My Grand Niece's 100-Day Dinner

I went to my grand niece's 100-day dinner last Saturday. Traditional Chinese usually hold celebration dinner when the baby is a month old.  Nowadays the younger generation fancy for 100-day or 2-month or 3-month dinner.  Well I like the 100-day idea as the baby will be strong enough to meet friends and relatives.

Red Eggs with Sour Ginger

This starter is unique for new born babies' celebration dinner. Chinese usually distribute red eggs to friends, relatives or even neighbors to announce the arrival of their new born family members.  But I don't know why sour ginger is always a companion to the red eggs.

The 11-course 100-day dinner was composed of very traditional or even old fashion Hong Kong cuisine.  Couple of the dishes were quite rarely seen nowadays.  

Smoked Pomfret with Salad Dressing

Banquet dinner usually serves steamed groupa.  Smoked Pomfret is quite a special choice and I missed it for long.  

Stir Fried Milk with Crab Meat

This is also quite a special dish unique to this particular restaurant.  Few chefs nowadays can produce this dish with good quality.

The 11-Course Dinner Menu

12-Day Ginger Vinegar with Pork Knuckles

In fact, when the baby girl was 12 days old, my nephew started to distribute ginger vinegar with pork knuckles.  I'm not quite sure if this tradition is valid across the entire China, but in Hong Kong and Guangdong, new mothers eat this to restore strength and health after giving birth to a baby.  These are also presented to friends and family to indicate the arrival of a new baby. The vinegar is sweet and pork knuckles has lots of collagen, together with ginger and eggs, many people love this yummy dish. They make it at home on regular days and some restaurants even have this on their menus.

What would be the cost of going to a new born baby's 100-day dinner?

In Hong Kong, when you receive an invitation for whatever reason, a gift check is almost mandated. But the value may depend on many factors, like the friendship between you and the host, is the host a very close relative and sometimes the dinner venue may counts. I was told that the standard gift check for one person is HK$800 which is rather a bottom price.  As for me, I paid far beyond the minimum because this is my nephew's first baby girl!

My Grand Niece's 100-Day Dinner

Yixin Restaurant

50 Hennessy Road, Hong Kong

Hong Kong Fried Rice

Fried rice could be one of the most popular Chinese/Cantonese cuisine in Hong Kong, locals and expacts alike. The ingredients for fried rice could be very flexible and as creative as possible. Let me introduce a few of the most popular ones.

Yangzhou Fried Rice should be on top of the popular list. When we think of fried rice, Yangzhou Fried Rice comes to our minds. The main ingredients are prawns, char siu, eggs and most likely something green.  Price range could be below HK$50 up to over HK$100, depending on the kind of restaurant you go. If you go to Chinese restaurants within 5-star hotels, it may go beyond HK$200.

Below is the fried rice from my Lamma Island seafood lunch. Looks nice, right? I don't remember the price, but could be close to HK$100.

Yangzhou Fried Rice 楊洲炒飯 (南丫島)

Yangzhou Fried Rice 楊洲炒飯 (茶餐廳)

Now this is a Yangzhou Fried Rice from an economic restaurant at afternoon tea time. It is HK$38 including a drink.

Why is Yangzhou Fried Rice is called Yangzhou Fried Rice? 

I really don't know. In fact, Yangzhou is a city in China, somewhere nearby Shanghai. But if you are in Yangzhou and asked for a dish of Yangzhou Fried Rice, the waiter may not know what you want. I visited Yangzhou recently and had a dish of fried rice, below was the fried rice from Yangzhou. The ingredients are quite different from the Hong Kong version. 

Yangzhou Fried Rice from Yangzhou

楊洲炒飯 (楊洲)

Fried Rice with Salty Fish and Chicken

The salty fish is not quite visible, but when you eat, it is a very good partner of chicken when frying with rice. We all love the fragrance of salty fish. It is one of the most popular Cantonese fried rice in Hong Kong.

Fried Rice with Salty Fish and Chicken

咸魚雞粒炒飯

Fried Rice with Chicken and Ham

This is a Shanghai cuisine. The ham being used must be Kam Wah ham from Yunan. When I go to any Shanghai restaurant, this is one of my most favourite dishes. 

Fried Rice with Chicken and Ham (Jade)

雞火炒飯 (翡翠拉面)

There are tiny bits of ham, can you see them?

Fried Rice with Chicken and Ham (New Shanghai)

雞火炒飯 (新滬坊)

There are larger cubes of ham, can you see them? As ham is concerned, I personally love bigger cubes rather than tiny bits. The feeling inside the mouth is much better. 

Note: economic type of restaurants may have chicken skin being attached to the meat. This is not quite healthy! However this should not happen if the fried rice costs HK$70 or above.

Fujian Fried Rice 褔建炒飯

Although this is called Fujian Fried Rice, it is widely available in many Cantonese restaurants. Its appearance differ from traditional fried rice. In fact, the fried rice is served as a base, with a topping consisting mixed meat (mostly chicken and pork), vegetables and gravy. It is in fact a moist version of fried rice.

Tips for a Good Quality Fried Rice

What contribute to a good quality fried rice? Of course, rice is the most important. It is commonly known that we should not use freshly cooked rice, as they are rather moist and sticky, not ideal for stir frying. Dry and cool rice (even from overnight) could produce the best effect. Each and every single rice could be clearly identified.  

Visit this website if you want to learn to Cook Healthy Chinese Food

Hong Kong Food Blog - Hong Kong Fried Rice

Cantonese Siu Mei

Most Cantonese in Hong Kong love siu mei, I am just one of them. Siu mei is an important part of Cantonese cuisine. We have them at high profile banquets, mid range one-person sets, a la carte, down to casual restaurants, supermarkets and even take-away meal boxes. Siu mei shops are easily found in Hong Kong. The one below is a typical siu mei take-away shop. You can see a wide selection of poultry like chicken, goose, duck and pork, char siu and a lot many others. Price list is usually displayed at the entrance.

Among all siu mei, the BBQ whole piglet is the most expensive. If a banquet starts with it, then it must be a high flyer banquet. The one here came from my family year-end gathering dinner.

乳豬全體

We all love BBQ piglet, so we ordered one for our Christmas Party as well. We placed the order online and picked up at the shop. So we had to do the cutting ourselves. Of course we enjoyed doing it.

Less expensive banquets may not served a whole pig, but assorted siu mei, like the one here below. 

燒味拼盤

As for a la carte, pork belly is usually sold at a higher price than any other part of the pig. 

燒腩仔

For one-person sets, you may enjoy two big lumps of char siu.

义燒

For casual restaurants, they usually sell with rice or noodle. 

Char Siu Rice 义燒飯

Char Siu / Chicken Rice Set 义雞飯

Goose Noodle in Soup 燒鵝湯米

Where to Buy Good Quality Siu Mei?

This question seems easy, but is actually difficult. Although there are lots of siu mei shops in town, but good ones are not easy to find. And please note there is no logical ratio between price and quality. Let's take a look at the following two char siu rice that I bought recently from take-away shops. The $98 one looked good but upon eating, I gave it 1 out of 5. The $26 one looked less attractive but upon eating, I gave it 4 out of 5. 

HK$98 - char siu rice

HK$26 - char siu and BBQ pork rice

Do You Trust Food/Restaurant Reviews?

Nowadays many people like to read reviews when they are searching for restaurants. The largest platform in Hong Kong is called OpenRice. Interesting thing is, the $98 shop enjoys extremely high rating across the entire web, i.e., all reviews (except mine) says the char siu from this shop is the world's best. The $26 shop not even receiving any reviews. So be very careful when you read reviews. Personally I will read about the restaurant setting, location, decoration, environment etc. As for the quality of food, people could be subjective. And I also doubt if all reviews are from actual consumers, such as the $98 shop.

Where to Buy Good Quality Siu Mei?

Now back to the question "Where to Buy Good Quality Siu Mei?" There isn't a definite answer. First, test your luck. i.e. go buy from any shop. Remember the good ones only. But frankly, almost all siu mei shops around my home are being black-listed by me for all kinds of reasons such as poor quality, poor presentation, poor service and so on. Once you got a short list, stick to them.

Another way to find a good quality siu mei shop is by the queue outside the shop. The shop below in Wanchai always has a long queue. No matter what day and what time I pass by this shop, there are somewhat 30-100 people queuing outside. These are 'human reviews' rather than 'written reviews'. These are people who queue to pay for the food they want, no matter on a rainy day or sunny day. So give it a try if you can afford the waiting time. 

Hong Kong Food Blog - Where To Buy Good Quality Siu Mei

Chinese New Year Foods 2019

2019 Chinese New Year is just over. Today is the 10th of January in Chinese calendar. It's time to summarize my eating history over the festival.

On day 5 of CNY, nine of us went to cinema at Time Square and had dinner after. As I said in my last post, I love siu mei, so do many of us. So we had three in a row - roasted pork (char siu), goose and chicken. I must say siu mei is widely available in Hong Kong, but good quality ones are rare, especially char siu. The one here served on hot plate is one of the best among what I have ever had. 

Noodle and Rice are always our favorites.

This fried rice has used dry oyster (which means good business). It is a very popular ingredient during Chinese New Year.

Vegetables are musts as a matter of balance diet. At Chinese New Year, the chef has made use of the salty egg yolk to create a sense of gold and the color was very beautiful. In fact there were also millennium eggs in this dish.

Dinner Venue: Chung's Kitchen, 12/F Time Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Note: To my surprise, this restaurant does not charge any service fee!

* * * * *

On the New Year day, my brother took us out for dinner. This was the fish that I want to highlight. I live in Hong Kong, fish dishes are nothing new to me. But I must say this one was very unusual.  It's the tail of a giant grouper. 

Estimated from the size of the tail, I think the whole fish may be over 1 meter long and weighted 15 kg. It was slow cooked with some tofu sheets and roasted pork and served on hot pot. The waiting time was a bit long but we all thought it deserved. There were big lumps of meat which made us fully satisfied. Although there were bones, but they were big and easy to be identified. Even I don't really like fish bones, I love this giant grouper very much.

* * * * *

We eat a lot of puddings 糕 over Chinese New Year. 糕 sounds like 'growth' and it carries very good and positive meaning and that's why they are so popular during CNY.

Most puddings are sweet but turnip pudding is savory. We make them at home and very often make some extra for our relatives and friends. Below is the home-made turnip pudding gift from my friend. The basic ingredients are generally preserved sausages (lap cheung), preserved meat and dry shrimps. We can add others per our personal tastes. My friend knows that I love abalone, so you can see there was one in the middle, and there were slices of dry scallops as well.

There are different ways to re-heat turnip pudding, steam, pan fry, stir fry or micro wave. But I like none of them. I usually make them at home and eat fresh from the steamer. I must say this is the best way to eat turnip pudding. But this one was from a friend, so I had to re-heat by steaming which is rather environmental and healthy.

Cassian Flower Pudding 桂花糕

This is the sweet pudding which is somehow jelly like and generally served as cold cut. It was the dessert at my year-end family gathering dinner. 

* * * * *

We also eat a lot of sweet dumplings 湯丸 around Chinese New Year, either home-made or at restaurants. 湯丸 and 團圓 (gathering, everybody meets each other) sound very similar, and this is the reason why they are popular around new year time. 

Here are the two types of sweet dumplings that I had this year. 

擂沙湯丸 is always my favorite. They are served warm with very fine sugary coating. This was from my new-year-eve dinner at New Shanghai Restaurant at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This is another type of sweet dumpling which I forgot the name. Sweet dumplings are sticky, with or without fillings. This one has some roasted ground peanuts as the coating, also served warm. They were made to order, so there was a little waiting time. This was from the new year evening dinner that my brother bought us.

After Binge Eating...

So what would you do after binge eating? My answer is 'fasting'. 

If you have ever read my post of "Why I Set Up This Food Blog", you will know that I generally eat one meal a day (OMAD). If you do an internet search of OMAD, you will know that it is a very popular eating pattern nowadays.

After the heavy eating days, I went on a 40-hour fast and have successfully completed. I finished dinner at Thursday (Feb 7) night, and resume eating on Saturday (Feb 9) lunch. That way I have had a full day of Friday to let my body and the digestive system a good rest.

Now I feel comfortable. I went on the scale and gained nothing. 

Hong Kong Food Blog - Chinese New Year 2019

Tuen Mun Seafood Dinner

I have decided to go on a 3D2N local tour to Tin Shui Wai / Tuen Mun which is at the northern part of New Territory.  As I live in Wanchai, it takes 1-2 hours to the destination, so I consider this as a local trip.  I stayed at the Harbour Plaza Resort at Tin Shui Wai.  The room is very spacious - 409 sq ft. with very good open view. The cost is only HK$720+10% per night including breakfast, which is actually a very good deal.

After checking in to the hotel, we went on a visit to the T Park at Nim Wan Road, Tuen Mun. It is a sustainable sludge incineration plant featuring spa pools, extensive gardens & a wildlife habitat. A HK$53 billion environmental construction which went into work in 2016.

After the visit, a friend of mine who lives in Yuen Long took us to Tuen Mun for a seafood dinner. There are many spots in Hong Kong famous for seafood, Tuen Mun is one of them. The place we went was called Sam Shing where there are many seafood sellers and restaurants.  We bought the seafoods and then took them to the restaurant which charged cooking fee only. 

Clams with Udon in White Wine Sauce

Very fresh clams!

Baked Lobsters

Signature cooking method of the restaurant. Seafood restaurants in town usually do steaming, baking is relatively rare. It was coated with a layer of smashed potato and baked to golden colour. Very delicious. Forks and Knives were provided.

Mantis Shrimps

Mantis Shrimps stir fried with garlic.  A very traditional cooking method and yet very well done and yummy.  Very fresh with lots of meat.  Scissors were provided.

Steamed Prawns

This was my pick and my favourite way of eating shrimps and prawns. A typical way of Cantonese shrimp eating. Simple cooking but very delicious. However we must have to use our fingers. The restaurant provided us with wet tissues and we can easily clean our hands after eating.

Abalone Hot Pot with Ginger and Green Onion

Abalone in hot pot is quite a special way of cooking. Also a signature cooking method of the restaurant. These were fresh abalones which are less expensive than the dry ones. We like this dish very much! This is something I don't understand. Fresh things are usually more expensive than their dry versions, but abalone is the other way round.

Steamed Scallops with Jelly Noodle

Another traditional way of Cantonese seafood cooking. Very simple cooking, just steamed the scallops with garlic and jelly noodle. The tastes all matched very well.

Stir Fried Vegetable with Garlic

As a matter of balance diet, a dish of vegetable is a must. Again we've picked the simplest cooking method - stir fried with garlic.

The Seafood Party

We also had seafood soup and pork chop.

Thai Seafood

Take West Rail to Tuen Mun, then change to Light Rail #505 (or taxi) to Sam Shing. Buy the seafoods you like and tell the restaurant to cook them the way you want. The fee varies according to the cooking method.  Restaurants also provide set menu and some other non seafood choices.

Total cost: slightly under HK$2,000 (~US$260) (including food and cooking). My friend's treat, so I don't know the actual cost.

Hong Kong Food Blog - Tuen Mun Seafood Dinner

Seafood Christmas Dinner 2017

Have you ever tried Chinese seafood Christmas dinner?  I did it last night, on Christmas Eve 2017.  Dining out on festival day is usually crowded, expensive and low service level. Therefore I tried an opposite way and found it worked well.  I.e. Chinese food for western festival and western food for Chinese festival.  And this was the reason why I had a Chinese seafood Christmas Eve dinner last night.  My strategy proven to work.  The restaurant wasn't crowded at all and the service level was as good as usual.  Unlike some restaurants which only serve expensive festival sets, the restaurant I went last night didn't raise the prices and all usual foods are available.

Dinner for Two - HK$688 - 6 courses + desserts

This looked quite a good deal, so we gave it a try. Everything went well!

Chilled Marinated Fresh Abalone 冰鎮鮑魚

Looked well. Fresh and delicious - a very lovely starter.

Braised Bird's Nest Soup with Seafood 海皇燕窩羹

Very rich in taste. We found a lot of seafood in it. Presentation was also nice. We added some pepper as we wished.

Pan-Fried Japanese Scallop w/ Boletus Mushroom

牛肝菌香煎日本大元貝

The scallop was really giant.  With 5cm diameter after cooking, the original size must be huge. We were served with fork and knife to make eating easier.  However I would like to see more boletus mushroom. 

Deep-Fried Tiger Prawns with Seasame Seed Paste

胡麻醬脆皮大虎蝦球

Every dish was in one-person portion.  Very nicely presented. The prawn was fresh  and al dente.

Braised Wild Mushroom with Abalone Sauce

鮑汁百靈菇

As a balance of diet, some veggies was a must.  With the abalone sauce, the mushroom and the veggie were both very yummy!

Fujian Style Fried Rice with Diced Abalone

福建海鮮炒飯

Fujian fried rice was served with gravy, making it silky smooth for the mouth. Well I particularly like the giant prawn. I didn't expect to find such a giant, fresh and delicious prawn in the rice. Very nicely done!

Dessert Time

Fresh Pomelo and Mango with Sago in Coconut Cream 楊枝金露

The dessert had pomelo, mango and coconut inside, all were my favourite fruits. Served chilled.

Tien Yi Chinese Petit Fours 天一甜品薈萃

I personally liked the brown one which had the taste and feeling of Chinese New Year Pudding. Soft and chewy, not too sweet. Taste was just right.

The entire Seafood Christmas Dinner was just right in terms of quantity, taste and price. Services were also good.  The foods came one after one, we didn't need to wait too long in between dishes.  Waiters were friendly.  The place was nicely decorated with sufficient spaces in between tables which made the eating environment very comfortable.

Dinner for Two - HK$688

Tea - HK$20 per person, 10% service charge

Total bill: HK$800.8 (US$103)

Tien Yi Chinese Restaurant 天一酒家

Level LG1, Pacific Place

Admiralty, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2918 9889

Hong Kong Food Blog -  Chinese Seafood Christmas Dinner