese and it's definitely a shop where you eat and go, though we lingered for a while, as tables around us had two to three rounds of customers.

During lunch most of the people who ate there worked in the area. Afterwards if you still weren't full you could line up at the nearby Bakehouse for its famous egg custard tarts, dark chocolate cookies, scones, danishes...

Also at the opposite end of the same street is International Curry House, offering Hong Kong-style curry dishes in a range of styles (Malaysian, Tamil, Vindaloo, East Indies, Pakistan), and any ingredient like beef, chicken, mutton, prawns, vegetables, along with rice or chapatti. This place is also cheap and cheerful! 

Kin Kao

G/F, Tai Wong Building

3 Tai Wong Street East

Wan Chai

2529 3806

Burmese Noodles in Old Macau

A bowl of Burmese rice noodles with fish balls in Macau's old district

When I met my Singapore friend who used to work in Macau, her husband's first order of business was to go to the Three Lamps District in old Macau. It's called "Three Lamps" because there's a roundabout with three lamp posts there.

On one side is a mini open wet market where you can buy flowers, get keys cut, or simple electronic gadgets fixed, and of course buy food. There's fresh produce like vegetables, homemade tofu and noodles, lemongrass and chillis, and also snacks like banh mi, and large chunks of char siu and roast goose ready to be taken home and eaten.

Soy chickens and quails for sale at this shop in the wet market

Directly opposite the wet market area and going up a few steps from the roundabout is Resturante Birmanes Nga Heong, a Burmese noodle shop.

There are apparently a few thousand Burmese living in the former Portuguese enclave and there are a handful of Burmese restaurants in Macau. Restaurante Birmanes Nga Heong is cheap, though the staff aren't very cheerful.

We got there just before the lunchtime rush and perused through the menu. My friend and her husband both got noodles marinated in a soy sauce and topped with shredded roast chicken and chopped scallions. They also ordered a dish of pork chop that came in a thin slice and cut up into strips.

Thin strips of pork chop that are slightly sweet

I ordered a spicy and sour noodle soup that has fish cakes in it, but I asked them to substitute them with fish balls instead.

Soon my order arrived piping hot and thank goodness not too spicy though it looks quite red! I enjoyed the sourness of the soup base, the rice noodles soaking in the flavour along with the springy fish balls.

We also ordered a plate of choi sum, the vegetables very tender and in season.

Despite us enjoying the meal, it was a bit of a challenge dealing with a waitress who was hardly patient with us. But really we came for the food.

The Burmese noodle shop at Three Lamps District

Apparently this place is also known for its creamy chicken curry and black soy bean milk.

Restaurante Birmanes Nga Heong
27F-GF Rua de Fernao Mendes Pinto R/C
Macau
(853) 2852 8129

MSG-Loaded Shanghainese

These delicate xiaolongbao are loaded with a really hot soup inside

Yesterday we had a late lunch at Long's Noodle House, a small Shanghainese eatery on Main Street in Vancouver.

When we arrived, we not only got street parking nearby, but also scored an empty table -- soon after a line started forming outside. The owners are a husband and wife team: he mans the kitchen, while his Mrs is the commander-in-chief of the dining area and proficient in both Chinese and English.

This place is well-known for its authentic Shanghainese dishes

We quickly made our order -- drunken chicken, xiaolongbao, zhajiang dan dan noodles, guotie or fried dumplings, and a thin savoury pancake wrapped with beef and fresh coriander.

The xiaolongbao were fantastic. We watched the woman making them right by the cashier. Not only were the wrappers thin, but also held a lot of soup too. We also liked the guotie with its meaty filling and crunchy doughy exterior.

Drunken chicken is another favourite, as the small, thinly sliced poached chicken is thoroughly marinated in Chinese wine, and the meat is hardly fatty.

We liked the noodles too, very hearty and slightly spicy with a minced pork sauce. The noodles were a challenge to wrestle with chopsticks, but we managed in the end.

The husband and wife who own the eatery work long hours

Then we ordered another round of xiaolongbao, along with pea shoots stir-fried with garlic that were delicious and fresh, as well as stir-fried river shrimps. However these were more baby shrimps than the Shanghainese ones; nevertheless they were cooked just right, not quite opaque and were quite crunchy.

Later that evening our dinner consisted of dishes we ordered take out from Long's Noodle House. The braised lion head featured salted egg yolk in the middle, while the short rib was delicious, oh and another round of drunken chicken.

However, in the middle of the night my brother suffered a terrible headache from the MSG in the food; perhaps I managed to dodge that bullet because I drank a lot of water just before going to bed.

The zhajiang dan dan noodles, though laden with MSG

So -- the lesson is eat at Long's Noodle House with caution and perhaps order a Coca-Cola to go with your meal...

Long's Noodle House
4853 Main Street
Vancouver
(604) 879 7879

Last Call for Bamboo Noodles

Shrimp dumpling noodles in soup were delicious at Wing Wah Noodle

Yesterday I passed by Wing Wah Noodle in Wan Chai on the bus and noticed the sign was not covered with white paper saying it was closing so I wondered if it was bought out.

I was right. Today I found out -- a month late -- that Wing Wah Noodle was indeed bought out by a restaurant group called LHGroup, though the shop will be closing in its current location tomorrow.

If you like spicy, the chilli pork noodle is your favourite

LHGroup is run by Simon Wong Kit-lung, whose father started the company 40 years ago with various restaurants including Lucky House seafood restaurant, and other ones whose names I don't recognize.

Nevertheless, while it's nice to know the name Wing Wah Noodle with 68 years of history will live on, will its noodles kneaded with a bamboo pole taste the same? Wong cannot promise the old school way of doing things will continue, only saying the operations will be "modernized"; and some of the menu items will be kept, but not all.

So I figured I should go back one last time. I made my way over there around 8.45pm tonight and walked straight in. It wasn't too busy, but maybe the staff was tired as the food came out slowly.

I tried a bowl of the chilli pork noodle (HK$48) that was quite spicy! The bits of pork were on the tough side, but when mix up with the sauce and the noodles it was quite good.

Walnut soup with glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame

Next I ordered the dumplings (sui gao) with soup noodles (HK$46) and it took a while for them to arrive. By this point there was no more pork knuckle and char siu, so many people resorted to eating wonton noodles. I like their noodles, but not the wontons -- Mak's Noodle's wontons are far superior.

Here the sui gao were fantastic -- most of the dumplings were filled with whole shrimp, wood ear fungus and a bit of minced pork to hold it together in a thin wrapper. There were three precious dumplings in one serving.

Finally I ordered the walnut soup with glutinous rice balls with black sesame filling (HK$56). I had seen a middle-aged woman sitting across from me having a bowl -- she knew the owner -- and I asked her how good it was. She reported it wasn't runny like other ones, not mixed with other things in it, so I decided to give it a go.

It took a very long time to arrive, but when it did, the bowl was piping hot. The walnut soup wasn't freshly ground, but as the woman said, it wasn't runny either, a decent consistency that was a bit more sweet than nutty-flavoured.

The glutinous rice balls filled with black sesame paste were delicious and together with the walnut soup made a nice hearty combination, a comforting dessert.

When regular customers were leaving the restaurant, many told the staff they would come back tomorrow, the last day. The owner, Cheung Tse-sau looks happy to finally pass on the shop to someone else for a pretty penny. Does she care what happens to the name from now on?

She claimed the new owner Wong was "young and sincere"... we'll have to see what he does with Wing Wah Noodle. People will very easily vote with their feet...

A Stock to Watch

Shoppers could buy everything from junk food to staples at this chain store

For many Hongkongers 759 Store is a shop they like to browse in, especially for snacks from Japan, though it has grown to include ones from Europe and the United States. It also carries noodles, rice, sauces, and even frozen seafood.

I've written about 759 Store before, and the shop got its name from the parent company's stock number on the stock exchange.

However, it was shocking to find out yesterday that the founder and owner, Coils Lam Wai-chun, died unexpectedly on Saturday at the age of 60. It was disclosed he had diabetes for a long time.

Coils Lam died on Saturday at the age of 60

Instead of the parent company's stock falling, it more than doubled in value today. On Friday it closed at HK46.5 cents and then today went as high as HK$1.04 before closing at HK89 cents. That's because investors think positive change is on the way.

"The passing away of the founding chairman is sad news. However, it also give hope to investors that it may have the way for a major restructuring, or even merger and acquisition opportunities. This has led buyers to rush to bet on the stock on Monday," explained Jeffrey Chan Lap-tak, founding partner of Oriental Patron Financial Group.

"The 759 Store in fact is very popular and has a leading market position among snack retailers. Its [financial] results were not good in recent years, mainly due to an over expansion of the number of stores a few years ago. But the reduction of stores in the past two years has already helped the company get back on track. It may well be a target of acquisition," he said.

Like many small and medium-sized enterprises, they were dependent on their founders, like Lam in the case of 759 Store. Lam and his wife Law Ching-yee own 70.89 percent of CEC International, the parent company.

The future of 759 Store looks positive in terms of stock value

"Now the founder has died. We will need to wait and see if the new management can lead the business forwards," Chan said.

On Sunday the board held an urgent meeting and decided executive director Tang Fung-kwan, 48, will become the new chairwoman of the company. She joined the group in 1993 and was appointed executive director in 1999. She is responsible for the overall management of the procurement part of the business.

Lam founded 759 Store in 2010, competing with supermarkets by offering Japanese and Korean snacks, like cookies and chips before expanding to rice, coffee, and even wine.

It'll be interesting to see how the company fares post-Lam -- will it succeed or fall apart? The company will need to make some wise decisions, but so far cutting down the number of stores from 270 to 220 is a good start. Maybe the chain will be bought out, or maybe with the injected investment they can do other things.

Definitely a stock to watch!

Taste of Xinjiang in Western

Skip the diluted ketchup -- just eat this roasted lamb leg straight! So good!

Earlier this week I took three colleagues to have dinner at Ba Yi, the well-known Xinjiang restaurant in Western.

For one of my co-workers, the restaurant is around the corner from where he lives so it was quite surprising he hadn't eaten there yet.

Shredded potato with dried chillis and peppers

I duly made a reservation a few days before and pre-ordered a roasted lamb leg. Previous times when I came here, it was packed with diners -- the Tuesday evening we went it was a relatively slow evening.

In any event I ordered a few dishes to go with our lamb leg and waited with anticipation.

First to arrive at the table was the Xinjiang salad, and we had two portions split among four of us. Perhaps there were too many onions and not enough tomatoes, but it was refreshing with the cucumber, and a few peppers to make it interesting, marinated in vinegar.

Next came the main event -- lamb! A server showed us the whole lamb leg and then took it back to the kitchen to have it sliced up. It was in a word delicious. There was plenty of cumin to marinate the meat, that was extremely tender and juicy even though it was cooked through. Needless to say we polished the lamb off quickly. It was a winner.

Chicken stewed in a spicy sauce with noodles underneath

I also ordered some lamb skewers, but these were a complete disappointment -- how could they have been so different from the roast lamb leg? They didn't have much taste and not much meat on the metal skewers either. A mental note to never order them again!

Luckily I was redeemed by the shredded potato that's blanched, then stir-fried with dried chillis and thinly sliced peppers and seasoned with vinegar. It had a slow burn that everyone around the table approved of.

Finally another big dish arrived -- da pan ji or literally big chicken dish. I remember having it in Urumqi -- it was a massive platter and very spicy. This one was too, and towards the end the four of us struggled to finish it -- OK three. In the spicy scale it was past my threshold, and I ended up nibbling bits of it, including the chicken feet.

The dish featured a whole chicken, chopped and simmering in a flavourful spicy sauce with potatoes and chillis. It was served with thick noodles underneath, soaking up the sauce. In the end only the "bits" were left, or the non-meaty parts that no one had the patience to eat.

The restaurant cat hanging out at the reception desk

Thank goodness I had a big glass of lassi to cool me down, while two of my male colleagues downed four Tsing Tao each!

Meanwhile the restaurant's cat -- that had a big tummy -- had his dinner too. He must have a fantastic time picking up leftovers in Ba Yi.

When the bill arrived we were shocked -- just under HK$1,200?! How could that be! The guys paid up more because of their beer consumption and so us ladies had a cheap meal.

It was suggested we come back again when the weather gets colder, but we might come back earlier because of that amazing lamb leg..

Ba Yi

G/F, 43 Water Street

Sai Ying Pun

2484 9981

Bourdain's Love Affair with Hong Kong

Anthony Bourdain crossing Victoria Harbour on a Star Ferry

This evening while I was out for dinner, my colleague texted me to say that celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide. He was 61 years old.

It was such a shock to read the news, with scant details at the time, that he was found dead in his hotel room in Strasbourg while filming his TV show, Parts Unknown.

Only a few days ago his episode on Hong Kong had aired and people I know who were in it was very excited to see it on the small screen.

Bourdain has visited Hong Kong several times, but in this episode he enlisted the help of cinematographer Christopher Doyle to star in and shoot some scenes. The well-traveled chef has admired Doyle's work for years, citing Chungking Express and In The Mood for Love as his favourite movies.

Cinematographer Chris Doyle was in the episode too

For Doyle, creating art is a moment in time that can't be recreated -- spoken like a true artist. In the show Bourdain looks thrilled just to hang out with the filmmaker.

And he isn't just interested in eating, Bourdain wants to get to know Hong Kong better than a tourist. He learns the city is changing so fast that young people are nostalgic for their childhood, and are sad when shops they knew when they were young are shuttered. But it's a fact of life in Hong Kong.

He also finds life for local people has changed in the last 10 years with the government making it more difficult to express themselves even though it is enshrined in the Basic Law.

There is even a scene of a man who fixes umbrellas for a living and gives tips on how to keep them in good condition. I didn't even know there was such a service available, but the man says people like to repair umbrellas because they have sentimental value if they were given to them by loved ones.

In Happy Paradise that re-interprets Cantonese food

To say Bourdain is a champion of Hong Kong is an understatement and we haven't even gotten to the food yet.

He is not judgemental at all about it until he puts it into his mouth and tries it. Everything from macaroni in soup with spam and fried egg to baked fish intestines to bamboo pole noodles covered in shrimp roe. He evaluates them for the taste and tries to understand ad appreciate how these dishes came about.

Bourdain's love affair with Hong Kong is so evident in his shows, which endeared him to local people even more.

We are sad that he left us too soon, but at least he fulfilled his wish to be in Hong Kong filming with Doyle. RIP.

Take Out Guangzhou Style

Late lunch feast of fish, chicken, tofu, vegetables and rice. All the food groups

These last few days in Guangzhou we've been eating a lot of take-out food. It's not the fast-food variety but somewhat nutritious and definitely Chinese.

My colleague loves ordering take-out whenever he's in Guangdong because it's much cheaper and more varieties than in Hong Kong.

On Wednesday night we finished our work late so we ordered take out as soon as we arrived back at the hotel.

I had fish and pork congee with some choi sum in soy sauce and that came to around 22 yuan. The congee was very good, lots of flavour and almost creamy in texture.

Late dinner of mixed vegetables with rice noodles in soup

The next day we had a late lunch and again ordered several dishes, including Hakka ones, like salt-baked chicken and braised tofu stuffed with minced pork. There was also delicious fish slices in a spicy preserved vegetable broth, braised pig trotters, wood ear fungus with chillis (very spicy!), string beans with eggplant, and soup and rice. For four people it was less than 300 yuan.

We also had a late dinner, and mine consisted of noodles with vegetables like mushrooms, tomato, cabbage and even a quail egg. The noodles were packaged separate from the broth to avoid over cooking them, and the soup didn't have MSG. Only 29 yuan.

Fantastic choices if you have the app and can read Chinese... and have mobile payment! Will be making sure my China assignments are with this foodie...

Silk Road: Keeping Tabs on Hospital Costs

A Uyghur sleeping on a cot in the stairwell in the hospital

From a patient's point of view, Xinjiang Kashgar First People's Hospital is very basic. You have to buy everything -- soap, paper towels, toilet paper, water, even soft pillows, tissues, anything you might need.

At first I was relieved that our shared toilet at least had soap -- but then a few days later our neighbour left and took their soap along with them! That's how we found out the hospital didn't even provide soap so that people would have clean hands to handle the patients...

A quaint-looking restaurant, but food wasn't agreeable...

My aunt told us that even when preparing for surgery, a barber came by and shaved my dad's head -- for 20 yuan (US$3). She saw the tour guide pay him, so she quickly gave money back to the tour guide.

We were also told to have someone look after my dad 24 hours a day in the hospital  -- which explained why people slept in cots like the one we were given our room, or people slept on layers of blankets on the floor anywhere. In the evenings the hospital looked like a refugee camp.

Our tour guide suggested hiring a young man to help look after my dad and it turned out he was very young -- a 17-year-old Uyghur, just graduated from high school. He was the younger brother of another tour guide and was keen to get into this line of work too.

Another relative sleeping by the elevators

In a way this was a good training ground for him, to be able to deal with a variety of situations, translating from Uyghur to English, and also knowing where to go in the hospital to get things, particularly CT scans and such.

This saved my mom and I the headache of having to run around the hospital trying to figure out where everything was, and focus on looking after my dad when we visited him.

There was also no hospital food available, nor a cafeteria. That meant having to buy food everyday. We tried a Chinese restaurant at the back of our hotel and it wasn't that hygienic.

The same could be said for the string of Uyghur restaurants in front of the hospital. My mom and I went to one of them for lunch and ordered a bowl of hand-pulled noodles with ratatouille and bits of lamb.

What arrived on our table were two bowls of lukewarm noodles. I started tucking in but then heard the sound of chopping behind me. It turns out there was a man using an axe to chop the raw meat of a carcass. My mom watched him and immediately lost her appetite and her stomach didn't feel well either.

She made the executive decision that we would only eat food from the hotel. That meant having to wait until noon for the Chinese restaurant to open for lunch to buy take out for my dad, and then going back again around 6pm for his dinner.

We saw meat chopped like this in a restaurant by the hospital

Most of the time we wouldn't eat dinner until 8pm or even 9pm. The Chinese restaurant barely had any business, or if it did, the function that evening was already over so we practically had the restaurant to ourselves.

While the tables looked nicely set from a distance, the tablecloths were never changed, and the same oil stains were there...

The menu was quite limited in terms of what we could easily transport to my dad, and not spicy either, which left the only choice of dumplings, which were made to order -- we could even see the thumb prints on them. But after a while you get tired of eating dumplings with chives and egg, or egg and cucumber.

My mom and I liked a tureen of thick sheets of noodles, practically like squares, with tomatoes and vegetables in a slightly sour broth. Another delicious dish was wai san or a white mountain root stir-fried with black-eared fungus, though a bit on the oily side.

Comforting tart noodle soup dish with tomato and vegetables

While food and transportation were cheap, we worried about the mounting hospital bills. Every day a strip of white recycled paper was our bill for the previous day and it listed various items and deducted from the original 10,000 yuan payment.

Some of the items listed were ridiculous, including Chinese medicine and that they moved my dad's body from side to side so that his back wouldn't get tired. We saw no evidence of that. So that was how the hospital would overcharge patients...

A few days into our extended stay in Kashgar we started worrying about having enough cash and I would periodically count the red 100 yuan bills to make sure we were covered. Being away from home and no friends or family to rely on, we had to estimate how much more money we needed. We had American cash, but the bills were considered too old to exchange. Even in Kashgar the banks are picky.

Silk Road: Hand Shredded Lamb

Roasted whole lamb presented to our table with a red bow

You can't go to Xinjiang without eating lamb. Lamb kebabs, lamb dumplings, lamb with noodles and whole roasted lamb.

We had a chance to have the whole roasted lamb in a dish called shou zhua gua yang or literally "hand shredded lamb" at a restaurant in Dunhuang before we watched the show about the Mogao Grottoes.

Lamb roasting in one of many charcoal ovens

Like every other restaurant we ate at during our tour, they were catered to tour groups and this one was not exception. At the entrance to the restaurant were brick ovens powered with white hot charcoal where they had really young lambs that were spread as flat as possible onto racks and then roasted.

They were slow roasted for about two hours so that in the end the skin was very crispy, most of the fat had melted and the meat very tender.

When the lamb was ready, it was strangely presented on a stainless steel platter with leaves in its mouth. It's almost as bad as the glowing red eyes that some whole roasted pork have...

Apparently there is a ritual around cutting the lamb -- where the eldest at the table is given the knife to make the first cut. My uncle was given the knife and he stabbed the lamb... as if it needed to be killed -- again.

Afterwards the lamb is shredded for consumption. Dig in!

The lamb was then taken back to the kitchen and soon afterwards it reappeared on our table completely ripped up into chunks and bits.

Each of us were given a thin plastic disposable glove to grab the meat and dip it into a choice of a few sauces, but really it was fine on its own. The meat was very tender, particularly those near the bone. Some of us licked the bones clean too.

This lamb dish was accompanied by mostly vegetable dishes, like pickled radishes, mung bean jelly, cucumbers with garlic and fried vegetables.

Savouring Roast Goose and Sunset

How can any carnivore resist a delicious half portion of roast goose?!

With friends in town it's a good excuse to hit some old favourites restaurants. A friend's son is visiting here on his own and wanted to check out Kam's Roast Goose, a perennial favourite and Michelin-starred spot.

However I was concerned about the possibility of a long line up because every time I pass by on the bus, I see a line of people outside, as well as others waiting for take-out.

Very creamy century-year-old eggs with ginger

But today seemed to be a lucky day for us. We only had to wait a few minutes before being shown a table for four that we shared with two mainland visitors. We were forewarned that all the rice noodles were sold out -- we could only order rice or egg noodles, which might be why some discerning diners didn't wait in line. Roast goose is best with lai fun, or thick, round rice noodles that are difficult to pick up with chopsticks.

While the menu is extensive, there are only a few things you need to order and for two people, there is only so much you can eat.

First came the century-old eggs (well one sliced in half) and the creaminess of the dark grey-coloured egg was heavenly. It was beautifully paired with the pickled ginger that was hardly spicy.

Silky smooth and delicious goose blood "tofu"

Next came the main event -- half portion of a roast goose. It was quite large for two, but I told my dining companion we didn't have to rush, even though turnover at this restaurant is fast, it didn't mean we had to hurry.

So we started eating the roast goose and it had a thin roasted skin on top, and some fat in between that acted as a buffer to keep the meat underneath tender and juicy. Oh so good. We slowly plowed through this dish that had beans underneath soaking up the sauce.

Accompanying our dinner was an order of egg noodles in soup, and dry egg noodles topped with shrimp roe. And to be healthy, we also had a plate of choi sum -- the other option was cabbage, which our dining companions next to us practically left untouched.

What was left of the roast goose!

We also ordered goose blood "tofu" that was very smooth -- better than pig's blood, and it came with several strands of chives. It was my friend's son's first time eating it and he really enjoyed it the texture and taste. Not something you can get in California, let alone roast goose.

After the tables around us turned twice and onto the third batch of customers, we practically finished everything! I was impressed, though quite full. The bill came to HK$512 for two, and the restaurant makes a killing as it only accepts cash or Octopus.

As it was still early, we decided to walk off the dinner with a visit to the Golden Bauhinia sculpture -- something he wanted to see -- and that also resulted in seeing a fantastic night view looking towards Central at the tail end of the sunset.

An amazing view of Central from the convention centre

Then we tried to navigate ourselves out of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre to the harbourfront pedestrian walkway, but it was so difficult to get there with all the construction going on. We had to make several detours and run across roads to get to safe pedestrian areas.

Nevertheless, it was a good way to help us digest, though now several hours later I'm still full!

Kam's Roast Goose

G/F, Po Wah Commercial Centre

226 Hennessy Road

Wan Chai
2520 1110

Flavourful Vietnamese Lunch

Refreshing light flavours in the green mango salad starter

Moi Moi by Luke Nguyen is a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant opened by the Vietnamese-Australian celebrity chef.

On the menu is a wagyu beef pho where the broth has been simmering with beef bones for 18 hours along with spices and herbs.

However it's only available at lunchtime, and so today I had planned to take the day off but in the end had to work in the afternoon because we are so short-staffed in the office at the moment.

Nevertheless, I made sure I was free for lunch and went there with my friend at noon. It wasn't full when I arrived just before noon, but it soon filled up and by 12.30pm there was a line up at the door.

Slices of wagyu beef are hidden under the beansprouts

Customers can't just order the pho though, they need to order the set lunch, which includes a starter for HK$168 and an extra HK$28 for dessert.

We each ordered different things on the menu to try. We had the paper rice rolls with prawns, kurobuta pork, rice vermicelli and perilla that was pretty straight forward.

However, things were interesting with the green mango salad, that had julienne carrots, green mango and red onion, mint and shallot chips with small chunks of Australian spanner crab and rambutan too.

It was so refreshing and the flavours were piquant, particularly the tart green mango and mint, while the crab meat was generous and rambutan added a bit of sweetness.

For our mains, the wagyu beef pho arrived in a giant bowl with the simmering full-flavoured broth. A heap of beansprouts was on top of the thin slice of semi-cooked beef along with other cooked chunks that had a bit of fat on them, along with some basil leaves.

A crunchy and warm banh mi that is choc full of ingredients

This was the ultimate comfort food -- hearty, warm, but not too heavy, full of flavour and lots of broth you don't mind drinking because you know it doesn't have MSG in it.

We also shared a banh mi, featuring a warm crunchy baguette filled with chargrilled pork patties, pork floss, and Vietnamese pickles. There's some shredded carrot in here too along with coriander and spring onions.

The baguette holds up to the filling very well, keeping pretty much crunchy, while one needs a pretty big mouth to squeeze the sandwich in, or it somehow needs to be squished to get a mouthful.

It's a very hearty sandwich, and very filling too. We were quite full by the time we finished our half of the banh mi and couldn't manage sampling dessert.

While the price is pretty expensive for lunch in Central, the lunch set minus dessert is definitely filling. Even if I worked in Central I could not afford to eat this everyday, but the flavours linger in your mind and so you can't go without it for too long...

Moi Moi by Luke Nguyen

G/F, Nexxus Building

41 Connaught Road Central

Central

2808 1086

moimoi.hk

Picture of the Day: Mak's Noodles in Vancouver

One of the bite-sized wontons in my wonton noodle soup in Richmond

Yesterday we picked up our relatives from the airport who are visiting North America for the first time and since they were hungry after their flight from San Francisco, we decided to take them for a bite to eat at Mak's Noodles -- in Richmond, a municipality next to Vancouver.

It's in one of several strip malls in the area, and by the time we arrived, just before 3pm on a Sunday, the place was packed.

While this Mak's Noodles is a branch of the original in Hong Kong, the portion sizes are different. Here they are decent-sized bowls. The wontons are quite similar, small and there is a greater proportion of shrimp to pork. The noodles are good too, but the alkaline taste is not as pronounced and not cooked al dente.

Nevertheless, for a bowl of wonton noodles here it's CAD$5.75 (around HK$34), slightly cheaper than the HK$39 in Hong Kong -- and almost twice the portion of noodles.

The menu in the Richmond branch has many other dishes too, like congee, spring rolls and deep-fried dace balls.

Mak's Noodle House

Alexandra Plaza, 190-8291 Alexandra Road

Richmond

(604) 231 8141

Yuen Long Eats

Noodle-fest at Ho To Tai, which was mentioned in this year's Michelin Guide

On the weekend my relatives took me to Yuen Long, where we went around and had our own foodie tour of local eateries.

Don't underestimate the flavours from this simple noodle dish

We took a bus from Jordan which went through West Kowloon and then north west to Yuen Long in a relatively short period of time.

Our first, and most important stop was Ho To Tai Noodle Shop. Opened in 1948, it was the place my great aunt and grandmother would go to get noodles for the family. They would get as many noodle cakes as they could carry and then store them in giant tin containers. After school my dad and his siblings would get steaming bowls of noodles to eat.

My mom remembers the place fondly. My mother's side of the family lived on a farm in Kam Tin and probably not every weekend, but it was a treat to come here to the noodle shop and have a bowl of wonton noodles.

The ground floor dining area of Ho To Tai in Yuen Long

This was my first time going to the shop and by today's standards it has its old school charm. The two-storey shop packs in the diners much like Mak's Noodles with small booths, while cases of glass bottled soft drinks are stacked haphazardly around the dining area.

As there were four of us, we each ordered a different dish. First up was the sui gao lo e-mein. The sui gao are flat and triangular, filled with minced pork, shrimp and wood ear fungus with a touch of shrimp roe. We also ordered the soup version.

Next came egg noodles with thin strips of pork in a tomato sauce. The noodles were slightly al dente and went well with the pork and sauce when mixed together.

The bowl of beef tendon at Victory Beef Ball was delicious

Finally the wonton noodles with egg noodles arrived, and while wontons are not delicate like Mak's Noodles, the ones here were a bit rough around the edges and slightly salty.

We also ordered turnip with shrimp roe that was delicious, as well as another plate of wide egg noodles with oyster sauce, julienne of ginger and young spring onions sliced lengthwise. When mixed together, this dish worked very well -- simple pleasures with fresh ingredients that made the noodles taste extraordinary.

Our next stop was Victory Beef Ball. To conserve our stomachs we ordered a bowl of only beef balls in broth, and a bowl of beef tendon. The former were meaty but also had a bit of an elastic crunch to them, while we enjoyed the tendon, almost melting in the mouth, very smooth and flavourful.

Wife cakes (top shelf), ginger and preserved egg cakes (below)

Hang Heung is known for its lo po beng or wife cakes so we came here for some, along with ginger and preserved egg cakes, and red bean ones too.

Finally we headed to Tai Wing Wah, known for its roast meats, but also this branch has a menu featuring dishes all at the same price. The place is also famous for its rice baked in clay bowls that you can flavour with soy sauce and pork lard... yes lard...!

Our plate of char siu was disappointing -- the pork was too lean and didn't have enough fat to make it tender and it tasted as if it hasn't been marinated long enough. Our soy roast chicken was delicious, but as it was presented in a bowl, we could later see lots of oil half way up the bowl... nevertheless the chicken was very tender.

Char siu (top left) and roast soy chicken on the right

Fish maw stir-fried with egg whites was nothing spectacular, while the steamed pumpkin with squid topped with garlic was delicious and interesting. The slices of pumpkin soaked up the garlic and squid flavours and overall the dish had many textures, soft, crunchy, sweet and savoury.

Stuffed fish that was deep-fried is labour intensive, but the execution here was not up to par. The fish is supposed to be carefully deboned, the fish meat ground up and perked up with mandarin peel and scallions before being restuffed back into the fish and then deep-fried.

This one had the odd bone stuck in it, and the slices were so roughly chopped, it was as if the chef had no interest in making the dish at all. We preferred the one we ate at Lin Heung Kui over a week earlier.

Fantastic steamed pumpkin and squid with lots of garlic

Finally for dessert, the steamed sponge cake was a light shade of yellow -- using white sugar, though it was nice and fluffy.

We rolled out of the restaurant and I got to my bus stop to get back to Hong Kong Island. The bus stops have an electronic board that tells you when your bus is expected to arrive. In my case, the estimation was off by two or three minutes. Not bad.

It took me 40 minutes to get from Yuen Long to Shun Tak Ferry Terminal in Sheung Wan, and then another 20 by tram.

I bought a box of wide egg noodles from Ho To Tai. I'll be eating them for a while...

Ho To Tai

G/F, 67 Fau Tsoi Street

Yuen Long
2476 2495

Victory Beef Ball

Shop 1, G/F, Kit Man House

Kuk Ting Street

Yuen Long
2475 5575

Hang Heung

66 Castle Peak Road

Yuen Long
2474 5731

Wing Wah

2/F, Koon Wong Mansion

2-6 On Ning Road

Yuen Long
2476 9888