甜蜜蜜甜品專門店 Happy Together Delicatessen

尖沙咀厚福街5-6號地下2號舖
5-6 Hau Fook St.
MTR: Tsim Sha Tsui
East Rail Line: Tsim Sha Tsui East
ph: 2311-6078



Its English name is a reference to the memorable Hong Kong film Happy Together - directed by art house favorite Wong Kar-wai, featuring Leslie Cheung and Tony Leung in a story set in Argentina about the turbulent romance between two Hong Kong men. Unfortunately you won't find anything here remotely related to the film (which I'd strongly recommend to anyone interested in Hong Kong cinema). But you will find some great desserts including some tasteful creative spin-offs. For now I'll present to you my two favorite dishes here.

心太軟 (Baked chocolate pudding with ice cream)
This is the second thing I've blogged about on Tung Choi St. that's received an orgasmic reaction. After waiting the 15 minutes required to bake, my brother took one bite from the chocolate and gave out a "woahhh-hoahhh!" loud enough that it turned curious heads from several tables. 心太軟 sam taai yun literaly translates as "the heart is too soft," an accurate description of what's to happen when you take a bite of this sensuously warm chocolate-lover's dream. The outer baked layer is a crispy chocolate crust that is the perfect companion to the soft vanilla ice-cream, and the chocolate pudding that oozes out from the pastry goes well with the fresh strawberry slices and whipped-cream they give in artistic preparation on the side, and the chocolate cookie-stick completes the aesthetic for a simply irresistible dessert I'd recommend to chocolate-lovers and not-chocolate-lovers alike.

焗蘓皮豆腐花 (baked crust tofu pudding)
A spin-off of the traditional tofu pudding dessert (dauh fuh fa)- which tastes smooth, sweet, and healthy - this dish goes a long way, and in the right direction, by adding chocolate and baking a crispy yet not overly flaky thin crust on top. The result is a dessert experience with added layers of texture - a satisfying innovation to an old dessert, making for my second favorite Happy Together dessert.

(further dishes to come)

澳洲牛奶公司 Australia Dairy Company

About one month ago I got an email forward regarding an amazing egg sandwich made by a restaurant by the name of Australia Dairy Company. I followed the link which brought me to a review of the restaurant, featuring this picture:

photo is courtesy tastytreats

The eggs looked so fluffy, so moist, so perfect. The email forwarder only lamented that she wasn't closer to Hong Kong, and so relegated herself to drooling on her keyboard until the day she'd get that chance.

As for myself, the artistry showcased at tastytreats was so tastefully blogged (pun intended), that it inspired me to start up my own food blog; and so I dug out the dusty SLR camera from the back corner of my closet and began bringing it wherever my tastebuds went. Thus Tung Choi St. was born. These famous scrambled eggs at Australia Dairy Company (which by the way has a facebook group of 6,220 members dedicated to it!) was a food I knew I had to hit up eventually, in honor of the food and the blog that inspired Tung Choi St. My culinary experience at Australia Dairy Company lived up to the significance of my visit...

The place was packed!

As is customary in Hong Kong, we had to share our table with others. Not a single seat in the restaurant was unoccupied. Waiters ran around frantically as people without seats stood in between tables. But service was quick, and efficient, as is typical in Hong Kong.

For starters, my friend and I had this staple cha chaan teng option:

牛肉通粉 beef macaroni soup

Compared to most macaroni soups in Hong Kong, this one tops the list for best flavored soup, which supports perfectly the soft macaroni and tasty beef strips.

Then came the egg sandwich...(my photo didn't come out as attractively as tastytreats'). My friend had the honors of having the first bite, and immediately her reaction was an orgasmic "woahhh-hoahhh!" Creamy, softly seasoned with the perfect amount of salt, and perhaps secret ingredients, combined with care and perhaps a secret process we'll never know of, between two of the softest slices of bread you'll ever eat, truly a treat.

With killer eggs like these, think of all the traditional dishes you could spruce up!

公司三文治 Club Sandwich
Expats are seldom impressed with club sandwiches in Hong Kong because they're not as hearty and crispy as they're made in the US (where's the bacon?!), plus they typically put eggs in them? Sounds weird to most foreigners. But it's more than excusable with these eggs. I wouldn't even have recognized this as a club sandwich if they didn't name it so, but it's downright good. Served in between three layers of toasted bread are the magical eggs as well as ham, cheese, pickles, and an interesting and tasty tomato and pork combination.



佐敦白加士街47號地下
47 Parkes St. Jordan
MTR: Jordan Station







Recurring Glossary Term:
cha chaan teng: lit. "tea meal hall" ie. a Chinese diner

內港餐廳 O Porto Interior Restaurante

澳門河邊新街259號B地下
259B Rua do Almirante Sergio, Macau
Bus from ferry terminal: 10A
Get off at A-Ma temple (媽閣廟)


According to my friend doing his master's thesis in Macau, a Portuguese restaurant by the name of Alorcha is not only the best Portuguese restaurant in Macau, it's the best restaurant period...but not just in Macau, but all of Asia. Intrigued by the audacity of such a claim (even if it was an obvious exaggeration), and given the additional necessity of having to renew my tourist visa, I made a day trip with my parents starting with a 1-hour boat ride from the China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui ($133 HK one way). At the information center at Macau's Ferry Terminal, the employee noticed my notepad and said "the number you have written for Alorcha is incomplete," and he wrote in the remaining numbers from memory. "But it's Tuesday today. It's closed."

"Closed?!" I asked, in shock, and in that instance my hopes in eating at the "best restaurant in Asia" poofed and disappeared.

But apparently Alorcha is one of three Portuguese restaurants in that same A-Ma Temple area that are famous. Litoral Restaurante (海港餐廳) was closed for renovations, leaving O Porto Interior as the only remaining choice. But O Porto Interior is by no means a leftover choice. In fact, it was the best Portuguese food I've ever had...and this is coming from myself, who grew up in a town of plentiful Portuguese immigrants (Ludlow, MA). My parents (who've lived in Ludlow longer than I) agreed with me.

葡式炒少蜆 A Meijoas a Bulhao Pato ouem Feijao de Soja
These clams came to us bathing in a wine sauce with several whole cloves of succulent garlic. Even after the clams were gone, my parents and I continued to drink the garlic wine sauce as if it were soup, 'til the last drop was gone! A delicious must-order at this restaurant.

(葡式海鮮飯) Arroz de Marisco / Seafood Rice Portuguese Style
We ordered this dish (actually the other two as well) because this is a common dish we get in Ludlow Portuguese restaurants. And the reason we loved this restaurant is because the dishes are authentic, like this one, but they're not overly salty like the dishes in Ludlow can be. Perfect.

砵酒燴牛尾 Rabo de boi Perfumado com Porto / Oxtail perfument by Port Wine
This dish was packed with a great combination of flavors. Eaten with white rice it's a hearty combination of carrots, potatoes, and Oxtail in a savory wholesome sauce. Also a must-order.

But if what you really want is a melt-in-your mouth culinary experience, it's the next two desserts that will blow your mind away. Going down the desert list, my father and I picked whatever sounded more Portuguese to us, or basically more foreign to us.

葡式焗蘋果 Maca Assada Stewed Apple
This stewed and baked apple looks quite special, especially before it's cut. It has a sweet and soft taste, with a hint of wine.

白雪金沙 Serradura Cream and Biscuits Portuguese Style (aka "Sawdust Pudding")
My mouth waters the most as I recount this dessert experience. The cream is a vanilla-y sensuous texture of ice cream (just not as cold), while the crushed biscuit is of the most fine consistency I've ever tasted. I like the Chinese name given to this, which literally translates as "white snow gold sand." It is definitely as simple but aesthetically pleasing as the Chinese name implies.

澳門新馬路福隆新街 Rua Felcidade - Almond Cookies

A former Portuguese colony, Macau is a rapidly changing society. The new casinos popping up every year are drawing lots of Mainland tourists, as well as boatloads of Hong Kong tourists - good for the economy they say, but seriously compromising the community fabric of Macau with a burgeoning sex trade as well as bad news for small businesses that are just trying to survive in what used to be lively areas. So if you get a chance to come to Macau, do check out the smaller shops. Not only do they have a lot of personality and character to them, but they make some tasty treats and cheap gifts!

This quiet street, Rua Felcidade, has a bit of an old Chinese architectural feel to it, especially with the old wooden second-floor facades of the shops painted in auspicious red. My parents and I found it just a couple blocks from Senado Square, as I was trying to help my mom look for Koi Kei 鉅記, a Hong Kong household name for the famous company of almond cookies.

Rua Felcidade had several little mom and pop shops [like this dessert shop that I didn't get to try :-(] which are actually humble family's homes - they reside on the second floor and open up shop on the first floor, where they are their own bosses and their workers.

And since almond cookies are the necessary gift Hong Kongers must bring back whenever they've made a trip to Macau...

Fresh out of the oven! This sample tray was available at a mom and pop almond cookie shop.


I even saw them making the cookies right there!

One pop of a sample cookie brought my dad down nostalgia lane, claiming "this is how I remember almond cookies tasting like from Guangzhou when I was a kid." These bite-sized cookies are packed with flavor, but not over-powering, and they hold their texture much stronger than the almond cookies they had over at Koi Kei (Koi Kei was the obvious choice for my mom though, "duh, it's Koi Kei!"), but Koi Kei's had less flavor, and was too crumbly. Nonetheless, Koi Kei was packed:



Talking to the older lady over at the mom and pop shop I could easily detect her bitterness. "Koi Kei? I remember them when they were just a tiny little street stall. They've only got their success now because they know how to advertise," she said. Two other ladies were making the cookies in the shop, while a table of men played cards in the back of the room. Later I would see them all gather around a foldable round table in the center of their shop for dinner, as the sun set outside and the road darkened. "Koi Kei's stuff isn't even hand-made, they make 'em in factories up in China...how good could their cookies be? Ours are all hand made, right here."

My pick? The mom and pop shop, hands down. It has no English name, and the guy gave me an opened cookie wrapper with the address on it when I asked for a card. But who cares if their marketing is no good. What matters is that the cookies taste good! And look at what a convenient arrangement their packaging is! Four types of flavors spiraled inside a plastic canister. They're so convenient that I can eat it while blogging on my MacBook!



成興餅家
澳門福隆新街65號A地下
sihng hing beng ga
65 Rua Felcidade shop A
R/C Macau




澳門新馬路福隆新街
70-72號地下
Koi Kei
Rua Felcidade 70-72
R/C Macau
Near Senado Square (議事亭前地)

天澄閣 Crystal Harbour Restaurant

九龍 紅磡灣 紅樂道 12號
海韻軒酒店 3樓
3/F, Harbourview Horizon All-suite Hotel,
12 Hung Lok Road, Hunghom Bay, Kowloon
East Rail Line: Hung Hom Station

View Larger Map

Aside from the fact that Crystal Harbour Restaurant is a misnomer in more ways than one, (there's no view of the harbor, which isn't very crystal-like anyway!) this place redeems itself by being the best place I've been for yam cha (pronounced "yum cha") in Hong Kong, in terms of having the most aesthetically pleasant dim sum, and the most perfect balance of great taste and subtle detail, making for awesome dim sum plain and simple. There is a price to pay for this, however, and that's the wait. Each little container of Dim Sum takes excruciatingly long to come out from the kitchen, so be prepared to have no food on your table for intervals of several minutes. But I'm not hesitating to say that it's worth the wait! Slow and relaxed is how yam cha was intended to be anyways.

(note: English names of dishes are my own approximate translations)


龍太子御飯 "Imperial Dragon Prince Rice" (Lobster Congee)
Boasting a lot more texture than your typical porridge-y Hong Kong Congee, the bits of Lobster add flavor and colorful aesthetic to an otherwise un-aesthetic dish.


灌湯餃 (Dumpling in broth)
This is a common dish in Hong Kong - a huge dumpling basking in broth. When you proceed to take bites from the dumpling, the flavorful stuffing swims out into the broth making for a tasty mixture. Yum =)


蝦交 ha gaau shrimp dumplings
This is your classic shrimp dumpling, or ha gaau for those in the know. But check out how pristinely crystal clear the skin of this shrimp dumpling is! Beautiful. And tastes good too!


大蝦沙律卷 Shrimp Salad Roles
This is an innovation, and interestingly labeled sai sik. The outside is super-thin and crispy, holding in the subtly sweet, and subtly salty inside. Hard to describe, but tastefully interesting in a good way.


綠茶奶皇卷 Green Tea Milk Custard Roles
Wrapped in a green tea mochi is a creamy custard. The taste, unfortunately, was a bit bland, but aesthetically it's pleasing to the eyes, no?


紫米露 Sweet Purple Rice Dessert
A common traditional Chinese dessert, which for some reason I've never seen in Boston Chinatown, it's difficult to describe - sweet and warm, while the purple rice adds a soft yet strong texture.

New glossary terms:
yam cha: ('yam' pronounced 'yum') lit. "drink tea"; a morning/lunch time social event revolving around dim sum and tea; this is an event in itself more than just the great food, which is to be slowly and appreciatively savored in between sips of Chinese tea. Sometimes it may include seeing relatives you don't often get to see, but always involves pondering what role you are to play in the ensuing fight over the check, and how underhanded you're willing to get for it. With all these distractions, how's a food appreciator to whip out the DSLR and snap pictures of all the artistic and savory Dim Sums?

Recurring glossary terms:
sai sik: Western style

恆香 Hang Heung

新界 元郎 大馬路
64-66號
No. 64-66 Main Road
Yuen Long, NT
West Rail Line: Yuen Long Station


Yuen Long, a district in the northwest corner of the New Territories, is surrounded by farmland and unused fields of vegetation where high-rises don't loom as tall as they do on Hong Kong island, or even Kowloon. Making a trip here? You'd better bring back some "wife cakes" for family and friends! Hang Heung (meaning perpetually fragrant) claims the title to selling these infamous pastries known in Cantonese as lou po beng. Made of winter melon and almond paste, they are flaky and fragrant on the outside, soft and sweet on the inside, and most simply put, a delicious snack :)


wife cake

One red little box contains six of these romantically inspired (as the name implies) pastries. Mine was still piping hot when I bought it :)


So many pastries to choose from!

New glossary terms:
lou po: wife
beng: 1. cake 2.cookie

巴黎咖啡店 Paris Cafe

九龍 油麻地 眾坊街
59 號 C 地鋪
59C Public Square Street
Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon
MTR Station: Yau Ma Tei


The Paris Cafe is a small cozy cha chaan teng in the heart of the eccentric and lively Yau Ma Tei. Usually I stop in here for breakfast on Sundays before church, so you can say I'm somewhat of a regular. Probably a 50/50 split between Western and Chinese inspiration, Hong Kongers call the type of food available at Paris Cafe sai sik "Western style," while I personally (and objectively) think of these as quintessentially Hong Kong. So there's nothing terribly original or unique at Paris Cafe, but you can't go wrong with the food here, and the atmosphere is among the more comfortable and homey I've found in Hong Kong.

火腿湯意粉＋炒蛋＋厚多士 Soup Noodle + Eggs and Toast

The noodle soup bowl was good, light enough for folks like me who can't stomach drippingly greasy foods to break fast in the morning. Plus, the soup has a subtle yet tasty chicken-y flavor, while the strips of ham and the green and orange of the peas and carrots give it a simple yet nice aesthetic touch. It also came with eggs and toast; a filling, just-enough, type of breakfast for me.

司華力腸＋窩夫夾餅 Cervelat Sausages and Waffle

This, on the other hand, might seem like an odd combination, but it wasn't bad. The sausages were like the kielbasas I'm used to from the States, and the waffle was crispy on the outside, warm and gooey on the inside :). Only problem with this breakfast set is that it's not nearly as filling as the other one, even though it's more expensive.

Both sets came with drinks. I got hot Ovaltine, one of the standard cha chaan teng options in Hong Kong.

Paris Cafe is an overall good local Hong Kong experience for travellers, but probably not for tourists. The "Parisisian" deco might come off a bit Cheesy, given the irony of how absolutely non-Parisian this cafe is (for example the Canto-pop Karaoke by the kitchen), but it nonetheless gives an artsy feel to the place.

New glossary terms:
- cha chaan teng: literally "tea meal hall," culturally comparable to the American diner, cha chaan tengs are Cantonese-style diners that serve up fast and filling sai sik and jung sik food
- jung sik: Chinese style
- sai sik: Western style