牡丹庭粵菜食府 Mu Dan Ting Chinese Restaurant

Having dim sum at Mu Dan Ting made me think twice about the title for best dim sum place in all of Hong Kong, and whether this honor rightfully belongs to Mu Dan Ting instead of Crystal Harbour Restaurant. Let's let the food be the judge though...

蘿蔔絲酥餅 lohbaahksi soubeng (silky threads of turnip pastry)

This pastry has an outer shell made with paper-thin layers of delicious crispiness, and an inner goodness of piping hot silky strips of Chinese turnips that are crisp to bite into, but at the same time soft and chewy at its core. The perfect pinch of salt and seasoning on the inside makes for a tasty warm treat bundled in a simple yet aesthetic pastry.

黃金流沙飽 wohnggam lauhsa baau (golden egg custard bun)

This might very well be the best lauhsa baau in all of Hong Kong.

The egg custard is perfectly creamy on the inside, but smooth enough to flow out from its soft and moist bun to simply melt in your mouth. If there had to be one dish to symbolize dim sum perfection, this would be it.

家鄉咸薄撑 gaheung haahm bohkchaang

This country-style pancake made mostly using turnip, with scallions and pieces of meat spreckled within, is fried to a nice crispiness on the outside, but its core is left warm and chewy. It goes well with the spicy dip not just in good taste, but in colorful aesthetic too.

We also had a
灌湯餃 guhn tong gaau (dumpling in broth) that was pretty good, and some 香麻糖不甩 heungma tohng batlat (sesame-topped "sugar can't fall off"), a staple Hong Kong dessert of sweet mochi balls topped with sugar and sesame.

But this is the dish that crowns the Mu Dan Ting experience:

椰香燉鮮奶 yehheung duhn sinnaai. It's a dairy dessert cooked within a coconut. The milk, or duhn naai in Cantonese, is a special dessert that you're almost not sure whether to call solid or liquid, but it's the coconut that really gives this its unique flavor, an infusion of subtle coconut goodness. And what's more, after finishing your duhn naai, you're still left with a wonderful treat in the coconut meat, which is fun to scoop out, and is a mouthful of tropical sweetness.

In the end, Mu Dan Ting is a delightful dim sum experience that rivals Crystal Harbour's. But each restaurant has their own subtle uniqueness that we can definitely appreciate.

尖沙咀漢口道
28號亞太中心2字樓
2/F Hong Kong Pacific Center
28 Hankow Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
MTR Station: Tsim Sha Tsui

滿記甜品 Honeymoon Desserts

滿記甜品
旺角亞皆老街8號
朗豪坊4樓409號
Honeymoon Desserts
Langham Place
8 Argyle St., 4th Fl. Shop 409

MTR: Mong Kok

courtesy openrice.com

A few years back, if you asked anybody in Hong Kong what was the dessert place of Hong Kong, you'd probably get 許留山 Hui Lau San for an answer. They've got yummy mango desserts and delicious drink mixtures to die for, including ingredients from strawberries and mangoes to grass jelly and aloe, a sure bet to quenching your "healthy dessert" craving and to chill you out from the Hong Kong humidity.

But if you ask the same question these days, more and more you might get Honeymoon Desserts as the dessert destination of choice instead. With a feel-good artistic decor to make you feel right at home (or at a quaint sip-a-cup-of-coffee bookshop because of the fake books stacked on the fake bookshelves), Honeymoon Desserts boasts a darn good variety of desserts including mochis topped with peanut butter, or mochis stuffed with sweet black sesame served in a sweet ginger soup, or different flavors of ice-cream bathing in coconut milk with pomelo or smooth delicious grass jelly. Even lovers of durian will find themselves at home here, and haters of durian need not worry, because there are specific durian-eating areas (no, they don't ask "durian or non-durian" when you enter the shop) so you won't be inhaling any second-hand durian smells (this is only at some outlets though, I can't say for sure if this specific one at Langham Place has one or not).

芒果白雪黑糯米 Thai Black Glutinous Rice in Vanilla Sauce

With a distinct vanilla flavor permeating the sweet purple sticky rice, you get a mouthful of heavenly goodness with an interesting looking, albeit plastic, spoon. Soaking within the vanilla goodness are little sheets of shaved-ice, giving an ever-so-subtle ice-crunchy texture to an otherwise empty soup. The Mango was just a bit sour, but not enough to put a dent really on the overall experience, which is a tasty dessert with a delicately harmonious balance of ingredients.

楊枝甘露 Mango Pomelo and Sago Sweet Soup

Pomelo is a kind of fruit very similar in texture as grapefruit, but not in taste because pomelo is a whole heck of a lot better in that it's sweet, never sour or tart.
A good companion with sago (little glutinous rice balls) in this sweet soup served cold, they're a pleasant sensation to bite into because although they're small, they're packed with little bursts of juice that just give a great smooth, but not boring, texture for the sweet juice. The centerpiece to the juice is of course the mango (it's in there! don't worry, I just didn't get it in this picture =( ), which combines to make a truly simple dish, yet one that surprises with a memorable, and for many a favorite, taste.

The menu at Honeymoon really seems quite endless, so this is really just the tip of an iceberg of dessert goodness. Honeymoon Desserts is a chain that did have its humble beginnings. I had my first taste actually right after the first hike I did in Hong Kong, of course in Sai Kung where the original honeymoon shop is. If you get a chance, check it out there because it's a lovely place. Otherwise, keep your eyes out and you should be able to stumble upon one in one of many places in Hong Kong.