Fast Food
No matter where you visit, there’s bound to be a chain of fast food restaurants at that particular location, and I’m not talking about McDonalds.  A number of notable fast food chains have made a name for themselves, just don’t be ordering a hamburger when you get there.

Cafe de Coral
Locations throughout Hong Kong
Right after I checked into my hotel in Mongkok, I went to the Cafe de Coral in the Grand Tower building for breakfast. The honey-baked chicken was sold out, so  I ordered the New Zealand Hoki Fish Filet w/ hotdogs, toast, and  Horlicks.   It’s like the Hong Kong equivalent of McDonald’s.

MaximMX (Mei Sum MX)
Locations throughout HK
Another joint similar to Cafe de Coral that can be found all over Hong Kong.  It’s part of the Maxim restaurant group that operates different restaurant brands, such as Maxim Bakery (Mei Sum Sei Bang) and M.A.X. Concepts.  Compared to Cafe de Coral, the MX’s style is more trendy and modern, and the food is slightly different.  The food still falls in the same genre though.  I went to the one in Mongkok located by the primary Mongkok subway entrance.  Pictured is the Swiss Style Soy Sauce Chicken with French Toast

Have a Seat, no Rush
There’s certainly a place and time for fast food, and sometimes, it just doesn’t cut it.  Below are a few of my favorites.

Mak Mun Kee Noodle House
Parkes Street in Jordan

A trip to Hong Kong should always include a visit to one of the local noodle shops.  Mak Mun Kee’s wonton noodles are well known, and so are the beef brisket noodles and braised pork feet.  They even make their own noodles!  The wonton only contains shrimp and the beef brisket is so tender that it melts in your mouth.

Lan Fong Yuen
G/F Gage Street, Central (near the escalator)
Lan Fong Yuen is home of the famous pork chop sandwich and ramen platters.  The pork chop sandwich was simple and well made.  It’s a piece of fried pork chop sandwiched between a buttered sesame seed bun, tomato, and mayonnaise.  Simply beautiful.  We also ordered the French toast with coconut and cream filling, French toast with condensed milk and peanut butter, silky milk tea, and red bean ice (one of my favorite drinks).

Mido Cafe
63 Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei,
Yau Ma Tei Station, Exit B2
This place is known for its baked sparerib with rice and red bean ice.  Of the places I went to for red bean ice, Mido’s was the best.  The baked sparerib with rice dish takes fifteen minutes to cook, and it’s worth the wait.  The sauce is light and creamy, the spareribs are crispy and tender, and the rice is laced with pieces of scrambled eggs.

Tai Cheong Bakery
35 Lyndhurst Terrace near Hollywood Road in the SoHo area, Central
Tai Cheung Bakery is for its famous egg tarts.   The crust is light and brittle, and the texture of the egg tart is extremely smooth and silky, which makes it delicate to handle.  One of the best egg tarts I’ve had in a long time.

Four Season Pot Rice
Arthur Street near Temple Street, Yau Ma Tei
This claypot rice (bo jai fan) joint was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, so we had to see what the hype was about. We went around 10pm and the place was packed.  The food was great and cheap, in fact, we came here twice for dinner.  Aside from the claypot rice, the fried oyster dipped in batter was top notch.

Last year, I returned to my birthplace, Hong Kong for the first time in 17 years.  Recollections of my childhood memories spent there are fragmented and fuzzy at best, and it felt like I was visiting the small and overcrowded island for the first time.  Needless to say, I left wanting more and I am planning on returning sometime next year for another visit.  I spent a fair amount of time blogging about my culinary experience in Hong Kong in a previous blog of mine, and rather than let it go to waste, I am resurrecting those posts.  I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and since one of my closest friends is visiting Hong Kong next week, it’s more than appropriate to do so now.

The Fishing Villages of Lei Yu Mun and Sai Kung
My favorite experience in Hong Kong has got to be visiting the fishing villages, picking out the live seafood, and having one of the local restaurants cook them up right then and there.  Feelings of euphoria and sensory overload set in rather quickly.  I was like a kid on Christmas morning, I couldn’t wait for the food that was in store for all of us.

Lei Yu Mun
Lei Yu Mun is one of the older fishing villages.  In the past, the only way of getting there was by car or boat, but now it can also be accessed after a 15 minute walk from the Yau Tong MTR stop.  Walk east up and down a small hill and you will see a large gate.  There are many seafood vendors to choose from, and you get to pick out your own seafood as well.  Once you’ve selected the seafood you want, the vendors will bring it to one of the local restaurants to cook to your liking.  We went to the Dynasty Restaurant for our seafood dinner.  It’s a little further back, but it’s worth the small hike.

Sai Kung
Perhaps my favorite place to visit during my entire trip.  This small village is a stark contrast to what most people think of Hong Kong, a small overly-populated metropolis.  In fact, I thought I went back in time for a bit.  Sai Kung is not located amongst the skyscrapers, crowds and the noise, in fact it’s in the outskirts of Hong Kong, and it provides some reprieve from the city madness.  Apparently, from what I heard, many celebrities live in Sai Kung as well.

One thing that stood out were the local fishermen who were selling their fresh catches of the day out of their boats.  It was definitely much different than going to the seafood counter at the local grocery store to see the day’s selection of fish.