The rivalry between Shanghai and Hong Kong in matters financial and economic in the past few years has become quite intense. However, when it comes to food, I wanted to discover if Hong Kong still reigned supreme. After an intensive week of eating in Beijing, I arrived in Hong Kong to check out the latest dining scene there. I wanted to take a short detour from Chinese food and went to the latest hottest restaurant, The Steak House Winebar & Grill.
It is a classic American-style restaurant that serves a wonderful Caesar salad with home-cured anchovies and crispy apple-wood smoked bacon. The Australian Wagyu rib-eye steak was tender and melting, accompanied by eight sauces. The portions are copious, so be warned. I had to pass on the desserts.
The “in” place for foodies seems to be Kin’s Kitchen where Lau Kin Wai, a popular food critic, has created his fantasy restaurant. It is great comfort Chinese food without MSG, using only the best ingredients. His smoked chicken braised in clear soy sauce and then lightly smoked with rose petals is not to be missed. I would go back to have his crispy stuffed duck filled with chestnuts and slowly braised until it melts tenderly. Equally delectable was deep-fried prawns stuffed with walnuts and served with a delicately balanced sweet-and-sour sauce. If you are very adventurous, try the braised pomelo peel, a type of grapefruit cooked with dried shrimp roe. Don’t forget to ask for the fantastic intestine pork sausage, which is not on the menu.
For desserts, go round the corner to Ching Ching Desserts – a very local hang- out with quite a selection of sensational, light, delicate tofu custards.
Everyone in Hong Kong acknowledges that Spring Moon Restaurant has some of the best dim sum. I can never resist going there for the usual dim sum selection and loved the many new ones such as deep-fried gluten puffs filled with pumpkin and chicken, which taste better than the description. Also worth trying are the baked sea urchin and mashed potato tarts. We finished with a quite seductive, deep-fried bean curd stuffed with minced shrimps in spicy sauce. Braised shredded eggplant with preserved vegetables was also delicious as was fried rice noodles with sliced beef, garlic and black bean.
Cuisine Cuisine is located smack in the middle of Central’s International Finance Center. It takes only about 20 minutes from the airport. Located in the mall, it serves delectable dishes such as sautéed prawns with green anise pepper and basil, both aromatic and spicy. Or try sautéed clam and abalone with bean sprouts and chives, a seafood feast. The most comforting and best dish was rice vermicelli with minced fish dumpling in fish broth – ethereal quenelle fish dumplings floating in a rich broth. A perfect relief for the jet-lagged traveller.
Lei Garden is another upmarket restaurant located in the IFC. Although it is part of a group of restaurants with branches in Kowloon as well as Guangzhou and Singapore, friends in Hong Kong assure me this is one of the best. How right they are. Ask for the special soup of the day, which can be a sublime rich clear chicken broth with mushrooms or an invigorating ginseng. It changes every day. The sautéed egg-white and tofu with crab cream and meat was a delicate, almost soufflé-like dish of floating egg-white with tofu, accented with a savoury meat and crab sauce – very imaginative and delicious. The deep-fried vegetarian delight packages filled with chopped seasonal and pickled vegetables were irresistible as well. It is hard to get a table at this popular restaurant so book ahead.
Yung Kee Restaurant is one of Hong Kong’s most famous restaurants. It’s been years since I was there. Upon arrival, I found all four floors crowded with business people amid a cacophony of Cantonese. It is the only restaurant in Hong Kong still allowed to cook over charcoal. Long known for its roast goose, it serves more than 300 geese dishes a day, as good as ever, with mahogany-coloured, crackling skin and moist, spiced, gamey meat. The deep-fried squid stuffed with minced shrimp shows how a simple dish can be transformed into gastronomic nirvana. A dish of rice noodle with barbecued pork arrived. The pillow-like, fresh rice noodles were perfectly stir-fried with caramelized pork that had the grilled flavour of the wok. We finished with the sensational dish of sautéed Chinese broccoli with goose liver sausages that added the right accent to a perfect meal.
The best meal we had in Hong Kong, hands down, was at Amber. This Adam Tihany-designed restaurant has the whole town buzzing. Hearing mixed reviews from friends, I was determined to see for myself and came away quite impressed with the talent of chef Richard Ekkebus.
We began with watermelon with cherry tomatoes, a tiny touch of goats cheese, black pepper and a thread of cabernet sauvignon reduction. It made a perfect light starter. A single oyster wrapped in clear agar-agar seaweed was startling in taste and texture. I was amazed by yellow-fin tuna paired with crispy chicken skin accented with a soy and maple syrup reduction. It struck me as an unusually brilliant match. However, the most outstanding dish was his 11-hour poached Kuro Buta pork belly – a Kobe-type pork from Japan that was cooked for hours sous-vide with the fat melting. The subtle touch of five spices together with daikon cooked in Chinese black vinegar complemented the pork extremely well. We were too full to appreciate the delicious Anjou pigeon from France but the small taste I had was delicious. In spite of our our being full, a crispy rice and black sesame mille-feuille, accompanied by caramelized mango with sticky rice ice cream, had us crying for more.
I am pleased to report that Hong Kong’s crown is as secure as ever: it remains one of the best places on this planet to dine out.
Ken Hom’s latest book is ‘Simple Asian Cookery’ (BBC Books)
