dynasty

tsim sha tsui, hk

website

turns out there was a great chinese restaurant right in our hotel. we went out to eat with derek's mom and two aunties for yet another feast. crispy shrimp, chicken feet soup (with an amazing yam-looking turnip), pigeon, dou miao (pea shoots), rice steamed with various chinese sausages, roast pork, and sago pudding with mango and grapefruit.

this was our last night in hong kong. we must have had a massive feast every night that we were here. and usually a massive lunch too. and afternoon tea. and breakfast. i don't think i really ever stopped eating. at dynasty, while reaching for one of my favorites - the pork ribs with strawberry sauce - i actually got a cramp in my chopsticks-holding hand! must stop eating. at least until we get to singapore.

tien yi

the peak, hk

website

there is a huge mountain on hong kong island that overlooks the downtown skyscrapers. we took a tram up, which looked like a san francisco trolley, but this one goes up an extremely steep incline and you feel like you might fall out of your seat. at the top, there's a lot of touristy shops and tourist-priced restaurants with a view of downtown. we chose tien yi, the chinese restaurant. there were other cuisines, but we had learned our lesson from SML and decided to stick with chinese food.

tien yi is an appropriate name for this restaurant - it translates into "sky one". derek's mom requested a table with a view and as you can see, we had a great view of the harbor and downtown hong kong. what a light show! downtown new york seems so old and boring in comparison. oh yeah - there was great food too - soy sauce chicken with crispy skin, sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf, and sweet and sour beef rib. everyone else loved the chicken, but my favorite dish was the fried noodles topped with seafood. in the US, this is referred to as "hong kong style" or "cantonese style" noodles. and this version was the best i've ever had. it had just the right amount of sauce so that some noodles were softened and others still retained their fried crispiness.

SML

causeway bay, hk

website

SML stands for small-medium-large. it's basically italian tapas and you can choose the size of your portion. maybe you want to share a bunch of large plates family-style, small plates tapas-style, or order medium-sized entrees. it's located in times square mall (does every major city have a times square?) on the 11th floor.

i ordered a rocket (arugula) salad which was served with a massive amount of balsamic dressing. the crostini topped with tomato and basil was basically chunky prego on a piece of bread. derek's pesto pasta was similarly overdressed and unappealing. basically, the menu of 'inoteca with the taste of the olive garden. ugh. derek's mom's shrimp toast (pictured) was better. from now on, we're sticking to chinese food.

super star seafood restaurant

tsim sha tsui, hk

website

downtown hong kong seems to consist of a maze of malls and shops. you could probably walk from one to the other without ever seeing the sun. at the top of one of these malls, harbour city, was the super star seafood restaurant. it's a chain of restaurants and when we visited other malls later in the day we saw other branches. and it was 50% off before 12 pm - discount dim sum!

if only US malls had food this good. the best tofu i've ever had. it has a salty, crispy, lightly fried exterior. the tofu interior was like a creamy silky pudding. amazing! also: fantastic stir-fried turnip cake with XO sauce, cheong fun, fried chicken with taro, and sticky rice. we also ordered taro cakes, which are like turnip cakes but with taro. my mom used to make these for me when i was younger - delicious.

hop fung noodles restaurant

tsim sha tsui, hk

website

after getting some excellent cocktails at the starck-designed felix in the famed peninsula hotel, we decided to find a late night noodle bar. we wandered around TST (tsim sha tsui - the downtown area of kowloon) looking for a good spot. one of our friends suggested hop fung and as our large group of hungry asians approached, the man cooking tripe in the front window eagerly waved us in.

cheap greasy food - perfect after a late night of drinking. i had the mai fun with preserved cabbage and pork. derek had the salted fish and chicken fried rice. both were good, although i liked his better and kept sneaking bites off his plate.

lamma hilton shum kee seafood restaurant

lamma island, hk

26 first st, sok kwu wan

it took about a half-hour by boat to get from kowloon's public pier to lamma island. it's a beautiful lush green island and we took a walking tour to see a temple and some caves. but this is a food blog and all that walking made us hungry.

the newlyweds and their families had arranged another huge feast for their guests. the freshest seafood that i've had so far on my trip: scallops, fish, giant crawfish, crab, and squid. amazing. pictured is one of my favorite dishes - swimming shrimp are plucked from the sea, thrown briefly into a steamer, and then served on a huge plate with a spicy soy sauce. delicious.

cafe at hyatt shatin

shatin, hk

website

i love breakfast buffets at hotels in asia. unfortunately, this one was over $210 HKD (almost $30 USD). but there was a lot of food. a noodle soup bar, a congee bar, continental breakfast, various pastries, fruit, cereal, and other typical breakfast buffet stuff.

derek and i liked the congee bar the best. flavorful chicken congee with an array of possible toppings. i topped mine with thousand-year-old egg, dried pork, pickles, and you tiao. derek chose salted duck egg and pickles. yum. but everything else was just okay and it is outrageous to pay 30 bucks for congee that we can get in NYC for 5. we'll probably try to get our congee fix elsewhere.

chung chi college staff club

CUHK, hk

website

we just dined at the clubhouse restaurant at the chinese university of hong kong. 12 course traditional chinese meal. which means, just when you think you can't eat another bite, they bring out another plate. you think - okay, i'll have some of this and then i'm done. but no, out comes another plate. and another. and another.

i think i might be too full to type. sliced meats. jellyfish. tofu hot pot. veggies in white sauce. black chicken soup. shrimp with noodles. bird's nest with squid. soy sauce chicken. abalone. crab maw. fish. fried rice. e fu noodles. red bean soup. i have to say - chinese people know how to eat.

yan toh heen

kowloon, hk

website

derek's mom took us to a fancy restaurant with a great view of the harbor and hong kong island. all of the utensils were made of jade and metal! even the menu had a jade piece inset into the front. we were there for dim sum, although the other items on the menu looked good as well.

decent dim sum, but derek really liked the fried rice with spicy XO sauce. it had a lot of green onions in it and somehow they managed to keep the beef bits nice and tender. i might try making this at home. for dessert, we had chilled red bean and coconut jelly which was excellent and mochi balls with red bean paste and a giant sweet grape inside.

fung lum restaurant

taiwai, hk

45-47 tsuen nam road

i think a picture of a cooked pigeon head is a great way to start off what will be a series of posts from asia! honestly, the plate of pigeon was really good - it was juicy, full of dark meat, and with crispy skin. i even tried eating one of the heads, but could only figure out how to eat the meat on the neck, which was tasty.

we also had shell-on head-on crispy fried shrimp, beef with asparagus, and a spicy lamb stew (amazing and i don't even like lamb). the fried tofu was pretty good, although the dipping bowls of vinegar and sugar were a little odd. the pigeon, however, was the restaurant's specialty and definitely the highlight of the meal. note: if the restaurant does not have a website, i will include the address instead.

arirang

new york, ny

link to yelp

korean comfort food! who knew? well, jinny. she brought me to arirang in k-town. it's a little hard to find, so i'm going to include the address in this post: 32 W 32nd St. we ordered the seafood pajeon and chicken soup with homemade noodles (kal-jaebi). as you can see from the photo, the portions are huge. and very filling. be careful, the noodles will expand after you've eaten them...

the pajeon had fresh tasty bits of seafood, lots of green onions, and wasn't too greasy. i usually prefer my pajeon flatter and crispier, but it was still good. the noodles are like thick jiaozi wrappers - chewy and doughy. the soup was very rich and hearty - like a poultry version of tonkotsu broth. tastes just like the chicken broth my mom makes at home. this noodle soup is perfect if you're ever feeling under the weather or otherwise in need of doughy noodles.

rare bar & grill

new york, ny

website

the best thing about rare bar & grill is the "french fry tasting plate." everyone here orders it. three types of french fries: shoestring, "cottage" (they call them waffle fries where i'm from), and sweet potato. it's a perfect basket for me and derek to share. we both like waffle fries, i love sweet potato fries and derek loves shoestring fries. the sweet potato fries are served with a honey maple sauce that tastes like the icing on a maple bar. the fries also come with chipotle aioli, mexican ketchup, and garlic aioli. since everyone orders them, they're always fresh and crispy on the outside, soft and steamy on the inside.

they make burgers too and some people really love these burgers. derek and i don't. but we couldn't eat fries for dinner (could we?), so we each ordered a burger. you have to order these burgers medium or rarer otherwise they turn out like a hockey puck. we ordered ours medium and they were pretty good, especially when i added the chipotle fry sauce. derek liked his because it was covered with mushrooms and gooey swiss cheese.

clo wine bar

new york, ny

CLOSED

this wine bar was so much fun that i didn't mind paying over $40 for 8 oz of wine. it's a small space with a single long table surrounded by cabinets storing over 100 bottles of wine. from overhead, a wine list is projected onto the table which you can control by moving your hand over the images (pictured). you can search the list based on wine feature or simply scroll through every bottle with a wave of your hand. the "waiter" gives you a card and an empty wine glass. once you make your decision, you find the right cabinet, insert your card, press the button in front of your wine bottle, and it automatically fills your glass with 4 oz. it took me a while to master the hand-waving interface (hint: you don't have to touch the table, just guide the orange circle over the buttons), but i really enjoyed being able to read the descriptions of each wine.

my first choice was the 2006 gramercy cellars lagniappe. this wine was meant for me: (a) gramercy is my nyc hood, (b) the wine is from the columbia valley in washington state (as am i), and (c) the wine's cabinet location was K8 (!!). 'twas fate, so i didn't mind the $17 price tag. it was an excellent medium-bodied red with a good spicy kick. (note: an entire bottle only costs $40 in a seattle wine shop). my second wine was described as "belonging in a starbucks" and tasting of chocolate and espresso. another amazing wine - it's really a pity i can't remember the name. despite the exorbitant markup, i will definitely visit this place again. it has a beautiful view of central park, i enjoyed being able to make an informed decision about which wine to try, the hand-waving was super-fun, and now i know about an amazing wine that i will purchase from a wine shop next time i'm in seattle.

burrito box

new york, ny

website

i'm surprised this place even has a website. jenny dragged me all the way across town to try her favorite hole-in-the-wall burrito place. i happened to be carrying a giant binder of documents in my bag so i was constantly getting bumped and pushed trying to order and wait for my food.

of course, such places inevitably have great food. i took a picture of jenny's veggie wrap (with avocado and cheese) because it was much more photogenic than my quesadilla filled with ground beef. but both were tasty and definitely worth the price. $8 for a huge quesadilla (with guac, sour cream, and pico de gallo), plus chips and salsa. my quesadilla was on par with blockheads, but i think jenny's wrap is worth trekking to the west side for.

sugar sweet sunshine bakery

new york, ny

website

i've never really liked frosting (in contrast to my brother, sister, and nephew who could eat tubs of the stuff.) at weddings or birthday parties, i always scrape off the frosting before eating the cake. i'm the kind of person that walks into a cupcake shop and requests unfrosted cupcakes. (the usual response is "um, isn't that a muffin?"). then JINNY (she deserves all caps for this one) introduced me to sugar sweet sunshine bakery cupcakes and i've been a frosted cupcake fanatic ever since.

sugar sweet sunshine's frosting is amazing - it has just the right amount of sweetness. when fresh, the cake is extremely moist and tasty. even derek likes the cupcakes here. my favorite cupcake is bob. he's a yellow cake with chocolate almond buttercream. the frosting tastes like rich chocolate ice cream, which can be a bit intense but it is balanced out by the yellow cake. skip magnolia bakery and its ridiculous line and sugary frosting. in my humble opinion, bob is the perfect cupcake.

resto

new york, ny

website

i love the rustic interior of this restaurant. it feels like we're sitting in a pacific northwest lodge and that if we looked out the window, we'd see an evergreen forest instead of apartment buildings. makes me a little homesick. i've been here a few times for dinner, which was amazing - pork toast with caviar, anyone? the theme is belgian, but the real focus is fresh quality ingredients from local farms (um, as local as you can get to manhattan). derek and i have been searching for a great brunch spot in our neighborhood and i think this might be it.

everything on the menu looked so good that it took me about 10-15 minutes to decide what to order. eventually, derek had to pull the menu away from me. i had the eggs benedict - two eggs over two belgian waffles stuffed with ham, served with a side salad and home fries. the waffles had a hint of sweetness so i decided to treat those as dessert and eat the eggs with the crispy onion-y home fries. the fries were a little salty, but matched well with the eggs. the waffles went very well with the excellent bowl-sized "cup" of coffee. (i think they ship their coffee in from portland!) derek had the chicken and waffles (pictured), which were pretty darn good. one of the menu items that caught my eye was the "belgian hangover pasta" with vermont ham, gruyere, sunny egg, and black pepper. i may have to drink myself into a hangover just so i can order that the next day.

mary's fish camp

new york, ny

website

i have to thank jenny for introducing me to lobster rolls. i'm not normally a huge fan of lobster, but when it's coated in a lemony mayonnaise and served on a toasted and buttered roll, it's heaven on a plate. at mfc, there are other entrees on the menu. various seafood dishes. apparently people order those as well. i don't really understand, but i'm not going to complain as long as they don't run out of lobster. i think jenny and i ordered appetizers while we were there, but i've completely forgotten what they were. the desserts were not great - the hot fudge sundae had cold fudge and weird peanut brittle in it and the gingerbread was just okay. but the lobster roll ... divine.

mary's fish camp is a very popular spot and there's always a long wait. jenny and i sometimes worry that they're going to be out of lobster rolls before we manage to get a seat. but so far we've been lucky. honestly, the only time i'm going to find out what other entrees they serve is when they run out of lobster and we're too lazy to go down to pearl oyster bar instead.

sweetery

locations

website

since sapporo had such speedy service, jinny and i had time to stop by the street sweets truck before heading back to training. whenever i'm on the west side, i want to try one of the food trucks that i read about on nyc food blogs. so during the morning session of our training, i checked the ML twitter tracker on my blackberry to see which trucks were in our area. that day, the street sweets truck was conveniently parked just a block away from the training site.

thankfully there was no line because jinny and i spent a few minutes asking about every single item in the display case. finally, jinny decided on four petit fours and a cupcake. i got a cup of joe, the pumpkin whoopie pie, and a flourless chocolate walnut cookie. the coffee wasn't very good, which was okay because the desserts were amazing. the whoopie pie was made up of two soft cake-like pumpkin cookies with sweet cream cheese frosting in between. so good, but so sweet that i had to wait a few hours before eating my chocolate walnut cookie, which was deliciously dense and fudgy. both cookies had such rich flavor that i could see them being served as a final dessert plate at any fanchy white-tablecloth restaurant. i love the fact that you can get such high quality treats from a truck!

NOTE: street sweets is now known as sweetery, changed title of post.

sapporo

new york, ny

website

if you're craving ramen, but are stuck in midtown - this is the place to go. this place has been recommended to me by both jinny and eric (both work in midtown west). day 2 of our training and jinny and i needed to get lunch in a hurry again. there was a bit of a line when we arrived at sapporo, but it moved fast. this place clearly caters to the lunching workers who have to get back to their offices within an hour. fast and courteous service - perfect for stressed-out new yorkers.

since i love the shio (salt) ramen at ramen setagaya, i decided to try sapporo's version. the sapporo noodles were properly dense and chewy - like a higher quality version of the instant noodles you can make at home. the broth was much better than instant noodles, of course, but still a little bland. next time i'll order one of the more flavorful broths - like jinny's miso with kimchi. i was quite envious when our neighbors' orders arrived and they had both ordered the thick and porky tonkotsu broth. next time ...

tonic

new york, ny

website

as jinny pointed out, the exterior of this bar/restaurant looks like you're about to walk into a strip club. fortunately, it's just a sports bar with huge television screens. jinny and i only had an hour-long break for our all-day training in midtown west, so we had to find a place that wouldn't be too busy, had comfortable seating, and was close to the training site.

tonic satisfied all three requirements, but i wouldn't pick this place as a food destination. my fish and chips were pretty good and cheap - the fish was surprisingly tender and flaky, but the breading was over-seasoned. i think there are better choices if you have the time to travel to them, but that's pretty much the story of midtown.