Seafood and bongwater

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I got a message a couple of days ago... my friend Vlad would be in town for a couple of days. I am always looking to spend more time with him, so we made plans to meet up for dinner tonight - just after he lands. We figured they would appreciate some casual, local Canto fare, so I booked us a table at our new favorite neighborhod joint Lucky Ship (船嘉•福).

The owner behind this joint also owns a seafood supply business, so this is one of their strengths. Foursheets and I love this place for a variety of reasons. Besides the fact that they are very pet-friendly with their outdoor seating, We also love the daipaidong (大排檔) atmosphere as well as the classic dishes.

Chaozhou cold threadfin with rice (潮式凍馬友魚飯) - one would think that with the majority of Chinese in Thailand descended from Chiuchow immigrants, the cold "fish rice (魚飯)" would be more familiar to our visitors. I was wrong. But happily this turned out to be well-received. I do love it when they do it the new style, cut into pretty, bite-size chunks instead of having the fish served whole.

Fish, shrimp, but no crab

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I haven't seen my friend for 9 years. He lives halfway around the world from me, and for one reason or another - the pandemic among them - we just haven't traveled to each others' cities since I last saw him in Hong Kong. He's taking an East Asia tour this month, and I finally got a chance to catch up with him and his wife.

Incidentally, he's one of the people who bailed out on my booking at the Chairman (大班樓) earlier this week, despite the fact that his wife has never been. As both of them are staying in New Territories, I figured I would pick somewhere that involves less traveling on their side. Much to my surprise, out of the two options I presented, they chose the one that involved significantly more trekking...

I last trekked all the way to Fanling (粉嶺) for dinner at Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記飯店) on account of another visiting friend. We grabbed a bigger group of people and had Brother Hon come up with the daily specials. For our casual lunch today, though, there's no need to bother the boss.

Pork tendon with shallot oil and soy dipping sauce (白烚豬前腿筋) - this is an absolute must. I have never not loved this dish. The meat is so bouncy and tasty... and so much fun to chew on.

Another northern expedition

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Someone thought it would be a good idea to take S all the way up north for some local flavor, and got us a booking for one of the private rooms at Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記). Foursheets and I love the place, but it's kinda far even for us locals, nevermind someone who is visiting. Well... somehow I ended up taking over as organizer, and invited The Great One as well as a couple of friends who were checking the place out for the first time.

As it was drizzling a little, we decided to make the long journey in a taxi. Funny that it was also a rainy night the last time we came...

Brother Hon seemed pretty happy to see Foursheets, even know I doubt he remembers our names. Nevertheless, we knew we were in good hands and there would be lots of food coming our way. Sure enough, there was a flurry of "small(ler)" dishes which arrived at our table in rapid-fire style...

Foie gras in 5 spice marinade sauce (鹵鵝肝) - never had this here before. Tasty, but the texture was a little on the dry and firm side. Still very smooth, though.

Pork tendon with shallot oil and soy dipping sauce (白烚豬前腿筋) - one of my perennial favorites here. I just can't resist tender, jiggly pork. That dipping sauce is just so tasty.

Rainy expedition

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Mr. and Mrs. Locust are back in town for the first time in a year, and as we kinda missed each other a year ago, we've only seen each other once since the borders opened. Tonight was their "free night" away from family, and I was asked to pick a place for us to eat out. Having known Mr. Locust for more than 30 years, I pretty much know which types of places are up his alley. And in spite of the distance we'd have to travel, I really thought Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記) would be something he'd appreciate.

Unfortunately for us, the presence of a few typhoons and tropical depressions around meant it started to rain in the late afternoon, and ended up with a downpour in parts of town. We changed our original plans of taking the train up to Fanling and ended up taking a taxi to dinner, which ended up costing a pretty penny.

Brother Hon was in da haus and Foursheets immediately struck up a conversation with him. While we ordered a few dishes that we felt were "must try", the boss added a few dishes which were off-menu for us.

Pork tendon with shallot oil and soy dipping sauce (白烚豬前腿筋) - I can't imagine bringing someone here without ordering this up, and as always, the strips were very springy and crunchy. This was also VERY strong in terms of their pork flavor. Perfect with the soy-based garlic dipping sauce on the side.

IzaHakka

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It's been some time since we were last at UZA by Nikushou, and we had been thinking of returning to support RAW Yeah. When he told us last week that they would be doing a collaboration with Brother Hon of Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記) - a restaurant which ranks near the top of Foursheets' favorites list - it took me all of 2 seconds to ask him to save us two seats. There was no chance of us missing out on this special event!

We were seated at the counter around the open kitchen, which afforded Foursheets a good view as Brother Hon worked his magic in a small kitchen that he's unfamiliar with. This was really a lot of fun, and I'd been drooling since I got a glimpse of the menu before we even arrived.

Male and female snow crab (松葉蟹 x 香箱蟹) - it made total sense for the meal to kick off with this delicacy. As the season for catching female Japanese snow crabs (香箱蟹) for most Japanese prefectures have already finished, these came from Hokkaido. Always feel privileged whenever I see this in front of me, and I love how tasty Japanese snow crab meat gets!

Goh go Hon

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Goh-san's in town on a layover, and a few of us had the privilege of spending some time with him. The Man in White T-shirt has made the executive decision to take him all the way to Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記) for some Hakka cuisine, so the bunch of us made the long trip out in anticipation of a great meal.

The restaurant has quickly become one of Foursheets' favorites over the last 2 years, as the Hakka flavors and the simple, honest cooking of Brother Hon struck a cord with her. We have made visits there whenever we are in the vincinity for simple meals, but we know that when either the Man in White T-shirt or RAW Yeah is in the house, Brother Hon will pull out all the stops. And so it was tonight.

Traditional deep fried tofu (炸古早味鹽水豆腐) - this was pretty amazing, as the Puning tofu (普寧豆腐) was so soft and fluffy that it broke apart into pieces as I tried to pick it up with chopsticks. Inside the texture was like almond tofu (杏仁豆腐) or deep-fried milk.

Worship mountain lunch

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We're doing our usual ancestral worship today, and this puts us close to the border with Shenzhen. We didn't really have any interest in the vegetarian meal on offer, so once again we chose to head into Fanling and grab lunch at Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記). We missed out on an epic gathering here 2 weeks ago, so this kind of made up for that...

Sun Hon Kee special fried fish noodle (自家製手打一品鮮魚麵) - always happy to have these handmade fish noodles, but maybe next time we need to order them in the middle of our meal so that this doesn't show up at the start...

Diary of a Quarantined Boy, part 1, day 2

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Breakfast was as simple as yesterday's - two slices of toast that have gone through the Gudetama toaster, and the same crappy Nespresso coffee. Plus a banana. Life in quarantine.

Now that we've completed our quarantine project, we turned our attention back to cleaning our apartment. There is a ton of work to do, but thankfully we have a couple of weeks to get it done.

Slow boat to Hakka

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If there's one thing that we haven't done much during the two-year pandemic, it's activities in the Great Outdoors.  Unlike many friends with kids, Sankala and I have been mainly staying in - initially just to do our part in social distancing. While we watched our friends fulfill their wanderlust by exploring remote areas of Hong Kong, the two of us (OK, this is probably mostly me) have been homebodies.

But when I saw a post about Slow Food doing a trip out to Lai Chi Wo (荔枝窩), a remote Hakka (客家) village with a history of 400 years, I decided that we should join the tour. Not the least because Hakka is part of Sankala's heritage, and there would be a lunch featuring Hakka dishes. I figured that would be interesting.

We set off from Ma Liu Shui Ferry Pier pretty early in the morning, as the boat ride would take 1½ hours each way, taking us first through Tolo Channel. As the area is part of the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark, there are some interesting geological sights along the coastline. Apparently one of these is the Devil's Fist, which is a pretty small rock jutting out. We were not close enough for me to figure out where exactly it was when I took a series of pictures, but I managed to identify it once I zoomed in...

We saw a number of hikers and fishing enthusiasts along the way, some of them cutting lonesome figures as they were seemingly stranded alone on tiny islets. This was somewhat striking when we got close to our destination, as the structures at Yantian Harbor (盐田港) appeared in the background.

New guy quickie

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This morning finds us out in Fanling, so we decided to check if Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記) would have a table for us. Lucky for us, we did not visit at peak hour, so the restaurant was relatively empty. Sankala and I chose a couple of dishes we liked from our first visit, and tried out a couple of others which looked good and would appeal to the kids.

Pan-fried whiting fish cake (自家製九棍魚餅) - so, so happy to have this again. Very tender texture and made from lizard fish (九棍魚).

New guy on Sunday

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It's Sunday night and a bunch of us have made the trek from the Island up north for dinner.  Our destination is Sun Hon Kee Restaurant (新漢記), a restaurant in Fanling serving up Hakka cuisine.  The Man in White T-shirt had made the suggestion and helped make arrangements with Chef So Wai Hon (蘇偉漢).

Hakka is not a cuisine I am very familiar with, so coming all the way here was certainly something I looked forward to.  Chef So did tell us, though, that the menu he put together for us tonight wasn't entirely Hakka...

Pork tendon with shallot oil and soy dipping sauce (白烚豬前腿筋) - when this is the first plate that arrives, and you've got tender pork with tendons that melt in the mouth, you know this is gonna be a great dinner.

Crabby birthday

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Mrs. White T-shirt is celebrating her 18th birthday, and very kindly invited Hello Kitty and I to dinner. Unfortunately Hello Kitty was having some trouble with chewing food, but I nevertheless agreed to keep The Man in White T-shirt company.

When I saw the menu for the evening at The Sports Club (五陵會), I knew we were in for a feast.

Apparently one of the guests brought these green radish, which were so sweet and crunchy!

Shrimp paste encased in string beans (百花煎釀豆角) - this was very good, and I love that they "braided" the string beans and used them as the base.