Friday, December 23, 2016

German Dinner in Wanchai

There aren't many German restaurants in Hong Kong, but King Ludwig has several branches and the one in Wanchai is where I usually go.

When talking about German food, everyone would think of knuckles and sausages, me too. I generally come here for buffet because this is the only place I know with quality knuckles on the buffet table.  

Recently I went there twice for a la carte and here is a summary of our foods.  The food portion is relatively large, not quite ideal for small groups like us having two persons only.
The knuckle says for 1-2 person on the menu, but unless you have an "Adam Richman" kind of stomach, or it would be too much for one person.

Pork Knuckle (HK$225)

The waiters usually show the full knuckle to the guests before breaking into small pieces for easy eating. The meat is always juicy and delicious, the skin is generally crispy which I really like, although some parts were just too dry and hard. I do like the thick layers of collagen as well. 


Apart from knuckles, sausages is another 'must'.  As I said, I went there twice, the first time, we had a small sampler of sausages which is good for two people. My friend said if you order for a family size one, every sausage would be double in size. I like the sour cabbage too.  There are some other restaurants serving knuckles but won't come with sour cabbage.  I was told that it requires time and skill of the chef and hence only German chefs will do so.  Others simply serve with chips.

Sausage Sampler (HK$170)
 

The second time we tried the white boiled sausages. It says 'beef' and 'pork' on the menu, but we were not sure whether each sausage has two kinds of meat or one kind of meat per sausage.  So we had half of each sausage and simply found that they both tasted the same.  I like the smashed potato as well.  Not too soft, not too hard, the consistency is just good.  Together with their house mustard, lovely combination.

Boiled White Sausages (HK$110)

Note:  If you love sausages, you need to go a la carte.  The sausages on their buffet table are never attractive!

In one of our meals, my friend suggested to start with salad.  Well this assorted mushroom salad looks lovely as well as delicious, with very fresh vegetables.

Mushroom Salad (HK$95)

In the other meal with another friend, we decided to wrap our meal with dessert.  But everything were so big (family size).  The tiramisu was the smallest, but still a little too big for the two of us.  Anyway, we just wanted to give it a try.  There were lumps of chocolate chips on top.  And underneath there were far more ingredients than any usual tiramisu, fruits, syrups, I simply couldn't tell all, but it was simply delicious.

Tiramisu (HK$95)

In one of the meals, we ordered cold drinks at the beginning of the meal.  My friend had a glass of red wine, and I had a glass of mocktail.  Both were nice and sold at happy hour rate.

Emerald Mocktail (HK$50) happy hour rate

In the next meal, we wanted something hot, so we ordered the drinks towards end of the meal.  Fortunately that went beyond 8pm when the happy hour ended, and we had to pay full price.

Christmas Warm Drink (HK$58) regular rate
Anyway, having a warm drink in a cool day is really enjoyable, although we paid a little higher.  Ginger Lemon Honey Longan drink.  Perfect to wrap up a meal on Winter Solstice day.  We went for western food on Winter Solstice just to avoid the crowd at any Chinese restaurant.

We just walked in but still got a table.  There was a bar area. We heard some noise but not disturbing at all. 

King Ludwig
Queen's Road East
Hong Kong

Hong Kong Food Blog - German Knuckles and Sausages

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Surf and Turf - Cantonese Style

Hong Kong is getting cool and one of our favourite foods in this weather is mutton hot pot. In fact one mutton hot pot for two persons is quite enough, but we just want a little something more.  The restaurant sells seafood as well.  So we decided to create a surf and turf in Cantonese style.

Mutton Hot Pot - HK$298
Mutton Hot Pot served over real fire.  We had to pre-order when booking the table, or they are easily sold out.  It is quite expensive.  The cost of a mutton hot pot is generally decided by 3 factors: taste, meat quality and service.  The cheaper ones usually won't serve with lettuce.  But ours was an expensive one, so lettuce was included in the price. Our hot pot was very delicious, but controlling the fire made us a little busy.  Even so we were happy because the waiters were very helpful whenever we raised our hands.


Fresh Lettuce - cooked in mutton soup. Woooo, you can't imagine such a beautiful combination, in terms of taste and balance of diet.  Very nice!

Tiger Prawn HK$68@
This is the seafood part of our Cantonese Surf and Turf.  Pan fried with soy sauce.  

Wu Dong in Mutton Soup HK$48
Recommended by the chef.  Because the mutton soup was so yummy, we tried not to waste the surplus and ordered some handmade wu dong noodle.  So silky smooth and delicious.  What a nice recommendation!

We had free dessert to wrap up the dinner. Another bonus!

HK$570 (US$75.5) for two persons
inclusive of tea and 10% service charge

Hong Kong Food Blog - Mutton Hot Pot