Relax - HK's delectable detours

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Forget the hot and hyped Bo Innovation in Hong Kong. The newly minted two-star Michelin eatery, which serves Chinese cuisine with a molecular gastronomy twist, charges a mindboggling HK$1,800 (S$323.60) for a chef's degustation menu.

As regular visitors to the territory know, one can get a great culinary bargain almost anywhere in Hong Kong every day.

Whether it is a casual cha chan teng (literally, tea and meal house, the Hong Kong equivalent of Singapore's coffee shops) or the famous roast goose restaurant Yung Kee, which also earned its first Michelin star last year, meals can be had for as little as HK$25.

While Singaporeans may already be familiar with Hong Kong's most popular eateries such as Tsui Wah, the cha chan teng in Central which is always bustling with life 24/7, there are culinary gems to be unearthed in more far-flung locations.

Featured on this page and the next are some hot spots well worth a detour for foodies.

sorfern@sph.com.sg

The writer's trip was sponsored by Hong Kong Tourism Board in association with the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival. Accommodation was provided by Langham Place Mongkok.

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Food haunts to check out

FU KEE RESTAURANT

60 Sham Tseng Tsuen,

tel: +852-2491-9832

Open: Daily from 11am to midnight

Roast goose aficionados make the trek out to Sham Tseng Tsuen (Sham Tseng Village) in Tsuen Wan, a district in the New Territories. There are four roast goose restaurants here at a dining hot spot that also offers Italian, Japanese and French cuisines.

Chan Kee is the biggest one but my Hong Kong guide, who lives across the road, prefers Fu Kee, located just a couple of shops away. The roast goose (HK$80 or S$14.40 for a leg, above) has crisp bronzed skin, oozy fat and a salty marinade that contrasts nicely with the sweet plum dip. Try also the sauteed duck's tongue with shallots (HK$55), an unusual, chewy treat.

If you have room after your meal, Lucky Dessert next door is famous for its durian pancakes.

LUNG MU LAU VEGETARIAN

Long Men Lou, Nan Lian Garden, 60 Fung Tak Road, Diamond Hill,
tel: +852-3658-9388
Open: Daily from 11am to midnight

This popular vegetarian restaurant is located in a sprawling public garden just a stone's throw away from the Diamond Hill MTR stop. On the Sunday I visited, a queue had already formed outside the eatery before it opened, so call ahead to book a table. The fare is worlds away from the gluten-loaded, greasy dishes one usually associates with Chinese vegetarian meals.

The Five Fortune Appetiser platter (HK$138, top) comes with meaty teriyaki mushrooms, very more-ish pasta sheets in pomelo vinegar, a well-done mock sausage, marinated cold asparagus and a beetroot salad. The Green Squash Dumpling (HK$20 for three pieces) and the Vegetable-filled Dumplings In Broth (HK$35 for six pieces) are filled with tasty, crunchy diced vegetables.

MAN SHUN CHEONG

MSC Building, 199 Wing Lok Street West, Sheung Wan,

tel: +852-2545-1190

Open: Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm; Saturday, 8am to 5pm

This discreet shop is just one in a lane full of shops selling dried seafood and preserved foods.

What this shop, which has been around for more than 40 years, is known for are its home-cured plums. Those who love a sour treat will love its wet preserved plums, which can cost up to HK$8 a plum.

There are other tidbits available, too, from the usual dried sour plums to dried herbal olives.

WO HING PRESERVED MEAT

Shop 5, Welland Building, 368 Queen's Road Central, Sheung Wan,

tel: +852-2544-0008

Open: Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm; Saturday, 9am to 5.30pm

In a nod to the times, Wo Hing Preserved Meat has sausages (below) made from lean pork and other low-fat options.

But connoisseurs will zero in on the unabashedly decadent pork sausages with their pale streaks of fat visible through the casings.

One must-buy from this shop which dates back to the 1950s is the rich duck liver sausage. Prices start from HK$150 a kati (about 500g).

RED KITCHEN

Shop 62, Red Brick House, Tsz Tong Tsuen, Kam Sheung Road, Yuen Long,

tel: +852-3060-9388

Open: Daily for lunch and dinner, call to reserve a table

Meet gongfu chef Ng Wing Ho (above). The 51-year-old was a gongfu instructor before he turned restaurateur.

He was actually looking for something to occupy his gongfu students, who might otherwise get up to mischief on the streets.

So he started a noodle shop 'because it is easy to teach them how to cook noodles'. And he found a new calling in life. Having worked in full-fledged restaurants before, he prefers the freedom of running his own business.

His private dining venture is a collaboration with a friend who owns Red Brick House, a flea market filled with stalls selling everything from garden furniture to pottery.

From a tiny kitchen, a staggering stream of dishes emerges. Starters of chewy fish belly with cold cucumber and poached chicken in fermented beancurd is followed by pork brisket stewed with salted cabbage and an intense soup brewed with duck, conch, mushrooms and wolfberries.

The ta-da moment comes when the duck is served: A whole deboned bird, stuffed with tasty marinated glutinous rice, glossy chestnuts and salted egg yolk (below).

But there is still a whole steamed seabass, swimming in its own sweet liquor, stir-fried prawns, stuffed beancurd and dessert to come.

For between HK$150 and HK$350 a person, this is a gastronomic bargain worth flying to Hong Kong for.

CHEZ LUNG

6F Fanling Wai, Fanling, New Territories,

tel: +852-2672-7550

Open: By appointment only

Mr Alan Pang Chun Lung, 50, went to France to study aerospace engineering but he turned to cooking instead because, as his wife, also 50, says with a laugh: 'He could make more money cooking.'

After 30 years running a successful Chinese restaurant in a small village in the Alps, midway between Geneva and Lyons, he sold everything and packed his family, including his 18-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son, off to his home village in the New Territories.

Of his decision, he shrugs and says brusquely: 'I missed home.'

Casting around for something to do when he got back, he hit upon private dining. Chez Lung became a fast favourite with French expats and discerning foodies as word of mouth about it spread. Now that Mr Pang has a full-time catering business, he does private dining parties only occasionally.

The house rules are simple: Call in advance and tell the chef about any allergies or dietary restrictions. There is no menu. The dinner costs HK$500 a person for a five- to six-course dinner (HK$400 without foie gras) and Mr Pang will prepare a meal from the freshest ingredients from the market.

Never mind that you do not get to pick and choose. Whatever he dishes up is cooked to his exacting standards. He is a purist at heart and has no patience for people who have certain expectations about French food.

Put yourself in his hands, however, and you are in for a treat. On the day I visited, he served tasty appetisers of iberico ham and fat little blinis topped with salmon and creme fraiche. The asparagus salad with a light mousseline sauce came with perfectly seared scallops and the roast pigeon was perfection, crisp skin mated with flesh cooked just through with a hint of pink.

But the piece de resistance was an exquisite pot au feu foie gras, goose liver poached to wobbling, melting tenderness in a clear consomme with crisp root vegetables as accompaniments.

THE 8TH ESTATE WINERY

Room 306, third floor, Harbour Industrial Center, 10 Lee Hing Street, Ap Lei Chau,

tel: +852-2518-0922

Open: By appointment only

Drab concrete slabs of buildings that look a bit rundown are the norm in this industrial estate setting.

But take the lift to the third floor of No. 10, step through a sliding door and you could well be in the cellar of an Italian, French or Californian vineyard.

In fact, you could be drinking wines made with grapes from all these countries at The 8th Estate Winery, touted as the first urban boutique winery in Hong Kong. Grapes are flash frozen at harvest time, then shipped to Hong Kong where they are thawed before undergoing the usual fermentation process.

Canadian founder, director and chief marketing officer Lysanne Tusar, 29, says there is method to this madness.

'We are not tied to a vineyard. Every year, we find the best grapes in the world so we have a consistent quality to offer.'

She set up the winery in 2007 with US$2 million from her family, which made its fortune in cancer-detection technology.

So far, the 8th Estate has made four reds, five whites and three dessert wines from grapes sourced from Italy as well as Washington state in the United States.

With prices ranging between HK$230 (S$41) and HK$300 a bottle, these wines can cost nearly 50 per cent less than the equivalent branded wines made from the same grapes.

But the proof is in the tasting. Try the 2007 Affair (HK$215), an unusual dessert wine made from Washington state grapes.

This late harvest Cabernet Savignon is sweet and fruity, a nicely textured surprise and no cheap and nasty plonk.

Cook Lai Wong Ming with his signature pantyhose milk tea

TAI FAT RESTAURANT

Shop 5, ground floor, Treasure Court, Hung Shui Kiu, Yuen Long,

tel: +852-2443-5533

Opening hours: 6am to 11pm daily

Tai Fat Restaurant is officially home to the King of Milk Tea.

The cook, Mr Lai Wong Ming (above), 54, was crowned in August this year in an inaugural competition organised by the Association Of Coffee And Tea and food and beverage company Kampery Development Ltd.

The softspoken Mr Lai has been making tea for over 30 years.

He shows off his blunt, tea-stained fingers with quiet pride and when one observes that he has a wonderful complexion, he says jokingly: 'Of course, steam every day.'

As an 18-year-old, he left his home in China's Guangdong province and stole into Hong Kong by taking a midnight swim to the territory.

He found a job in a cha chan teng because it offered free room and board.

The secret to good pantyhose milk tea, he says, is in the brewing and the proportions.

Tai Fat's milk tea is brewed from a mix of 'six to eight' different tea leaves, which are boiled for 30 minutes. It is then strained through the distinctive long cloth bag which gives the tea its 'pantyhose' nickname. Full-cream milk and creamer are then added to the brew.

'The perfect milk tea should have 1½ teaspoons of sugar,' he says before scooping out a generous helping into my cup. Besides making a mean milk tea, he also assembles lovely sandwiches. His egg sandwich - hard-boiled egg, tomato and lettuce drizzled with sweet mayonnaise - is popular with female customers.

But the must-try is his pork chop sandwich, boasting a tender pork chop spiced with just a dash of black pepper, topped with nicely caramelised onions and sandwiched in a soft chewy baguette.

Egg sandwich

Pork chop sandwich in a baguette

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Getting there

Cathay Pacific has six daily flights to Hong Kong. Choose from five direct nonstop flights or one direct flight with a stopover in Bangkok. Prices start from $534 (including taxes) a person.

Go to www.cathaypacific.com for details.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.

HK's delectable detours

By Ong Sor Fern, The Straits Times | Sat, Nov 14 2009

After you have had your fill of its popular eateries, get ready for gastronomic delights in far-flung corners.

Keywords

hong kong

As regular visitors to the territory know, one can get a great culinary bargain almost anywhere in Hong Kong every day.

Featured on this page and the next are some hot spots well worth a detour for foodies.

sorfern@sph.com.sg

The writer's trip was sponsored by Hong Kong Tourism Board in association with the Hong Kong Wine and Dine Festival. Accommodation was provided by Langham Place Mongkok.

____________________________________________

Food haunts to check out

FU KEE RESTAURANT

60 Sham Tseng Tsuen,

tel: +852-2491-9832

Open: Daily from 11am to midnight

If you have room after your meal, Lucky Dessert next door is famous for its durian pancakes.

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