Noodles-Dai Pai Dong 大排挡

For brunch yesterday we went to a dai pai dong, what's that? A street stall, the hygiene might be a bit below standard but that's where you normally find the most authentic food.
Another first for me. Fish Dumpling Noodle Soup with FRIED FISH SKIN. Doesn't sound that special but it is. The dumpling skin is made from fish meat and flour and inside the dumpling is pork meat (in this case pork meat and a crap load of MSG). Dip some crunchy fried fish skin into the soup, soooooo good. The fish skin isn't fishy, it's kinda like fish flavoured potato chips....kinda...

Apart from the msg, it was pretty decent. Filled me up to last me till dinner and a 3 hour bike ride.
So after lunch we hired 2 bikes from a nearby bike shop and grabbed my uncle's electric bike and went for a bike ride. Never thought bike riding in HK would be so nice. Riding alongside the river, lots to see, pretty flat bike path. Only one downside, we went during school holidays and a Saturday, sooo many people riding it was CRAZY. First time riding an electric bike, it's a semi foldable bike with tiny wheels, like the type of wheels you would find on a 4 yr old's bike. And there's a button you press when you want it to be electric and it just goes. Pretty cool. Also had a mango drumstick along the way, very refreshing after an hour or two of riding,
That night we went to my mum's cousins place for dinner and had dinner with a few of my mum's cousins and their families. Hot pot :) Sooo much seafood since my mum's cousins husband runs the fish shop at the market. Tried lots of new things, like the floating part/device thingo fishies have. Mum's side of the family loves fish/seafood because they're fishmongers. Dad's side love their cars/tranport and electronic stuff. I see where my passionate food and my petrolhead sides of me come from.

So what are your hobbies/passions?

Evil Noodles-Some random place in Mongkok

Worst noodles I've had since I've come back to HK.
Smoked Duck Breast with Noodles in a Hot and Sour Soup.

Looks good yeah? The smoked duck breast was definitely packaged. Tasted sooooo weird, like a smoked sausage with a layer of fat and duck skin. Super chewy clearish noodles that felt like chewing gum, not good for digestion. Deadly soup, doesn't look chilli right? I have no idea how much Szechuan pepper they put in but the chef must have been half asleep. I hate the numbing effect of Szechuan pepper,   it's lasts forever and ruins the taste of all other food you eat. Made my milk tea seem numbing.

So why were the noodles evil? Not because the soup was chilli, well not exactly. Evil because it made my stomach feel horrible for the rest of the day. It wasn't exactly a stomach ache but it wasn't a nice feeling. 8 hours later and I'm still not feeling too great.




Verdict? Hating those noodles!!!!!
Service: The waitress who served us sounded like someone from McDull (for those who know who that is =P) Some random waiter was swearing at another one.
Value: $23(AUD$3.40) so I guess pretty good value. But not worth the stomach ache.
Taste: Couldn't taste much thanks to the numbing.

Wonton Noodles-华姐清汤腩, Electric Road, Causeway Bay i think?

After spending 5 hours walking around an expo I was very tired and extremely bored. Parents decided to have dinner before heading home with 5 massive bags of things they had bought. We found a small noodle shop and decided to have a quick dinner. As I was walking through the door I saw many pictures of food celebrities who had eaten there.
1. Parents ordered their speciality dish, Beef Brisket with Rice Noodles in a Clear Soup (yes I made that name up, they don't have an English menu). Parents loved it, I guess it must have been like what they ate when they were kids.





2. Dougs noodles, I've forgotten what he ordered. But essentially its wonton noodles in a chilli soup. He said it was pretty good.

3. My wonton noodle soup. I had vegetable wontons which were pretty good. However my noodles seemed to be everlasting and I couldn't finish my noodles as I was half full before dinner thanks to being greedy and eating all the free tasting thingos at the expo. Ate too many instant noodle trials...but it was FREE XD.

That's the shop. If you go to HK you MUST go and have wonton noodles or something similar from a horrible looking noodle shop cos that's where they serve the best food. Looks pretty dirty and only for locals. Make sure you can read Chinese(or able to say what you want) as most places like this don't have an English menu and the waiter speaks limited English. But I'm sure a bit of pointing and English will be good enough to get what you want.

Shopping :)

Today I went shopping with some friends at Mongkok. But before shopping I had to fill myself up with lunch. We went to a small honkie cafe and I ordered a bowl of Chicken Wings with Noodles in Hot and Sour Soup. Not the usual hot and sour soup, it was a clear broth that looked like chicken stock but was sour and spicy. HK$24 (AUD$3.50) with a drink.

Shopped at Argle Centre for about 4-5 hours. Managed to buy 2 tshirts, a jumper, a jacket, socks and some snacks.
Was very hungry after shopping so we had dinner. RAMEN!!!! Ajisen ramen.....cheaper than Melbourne but taste is about the same. I had the sweetcorn ramen and it was sooooooo salty, so much msg it was crazy. At $40 a bowl it's decent. Noodles were nice though, the pork was small but fatty and there was a lot of other ingredients to mix with the noodles. The sweetcorn was a good addition and made the salty soup more tolerable. It also came with an egg but I don't eat hard boiled eggs so dad ate my one.

Vedict? If you have a choice, avoid Ajisen, they use a lot of msg but their ramen isn't too bad but there is DEFINITELY better ramen out there, just whether you can find it.

After dinner I wanted to go ice skating but people had ice hockey training so we couldn't ice skate. Just watched them train for a while, now I want to learn to play ice hockey. It incorporates two of my favourite sports, skating and hockey. I reallllllllyyyyy want to try it.

Eating Out: An An Viet Noodles, Station St Box Hill

My friends and I for some reason really like viet noodles. They have got to be up in the top 3 of my favourite noodle dishes. I spent the morning rollerblading, one of my hobbies, and i've gotten worse over the last couple of months thanks to lack of practice. After blading i had to go to school to pick up my yearbook, quite disappointed as there is a lack of Interact pics. Then I took the bus with twin to Box Hill (asian land :D) for lunch. Went to this new place called An An 大头虾. Why there? Cos it said $5.90 for a bowl of viet noodles :) So we ordered a small sliced "rare" beef noodles and Bún bò Huế (beef and pork noodle soup but its not like normal viet noodles, its a tad spicy and just different) I've always wanted to try this dish since i read about it in Pauline Nguyen's cookbook/autobiography Red Lantern. I love that cookbook. 

Small Viet noodle. Normally the beef slices are wafer thin and rare right? Well for some reason they were half a cm thick and cooked...not sure whether they gave us the wrong one or not. But it was quite good. Quite a bit of beef considering the amount of noodles. Not bad for $5.90

Sorry it looks half eaten but I didn't think of taking a picture until twin added everything in and was about to eat. There were 4 or 5 slices of pork (pork belly, that pork loaf stuff in viet rolls, and some other piece of meat that neither of us knew what it was) It came with round noodles not the normal flat rice one. The soup was just a tad spicy and a little sweet. But i loved it, it was delicious. 

Would i recommend it? Sure thing, especially bun bo hue, it is soo nice. But since i've never had it before i'm not actually sure whether its a good bun bo hue or a bad one...

One last thing, who likes adding the viet basil in their noodles? Friends had a debate over it. I don't mind it but if i had a choice i'd leave it out.