Mmm Mmm Good

So I am doing so many blogs today because I am finally catching up on everything before I leave tomorrow for Beijing and come back with so many new updates. Anyways, I have been exploring different restaurants around Hong Kong recently. Many of them have been fantastic, and some have been just okay. About a week ago, I went to a famous noodle place in Hong Kong. This place became famous when it was featured on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show on the Food Network. If you didn't know, you would think this place was like any other tiny noodle restaurant in HK. However, the noodles here are special because they are the only noodles in Hong Kong that are still hand made. A old man wakes up before dawn every morning to make these noodles. He says that he knows he can make them using machines, but he wants to keep the tradition of making noodles like his parents taught him. He is one of the last people that knows how to make noodles the traditional "by hand" way. Here is the link the the Anthony Bourdain clip on this guy and it is quite interesting (go to minute 2:00).


One of my favorite local place I have been to was a hole-in-the-wall Szechuan place recommended on OpenRice.com (we get our Cantonese speaking friends to read the site for us, as it is all in Chinese and these -> 最兩間角新開食成 mean nothing to me). Szechuan is a province in China, and it is known for 1) its really spicy food and 2) for the terrible earthquakes that happened there almost exactly one year ago. The food at this restaurant was delicious...the best dumplings I have had since being in Asia (and that is saying a lot because I have them often and dumplings are an Asian specialty). I also got Dan Dan (spelling?) noodles which are like a thick noodle (kind of like Udon) in a peanut flavored soup. It was fantastic, and I am going back again before I leave.

Also, Hong Kong has very unique desserts. If you are going to eat local food, you will never have brownies, cookies, or cake. Hong Kong desserts always involve some sort of jelly or tiny balls with interesting textures. I have figured out that Chinese people love their textures. Every dish/dessert has at least a couple different textures in it. For example, I got a mango dessert the other day with mango pudding, mango juice, sago (jelly-like) balls, mango ice cream, and mango chunks (see picture to right). So many different things going on in one dish. Also, many Hong Kong desserts are like soup. For example the other day I got for dessert Hot Black Sesame Soup with Sweet Balls (see picture to left). I had never had black sesame or red beans before coming to Asia, but you can find these two things in about 90% of the desserts in Hong Kong. Very interesting, but actually quite good.