7. Rice Noodle
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| Yun Nan rice noodle with "hot and numbing" soup |
In the past couple of years, Yun Nan rice noodle stores become very popular in Hong Kong. These rice noodle stores basically sell the same thing: Yun Nan style rice noodle with your choice of soup and your choice of sides. If you cannot eat spicy stuff, I am sorry because you only have one choice soup—the broth. However, if you can eat spicy things, you are in heaven. You can choice the hot and sour soup or the "hot and numbing" soup. If you decided to try the "hot and numbing" soup, you pick between nine different level of hotness.
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| Option for soup |
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| Yun Nan rice noodle with every side |
After picking the soup, you can pick the sides that you want. You can choose between beef, pork, fish ball, ham, beef ball, mushroom, chicken and some other vegetables. If you are hungry or you are sharing with other people, you can get the rice noodle with every side.
Yun Nan rice noodle from these stores is not the tastiest thing in the world, but they taste very good. The reasons they are very popular because these stores give you a lot of noodles, in reasonably cheap prices compare to other dining option.
Besides Yun Nan rice noodle, you can get some other small Yunnan dishes from these noodle stores. One of the dishes that I liked is the "hot and numbing" century egg. When you first put the century eff into your mouth, you will taste the unique flavor of the century egg. A second letter, your tongue will become numb because of the spice. It is very interesting!
6.Cha Lou (Dim sum resturant)
There are many Cha Lous in Hong Kong. Some are good and some are bad. Some are more expensive than the others and some are cheaper than the others. Cha Lous are very popular in Hong Kong. People go to Cha Lous is not only for dim sums. Going to Cha Lous is a Chinese tradition. Many families will go to Cha Lou early Sunday morning with newspapers in their hands. They will stay there until afternoon. During that time, people will read the newspaper, catch up with their families and enjoy spending time with their families. Oh, and of course, eating those delicious dim sums.
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| Older Style Cha Lou |
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| Newer Style Cha Lou |
When you go to Cha Lou, the first thing you order after you sat down is what kind of tea do you want. After that, when you finish the tea from the teapot, you can lift the cap of the teapot and just cover half of the teapot, and waiters will know they need to refill your teapot.
After you ordered what kind of tea you want, you have a couple of options to order food. First, you can look at the mean and tell a waiter what you want. The second option is there will be a paper with a list of dim sum on the table. You can write down the number of a certain dim sum you want and give it to the waiters. They will help you put in the order. The last option, the one that has the most fun, is just pick the food that you want when a cart full of dim sum go past you. Once you tell the waiter you want something from their cart, they will put a stamp on the ticket.
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| Dim sum cart |
DON'T LOSE THE TICKET. The ticket is basically your check. When you checkout, they will look at the ticket and know how much you need to pay. If you lose it, you will have to pay a lot more than what you should.
In Cha Lou, you can order different kind of dim sums. Some are sweet, some are salty, some are spicy...Here is a list of things that I would order everytime I go to a Cha Lou.
Shu mai
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| Shumai |
Shu mai is delicious! It is made with pork, shrimp, and mushroom. When you take a bite, your teeth will go through the shrimp, then the pork, then the mushroom. When you start chewing in, all the flavor blend together, and it's amazing.
Black bean sauce Pai Gu
Pai Gu is just pork meat that still stick with the bone, kind of like ribs. In ChaLous, they steam cooked the Pai Gu with black bean sauce. Unlike the western style ribs, the black bean Pai Gu is very juicy. When you chew on it, you will not only taste the black bean sauce, but also the jucie from the meat. And when they blend together in the mouth, it is like tasting heaven!
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| Jian dui |
Jian dui (sesame ball)
Jian dui is a sweet dim sum. It is made with glutinous rice flour. When the waiter bring the jian dui in front of you, you will smell the odor coming from the sesame. A well cooked jian dui will look like a perfect ball. A well cooked jian dui will also be crisp on the outside, and chewy when you keep chewing the jian dui. There are different type of Jian dui that you can order. Some is hollow inside, which is my favourite. Some has lotus paste inside, some has blackbean paste inside, and some has red bean paste inside. Jian dui is also a popular food during Chinese New Year.
Beef Chow Fun
I usually order beef chow fun at the end, when I ate all the dim sums but still feel hungry. The way to cook beef chow fun is dry-fried the hor fun (wide rice noodles), the beef, and some other vegetables in a work, with heated oil and soy sauce. Beef chow fun is usually not a dish that can be cooked well in our house because the beef chow fun, like many other chinese dishes, has to has "wok hei". "Wok hei" is the key factor to a well cooked beef chow fun. IN order to have "wok hei" in the dish, the dish must be cooked over a high flame and the chef must stir quickly when cooking. In our house, we do not usually have a stove that is powerful enough. That is also one of the reason why I often order beef chow fun when I go to Cha Lou. Beef chow fun is a Cha Lou signature dish. Many people say that if you want to test a chef, just ask him cook you a beef chow fun, and you will know is that a good chef or a bad chef.
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| beef chow fun |
Overall, you should go to a Cha Lou not only because of the dim sum, but also because of experiencing part of Chinese culture. Tips: if you do not want to wait too long, do not go to a Cha Lou on Sunday, because it is going to be packed. If you go to a Cha Lou during weekday morning, you will see many older people there beacuse they have nothing to do, and they like to hang around at Cha Lous.
5.Noodle shops
When you want a quick meal, going to a noodle shops is not a bad idea. In a noodle shop, you can order all kind of noodles, rice noodles, and hor fun (wide rice noodles). One of the most famous noodles you can order in a noodle shop is the wonton noodle. Let me talk about how to make a delicious wonton noodle.
The chef will have to wake up at 4 a.m. in moring to go to the market and pick up the things that he needs: fish, vegetable, and some other stuff. Then the chef will start cooking the soup with dish, pork bone, and shrimp. In order to have a tasty soup, the soup has to be cooked long enough.
While the soup is being cooked, the chef will start making the noodles. Many noodle store will buy noodle from else where or make their noodles with machines. However, to make some good noodle, the chef will make the noodle with flour and duck egg by hands. After mixing all the ingredients, the chef will have to keep bouncing on the dough with a bamboo stick for a long time. Doing this will make the noodle more chewy.
After that, they will have to make the wonton. First, they will have to make the dough skin. A good dough skin has to be thin, but not too thin. You want to be able to see through the skin, but you do not want it to break and everything inside fall out. After that, the cheif will start making the inside of the wonton. It consists of pork and meat. A good wonton is difficult to make. The wonton has to have pork and shrimp, but it has to be small enough. A good wonton should be a bite size.
After that, the chef is ready to open his store and start serving.
Tips: when I eat wonton noodles, I like to add a little bit of soy souce and red vinegar
4. Food from other countries
Hong Kong is a multi-cultural city. You can find delicious food from differernt countries in Hong Kong. Some of the more popular ones are
Japaness Cusine
You will find delicious japaness food in Hong Kong. Many japaness resturants' chefs are from Japan. They also buy their ingrediants from Japan and ship them to Hong Kong. Here are some of the things I like to order when I want to get japaness food.
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| Sushi |
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| Ramen |
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| Sashimi rice bowl |
American Food
There are tons of American food chain in Hong Kong. Ruby Tuesday, T.G.I. Fridays...
There are many more kind of food that you can find in Hong Kong: Korean food, Indian food, Italia food, Spanish food...You can find almost any food in Hong Kong.
3.Street Food
Hong Kong street food is very famous, and tasty. When you are walking in Mon Kowk, you can smell the odor of all the street food blend together. Some of the more famous street foods are
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| Curry fish balls |
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| Stinky Tofu |
Now here are some of my favourite
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| Egg waffle |
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| Pearl milk tea |
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| Juicy fried chicken |
Whenever you go to Hong Kong, you should at least get Hong Kong street food a try. However, you should choose some store that are trust worthy (like many people are waiting in line, got some certificate, news posts) because some of the street food store can be dirty and illegal. If you get food from one of those places, you may end up in the hospitals, and that sure is not fun.
2. Buffet
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| Cream soda |
This may be a surprise to many of you, but this is the thing that I would recommand you guys to try the most, cream soda from Schweppes and Coka Cola. This soda is my favourite soda. It has a unique taste that I could not even explain. It tastes a little bit like cream, but its taste is very unique. Also, it is a soda that you can only find in Hong Kong. I have never seen it in any other places, not even China.
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| Cream Soda |
Some of you may say there is cream soda from AW in the U.S., but I can assure you taht they do not taste the same, and the cream soda from Schweppes taste much better.
Special tips: usually, I just drink the cream soda straight out of the can, but there is another way to drink it. You can mix the cream soda with milk. Yes, I said milk. When I first heard it when I was young, I was like "What?! Milk with soda? Are you kidding me?". But when I tried it, I tasted something very unique. Even though I recommend this to you guys, it is not for everyone. Some people like it and some don't .
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| Cream soda with milk |
Here are all the food and drink that I recommand you guys trying when you guys go to Hong Kong, the "food heaven". I hope you guys like it and have a chance to go try them in Hong Kong (especially the cream soda, haha).
