Looking forward to simple home food for a couple of days at least
I just made the most basic potato bhaji (sautéed potato) for my friends to teach her and the helpers our home style prep (there was apparently a bad potato incident earlier in the week ) and all I want to eat now is that, because it’s my standard pre travel and post travel meal!
But I will leave it intact for them for dinner and eat dim sum at the airport on my way out. Typhoon 8 warning for late afternoon / early evening so will head there earlier than otherwise needed and have plenty of time to explore the terminal’s food options.
We have sniffer beagles at Toronto Pearson airport. One noticed I had an orange at the bottom of my backpack. I had forgotten to eat it on the bus before I got to the airport in Munich. Definitely no fresh produce allowed into Canada from overseas, unless you get lucky.
my godson has severe peanut allergy so I had to call around a few of the top places inquiring whether they use peanut oil in their cooking. Imperial Treasure was the first place that told me they do not use peanut oil. I took my godson there and he was fine.
Other places like Forum, Seventh Son, Fook Lam Moon… etc. all say they use peanut oil.
It’s unfortunate you went to Basehall 2 but did not get the Kam’s fatty and burnt barbecued pork (甘一刀肥燶叉燒) from Kamcentre Roast Goose I mentioned earlier… it’s FAR superior to any charsiu you can get from Yat Lok, as the latter can be very inconsistent when it comes to char siu. In fact, I seldom get char siu from Yat Lok as sometimes it’s very dry and lean. I have a thing for fatty char siu and the 甘一刀 first cut, for me, is by far the best in HK.
The photo is the thick-cut version from Kamcentre in South China Athletic Association. At Basehall 2 they sometimes serve up thinner cuts that is about half the thickness, but my last visit back in June they did give me thick cuts.
I actually went to BaseHall specifically for Kam’s. However by this point we had eaten char siu 3 or 4 times so I was not feeling deprived, and I had gotten some from Yat Lok along with the goose anyway, so I thought it might be overkill when a whole separate dinner had been planned that I was adding goose and char siu on to.
Yat Lon’s was by far the best in fattiness / moisture and flavor both. That includes the fancy Iberico char siu at Forbidden Duck and again at Madam Fu, both of which were also excellent.
Gotta leave something for next time. And the locals I met all recommended Yat Lok over Kam, so I went with that and was not disappointed.
Last HK meal was at the airport at Jardin de Jade — really excellent xlb, might have been the best yet (not counting the crab roe ones bec apples and oranges)!
I have some mushroom e-fu noodles packed for the flight from Duddell’s which was putting out some excellent looking food.
Packed flight, but nice neighbors — they insisted on sharing a snack (Chakli / Chakri — crunchy spiral of Maharashtrian / Gujarati deliciousness).
And some gorgeous lighting courtesy the Typhoon.
Bye Hong Kong, it’s been a blast! I’ll definitely be back for more!
Funny that you say this, as in, great food isn’t always to be found in the obvious and well-known places. That certainly holds true for HK as a whole.
Just exploring the city, finding those lesser known gems, is what’s so addictive and fun. That’s why I keep coming back (plus the need to fill my char siu crave… But then this holds true for many other big cities as well.
Many years ago, I learned that it’s a HK thing to sit in a restaurant (even white tablecloth ones) and only order a couple of the establishment’s most noted specialties, then move on.
It actually took some time before I became comfortable doing a food crawl and not ordering full meals. Great way to eat in a food rich locale!!
Staying with friends removed breakfast and many dinners from the tally (especially relative to your daily food adventures from dawn till wee hours ), but I was still surprised it came in that high.
I stopped eating breakfast at home after the first couple of days even though I’d be starving by then, to save my appetite for when we left the house
Well using the price of $588 a person with a minimum of 4 people, that is a minimum price of $2,352. Average that out over 13 courses and its $180 a dish. If the crab fish is $200 now, actually seems reasonble and in fact modest increase over 10 years.
“basic” menu at The Chairman now costs HKD 1,380 per head and one gets 3 starters, soup, 3 mains (1 seafood + 2 meats), 1 veg course, 1 rice course, plus desserts.
Should you prefer to have 2 seafood mains and 1 meat the price is 1,480, and if all 3 mains are seafood then it will be 1,580.
If that’s not enough food for you - and I know a few friends who have much longer, customized menus - then additional starters are HKD 80 each, additional meat mains are HKD 100 each, and additional seafood mains are HKD 200 each.
) and all I want to eat now is that, because it’s my standard pre travel and post travel meal!
But then this holds true for many other big cities as well.
