Dim Sum Lunch Set Special

This menu is designed for those who want to eat a wider selection of foods however don't have many people eating together.  The good thing about this menu is all inclusive.  This means the money you pay includes tea and service charge.  It's good for budget control but you need to have a minimum of 2 people eating together.

Snacks - choose one among 4
Dim sum - choose three among 12 (I think)
Vegetable - choose one between 2
Fried noodle/rice - choose one among 4 (I think)

So we have a total of 6 dishes, consisting of a little of everything.

Here are our choices of today.

Snack:  Preserved Beef Slices

Dim Sum

Pork Dumplings

In order to enable us to eat more variations, each of the dim sum were served one per person.

Cha Sha Bao

This is almost a must on our dim sum table

Turnip Puff

This is not quite Cantonese, I believe.  Because it appears on some Shanghai or Beijing menus.  But as far as it is delicious, I don't care.

Stir Fired Bok Choy with Garlic

These dishes were cooked to order, so generally hot and yummy.  Hong Kong Cantonese including myself, always look for 'wok heat', that means freshly from the wok which is the best time to eat anything.

Stir Fried Flat Noodle with Beef

You may not notice a lot of beef, but there were plenty inside.  Stir fried with dark soy sauce, this is one of our favourite, and most Hong Kong people's favourite noodle dishes.  But since it is part of a set menu for two, the size is relatively smaller than a regular dish.  Anyway we had six courses altogether, so we were happy with it.

All Inclusive Lunch Set

HK$78 per person (US$10)

(minimum 2 persons)

Available on weekdays only

Hong Kong Food Blog

Holiday Solo Dim Sum

Today (21/4) is the last day of Easter Holidays.  My family went on a belated Ching Ming grave sweeping, leaving me home alone, because I was suffering from leg pain. Since I couldn't walk much, eating have been the main theme of my holiday activities. 

Eat well to cheer up a sick person.  Even I'm alone, I still go on a slightly luxury solo dim sum lunch to wrap up my Easter Holidays.

Sportful Garden Restaurant is quite a high-end restaurant nearby my home. The food there is not bad at all, but every time they had something to upset me.

Today I ordered four of their signature dishes.  In terms of tastes, they were alright.  But in terms of presentation, services and cost of money, I was not satisfied at all.

Roasted Crispy Pork Belly (HK$58) 冰燒三層肉

Restaurant may be short of manpower over the holidays.  But there is no excuse for any restaurant to present any dish in this manner.  Click here to see a proper presentation of the same dish.

Pork Dumplings with Whole Abalone (HK$58) 原隻鮑魚燒賣

This is another signature dish of the restaurant as it claims to be an Abalone Specialty shop.  Presentation - so so, could be better considering the money they are charging.  Waiters could be busy over the holidays, but that was not an excuse to dump a dish onto the table.  Of course I could not expect a waiter to serve with any super graceful manner, but with some care and respect, at least!

Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp (HK$33) 春風得意腸

They claim this as one of their private label signature dishes.  This is the most normal dish of my meal today.  Quite nice, but I was unable to determine what the crispy stuff inside, apart from the shrimps.

Almond Tea with Egg While (HK$24) 蛋白杏仁茶

Many a time I come to this restaurant intentionally for this dessert. Not sure if it is a matter of inflation, they didn't raise the price but seemed to have shrunk the size and the content of egg white.

Solo Dim Sum Lunch

Food cost: HK$173

Tea cost:  HK$10

Service charge: 10%

Total:  HK$201 (US$25.7)

Sportful Garden Restaurant 陶源酒家

1 Fleming Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Tel:  2258 7688

To summarise my yummy Easter, here's what I had.

Day 1 (April 18, Friday) - German buffet lunch

Day 2 (April 19, Saturday) - Dim Sum buffet lunch

Day 3 (April 20, Sunday) - Sichuan Lunch Set special

Day 4 (April 21, Monday) - Dim Sum solo lunch, signature dishes

My Eating Philosophy - To Eat Well and To Stay Slim

If you care to find out why I write this blog, you may realise I have eating problem and yet I overcome it by short term fasting.  It may seem that I've eaten a lot over the holidays.  Well, yes, I did, at least eating much more than I normally do. However I'm still keeping one meal a day.  So apart from the four meals above, I ate nothing else over the holidays.  So this means one meal every 24 hours.  But I don't restrict what I eat, I simply eat whatever I love to.  

There is another fitness philosophy called Eat Well Every Other Day.  Meaning you eat a restricted amount of calories on day 1 and on day 2 you eat whatever you love to.  If you want to explore my option of staying fit, there is a book called Eat Stop Eat.  Don't worry, I'm not asking you to eat one meal every 24 hours like me.  If you follow the ESE way of short term fasting, you only have to do a 24-hour fast twice weekly.  Well, if this looks possible, give it a try.  Or there is another book called The QOD Diet: Eating Well Every Other Day which is also worth reading.

If you want to eat well and at the same time stay fit, short term fasting is an interesting topic to explore.

Cheers

Anna

Easter 2014

Dim Sum Buffet

I haven't seen dim sum buffet for some time.  Over the Easter holidays, I notice this offer from a nearby hotel, so I give it a try.  The overall experience is not bad, but still some rooms for improvement.

In fact, buffet is not quite accurate, should be one price, eat all you can.  To enable eaters to eat more varieties, the portion sizes are generally smaller than the ones from the a la carte menu.  We can even order the exact number of pieces for certain items.  The two of us had 18 variations and totalling over 20 dishes.

In terms of satisfaction, I grade the dim sums in three categories - Good, Average and Below Par.

Let's take a took at the Good ones.

Black Fungi in Rose Wine 玉露春耳

Very strong rose wine fragrance, a very healthy starter!

Preserved Beef Slices 牛展

Shanghaiese Pork Jelly 水晶肴肉

We ordered two dishes of the beef and pork, as they were really nice!

 Shrimp Dumplings 蝦餃

One of our most favourite dim sum items and they are generally expensive, so we decided to have two for each of us.

Shuijiao 水餃

 Kind of Shrimp Dumpling, but with pork in it.  My friend said the soup was Swanson.  Well, I was not able to tell, as long as the shuijiao tastes good.

Pan Fried Rice Rolls 煎蝦米腸

Next to the plain version, had only dry shrimps and green onion.  With dark soy sauce, taste good.

Cha Shao Bao and Chiu Chow Dumpling 义燒飽, 潮州粉果

As I said, some of the items can be ordered one by one. I don't want the Chiu Chow dumpling, so we ordered one for my friend and one cha shao bao for each of us.

Milk Custard with Almond Flakes 西杏炸脆奶

This dessert is quite unique and well done.  Not many restaurants serve this.

Honey and Pomelo Jelly 蜂蜜柚子糕

We are not sure of the dish size and it was towards the end of our meal, so we ordered just one.  I must say this is beyond our expectation.  Very fresh and fragrant.  Good pick!

Sago Cream with Mango and Pomelo 楊枝金露

My friend had Pumpkin cream.  They both looked the same, creamy yellow color, so I took photo for my sago cream only.  It's chilled with slices of mango and pomelo, wow...lovely!  Mango is my most favourite fruit.

Here are the Average items.

Rice Noodles in Soup with Chicken and Roasted Pork

I grade them average because my chicken noodle is just slightly warm.  Note:  dim sum has to been eaten hot for the best tastes.  My friend also commented that the soup was just Swanson.

Spring Rolls

I grade this average because it can be better.  The color can be more golden and the filling can be a bit more.  Note: the one on a la carte had snow crab in it.  The one we had was only veggie.

Baked Seafood Puff

Couldn't find much seafood inside.  In fact I was not sure if the stuffing had any seafood in it.  Freshly baked, also tastes average.

These are the Below Par items.

Beef Tripe 黑椒牛肚

Mushroom Pork Dumpling 冬菇燒賣

I don't think I need to tell why these are below par.  In terms of taste, they are acceptable.  But in terms of presentation, I don't think any restaurant should bring to the table something in that horrible manner.  In fact, we did try to tidy up a bit for photo shooting.  They were even worse when they arrived.

We were also not happy that the traditional authentic pork dumpling was not available while that was featured in the advertising poster.

Counting in the environment, services and foods, I would give it 8 out of 10.

In terms of money, it's quite a good deal.  We've tried to cross check the items against the a la carte menu, discounting the smaller portions we had, the food cost would go beyond $400, but we were only paying $108 per person.

Dim Sum Package - Eat All You Can (Dim Sum Buffet) - Weekends and Holidays Only

Food cost:  HK$108 per person

Tea cost:  HK$18 person

10% service charge

Total:  HK$277.2 (for two persons) (US$35.5)

Zaan

OZO Wesley Hotel

1/F, 22 Hennessy Road

Hong Kong

T: 2292 3033

Hong Kong Food Blog - Dim Sum Buffet

Yat Tung Heen Dim Sum

I earn some interest lately, time to enjoy a relatively luxury dim sum lunch.  Yat Tung Heen is a member of the Eaton Hotel and it has a restaurant at Great Eagle Centre in Wanchai. So I took my sister there today for a lunch.  The place was reasonably nice, not too crowded or noisy like many other dim sum restaurants in Wanchai.  However the price is quite expensive.  There are many things in life that quality not associated with money.  Today's lunch is an example.  I can't say it's bad, but there are rooms for improvement in relation to the money they are charging.

Stir Fried Rice Roll  XO醬炒腸粉

Good, hot and delicious.  Presentation - nice.

Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Roll 蝦春卷

Very crispy, hot and delicious.  Presentation - nice.

Prawn Dumpling 蝦餃

Freshly steamed, fresh prawns.  Nicely presented.

Deep Fried Tofu with Salt and Pepper 椒鹽豆付

Nice and delicious, crunchy outside and soft inside.

Deep Fried Stuffed Eggplant with Garlic and Pepper 避風塘茄子

Quite nice, although I prefer it to be in the size of the mini tofu.  I must say it is quite a specialty, as I didn't find this same dish elsewhere.

Pan Fried Waygu Guotie (dumpling) 和牛鍋貼

This is absolutely below par.  When it arrived, it was like 4 messy lumps of something splashing over the plate.  I had to re-arrange it in a relatively tidy manner in order to take this photo.  Waygu?  No way.  Can't taste or smell anything beef like, although there were some minced meat inside that was kind of beef-look.

They served a pot of tea and a pot of water.  Water was served over a little stove to keep warm.  Even so, the tea was below any comfortable temperature for drinking.  Regardless we requested to refill with boil water, there were no improvement.  After all we found that the tea leaves were put inside kind of a bag inside the tea pot, hence the Pu'er tea we had didn't offer the real fragrance of it. Tea drinking is an important part of any dim sum lunch.  Poor tea definitely spoil the meal.  

Total:  HK$333.9 (US$42.8) (for two persons, inclusive of 10% service charge and the tea/snack charge below)

Tea:  HK$18 per person

Snack: HK$22 per table

Yat Tung Heen

2/F Great Eagle Centre

Wanchai, Hong Kong

Hong Kong Dim Sum Video

I have recently assembled a video about the most popular Hong Kong Dim Sums for my other website.  I would like to share it here.  See if you have tasted any or all of them.  

The background song is called Cha Sha Bao 义燒包 by Zhuang Xue Zhong.  Cha Sha Bao is one of the most classic Cantonese dim sums in Hong Kong.  We love it so much, hence there is a song about it.  The song is over half a century old and the one by Zhuang is a new version.

'Sit down, enjoy a cup of tea and eat a bao' is a very sought after life style of Hong Kong Cantonese.   In fact bao's are really important in our culinary world. May be I'll assemble a bao video next time.



Now you've viewed all the gems of Hong Kong dim sum. Traditional Hong Kong Cantonese breakfast is usually a combo of congee and rice rolls.  The economy version could be plain congee with plain rice rolls or rice rolls stuffed with deep fried dough.  The luxury version could be congee and rice rolls both stuffed with meat of your choice.  In this video, you'll find them all except the plain congee.

Hope you enjoy!  Have a great 2014!

Slightly Luxury Dim Sum

I earn a little interest from my investment recently, so I decided to go for a slightly luxury dim sum lunch.  Dim sum restaurants usually have some snacks on their menu which is slightly heavier than dim sum.  They are mostly Cantonese delicacies relatively more expensive than normal dim sum.  So we decided to pick a few of our favourites from the snack menu.

 

These one-inch cubes are really delicious.  The skin is crispy with tender juicy meat made from dedicated part of pork belly.  One of the crown jewels of Cantonese BBQ.  They are sometimes 5-layers.  But the one we have is only 3-layer, being best of the best part of the pork belly.

 

3-Layers BBQ Pork Belly 冰燒三層肉 (HK$58)

 

Sea Jelly with Duck Tongues 海哲鴨舌 (HK$56)

This is another Cantonese delicacy.  Each duck has only one tongue.  Therefore duck tongue dishes are generally expensive.  With a little of sesame oil, Cantonese usually eat this as a starter.

Steamed Rice Roll with BBQ Pork 义燒腸粉 (HK$29)

Soup Dumpling with Scallop and Fish Maw 花膠瑤柱灌湯餃 (HK$36)

The fist-size dumpling is served in soup.  The seafood stuffing inside is kind of juicy and moist mainly dry scallope and fish maw. 

Almond Soup with Egg White 蛋白杏仁茶 (HK$24)

Almond Soup with Egg White is the signature dessert of this restaurant.  I really love it and have it every time.  The silky smooth lumps of egg white are served in very fragrant almond soup.  Perfect combination!

 

Flamed Stew Eggs with Fresh Fruit 火焰鮮果燉蛋 (HK$28)

 

I notice something new on the dessert menu which is really interesting.  The pudding or tart, I don't know how exactly to describe it.  It is stewed egg with some cream on top, served with some alcohol.  The waiter light the alcohol creating some low heat flame and pour it over the cream, hence the top bits were burned and with wine fragrance.  Served with slices of mango which is also my favourite.  And there are also some mango slices inside.  Wonderful!

 

Flamed Stew Eggs with Fresh Fruit 火焰鮮果燉蛋

Total:  HK$315 for two persons, inclusive of tea and 10% service charge

 

Sportful Garden Restaurant

 

Hong Kong Food Blog

Pre Mother's Day Dim Sum - No Discount

No Discount Dim Sums

Like I said in my last post, restaurants are cutting discounts on Sunday.  Since tomorrow is Mother's Day, they cut discounts today as well.  So we had to pay everything on full price.  Apart from that, many restaurants are being blocked for private parties.  It's really difficult to find somewhere to eat.  As for tomorrow, I think I better stay home and do some cooking myself.

Deep Fried Tufu 椒鹽脆豆付 HK$38

This deep fried tofu is served with fine pepper, salt and vinegar (in separate dish).  I would like it to be more cruncy and more golden brown.  I know I'm a little demanding, but that's the way this dish should be.

 

 

Stir Fried Rice Rolls with Dark Say Sauce 豉油王炒腸粉 HK$28

Rice roll is one of the most popular breakfast items in Hong Kong.  We usually eat steamed ones over breakfast, but there are many ways to serve it.  As for lunch or brunch, we like to have the stir fried ones.

 

 

Stir Fried Noodle with Bean Sprout and Dark Soy Sauce 豉油王炒面 HK$38

This is another popular Cantonese breakfast item in Hong Kong.  Didn't realise that we ordered 80% vegetarian dishes today. 

 

Steamed Pork Liver Dumplings 懷舊豬潤燒賣 HK$22

This is the only meat dish we had for today.  The restaurant named it 'old fashion'.  May be people are afraid of high cholesterol of liver, therefore fewer and fewer restaurants sell it.  But we love it, it's really delicious.

 

 

Deep Fried Fluid Egg Yolk Bun 炸奶王包 HK$22

Fluid egg yolk bun is usually steamed.  Today we found a deep fried one on the menu, so we tried to go for it.  It's cruncy outside and soft inside, although the colour can be more golden brown, but taste is really good, the lava-like egg yolk inside is very hot and fluid.  Well done, but need to take care when eating.

 

Insdie the Egg Yolk Bun

May 11, 2013, Saturday
Dim sum total:  HK$148 (We usually have 30% discount on Saturday, but not today!)
Tea: HK$8 per person
Service charge:  10%
Total:  HK$180 (US$23.1)

Hong Kong Food Blog - Pre Mother's Day Dim Sum - NO discount

Sunday Dim Sum No Discount

NO MORE DIM SUM DISCOUNT ON SUNDAY

I haven't posted dim sum photos for some time.  You know why?  Some restaurants offer very special prices, but we had to compromise on the presentation.  So I don't feel comfortable to show photos that are not attractive.  Recently the economy is Hong Kong isn't quite well, shop owners are not happy to offer discounts.  Special prices are only offered on Saturday and selected hours.

As there are no discount anyway on Sunday, so I've decided to go to a higher class restaurant which I haven't visited for some time.  There presentations are good, taste also good, but the bill is no good - pricy!!

Turnip Silk Pie Cake (M) 蘿蔔千絲酥

Truly made to order.  Even the plate is hot.  Very crispy outside, soft and juicy turnip slices inside.

 

 

Pan Fried Rice Rolls with Dry Shrimps (L)

脆煎蝦干葱花腸

This pan fried rice roll is really interesting.  It's crispy on one side and soft on the other.  Pan fried to golden brown.  Looks good and also tastes good.

 

 

Deep Fried Pork Belly Bun (L)

懷舊香煎燒腩卷

The Chinese name of this dim sum says 'old fashion'.  Indeed, few restaurants nowadays offer this dish.  Pork belly and taro inside.  May be weight watchers won't like it, but I love it.

 

 

Steamed Pyramid Dumplings with Mushroom (M)

雲南野菌水晶餃

This is a vegetarian dish made from mushrooms from Yunnan.  The dumpling wrap is very thin and transparent.  It's a proof of the chef's handicraft.  Well done!

 

Steamed Glutinous Rice Dumpling in Lotus Leaf (L)

瑤柱珍珠雞

I remember when I was a little girl, dim sum restaurants sold giant size rice glutinous dumplings.  Nowadays people usually sell mini size ones.  Its Chinese name is in fact called 'pearl chicken'.  But there is nothing related with chicken, neither does shape, taste or ingredient.  Interesting?  Actually there are many other interesting names like this in Cantonese dim sum restaurants.

 

 

Sweet Brown Dumpling HK$22

擂沙湯丸

As a matter of made to order, we waited 20 minutes for this dessert, however totally upset.  This restaurant used to produce very yummy sweet brown dumplings, but not this time. I gave it a 'fail' for this time.  It didn't look good, taste so so, the stuffing inside was too fluid and that it splashed everywhere and made our mouth and table very messy.

Sportful Garden Restaurant
(L) HK$25@ | (M) HK$23@
Tea HK$10 per person
Total bill:  HK$193 (US$24.8) for two persons, included 10% service charge

Hong Kong Food Blog - Sunday Dim Sum No Discount