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

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

Calling all Americans, Chinese, and ABC's

This past week us Americans celebrated July 4th.

Hong Kongers celebrated the turnover.

And as an added bonus, it was also the 30th anniversary of Chinese-U.S. relations.

To celebrate these events, my family took the train to Guang Zhou (a nightmare to anybody who had the luxury of growing up in Hong Kong) and stayed at an ecological resort called Chong Mine. I will most probably never learn to appreciate mainland China as much as I should, but Chong Mine surprisingly has tons to offer. Connected to the resort is (as standing) the number one water park in the world, a zoo that includes a safari, an amusement park, and a circus (with such lax safety regulations) that would never be permitted in a first world nation.

In celebration of July 4th, the U.S. Consulate in Guang Zhou

hosted a standing picnic at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. The concept was genius, and one you'd never expect to be pulled off or be found in the mainland. There were no tables or chairs, forcing guests to mix and

mingle, or at least bop to some American classics being played in the background. Around the perimeter of the room were a variety of food stations guests could pick from. There was: a NY styled cold cut meats station, a hot dog stand, buffalo wings, a dessert table, and a make your own ice cream sundae table. There was also servers serving hamburgers off of wooden trays.

I went straight to the hot dogs. Living in Asia, the closest exposure to a real hot dog was the hot dogs sold at Ikea. As seen, these hot dogs were cooked in a large rice cooker which I found overly amusing, and resulted in them being a tad overcooked, but the choices of toppings made up for the slightly chewy dog. I topped mine with chili, cheddar, and there was actually a hot dog relish made with mustard that added an extra kick.

I always look forward to desserts at these functions. I pretty much sampled everything except the cheesecake (because i hate it), and was utterly disappointed. The apple pie was however, the best I have ever had in Asia, and the cherry was decent enough to be noted. The cookies were dry and tasteless, but the brownies had a fudgy texture that was interesting enough to eat. Overall these desserts confirmed the notion that Chinese people should stick to traditional treats, but I appreciated the effort.

The experience of this event was more worth while than the actual eating, but then again, what would food be without its presentation?

man man sik,

Elyssa Yuen

Chinese Mango Dessert

mango dessert
Tin Hau's a little underrated. It has some of the best restaurants on Hong Kong island waiting to be explored, if you're willing to venture out of the usual Causeway Bay-Wanchai-Central.

I visited 甜姨姨私房甜品 (Auntie Sweet Desserts) on 13 Tsing Fung Street, Tin Hau yesterday with an Indian friend who adores mangoes, (Indian mangoes are delectable, he says) to have some desserts. Now this place is famous for their 阿旺芒果凍湯丸 (Chilled Mango Dumplings), pictured below. If you've ever tried the regular Chinese 湯丸 tang yuan dumplings that have sesame paste or peanut paste wrapped around with dough served hot in boiling soup; then this is exactly what it is, except the filling is egg yolk and mango and served cold, it's a fresh take on a dessert with age-old traditions. Now, it's worth a try but share it with a few people. The dumplings were acceptable, the dough was soggy and the filling wasn't anything spectacular. The mango soup was too thick and overwhelming, it might as well have been a mango smoothie and not in a pleasant way. The only good part was the tropical fruits laden in the soup that had a nice chewy texture.

The dumplings were made famous from TVB drama 阿旺新傳 (Life Made Simple). Now, the way 湯丸 dumplings is pronounced in Mandarin sounds a lot like 團圓 meaning reunion. So 湯丸 dumplings are often eaten during Chinese New Year when the whole family has dinner together, so this dessert has a very sweet tradition. And in the drama, 阿旺 (Ah Wong) is a mentally handicapped guy who makes these chilled mango dumplings he calls 老婆湯丸 (wifey dumplings)，because every dumpling is made out of love for his favorite lady. It's a very, very sweet (no pun intended) drama, one of the most successful that TVB ever made. And the guy who owns Auntie Sweet Dessert used to work at TVB, so his dessert shop is famous now thanks to that connection. The first time I went there a few years ago, right at the peak of the show's fame, the shop was a tiny place that had to set tables and chairs onto the pavement. Now, they've moved to a new location and to bank more on their famous mango dumplings, the tiles on the floor and wall are mango yellow. I took a picture to see just how similar the color of the tiles are to the mangoes, and it's almost exactly the same. And if you notice, even the spoon is yellow!

The chilled mango dumplings in mango soup is HKD$25, but remember to share it with a few people!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Asian Fusion Desserts

In high school, I took a Food Technology class for 2 years where I developed a Chinese fusion cheesecake using sago (西米) to give it a chewy texture, sort of like the tapioca in bubble tea. I find it easy to turn down a sickeningly sweet chocolate mousse after dinner, but when it's a Chinese dessert, you'll have to pry me away from it. In Vancouver one time after I'd put on the freshman 15, my dad said I should lay off my favorite purple rice sago coconut milk soup (椰汁紫米露) because I was a bit blubbery and he had to wrench it off me screaming and kicking. I love it quite literally like a fat kid loves cake.

I don't see a lot of Chinese Western fusion desserts, and am always appreciative when I see it attempted. At the Starbucks in Hong Kong, they sell slices of Green Tea Tofu Cheesecake (pictured below) for HKD$27 (USD$4). The tofu isn't even churned in, you can see an entire cube of tofu lodged right at the bottom yellow layer of mousse. Spot the bean curd!















I tried it for the first time last summer, and I found the taste of tofu too overwhelming. This time around, the green tea cheesecake layer tasted more dominant and the tofu complemented the green tea perfectly in texture and taste. I'd brought it home so my parents ate it while sipping hot Chinese tea, which balanced the sweetness of the cake. The green tea is probably made from matcha (green tea powder), which is used to give the grassy green colour and it's flavor. Anyway, I thought this green tea tofu cake would only be a temporary item at Starbucks, but it's already been there for a year. My mum said that in the fashion industry, when a garment is so popular that it's sold at all times of the year, it's called an 'ongoing' product. And I'm sure this green tea tofu cake must have been received very well to have become 'ongoing.'

I went for dim sum in Tin Shui Wai where they served a pumpkin sago soup (pictured below) for dessert costing HKD$5 (USD$0.60) Now, pumpkins are a very Western ingredient and not used often in Chinese cooking, so to see pumpkin in a Chinese dessert counts as fusion. Fun attempt, and the pumpkin's sunny orange color is so refreshing, but the pumpkin tastes a bit awkward with the coconut milk. I prefer the original with purple rice, after all, classics are classics for a reason.


Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Pet Cakes from Arome Bakery

Arome Bakery (東海堂) released a line of adorable animal mousse cakes this summer, each one selling for HKD15, pretty pricey for a small piece of cake. And to be honest, it was more for the amusement than for the taste. My family didn't know how to put the fork down, on it's face? Eat the chocolate ear first? Eating a mousse cake never felt so morbid.

Inside the mousse is fruit and a small piece of yellow sponge cake. Honestly, it tastes so generic. My friend Shelley's display picture on her iPhone is the picture of the piggly wiggly because she says it reminds her of her significant other. Maybe this cake would be good for special occasions like V Day or an anniversary, where funny-looking food can be appreciated in a crowd. My brother had too much fun eating his doggy's face, and my dad had way too much fun putting the fork into the pig's face and jiggling the mousse around. My mum chose to eat her bunny's ears first, leaving it looking like a bald sorry bunny. I just tried not to imagine I wasn't eating an animal staring straight at me.

Maybe once in a blue moon I'd want to eat something so amusing in appearance. Otherwise I'd warn all passengers to beware and stay away!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Homemade Lemon Squares

Welcome aboard, let me introduce you to our first dish!

So last week, I made lemon squares at home. The first time was a disaster because the cake tin I used was too wide so when I poured the mixture in, the squares turned out to be only about 3cm thick. The second time was a huge success, hooray! I used a quarter cup of lemon juice, and the squares weren't sour at all. Squeezing the lemon juice was a bit hard on the hands without a juice squeezer, but it tastes so much more real and fresh than lemon juice straight out of a bottle. The surface of the squares don't look that appealing from the burnt sugar, so sprinkle on a heap of icing sugar until it's covered like snow. Click here for a Betty Crocker Luscious Lemon Squares recipe.


Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng