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

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

Beijing Style Cold Noodles

The Beijing Wong Fu Dumpling Restaurant (北京王府水餃) at 98-102 Wellington Street in Central is one of the most famous places in Hong Kong to have Beijing style dumplings, which are freshly made with absolutely delicious fillings. My favorite is the cabbage and pork filling. They have a Dumpling Of The Day which are sold at a slightly lower price and I would definitely recommend ordering that because it probably means it's cheaper, and you can't go wrong with any options at the famous Wong Fu. The restaurant is frequented by people working in Central who want to eat quickly and go back to work, so this isn't really a place to sit and chit chat for hours on end. One of their lesser-known dishes is their Beef and Tomato Cold Noodles (below).


Now I've tried Japanese soba, which are cold buckwheat noodles served with ice underneath and eaten by dipping it in soya sauce. Cold noodles was very appealing at the time because of the sweltering heat in Hong Kong, but eating cold beef was a bit of a surprise, pleasant at first but slowly became a bit nauseating. The other option was replacing the beef with egg, but eating cold egg didn't seem that appetizing either.

Nonetheless, the first few bites were very refreshing since the restaurant is a bit hot and crowded. But the noodles were completely drenched in oil so I was full very quickly. Now this is when a tall glass of cold soya milk comes in. Boy, the soya milk washed down all the oil and grease like no other, but the oil still sat in my stomach and made me antsy to run 10 laps to feel normal again. So passengers take note, the noodles are worth trying but share it with 2 people or more. And don't forget to order a glass of cold soya milk and a big generous plate of dumplings. Make sure you dip the dumplings in the dark vinegar, not soya sauce! Expect to pay around HKD40 to 50 for lunch per person.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Katong Laksa in Sheung Wan

Last summer while interning in Sheung Wan, I explored the area every lunch hour trying to discover some hidden gems. Little did I know that the restaurants I "discovered" are already very renowned. One of which is Katong Laksa on Mercer Street, where even my favorite Canto actor Tony Leung has been seen slurping away a bowl of laksa. The entrance of the restaurant has newspaper clippings of all the raving reviews and pictures of celebrities who have visited. I came here yesterday with Anita (that's her in the photo!), who interns in Sheung Wan right now. Anita speaks with a jumbled-up accent from living in so many places, which somehow to me sounds very Singaporean, so it seemed appropriate to bring her to a South Asian restaurant.

I've been here three times already, and each time I couldn't finish the entire bowl. What I love most about laksa is the soup, the heavy coconut milk flavour in the mildly spicy soup. I also adore the tofu puffs that soak up all the soup. I'm not really a fan of the seafood in the noodles because it tastes a bit soggy.

The restaurant decor is very tropical with its orange walls that fit very nicely with the orange-colored soup. It's easy to imagine oneself in Malaysia in the moment. In Singapore, I was a huge fan of barley water, which is a ice-cold sweet drink that's supposed to lower the heat inside you. I'm never free of cankersores in my mouth, which I heard is from too much heat, so hopefully this drink will help. The table next to Anita and I ordered barley water right after us too! Toast Box, another Malaysian eatery also serves barley water too. Anita finished more of the laksa than I did, so props to her! It's not something I'd want to eat daily, and I certainly frequented the Chinese noodle shop next door much more often last summer. But the Hong Kong heat is unbearable, so why not imagine yourself in a tropical country? Hong Kong is 'sub-tropical' which totally should not count. The cheapest bowl of laksa is HKD40.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng