The Chiu Chow restaurant was Hop Lee @ 259A Temple Street in Jordan. The fish congee was good and different than the typical creamy Canto style. The rice grains were still intact and distinct, the fish and flavors were very clean. Leeks/ramps stir fried with larger size dried shrimp were well done, I don’t usually care for dried shrimp (the more common ha mai). Partial menu below, more items (presumably more interesting) written on wall.
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We ate at Tim Ho Wan in the IFC in Central. No atmosphere to speak of, but the food was tasty and fresh, and the queue was tolerable at 1:30pm on a Saturday. If they can replicate the quality/taste and approximate the menu price here in the Bay Area, they would have a two hour wait every day.
A couple of random musings:
Is it just my imagination, or has the cost of Hong Kong food gone stealthily higher without my notice? I’ve been going to HK once or twice a year for the last 20 years. I recall how I had always thought the food was a good bargain, if one stayed away from the more extravagant places. Now, the prices at the mid and lower level are on par with San Francisco. Or maybe the sticker shock was because we had just flown in from Saigon. We ate very well in Saigon, and the tickets were less than 50% of Hong Kong.
Secondly, the mainland invasion seems to have abated. In January, our taxi driver said that tourism was down because of the near freezing weather at the time. Its not anywhere near freezing now, and the sidewalks are still negotiable. There was actually some personal space between the folks while walking MongKok. I hope this trend continues, I like it!
We were even able to get into Four Seasons Claypot rice. We strolled by, with the intention of smirking at the fools queuing up for two hour line for rice. When we saw an open table for 3 without a wait, we jumped.
Don’t know if ong choy was in season, or available year round. We had it multiple times this trip, and it was good every time. Four Season’s version was spot on.
My “assorted” sausage and meat rice was two lop cheongs, only??
I’m glad that we finally got to try Four Seasons. However, our favorite is still a place around the corner. The Chinese name is Sun Ho Ho (New Good Good).
- Credits to my wife for supplying the names and addresses.
