Back to Hong Kong: eating for under £3

Yes, I have made my triumphant return to Hong Kong! I never really planned on coming back here to live, to be absolutely honest, but when my boss offered me an unbelievable job, I didn't have much of a choice. I've been back for a few days now, and remain very excited about being back so far, mainly because I still haven't quite moved into my lovely flat in Pok Fu Lam yet.

I have been spending a bucket of money so far, so thank goodness that I'm rediscovering how cheap it can be to eat out. Today I finished all my stuff in town relatively early, and the thought did cross my mind to go home and cook. But then I figured that it would not only be less hassle, but a lot cheaper, to actually eat out. That is rather depressing actually. All of the meals below cost me less than £3 or HK$36. I bought a tub of Greek yoghurt the other day, which went over this threshold :(

Cafe de Coral is the McDonald's of Hong Kong, cooking a huge variety of Cantonese classics. The food is pretty meh, specialising in being cheap and quick rather than culinary, but one dish has captured my heart, their 一哥焗豬排飯, or 'big brother's baked pork chop rice'. This is very typical of the Cantonese dishes which try to be slightly Westernised, and is sometimes accompanied by creamy chicken with sweetcorn. For a mere $31, how on earth do they make that pork chop so soft? Dave loves his so much that he has left time at Hong Kong airport to make sure he can have a last portion before he flies back to London. Note the token broccoli to try and counter the million calories:

The other classic I have already found myself eating is 南記, which has the honour of being on my list of favourite Hong Kong restaurants. Sophisticated cooking it ain't, but I adore their hot and sour soup noodle, served with their signature fish sticks 春卷 and fish skin dumplings 魚皮餃, yours for a mere $27 (they put their prices up!):

Believe it or not, I have made myself try some new things rather than going back to all my old haunts. After yoga class today, I really fancied some congee, but stumbled across this place when I was walking around Causeway Bay. There was a long queue outside, so I'm not sure how good this place is supposed to be, but who can argue with a two course meal plus drink for $28? First course was Taiwanese soup noodles with pig intestines and oysters (yes, squeamish beings should look away now), served with some too-sweet soy milk:

This was accompanied by fried dumplings with chives, wrapped in a funny way to maximise the ease of cooking. Not the best dumplings I've ever eaten, but the wrappers were very thin, a little factory-made tasting. The best thing about the place was that they kept spelling dumplings as 'dumpings'. Don't come here after you're feeling a bit emotionally vulnerable!

On the other end of the scale, I heard that a new coffee shop in Central that had a roaster in the actual shop itself, so off I went to Holly Brown on Stanley Street to try and find a decent cup of coffee (yes, I succumbed to Starbuck's the second day I was here when I was dying of jetlag, and it took me 20 minutes to find one!!).

There is indeed a roaster inside the cafe, which also specialises in gelato, which seems to be the thing that is pulling in the crowds rather than the coffee. Some Italian dude called Domenico was doing lots of fiddling about with the roaster, but I'm not really sure why. Only espresso based drinks are offered, although they do also do the more unusual flat whites, marocchinos, but even though a variety of different beans are on offer to buy, only the 'house blend' is offered. So no interesting drip filters, no cafetieres, I'm guessing the 'simple coffee' movement that is so hip in Soho London hasn't quite hit Soho Hong Kong.

Whilst I was happy to see a flat white on the menu, I did choke at the idea of paying $34 for a small one. Even more alarming was the fact that the two gentlemen in front of me ordered a cappuccino and a latte, and the dude made all three drinks at the same time. There was absolutely no notable difference between the three! So as a result, my flat white had a little too much milk, and I have no idea why they serve it with a little blue straw?!: