I had the pleasure of spending this past weekend with some of my best friends in Hong Kong. The mandate was simple : shop for "stuff" (ie dive and photo gear) and eat. Simple but both activities got a little out of hand.
We worked our way down the little streets between Lan Kwai Fong and Sheung Wan. There is a great variety of food and it is indeed hard to decide where and how much to eat. Our first stop (after a grapefruit and passionfruit juice at Starbucks in LKF to get our digestive juices going) was the ever famous Mak's Noodle on 77 Wellington Street. The wanton noodle soup is what most people go for. Both the soup and dry versions were pronounced good. We breathed a sigh of relief when the small servings arrived before us. Though they were not overly generous, we were glad to save room for more.
Our next destination was what has been deemed the best beef brisket noodle in town. "Gau Gei" is located on 21 Gough Street much further down Wellington road off Aberdeen Street. Unfortunately, we were early, arriving at 12pm, only to find that the doors only open at 1230pm. We returned later after successfully buying some "stuff" and were greeted by a long line. Once in, order the beef brisket with the fat yellow noodle. I have tried the rice noodle before but the texture of the linguini type noodle made the overall dish much more interesting. You might also want to order some lettuce with oyster sauce to go along. Again, the servings are not too big and we were happy with that. The curry beef noodle looked exciting but none of us ventured a taste.
On the corner of Aberdeen St and Wellington St stands one of the oldest dim sum places in Hong Kong which serves an extremely traditional dim sum still served in push carts. P Girl (old Tokyu hand) was taken here when she first moved to Hong Kong and was somewhat traumatised by the culture shock - it is very authentic. It opens at 6am daily for those who wish for an early start. Other specialties in that area one should try are the FAMOUS roast goose from Yung Kee on 32-40 Wellington Street, the pigeon and other interesting local dishes at Tai Ping Koon or TPK Cafe on 60 Stanley Street, and the fishball and fishcakes at the Fishball Noodle Shop on Kau U Fong (one street below Gough St off Aberdeen).
As Central expands, the little streets west of LKF and SOHO are quickly undergoing gentrification. These little restaurants now increasingly sit next to hip little furniture and homeware stores. One hopes that these proprieters own their shop spaces and will not be forced to move elsewhere. In this area, the search for food is as interesting as the finds.
The weekend was a success - lots of "stuff" purchased and LOTS of food eaten.
