Hongkie sushi

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The King is in town for a few days, and I was invited to join his dinner with our mutual friend. I know very well that our friend has a fairly short list of restaurants he frequents, so I was pretty surprised when Suzhi Zinc was chosen. I know a number of friends have been there, but since I don’t eat much sushi in Hong Kong (or in general), I just haven’t gotten the urge to check the place out. So tonight I finally had occasion to do so.

I was apologetic to my friends prior to arrival at the restaurant, as I thought I would run a few minutes late… and I know it’s customary to start service on time and start times are often simultaneous for all customers – so a late customer means EVERYONE at the counter waits for you. Well… I need not have worried. Not only was I not late, but the other customers all arrived later than I did.

After everyone has arrived, service began with a series of otsumami (おつまみ):

Sweetfish (鮎) – this was an interesting preparation inspired by the classic Chiuchow dish of “chilled fish (凍魚) / fish rice (魚飯)”, where the fillet was lightly seasoned with salt and served chilled. Served with crunchy lily bulb from Hokkaido and garnished with some local oxalis for a bit of acidity.

Peace out

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At the start of the year, Hoper's Base (人人和平) announced that they will be closing their current flagship by the end of the year. I have enjoyed a few meals over the last few years, although our last casual lunch there left a very bad taste in Foursheets' mouth. When Bong Girl pinged me about doing a dinner there with g4gary - who is school mates with the bosses - I was more than happy to put my hand up.

The restaurant had proposed a menu for us, and since it may or may not be my last visit here, I figured I'd make two special requests. As if we didn't already have enough food.

It's been a while since I was last here, and since our friend is a VIP, we were led to the "private room" in the adjacent shop space. At least here we wouldn't have to be bothered by the unpleasant smell that I've encountered before...

Nostalgic "money chicken" (和平金錢雞) - right off the bat we have the first item I requested. "Gold coin chicken (金錢雞)" is one of my favorite items in Cantonese cuisine, and so there are increasingly few places which continue this tradition. I loved it when it was served on my very first visit here, on a bed of deep-fried rice crispies (鍋巴). Sadly, they discontinued that amazing version. Nowadays it comes on top of a slice of baguette, which doesn't come anywhere close to giving the satisfaction of the previous version.

The best dishes I had in 2025

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This is the 10th edition of my "best dishes of the year", and once again I go through my meals to pick out the dishes that were the most memorable, brought me the most pleasure, or evoked the strongest emotions. Needless to say I have had many, many delicious dishes this past year - many happy moments which brought smiles to my face. These were just the ones that made me exclaim "FUCKING GOOD!", "YEAH, BABY!", "PUTAIN!"... you get the drift.

I didn't travel as much this year, and I also dined out less. Maybe that's why the list got shorter this year. But truth be told, some of these dishes were incredibly emotional for me, and were perhaps the best I've ever had.

Luncheon meat and egg sandwiches with peanut butter and condensed milk (炒蛋午餐肉奶醬多士), from Yue Hing (裕興) in Hong Kong - this is my favorite sandwich in the world, and I thought I would never have the chance to taste it again when Dan passed away in 2021. Some 68 months after I last tasted one, Elaine reopened the stall and I made 2 visits within the first week. I was so emotional I almost cried.

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.

The sun rises from the west

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It was in September of 2014 that I last walked down the steps to the dining room of Ho Lee Fook (口利福). By that time I had already decided not to patronize outlets run by Black Sheep Restaurants, but made an exception to join The Great One on her review of the then-newly-opened restaurant. I managed to walk out alive and did not require any trips to the hospital, and since then have chosen not to tempt fate any further. My long-running boycott of Black Sheep continued for the next 10 years, and all my friends knew not to invite me when they chose to give them business.

My stance softened after a meeting with the restaurant group's founder in the middle of last year, and I did pay a visit to one of their restaurants for a casual lunch not long after. But I was otherwise in no rush to explore the restaurants in their portfolio, as I mostly stuck to places I am comfortable going to. There had to be a good reason for me to want to patronize one of their outlets.

That reason arrived on a flight from London today. S is back in town and wanted to check off more places on her hit list, and the first one was Ho Lee Fook. I did tell her that I was no longer averse to patronize Black Sheep Restaurants, and I would be willing to join her if she made the arrangements. So here I am... and I even roped in a couple of guys to come with us.

My friend had been in touch with Gabe about menu arrangements, and since I hadn't been here for 10 years, I left the choice entirely up to her. I knew that we would be getting some seafood from the market, the preparations of which sounded surprisingly traditional for a restaurant with a reputation for serving what Foursheets calls "gweilo-friendly Chinese food".

“Prawn Toast x Okonomiyaki”, Kewpie mayonnaise, Bull-Dog Sauce, shaved cabbage, aonori (「蝦多士 x 大阪燒」配丘比蛋黃醬、日式喼汁、椰菜絲及紫菜) - we were told that this has been "on the menu for 10 years", although I didn't manage to taste it the last time I was here.

The 68-month wait

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I had hoped, nay, dreamed of this happening for YEARS. The day finally came.

It was 68 months ago that I last sat down at Yue Hing (裕興) and had my last sandwich prepared by Dan (福哥). At the time Dan was already undergoing chemo for his cancer, and with the onset of the pandemic and Hong Kong shutting down dining, that would turn out to be my last visit. They served a sandwich that was BY FAR my favorite in the world, so much so that I wrote about having a last bite just days before I temporarily moved away from Hong Kong back in 2011.

Sadly, Dan lost his battle with cancer in 2021. At the time I wrote about my loving memories with this daipaidong (大排檔), fully knowing that this chapter of my life was over. While Elaine sporadically mentioned plans of re-opening, fans like myself felt our hopes fading with each passing year. The stall at the end of Stanley Street remained empty, and there were no signs of it coming back.

That changed 4 days ago. I woke up to discover a post on Yue Hing's Facebook page, announcing that they were doing a "trial run" this week, starting Tuesday. I immediately made plans to visit my beloved stall, but not on the first day. I figured they would be too rusty and needed some practice.

After some unexpected delay, I finally arrived a little after noon yesterday. For the first time in more than 5 years, I sat down at one of the tables and took in this view. I AM BACK!!!

A shroomy Friday

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It's been a while since I last saw the Mushroom Supplier, so I was pretty glad when he extended an invitation to join them for dinner at Man Ho Chinese Restaurant (萬豪金殿). Chef Jayson Tang has been doing a mushroom themed menu for some time now that is supplied by, of course, the Mushroom Supplier. I had missed out on joining the big gathering a while ago, so it was very kind of our friend to arrange another gathering for us.

We have an expert in Chinese tea in attendance, and he very kindly shared some Puer tea whose vintage dates to 1983.

A different type of boozy lunch

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Louise has a new chef in the kitchen with the return of Loïc Portalier, and Julien Royer came up to Hong Kong for a proper introduction. It has been some time since I was last at Louise - and in fact any of Julien's restaurants - so when the invitation came to join a media lunch today, I accepted without any hesitation.

As the shenanigans surrounding Asia's 50 Best Bars are happening in town this week, we also had a number of people from outside Hong Kong at lunch with us. There was a lot of talk around the tables about all the after parties last night, and it's obvious that all the partying has caught up with some of my friends...

I wasn't in a drinking mood as I have a big wine dinner tonight, so I just accepted a glass of Chartogne-Taillet Sainte Anne, which was toasty and mineral on the nose.

We then started with three amuses bouches:

Angel hair with black truffle, kombu seaweed, and caviar - this was... OK lah... No doubt it will make lots of people happy.

Another crawl around Sham Shui Po

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A few days ago I put up a post on social media about something I ate earlier this month, which elicited reactions from a few friends who expressed interested to give it a try. I decided to organize a mini food crawl and asked them to come along. The itinerary would include a couple of places I tried out on my last crawl here, plus other famous places I have yet to check out.

It was less than 5 minutes before the appointed time for our meeting, and I have already received a message about keeping a few hangry ladies waiting. These people are so hard to please!

Hop Yik Tai (合益泰小食) is just across the street from Exit C2 of Sham Shui Po MTR station, so this became our first stop this morning. They are known for street food items like rice flour rolls and fish balls, and we quickly grabbed a table inside.

Steamed rice-flour rolls and fish siu mai (腸粉 魚肉燒賣) - I've never been a fan of these siu mai (燒賣) made with fish mousse, but the signature rice flour rolls are soft and slippery as always.