eating update:
yesterday i queued up at maxim’s palace, city hall with a friend who lives here. she’d insisted that if we got there by 11 the wait wouldn’t be too bad. well, we were greeted by a crowd that makes sea harbour look deserted on christmas morning. we had to wait two hours and fifteen minutes! the dim sum was very good. if it were being served fresh from the kitchen and not on carts, it would have been head and shoulders above the best of the sgv. however, because it’s served from carts not everything we got was in optimal condition. the things that were were really good: congee, char siu baos that were clearly freshly made, chiu chow dumplings. but most of the things that weren’t were on par with or slightly better than the sgv’s best. and the shiumai and hargow, i would say were not as good as the best versions of sea harbour or elite.
for dinner my friend dragged me to her favourite thai place: chilli club in wan chai. it was very nice but not as good as l.a’s best. had fun dodging the night life of wan chai after dinner while trying to find a cab.
this morning, i woke up and went up the hill to law fu kee for congee. got the sliced fish congee and it was great! right next door is cheung hing kee who specialize in pan-fried juicy dumplings and it seemed un-neighbourly to not give them some custom as well. i can confirm that their pan-fried juicy dumplings are quite good.
came out and it seemed foolish to not make a third breakfast stop, considering tai cheong bakery is right across the street. it was a very wise decision as a batch of egg custard tarts had just exited the oven. so fucking good.
i then walked about 6 miles in an effort to knock a tenth of the calories off. down to the star ferry, across to tsim tsa shui, then to the museum of history, and back to the ferry, back up to central where a taiwanese place caught my eye as i was getting off the mid-levels escalator at wellington and wondering about lunch.
it’s called teawood and specializes in beef noodle soup. got a bowl of hand-cut noodles with brisket, tripe and tendon. and an order of spicy pig ear strips to be safe. both quite good. the most remarkable thing about this place, however, maybe that they give you water on the house and there are multiple napkins on the table. this is a first for me in hong kong outside a fancy restaurant (though tea wood is far fancier than the likes of kau kee or mak’s noodle). even last night’s thai place sold water to us by the bottle.
dinner tonight will be at a vietnamese place in soho called chom chom. my friend is insistent on taking me to her favourite places and so even though i would rather be doing all cantonese all the time, i’m going along with her desires.
