A tall glass of... whatever strikes your fancy

So our train of epicurean adventures made a pit stop in Taipei, Taiwan. Yours truly spent 3 days in Asia's food paradise, and came out with its beverages leaving the strongest impression. Taiwan, the birth place of everybody's favorite Bubble Tea, is where the many fruit and herbal iced teas first became a craze. Taiwanese people are more inventive and daring with their beverages, here are the English translations of the beverage names below: Kumquat Lemon Tea, Winter Melon Tea, Fizzy Grape Juice and Pickled Sour Berry Juice.

The only drink out of the four there that's not widely available in Hong Kong is 冬瓜茶 (winter melon tea), pictured below. Winter-melon is good for reducing the heat in your body, the heat in your body is what causes an acne break out, which I'm a victim of right now, sigh! Always happens in this heat, a lot of people will drink the Pickled Sour Berry Juice to reduce their heat too, which really helps a breakout. I'm not very fond of the taste, it was just plain sweet with a very vegetable-like flavor. Vegetables belong in soup, not in sweet drinks! And you can take that to the bank.

My brother Chris taking a sip before he reacted with utter disgust. Sadly, it was the same reaction from me. Winter melon really does belong in soup, let's keep it that way.


Now this is for the ladies: did your mother ever tell you eating papaya will make your bosom bigger? My mother sure did, and I always cleared the plate every time we have it at home. Sadly, the magical effects have yet to reveal themselves, but papayas are absolutely delicious. And the one thing even better than that is Papaya Milk (木瓜奶) in Taiwan, which grows some of the yummiest papayas. The ingredients are very simple: ice, milk and chunks of beautiful, reddish-orange papaya.

And now I'm thirsty for some lychee green tea with tapioca balls, Taiwanese-style. Although too many iced drinks is really unhealthy, not only does the sugar end up on your waistline, but it's no good to put something so cold into your body. On the rare occasion that Joey from Friends actually said something wise: One moment on the hips, forever on the hips. We should really just stick to plain lukewarm water, but at the same time we're all losing enough calories from sweating profusely in this searing heat, so serve up that cold beverage!

Bon voyage and quench your thirst,
Jenny Cheng

Shake Shake! Shake 'Em All!!

Burgers' popularity has been rising in the past year in Hong Kong. When I was young, McDonald's was the only place you could find burgers. However, all these different burgers fast food place, restaurants or just burger stands are opened in many corners. I went to this one called Shake 'Em Buns (a very attractive name).



It is a self-service place, sort of like fast food but a little nicer. The interior design is quite simple, with some bumper stickers on the wall, it gives out a very foreign atmosphere. There are about 20 burger choices. The burgers there have some very creative names. My friend ordered "Magical Mushroom" Burger while I ordered "The Southern" Burger. It also has hot dogs, shakes, wings, just like a diner. A combo is $80, burger with fries and a soda. Not a good deal I must say, quite expensive in fact. Because of its price, I was expecting a very delicious burger. I must say, it wasn't as good as I expected. The burger itself is not very juicy. My burger is not as original, instead of ketchup, cheddar and mayonnaise, mine comes with sour cream, guacamole and salsa. It was a little too much of that "southern" taste. The burger itself isn't very juicy, it's not dry but when you bite into it, you can't exactly taste the beef. The burger is huge though, so if you eat a lot, it should fill you up in no time.

It's not a must try but it doesn't hurt if you don't mind spending $80 bucks on a burger!



Eat Up!
Michelle

Noodles in a bag

Before I left home I made sure to say adios to Mong Kok. With shopping and crowds galore, Mong Kok is a pit stop for all tourists and locals alike. My destination was Mong Kok Centre, a mall formatted more like a market with tiny stores and stalls selling little trinkets, clothing, and accessories. Surprisingly my mission in this outing was not to shop. All my heart desired that day was a bag of noodles.

On the ground floor is a stall that provides the 'bag of noodle' service. Step one is to choose what type of noodles you want, then you proceed to choose 3 toppings to go with your noodles. Once selected, someone takes all the bags of what you've selected, combines them into one, mix

es in either garlic or spicy sauce, and you're good to go!

The best part of it is...this snack hardly puts a dent in your wallet!

Each bag of noodles, including toppings only costs $5!

man man sik,

Elyssa Yuen

Cantonese Hot Dog with Mayo

This is how I know I'm Canto through and through. I, Cheng Ting-Yan, like mayo on my hot dog. And you'll be a fan too, if you've tried the Cantonese hot dogs at Wing Lok Yuen Restaurant (永樂園) on Chiu Long Street (昭隆街) , Central. They are the self-acclaimed King of Double Sausage Hot Dogs (雙腸熱狗王). The need for double dogs because Canto weiners are teeny weeny. The 30-year-old restaurant uses the cheapest sausages that money can buy - the pinkish pork sausages that Hong Kongers love to cook at barbecues. The sausages are cooked with very little oil in the rolling pan, which doesn't burn the skin of the sausage and it keeps it heated, so it's still nice and warm when it's put inside the bun. The buns are also kept warm in an oven and are only taken out when a hot dog is ordered. The bun is different from American ones, because the crust of the bread is crisp.

Instead of adding relish, ketchup and mustard, Wing Lok Yuen has its own secret formula of a honey mustard mixed with mayo topping that makes it the best part of this Cantonese-style hot dog. The topping is sweet and sour, and leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth. It's a light lunch, perfect for this Indian summer. I've been feeling nauseous a lot this summer from being too full, so this lunch, which I gladly ate while strolling through Central with my brother was perfect. I don't think I could've survived on a hot dog for lunch in Syracuse, but my stomach's shrunk into the size of a walnut since coming back to Hong Kong. We Cantos have always known the delicate enjoyment of small portions anyway!

The lady pouring on a dollop of the famous honey mustard mayo! Yummers, teehee!
Bon voyage, and cheers to small portions!
Jenny Cheng

Literal Delight Express

Most Hong Kongers do not take advantage of crossing the border to Shen Zhen. Crossing over into China is a transition that most do not enjoy or appreciate...but who can blame them? The crowds, pushing, strange people trying to lure you to their store. It's a sight that I tried to avoid at all costs myself. This summer however, I figured out how much SZ offers and crossed over by MTR 5-6 times. Last summer I went once to get a winter coat made, and I was so pleased with the result that I couldn't wait to go back! This time around I got: 3 male dress shirts, a dress, shirt, pants, skirt, and a cheung sam made. Spending hours picking out material and attempting to communicate with my tailor who spoke no english, resulted in a famished group. I must explain first that I do not venture very far past the exit of the MTR. A few feet away is a huge mall. The very top floor holds a market that only sells material, and the surrounding stores outside of this market are numerous tailors. The floors below sell everything your heart desires. Back to being famished, the famous restaurant chain in Hong Kong called Loreal has a place right next to the huge material market. If you ask me that was absolutely genius. They have bilingual menus to attract tourists (and of course people like me) and the food they serve caters to the Hong Kong crowd. After eating here once I was hooked, and ended up eating here

every subsequent time I visited.

Like any place, I can't say that everything they serve is great. An example being, their siu long bao. Served in traditional bamboo baskets used for steaming, each individual dumpling was steamed in a mini aluminum cupcake holder. I thought it was adorable when it came out, and actually brilliant for people who aren't used to or capable of picking up their dumpling without bursting its insides. THEY WERE THE BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT EVER. The dumplings were completely stuck to their aluminum counterparts and there was slim to none soup.

Thankfully, the meal only got better! My favorite dish tried here consisted of seafood stir-fried in sweet and sour sauce. They infused this popular dish with the well known dim sum dish 'cheung fan.' So, there was a mixture of stir fried seafood, and fried chinese donuts stuffed with delicious shrimp!

Other side dishes we ordered were ma ma dei but this place is a must just for their sweet and sour seafood dish!

man man sik,

Elyssa Yuen

再見香港 zai jian xiang gang

As I prepare to leave home, it's only fitted that I blog about one of my favorite restaurants and cuisine of all time- Shanghainese by Crystal Jade. Now, I have never been to Shanghai and have therefore concluded that my palate has not been acquainted with true Shanghainese flavors, but that doesn't stop me from loving this huge chain restaurant across Hong Kong.

Of course, siu long bao 小籠包 is a must. To this day, I have never encountered a place that is capable of making these succulent dumplings with such thin skin whilst being able to hold in a mouthful of soup. Dishes ordered when I frequent this delightful haven are: Dam Dam Min 擔擔麵 (slightly spicy peanut sauce noodles), chicken and cucumber noodle salad served with a sesame oil & peanut butter sauce, and lou ba sou 蘿蔔酥 (shredded turnip fried in little dumplings). I also recommend their shrimp fried in ham dan 鹹蛋 (salty egg).

Words cannot express how much I will miss this place. If you're in Hong Kong and have never been to Crystal Jade, shame on you...

man man sik,

Elyssa Yuen

Childhood Snack: Pudding in a Bowl

Passengers, allow me to introduce you to my favorite childhood/teenagehood snack: Bowl Pudding （砵仔糕). Every time I see bowl pudding sold on the street, I always buy one, preferably with brown sugar (pictured above) because when they use white sugar, it tastes a bit sickeningly sweet. And always with red bean, because it gives it a contrasting texture with the smooth and... taut pudding, and yes, those two adjectives also describe a baby's bottom. Give me this instead of ice cream any day, and I'll be a happy camper.

The pudding is steamed and used to sell for HKD$3, the cheapest food item money could buy. The brown sugar bowl pudding is always sold out at the end of day, especially when students got off school at around 4pm. Perhaps due to its popularity but most likely to inflation, the bowl pudding is now sold for HKD$4. The pudding is scooped out of the ceramic bowl using the two bamboo sticks.

I lived in Chi Fu, a middle class residential area with a cutesy shopping mall. Nothing crazy, just your regular wet market, supermarket, hardware store, a few restaurants, all frequented by the same folks who live in the area. The shop that sells bowl pudding is at the wet market where they also sell curry fish balls, shrimp and pork dumplings, noodles and other Cantonese comfort foods. My cousin Gloria and I went to the same secondary school school, so we'd hop off the school bus and head over for after noon tea. Sometimes we'd go to McDonalds or Pizza Hut, but most of the time, I enjoyed bowl pudding or other non-chain store food. I tried bowl pudding at this place that claims to be the King of Bowl Puddings (砵仔王) which has chain stores all over HK, but it tasted so mass-produced, and it was over-steamed so the pudding was all mushy. Too bad these small, privately-owned eateries are slowly being gobbled up by boring, tasteless chain stores.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Sweet and Salty Sprite: an old school favorite

Here's a Delight Express fun fact: adding a dash of salt in a cake batter can enhance the sweetness. Us clever Hongkies took this idea and used it on refreshments. Sprite/7 Up with Salty Lime (咸檸七) is an old school favorite and can still be sold in Cantonese cafes (茶餐廳/冰室）. And I don't mean saltiness in a savory sense. It actually tastes even more refreshing than ordinary sprite with lemon. The lime, a specific type from Guangdong province in China, is pickled lightly to give it the salty zesty flavor. It complements the fizzy tanginess of sprite perfectly. I personally don't like overly sweet desserts, and always drink a cup of tea to wash out the taste. So I like that the salty lime makes the sprite less sweet, and it doesn't taste like someone just dropped in a tablespoon of salt. The flavors are delicately balanced. And don't compare it to seawater, it's nowhere near as extreme.

The saltiness is also good for replenishing fluids lost from sweating. Hong Kong is so dusty and sticky that one is constantly on a lookout for the perfect ice cold summer beverage. I met a Brazilian-Chinese girl the other day, and she told me Hong Kong is actually hotter than Brazil. Shocking, shocking, we're only sub-tropical! Imagine what it's like in Singapore, where it's right on the equator and a hot beverage is probably the most unpopular item in restaurants. Passengers, thankfully on Delight Express, we serve up four distinct seasons, giving you an equal dose of boiling point summers and brain freeze winters i.e. Syracuse, New York (where we station during the academic year). In Chinese, Syracuse (雪城）translates into Snow City. Look forward to our updates from Snow City arriving shortly later this month!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

there's food on lockhart road?!

Lockhart Road- The number one pit stop for marines when in Hong Kong. Associated with its vast selection of strip clubs and bars, Lockhart is the farthest thing from being 'family friendly.' This summer I had the pleasure of venturing to Wan Chai's most famous street every day for work. I interned for Time Out Magazine and as you can imagine, there were always interesting people to listen in on or to people watch. The most exciting part of my day however was my lunch hour with the interns. I met a group of awesome people, and each day we selected a new place to eat. On the day of my departure we decided to try a Thai restaurant right across our office (located between two strip clubs-duh). Given my extremely scatter brained nature, I completely forgot the name of the place, but I can tell you that you'll know it when you see it. The food resembled that of a home cooked meal, not mine of course, but the Thai intern Pariya claims it was quite legit. I would suggest ordering off the lunch menu. I ordered fish served in soy bean paste with rice, and all lunch meals come with a drink (the cold lemongrass water was delightfully herbal). The fish reminded me of a less oily light version of gerupa, and the sauce it sat in was awfully yummy-not as dense as it looks in the photo. After we finished eating, we were each presented with an extremely vibrant traditional coconut dessert (too vibrant if you ask me). I wasn't impressed, but it was fun to play with and take apart.

All in all, surprisingly good meal for the price of $45, and probably the most wholesome little spot on Lockhart Road.

man man sik,

Elyssa Yuen

Rice Rolls for Breakfast

Rise and shine, passengers! For breakfast today, you have two options: Chinese breakfast or a Western breakfast. The difference is a Chinese breakfast is only savory, and a Western breakfast can be sweet or savory. Think waffles, pancakes, sausages, eggs. A Chinese breakfast can be a glass of soya milk, congee, fried noodles with soya sauce, or glutinous rice rolls （粢飯）, pictured below.

The rice is glutinous so it's sticky, a bit like the rice in sushi. The filling is pork floss (豬肉松）, fried dough stick (油條）and pickled vegetables（榨菜). And I went to a famous place for it in Causway Bay on Jardine's Bazaar. It's a Shanghainese eatery on a small side street that has signs all over advertising their famous piping hot rice rolls. I was looking for something to eat for lunch that I could carry in my hand and eat while I walk, and a rice roll was perfect for the occasion. They make their rice rolls fresh at lunchtime and breakfast time, and it's so piping hot that I felt it was going to melt the cling film. The big pot behind the rice rolls is hot soya milk, I prefer it cold and sweetened in summertime.

Last summer on my way to work, I'd buy one at the corner shop and bring it to the office. I love the texture of the rice, it's not mushy or soft but chewy. The filling is only mildly salty and doesn't taste too overpowering for the morning. The one thing is, it's a little too filling for breakfast. It gives me food coma for the rest of the morning because it's literally one bowl of rice, and glutinous rice is usually more starchy and filling than regular rice. I've never seen rice rolls being made, so I stuck around and asked the two ladies if I could take some photos. They worked together, one rolled and the other wrapped cling film. Just like how you make sushi, you need strong hands to shape the rice.

If you're a curious epicurean interested in knowing how your food is made then you should visit this eatery. You can watch the two ladies roll and pack, before they nudge you for getting in the way of their business. The rice roll is HKD$11, a bit pricey since it's their top selling item, but if you go to other breakfast places you can get it for around HKD$8. That's only around USD$1, just imagine, a delicious USD$1 meal!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

agnès b, no longer just a clothing line

I am not a particular France fan; I don't know any French word except Bonjour and Jetaime, I don't favor goose liver so much and never tried those diets that made the French ladies all skinny. However, I do have some knowledge about the French clothing brand names. agnès b. is one of the more popular French clothing brand in Hong Kong. Apparently, this brand does not only make clothes, but also food. Le Pain Grillé was opened in the corner of Leighton Road in Causeway Bay a few years ago. I was surprised to see it standing there when it first opened up. I was wondering, "How could it possibly survive? Food should not be agnès b.'s expertise!" I was wrong, it still stands in the same corner with many people going in and out, praising it after eating.

I have decided to try it. My mom and I walked in and we were greeted very nicely by all the waiters and waitresses. The restaurant's decoration has this 70's Euro style. The floor tiles are beautiful, they are colored with red, yellow, white and green with a circular cross shape. It immediately transformed the whole atmosphere into a very old school cafe. On the right side, a dozen or more pastries sit in an opened glass fridge, waiting for people to enjoy them. They all look so delicious it makes you drool. They also have a mini bar, with many liquors on shelves and a few coffee machines sitting on the counter. The restaurant is not big, but the petite tables they use made it seem very spacious.

When we sat down, the waitress came to us and walked us through their lunch sets menu. They have appetizer with either a soup or salad, then main course with the choice of beef, chicken, fish or seafood and at last dessert with a cup of coffee or tea. The total price is around $200 HKD (excluding 10% charge and water charge if you drink water.) It is definitely an expensive restaurant comparing to the others since many lunch set costs at most $130 in the area. But we were still excited cause the menu was very attractive.



They served us bread before any food comes out. As you can see, the bread has agnès b.'s signature logo "b" on it. It's very creative and special. The bread smells fresh and was very warm. The butter melted right in the bread.





Both of us ordered salad because it sounded very tempting. It is green salad with chicken and herb patty. It uses vinegar as its dressing with balsamic sauce as a little flavor for the chicken and herb patty. It gives you this fresh and healthy after taste.






I had chicken. It comes with a very rich mushroom sauce. The chicken meat was very tender considered it was frozen chicken. There's potato and a little more green salad as side dishes.





My mom had the fish fillet. It was cooked with a buttery sauce, very smooth and creamy. The side dish mash potato was very good. It was cooked with other ingredients so that it wasn't too heavy with a potato taste.





Here is the hazelnut cake as one of the desserts. It was decorate very prettily with cherry sauce and chocolate sauce. The hazelnut taste is very distinct. There is little biscuit crusts around the cake, which takes a little of the strong hazelnut taste away.




This is milk chocolate moose with dark chocolate sauce. A very heavy chocolate tasting cake. The bottom of the cake is a crunchy biscuit, something to chew on. The cake was decorated nicely and it has a little card with the Eiffel Tower on it, representing Paris, France.


This restaurant is a place I definitely recommend. Although it may seem to be a little pricey, the food quality was worth it. I was not only impressed by the food but also very charmed by the restaurants' decorations and atmosphere. It felt like I was in Europe, somewhere in Paris. I think agnès b.'s goals of spreading the wearing and eating living styles of French have succeeded in Hong Kong. This restaurant's service was not bad as well, but I think it could be better. One thing I wasn't exactly fond of was that it charges us for water. I do not believe the place opens up almost 300 or 400 bottles of water everyday, it's probably just tab water refiled in the bottles. $50 HKD for a bottle of water is very expensive, almost a rip off. If you didn't want to spend that extra little money, you can wait for the coffee or tea after the meal. However, in general, I definitely recommend this place, especially for couples for just a little cute luncheon or a romantic dinner.

Eat Up!
Michelle

PS. Le Pain Grillé stands for "toasted bread." The Reason agnès b. named it Le Pain Grillé because bread is a daily food for every French!

Taste of Shanghai

This past Tuesday the interns at work and I decided to try this Shanghainese restaurant that's always packed during lunch hour. Apparently famous for their crab- a conclusion made from the newspaper and photo clippings in the stores window, this eatery is a great place to take a group of more than three. Taking in to account that we're meager interns, and that crab isn't in season, we opted to order some local cheaper delights. We ordered: fried tofu, siu long bao (of course), pan fried dumplings, noodles, chicken, and soup. My apologies for the pathetic translation, but that is a result of my pathetic chinese. The meal was delicious. Each dish was full of flavor, with nothing overpowering. The six of us left completely satisfied.

If you're looking for a quiet relaxing meal, this is not the location for you. We were seated with another party, sharing our table with about six strangers (some of whom were photographed in the background of the soup shot).

Conclusion: great food, authentic experience, clean enough, and each of us only shelled out around 50 hkd.

man man sik,

Elyssa Yuen

Bouncy Fishballs of Aberdeen

Aberdeen (香港仔）used to be a fishery so it's famous for fishballs. And the best place to eat fish ball noodles is Tse Kee (謝記山窿魚蛋) on Aberdeen Main Road (香港仔舊大街). Tse Kee used to be a hawker stall and set up tables on the street. It was next to a huge boulder that the kitchen was next to, and it made the eatery look like it was in a cave. The restaurant is run almost entirely by family. Tse Kee is also famous for their fish cakes (魚片), fried fish skin （炸魚皮), deep fried dumpling wrapped in fish skin (魚皮餃） The fish balls are famous for their bounciness. There is a myth that the best fish balls can bounce up and down on the table.


They have two types of fish balls, both pictured above. Fried is golden and not fried is gray. If you just buy fish balls or a block of fish cake, it's very expensive and can cost over HKD$100. I like to eat it with thin yellow noodles, but most people like to eat it with the thick white vermicelli. Tse Kee is also one of the last places left that still serve bottled cream soda (pictured up top). I think it tastes better than canned cream soda, not sure if this has been proven though so it's probably just psychological. Glass bottles are actually very environmentally-friendly because you can reuse it.

The bowl of noodles was around HKD$16 but I was sort of bored with what was in the bowl. No doubt it's of a higher quality, but nothing I can't find in the rest of Hong Kong. Passengers, if you ever find yourself craving noodles in Aberdeen, go for the less healthy but much more delicious options like the fish skin dumplings. It's deep-fried but guilty good.

Aberdeen is dear to my heart. My grandpa made a living making fish sauce in Aberdeen, and my mum went to primary school there. This was also a hang-out spot for many an afternoons during high school days. Aberdeen, which in Chinese means Little Hong Kong, is like a mini city that seems to have minimal Western influence, which is rare to find on Hong Kong island.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Green Summer Treats

Passengers on board Delight Express, I'm going to switch up the AC because the heat + humidity in Hong Kong is unearthly. Don't you think we feel we deserve more junk food in summer time? Somehow when you feel like you've sweated the equivalent of a swimming pool, you darn-right deserve a scoop of ice cream! I found here two ice-cold summer treats that are both healthy and refreshing.

At Prince Edward (太子) the other day, my best buddies Melanie, Janette and I were hustled into this brightly-lit dessert shop on the intersection of Sai Yeung Choi South Street (西洋菜南街) and Bute Street (弼街). On the way in, she saw a huge mountain of brown stuff that looks sort of doughy and immediately labelled it 'mud'. Little did she know, that fueled my curiosity to try it. It's actually a Taiwanese dessert and comes in many flavors. If you look below, I'll point out the flavors to you.

Brown: chocolate ('mud') / Yellow: mango / Black: sesame / White: Taro / Green: Green Tea / Beige: Durian


I ordered the green tea one just because the thin layers piled on top of each other looked so much like lettuce, it's quite beautiful in a strange way. Turns out, it's not dough at all but sheets of ice! Janette describes it as like drinking a smoothie, because it melts as soon as it's in your mouth. It costs HKD$25, a little bit pricey so share it with your significant other, like the next table did, or with a bunch of friends. The name of the dessert is cotton ice （棉冰）, I guess because it looks like a piece of scrunched-up fabric, I'll give the Taiwanese credit for creativity.

And to make it seem more like a drink in solid form, there were tapioca balls, sago and jellies right next to it. The ice was very refreshing, but a little cold on the teeth, and way too much for one person to finish, even though it's mostly just ice. The couple at the next table ordered the mango one and could barely finish it. It tastes a little bit like ice cream, but much healthier since there's no milk in it.

It's an interesting summer alternative to the usual summer treats, but I still think nothing can beat a classic scoop of vanilla ice cream.


Hong Kongers can be creative with food too. Tsui Wah (翠華) has a line of creative summer treats. They've paired mango slices with fried fish, but the kale with ice (冰鎮芥蘭）HKD20, is the most creative thing I've seen in awhile. You basically eat the kale like you'd eat sashimi, chill it first and then dip it in soya sauce and wasabi.

I prefer normal hot vegetables but definitely give this dish a try. The vegetables are kind of hard from being chilled, and the dash of wasabi is a fresh take on a traditional Chinese dish. It's great to see creative dishes, and if more people have curious appetites then food developers will be motivated to create it. So passengers, I'd encourage everyone to have an open mind and be brave, you'll discover a lot of pleasant surprises along the way!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng