Hong Kong - Chun Yeung Street and the North Point Tram

One of our favorite things that we did in Hong Kong was to ride the "Ding Ding" trams. They are fun to ride, cover Hong Kong from West to East, and only cost $2.3HK (or about 30 cents US).

Our favorite tram ride was the North Point tram. One day we were wandering around North Point when we came across the Chun Yueng Street wet market. As we were wandering around the market, a tram came right up through the street, scattering shoppers left and right.

The Eastbound North Point tram terminates here, and uses the street the market is on to turn around. Over the course of our two stays in Hong Kong, I think we ended up riding the tram through the market three or four times. The market is very close to the North Point Tim Ho Wan location, so it makes a perfect stop before or after having dim sum.

Here is a video I took from the tram as it traveled through the market street:



The market is well worth walking around on foot as well.



It is packed with vendors selling produce.





Fish.



Noodles.



Various dried goods.





Meats.



Pretty much anything you could possible need.



There is even a little to-go dim sum stall in the middle of the block.



We bought some pork and vegetable buns here on one of our visits. Inexpensive, and very tasty.

Hong Kong - Steamed Milk at Yee Shun Milk Company

Our first night in Hong Kong, after gorging ourselves on a late lunch of roast meats at Joy Hing, we didn't really have much room left for a real dinner. We need a little something, though, so we stopped in at Yee Shun Milk Company in Causeway Bay.



While Yee Shun serves a full menu of Hong Kong cafe staples, we were there for the steamed milk. We got a cold (above) and hot with ginger (below) steamed milk desert.



Both were very good. The cold desert tasted like a mildly flavored custard - really clean and fresh. The hot ginger version was looser and had a very pervasive and delicious ginger flavor. A perfect way to end the day.

Hong Kong - Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan

There are plenty of options for dim sum in Hong Kong. After some deliberation, we settled on Tim Ho Wan because it was both well-regarded (including a much-hyped Michelin star) and inexpensive.



Also, they have menu-based ordering. While I understand the appeal of frantic and chaotic ordering from carts as the dim sum ladies push them about, I prefer being able to get the exact items I want.

Here is the English menu we were presented with as we queued up in line:



We loved everything we had, but perhaps our favorite was the bbq pork rice noodle roll (cheung fan - listed as "vermicelli roll" on the menu):



Lovely thin rice noodle wrapped around delicious pork and topped with a very nicely balanced soy-based sauce.



We had never had chicken feet before, so we figured that we should try them. Turns out that we liked them - a lot. Finicky to eat, but with a fantastic texture and a great sauce.

Tim Ho Wan is perhaps most famous for their baked bbq pork buns, so we had to order them:



The outside is very delicate and slightly sweet. The filling is deliciously savory pork, and not too sweet.



Another favorite of ours was the steamed beancurd skin with a pork filling. Really nice.



Back in Hong Kong on our way home, we couldn't resist a return visit. We repeated the bbq pork rice roll (adding a second, beef version as well), and the filled beancurd skin.

New this time was a dish of steamed rice with chicken and sausage:



This is basically the prototypical clay pot rice contents, but without the crispy rice bottom you get from the clay pot. The sausage was fun, and the chicken was very good.

We also got some steamed spareribs with black bean sauce:



Hard to eat, but super tasty.



We rounded out both visits to Tim Ho Wan with "poached fresh seasonal vegetable" - which turned out to be lettuce. We mostly got it to get some vegetables in us, but it was surprisingly delicious, mostly due to the sauce they poured over.

Tim Ho Wan has a number of locations in Hong Kong - we went to the one in North Point.

Hong Kong - Street Food in Kowloon

Hong Kong is a great place for street food. If you like eating tasty treats on a stick, you will not be disappointed. You can find street food most anywhere, but the largest density is probably in Kowloon at night.



We purchased the fried tofu above from a bustling stall a few blocks southwest of the Ladies' Market.



The outside of the tofu was crispy, the inside soft and it came with a nice spicy sauce.

Walking down farther south to the Temple Street Night Market, we had our first stick of curried fish balls:



Spicy and delicious.



Not in Kowloon this time, but just outside the Tin Hau MTR station, we had the street version of cheung fan - rolled rice noodles:



I wasn't a big fan of the sauces (too sweet), but I liked the texture of the rolls. The guy running the stall was quite the character:



We found ourselves back in Kowloon again at the tail end of our trip. Near the Mong Kok MTR stop, at the corner of Mong Kok Road and Tung Choi Street are a number of very busy street food vendors.



We got a little bowl of shiumai, which were pretty good but basically shiumai-shaped fish balls.



Just down the street was a guy grilling up skewers of various meats.



Unable to resist meat-on-a-stick, we had two lamb skewers. They were lovely - tender and full of flavor.



We still needed a little snack, so we got some fried chicken bites from one of the ubiquitous Hot Star stands. Crispy, and coated with some chili and five-spice flavor.



We rounded out the evening with soft-serve ice cream when we succumbed to the lure of a Mobile Softee truck.

Hong Kong - Noodle Soups at Sister Wah, Wing Kee and Tsim Chai Kee

It is hard to explain why I liked Sister Wah's brisket noodle soup so much. There isn't much to it - a clear beef broth with slices of tender brisket and your choice of noodle (we preferred the wide rice noodle).



The curry version is tasty, too, but for us the simple clear soup version was the winner. When we flew back into Hong Kong at the end of our trip, the first thing we did was rush out to Sister Wah to get there before they closed at 11:00pm.



Wing Kee Noodle is a build-your-own bowl (cart noodle) joint serving up inexpensive bowls to a bustling clientele. When we arrived, there was a long line out the door, but it moved quickly and we needed the extra time to figure out what to order.



 I got brisket (called "flake" on the menu), beef ball, and radish:



Sherry got pork neck, sausage and radish:



Both bowls were very tasty.

The day we flew home from Hong Kong, we managed to fit in one more bowl of noodle soup - this time at Tsim Chai Kee:



Busy place, with friendly staff and patrons. They only have a few options on the menu - fish ball, shrimp wonton, beef, or any combination of the three. We each got a bowl of all three and wow was it overflowing! I really liked the shrimp wonton - nice, big chunks of shrimp. The fish cake was huge - we could barely lift it with our chopsticks.

Overall, a very good send-off home from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong - Egg Tart ("daan taat") Obsession

We ate egg tarts every single day we were in Hong Kong. Sometimes more than one. Sometimes more than two. Obsession? Maybe, but I will not apologize for our behavior.

Particularly in the morning, a warm egg tart ("daan taat" in Cantonese) snatched from the tray in a bakery storefront window is a wonderful thing.



Pictured above, the egg tarts from Violet Cake Shop in Causeway Bay were some of the prettiest we had.

My favorite egg tart in Hong Kong, though? Whichever one I currently held in my hand. Most often, it was this one from Likey Bakery:



Likey Bakery was just down the street from our hotel in Causeway bay, and as such it provided both our first egg tart and our most re-occuring.



One morning we watched with horror as the patron in front of us absconded with all but the last tart from the tray. We were forced to share, when we *really* wanted one each.



Egg tarts come in two varieties - cookie crust and fluffy puff pastry crust. I fully expected to like the puff pastry version better, but I wound up solidly in the cookie crust camp. Don't get me wrong, though - the puff pastry version is damned good, too. The above version is from Dragon Ball Bakery.



Perhaps the most "famous" egg tart we had was this one:



It was from Honolulu Coffee Shop in Wan Chai. Was it good? Yes. Better than the others? Like I said, my favorite egg tart was whichever one I currently held in my hand.



My recommendation for egg tarts in Hong Kong is eat them early and often.