I am really like a child whenever I am back in Hong Kong. I was born here, and grew up here until I moved to the UK when I was 7 years old, so all my tastebuds are geared towards the things I used to snack on as a little kid. My poor friends have to put up with me as I eat the most unsophisticated things :)
First up, I really really wanted congee this morning when I woke up, but after the demise of Ho Ho Congee Shop on Des Voeux Road, it looks almost impossible to get a decent bowl before 11am in Central anymore. So I had to settle for a real childhood favourite - plain cheung fun (or rice noodle sticks I guess is the nearest translation) with sesame, soy, and sweet sauce, or what I affectionately call dok-dok cheung fun (because you are given a stick to poke or 'dok' it) - it took me a looooong time to find a place that does it in Central, but there is one on Lyndhurst Terrace:
This actually got me thinking about how onomatopaeic Cantonese is, and how childish it actually sounds. In an average day, as well as the dok-dok, you will also encounter doot-doot on the underground, can ride on a ding-ding, and if you live in my house, you fight over the gum-gum. I obviously need to get out more.
For lunch, I went to the place I went to most often when I lived here for 6 months in 2006/7, and it is very dear to my heart mainly as none of my friends really quite get why I'm so obsessed with it. 南記粉麵 (Nam Kee) on Stanley Street is a typical Hong Kong cafe serving noodles with dumplings, fish balls, beef balls etc., but specialises in what they call 春卷 or spring rolls, but are really the Chinese version of fish fingers. Laden with MSG, they are really addictive. Today, I had what my usual, a chilli broth with fish-skin dumplings (top left corner), spring rolls (top right corner), and beef brisket (the brown lumpy things), served with ho fun, Chinese chives, beanshoots, dried beancurd, and spicy minced pork - HEAVEN in a bowl, and all for less than 3 quid:
And if you think the stuff above is weird enough, I would stop reading now!! I suggested to Edwin that we go to 九記牛腩 (Kau Kee Beef Brisket), which is the place I have repeatedly dreamt about for dinner tonight, and he actually (somewhat blasphemously) suggested there was somewhere better for beef brisket in Wan Chai!!! So I couldn't resist the challenge.Similar to Kau Kee, this place was tucked away on a side street off Wan Chai Road. I will probably never find it again, but I did cleverly take a picture of the name in case my dad wants to go sometime:
The menu is pretty similar to Kau Kee's, specialising in beef brisket in clear soup, or beef brisket in curry, but it is a bit more extensive in offering some other beef bits and bobs. First up was the curry - I've never had the curry at Kau Kee's actually, mainly as I have normally already scoffed 2 bowls of the clear soup to fit anything in, but this version has encouraged me to branch out. Only criticism was that the brisket was a bit on the fatty side, with large lumps of yellow fat that I had to pick off - and you know how much I like my fat! 
For the clear soup, we actually had beef brisket as well as honeycomb tripe, or 金銀肚, which easily became my favourite thing I ate today. I love love love tripe, it is by far my favourite dim sum dish, and this was just a revelation! People say that Chinese food is all about the texture, and this is just the perfect example. The outside is nice and soft, but once you bite in, there is just a little bit of chewy give. More please!
Of course, whether this is better than Kau Kee really is still up for questioning. Good job I'm going there tomorrow to revisit how good it is then!!! :D
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