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.

天澄閣 Crystal Harbour Restaurant (Reprise #1)

Crystal Harbour Restaurant was literally a stone-throw away from where I lived in Hong Kong. After seeing the positive feedback from its first showing here on TungChoiSt., I decided that this superb dim sum place should get an encore! First, I will show some great standard fare Hong Kong dim sum dishes, including a dessert bun that is so simple yet so melty-satisfying to the tastebuds. Then I'll show a few tasty treats that, just like all of Crystal's other dim sum, rewards customers' patience with the most simple ingenuity and delicious elegance that Hong Kong dim sum could ever offer.

四寶滑雞扎 - seibou waaht gaijaat ("4 treasures" bundled Chicken)

脆皮燒肉 - cheuipei siuyuhk (roast pork with mustard)

Ordering a "4 treasures" bundled chicken at your dim sum experience will surely satiate the hungriest of your party. The hearty "4 treasures" usually includes Chicken and fish maw as the 2 essential standard treasures. For those unfamiliar with fish maw, it's the fish's air bladder that let's them float contentedly through the waters, and it's a common ingredient in Cantonese cooking mostly because its texture absorbs tasty (and fatty!) juices, giving your tastebuds a pleasant treat of flavorful bursts of juices released with every bite! The other two "treasures" of this gai jaat are a big meaty chunk of ham, and a big stalk of baby corn. Overall a filling dim sum, the "4 treasures" chicken bundled together in a thin chewy tofu wrapping is a perfect hearty foursome of delicious magnitude. The second dish pictured above is the ever familiar siu yuhk, or roast pork. With a crispy yet moist skin over a tender and juicy chunk of meat, why haven't American Chinatowns thought of pairing this already flavorful delight with some mustard? This is the standard sauce of choice for roast pork in Hong Kong (unless you're at a Chinese wedding banquet which will serve more traditional fare). Actually, no sauce is really necessary because the pork is so juicy and flavorful, but the mustard does give a zesty zing to spice things up a bit. Definitely recommended.

And what better standard dim sum dessert would one get in Hong Kong than the ever so wonderful egg custard bun.

流沙奶皇飽 - lauhsa laaiwohng baau (egg custard bun)

One bite into this yummy treat will send melt-in-your-mouth egg custard into your mouth. The Chinese translates literally as melting/flowing sand milk king bun. In other words, watch the melting creaminess ooze out from the soft and moist bun.


There's not much original that Crystal Harbour Restaurant can do with these three standard dishes above, but for the "4 treasures" chicken as well as the egg custard bun, Crystal prepares these in top-tier fashion. You usually wouldn't get such a full and meaty "4 treasures" at other places, and as for the egg custard bun, I personally rank this as the best one I've had in Hong Kong, but tied with the ones they've got over at 牡丹庭 Mu Dan Ting Chinese Restaurant, which I'll be blogging about here on TungChoiSt. sometime later this summer (for now you can find Mu Dan Ting at OpenRice).

But what one really comes to Crystal Harbour Restaurant for is the creative dim sum delicacies they create. Here are a few neat and tasty ones:

千絲蘿蔔絲酥 - chinsi lohbaahksi sou

紫米香芒卷 - jimai heungmong gyun

I can't seem to provide meaningful translations for these dishes. I take it as a good sign that these creative concoctions are unique beyond meaning! A character-by-character translation of the first dish is: thousand silk/threads radish silk/threads crispy. Basically, one bite into the core of this tightly packed crispy pastry will break open a "thousand" threads of piping hot baked Chinese radish that are themselves soft on the outside and subtly crunchy on the inside. The second dish pictured uses "purple rice" (the same used in this dessert I previously blogged about) for a mochi outer wrapping, a fresh mango inner core, and a dusting of shredded coconut to top it. Aesthetically pleasant, it's a nice, but not stellar, dessert.

Finally, I end with one of the most traditional desserts of Cantonese cuisine, 豆腐花 - dauh fu fa, literally tofu flower. Usually anytime you order this you'll get it in a personal bowl. But Crystal Harbour being Crystal Harbour, this wouldn't do of course! No, they prefer to give you the entire wooden vat that is traditionally used in making this dessert, a mini one of course. This basically transfers the responsibility of scooping the tofu out of the vat and into your bowl from the restaurant over to you, and this may seem like a sour deal to some, but personally I like it this way. It brings the food-appreciator in on one more bit of the food process, and the "tofu flower" itself is really good - bland by Western standards, but the soft tofu is smooth down the throat, and you get a combination of two subtle flavors, tofu, and ginger. A pleasant and simple way to end a meal.

Here are some other recommended dishes:
蘋果叉燒酥 - pingguo chasiu sou (apple charsiu crisps)
葡式木糖布甸 - pouhsik muhktohng bouhdin (Portuguese Pudding...similar to the one I blogged about from O Porto Interior, but not as good, although this one at Crystal uses vanilla ice cream rather than cream)

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

The Corner of Tung Wan Rd. and Church Road

(Don't forget to check out the destination guide addendum to this post, which takes you beyond the food to some other facets of Cheung Chau you can check out!)

On weekends, the corner of Tung Wan Street and Church Road is a bustling place on Cheung Chau island, and for good reason, there are a handful of great mom and pop shops selling some pretty interesting snacks and desserts here, not to mention the East Lake Restaurant is right there, and so is the main beach of the island.

Recently opened near the corner of Tung Wan and Church is this small shop that sells just one thing only - home-made deep-fried-before-your-eyes potato chips.

But the kicker for these self-proclaimed "Crazy Jack Potato Giant Chips" is the fact that they're not technically "chips" after all. You can peak at them doing some sort of handy-work on each individual potato with a knife, and then another employee pokes a stick from one end of the potato through to the other in a fancy feat spiraling the potato onto the stick. Once fried, you're free to pepper on any condiment your heart so desires, from salt to curry and everything in between! At this time these works of aesthetically pleasing Crazy Jack Potato Chips are pretty expensive (13 HK), considering it's just a potato after all.


If you're not into aesthetic novelties, then check out the mom and pop shop right next door - 新照記小食店 (san jiu gei siu sihk dihm) - which has got all the characteristically Hong Kong snacks and sweets.


This is a grass jelly with sago dessert (涼粉椰汁西米露 leuhng fan ye jap sai mai louh). Really delicious. I'm quite a fan of grass jelly, with its soothing texture and its chilling taste - its Chinese translates literally as chilled powder. And how could you go wrong pouring coconut juice onto any dessert? Truly fantastic, especially for a hot day, which is perfect considering that the beach is just a minute walk away! The mochis are really tasty too, with a variety of flavors including egg-milk (奶黃 laaih wohng), sesame (芝麻 ji mah） and peanut-sesame (花生芝麻 fa sang ji mah).

And then around the corner next to this shop on Church Road is yet another mom and pop shop selling Japanese style snacks. It doesn't seem to have a name other than what it sells: 日本紅豆餅 Japanese red-bean cakes. Just look for the red sign.

As for the main course, I highly recommend going diagonally across from this hustling and bustling corner (back towards the pier) to East Lake Restaurant (東湖菜館), the best food I've had on the island out of the several I've tried.

西蘭花帶子 Fried Scallops with Broccoli

薑蔥田雞 Fried Frog with Ginger and Spring Onion

招牌香妃雞 Boiled Chicken with[sic] Chinese Style

These are all standard Cantonese dishes, so there's nothing special to report about them. But wow, if you want standard Cantonese dishes done exceptionally well, eat here. Normally I'm not even a fan of scallops, definitely not frog either. But everything was in perfect proportion, down to the fragrantly pleasant scallions topped with mushrooms and a salty-sweet sauce over the hearty stalks of broccoli. The fried frog had a subtle charred taste that went especially well with the hint of ginger. As for the chicken, which is their specialty, it was a tad on the dry side but actually the natural juices of the chicken along with the special 香妃 (heung fei) cooking method - which I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I know it's special!) easily made for the best Cantonese-style chicken I've ever had.

Some of you may be wondering about the conspicuous absence of any seafood dishes, which of course Cheung Chau cuisine is known for. Oh well, there's always next time for me. But the interesting part is that you can go on over to the wet market yourself and buy your own "swimming fish" (游水魚 a Cantonese expression for extremely fresh fish) and other seafood, and then bring it to the restaurant where they'll prepare it for you. If you want to skip this step, you still have to either call or stop in earlier to let them know you want seafood because they don't keep any at their shop.


長洲
東灣路85號
Cheung Chau island
85 Tung Wan Road
29813869



So while I'd recommend exploring the many quaint little restaurants and shops on your own in Cheung Chau, I have to warn that I had a bad food experience at 海龍王海鮮大排檔 and one mediocre food experience at another ocean-side restaurant. This is not to say that the ocean-side restaurants are bad; I've been to a few good ones. But I personally think that if you want to go somewhere that you can't go wrong, head over to East Lake Restaurant, and check out the snack shops around it while you're at it.

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)

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.