Tim Ho Wan (2) - Hong Kong

Tim Ho Wan has moved since our last visit and since it was summer and quite hot, cabbing it to the place was much more convenient. This led to us being able to just beat the lunch crowd :)

We ordered their famous baked barbeque pork buns which was really delicious. Soft and flaky bun with steaming hot and tasty barbeque pork pieces inside. Could do with a few more of these!

baked barbeque pork bun

The chicken feet was also quite tasty - steamed and flavoured perfectly well.

chicken feet

The siu mai (pork and prawn dumplings) were chockablock full of flavour and absolutely deliciousness! Simple dish... yet it hits just the right spot!

siu mai

Likewise,the har gow (prawn dumplings) were filled with super tasty and crunchy prawns. The pastry is really thin yet strong enough to encase all that yummy prawn.

har gow

We also had the turnip cake and the steamed pork ribs. Both were good but I guess, wasn't that much more spectacular than the norm.

raddish cake

steamed pork ribs

I think that Tim Ho Wan serves dim sims which are just that tiny touch better than your average yum cha. But as the prices are likewise reasonable which makes this a gem :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8.5/10
Overall - 31/40

Tim Ho Wan
G/F, 9-11 Fook Wing Street
Sham Shui Bo
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2788 1226

Law Fu Kee (羅富記粥麵專家)- Hong Kong

Featured in a Honkie magazine wonton noodle soup and congee place that had opened for 50 years. And so, we decided to go and see how it is. Law Fu Kee (羅富記粥麵專家) is in Central and luckily, it wasn't too hard to find. As it was quite early in the morning, we didn't have to wait to be seated.

Law Fu Kee

We decided to order their wonton noodle soup and their sliced fish congee with chinese donut. Like all these places, you have to order in a snap (nil thinking time) but as a result, the food comes really quickly too. The wonton noodle soup was pretty good. Chewy and tasty noodles with small fresh delicious wontons. And the congee looked impressive. It was silky smooth on the top layer which, when eaten with crunchy chinese donuts, was a definite treat. Funnily enough, near the bottom of the congee bowl, the congee got a bit watery and less silky smooth...

wonton noodle soup

sliced fish congee

chinese donuts

So it's not a bad joint for a quick local bite. The congee starts off being really delicious but unfortunately, the awesomeness fades as you scrape the bowl.

Ratings:
Food - 7.5/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money -8.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Law Fu Kee (羅富記粥麵專家)
Ground Floor, 142 Queen's Road 
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 543 3881

Tsim Chai Kee - Hong Kong

Yes, we were after more wonton noodle soup. There's two pretty famous wonton noodle places opposite each other in Central but to solve our decision-making dilemma, Mak's Noodles was undergoing renovations, Tsim Chai Kee was our lunch place.

Like a lot of Chinese places, you really don't get more than 5 seconds to decide what to eat. Hence, whilst under pressure, we quickly ordered a house specialty wonton noodle soup each and their seasonal vegetables which happens to be tong choi with fermented bean curd paste (my favourite!!!).

Wonton noodle soup

Tong Choi with fermented beancurd

Their wonton noodle soup is noticeably bigger (and cheaper) than their michelin starred equivalent restaurants. The noodles were perfectly cooked and the wontons? Crazily massive and filled with more prawns than pork. WOW - really really delicious wontons! Yes, as some others have commented, the soup is a bit cloudier than some others, but it didn't take from it's tastiness :)

Ratings:
Food - 9/10
Service - 5/10
Ambiance - 6/10
Value for money - 9/10
Overall - 29/40

Tsim Chai Kee
98 Wellington Street
Central
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 28506471

Australia Dairy Co (澳洲牛奶公司) - Hong Kong

We flew all the way to HK from Australia and one of the first things hubby wanted to eat was the Australia Dairy Co. We had tried to come here once on a previous HK trip but we had come on a Thursday - a day which they are conveniently closed. Anyway - we made it this time and after a relatively short cue, we were seated in the tiniest corner.

Once seated, you HAD to order right away... like, RIGHT AWAY. Under duress, 2 breakfast sets were ordered - both changing the fried eggs to scrambled because the scrambled eggs here are meant to be freaking amazing. And freaking amazing they were! The eggs were really really creamy (yes, a bit oily) but sooo soft and fluffy! The bread was thick cut and toasted to perfection.

thick cut toast with scrambled eggs

The breakfast set also comes with a ham macaroni soup. The soup was really really tasty, and I think a bit of eggy goodness is in it. I guess it must have some sort of MSG-like substance in it cos it was soooo addictively good.

ham and macaroni

Last but not least, our milk teas. In 100% humidity and 35 degree heat, a cold drink was definately necessary. The milk tea was really smooth and nicely strong in tea flavour.

iced milk tea

All up, it was a great breakfast. Satisfying, simple, yet crazy tasty and super super cheap (less than AU$4). Remember though, you NEED to know what you want to order the moment you sit down.

Ratings: 
Food - 9/10
Service - 4/10
Ambiance - 5/10
Value for money - 9/10
Overall - 27/40

Australia Dairy Company 澳洲牛奶公司
G/F, 47-49 Parkes Street
Jordan, Hong Kong
(MTR Jordan Exit C2)
Opening hours : 7.30am-11pm (closed Thursday)

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice - Singapore

Singapore is pretty famous for Hainanese Chicken Rice but hubby didn't want just any old hainanese chicken rice, he wanted the absolute bestest in town. And so, we decided to go to the shop that Anthony Bourdain recommended - Tian Tian in the Maxwell Centre. There's normally a long line here (supposedly up to 30 mins), but I think we got pretty lucky, coming here at a random time, as we only had to wait around 15-20 mins.

Most people here order their hainanese chicken with rice sets ($4, or $4.20 for drumstick). However, hubby (having come here especially for this chicken) decided that he needed a half chicken ($12). We were initially thinking that half chicken would be like the breast and the thigh bits... but what came out was a MASSIVELY HUGE plate of chicken - the envy of all those in line behind us. Though I initially wanted to sample some more food at the Maxwell Centre, after looking at hubby's selection, all these thoughts instantly vanished.

I have to say, the chicken here is amazingly awesome! It's super super slippery tender with just the right amount of protein to fat to skin ratio. The sauce is also deliciousness. What I was a tiny bit disappointed with was the rice - I wanted it to have a bit more flavour, but hubby thought it was good enough.

Eyeing the other hainanese chicken rices offered at Maxwell Centre, the wait for this particular chicken is so so so worth it!

Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice
Stall No. 11&12
Maxwell Food Centre 
Singapore, 069184
Tel: 96914852

Deans Diner - Newtown

Hubby and I have been on a crusade to find our old school corner store memories. We both remember going to the corner shop after school and getting a big batch of hot yummy chips wrapped in butchers paper and yet, after going to corner shop after corner shop, the butchers paper-wrapped chips appear to no longer exist. That is, until we randomly mentioned our vendetta to a friend who instantly replied "oh - we just went somewhere that served this!". So on Saturday, we went to check it out - Deans Diner.

Deans Diner

Deans Diner is like an old-school tuck shop. The blackboard menu is filled with burgers on a variation. It was definitely rocking retro style.

blackboard menu

Ofcourse, we had to order the chips! Out of the many versions of the burger, I opted for the 'Fantasy' ($6.50), which really, is just a cheeseburger, whereas hubby opted for the 'Original Sin' ($6)(ie. hamburger) and added beetroot (50c). All these things came in neat little takeaway packages. Nice, hot, toasty and waiting to be opened!

So sure - the chips weren't the best chips in town. No where near the awesomeness taste that we remembered as kids... but - it came in Butchers paper!!!! The burger, on the other hand, was simply superb. Definitely old school Aussie-style burger. The patty was juicy and succulent and absolutely delicious. The lettuce was just the perfect amount and balanced the burger out really well - with the dallop of bbq sauce and my melting cheese. It was amazingly yum! Hubby agreed that this is the place to go the next time we want that true Aussie burger~

hot chips

Fantasy - $6.50

Original Sin (with beetroot) - $6 + 50c

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 30/40

Deans Diner
385 King Street
Newtown
NSW 2042
Tel: (02) 9557 6085

Ho Hung Kee - Hong Kong

Hong Kong houses quite a few low-cost Michelin Star places. Of those, there are dim sim places, ramen places and also wonton noodle houses. Forgoing all the high-class super expensive Michelin Star restaurants, hubby and I opted to try out some of these cheap and cheerful places. One of these places was Ho Hung Kee. As we were already meeting a friend at Hysan Place, one of the newer shopping destinations in Causeway Bay, we decided to just have the wonton noodles at the Ho Hung Kee branch there, rather than to venture out to the street to find the Michelin branded outlet.

Being there rather late, we were seated comfortably. I ordered their house specialty Wonton Noodles in Soup (large HK$48) whereas my friend ordered the Shrimp dumplings and noodles in soup (HK$45). Both were very similar except the shape of the dumplings. The prawn was encased in super fine, slippery and yummy egg pastry for the wontons, whereas for the gow gee (shrimp dumplings) there was the addition of different veges and fungi. The noodles were cooked nicely al dente and the clear soup was also quite gorgeously flavoursome. Not bad not bad.

Wonton Noodle Soup - HK$48 (large)

Gow Gee noodle soup - $45

What surprised me more than the quality of the dumpling noodle soups was  the deliciousness of their congee. It was ZOMG sooooo smooth, soooo tasty and so so so so nice! Words can not describe the silkiness of this humble congee. I'm not convinced that I needed the mushrooms and chicken in the congee (HK$68) but the congee was surely indescribably good in both flavour and texture!

chicken and mushroom congee - HK$68

Last but not least, hubby wanted some steamed fish type thing (HK$95). The fish was fresh. The fish tasted nice and all but if I had a choice between another bowl of noodles/congee v the fish, the fish will not win.

steamed fish thing - HK$95

It was a delicious and cheap meal (atleast cheap for Aussie standards)30/. Don't expect TOO much in terms of service... but definitely worth a visit (esp for the congee).

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 7/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 30/40

Ho Hung Kee
Shop 1204-1205, Level 12 Hysan Place
500 Hennessy Road, Causeway Bay
Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 2577 6060

Fusion Cafe (2) - Eastwood

As we're about to embark on a Eurotrip in the coming few weeks, cheap and cheerful food were on our agenda. Having recalled a near miss of the breakfast menu last time we were at Fusion Cafe in Eastwood, we decided to try our luck again. Breakfast runs until 12 noon and lucky for us, we made it with ample time - even after factoring the many many minutes it took for me to decide what I wanted.

We both ordered breakfast sets. My set was a congee (my pick was the preserved duck egg with pork), a choice of noodles (my pick was the soy-sauce fried noodles) with a drink (where I opted for a honky style milk tea with coffee). All that was for a generous price of $6.80! Bargain I dare say! Especially when a decent sized bowl of congee (albiet slightly more watery than some other places) and a good plate of noodles arrived in front of my. Sure it's not spectacular food, but I'm paying less than 7 bucks for it!

congee with preserved duck egg and pork



soy sauce fried noodles

Hubby chose the hot pot with beef brisket and steamed rice noodle rolls, and a honky style milk tea ($7.80). This was tasty and the sauce was pretty good.

beef brisket with rice noodles

We chose to have our drinks served after we finished our food. I found my milk tea with coffee to be gorgeously smooth, rich and delicious! Likewise, hubby was impressed with the honky style milk tea.

Honky style milk tea & Honky style milk tea with coffee

So all up, Fusion Cafe seems to be a decent place to pick up cheap honky-style cafe food. Don't expect to be too wowed by the food, but at the same time, you know you're not paying a lot to be fed here :)

Ratings:

Food - 7.5/10

Service - 6.510

Ambiance - 7/10

Value for money - 8/10

Overall - 29/40

Fusion Contemporary Cuisine
127 Rowe Street
Eastwood NSW 2122
Tel: (02) 9874 2226

Tobawo - Eastwood

You know when you enter a restaurant and it makes you happy? Well, Tobawo is probably one of those restaurants. I haven't been to the Korean side of Eastwood for a while so it was the first time I've seen this restaurant (I'm assuming that it's relatively new), but it was the happy almost-childlike attraction that drew me in - the happy looking piggies on the wall!!! :)

At Tobawo, there's individual meals you can order, as well as bigger meals to share. My hubby and I decided to order an individual meal each. Hubby chose the Bossam ($12) and I chose the Jokbal ($12).

cute little piggies on the wall

Tobawo

Our meals come with a pumpkin soup, a spring onion pancake and 5 side dishes. The pumpkin soup was cold and mixed with a ricey gluggy thing that did not appeal to me much, but the rest of the freebies were AWESOME! I loved the spring onion pancake! It was thin but packed full of shallots. Not too floury or dense and full of flavour. The other side dishes were also good - especially the little anchovie type fishy thing. That was salty (but not overly so) and tasty. I could eat platefuls of those I think!

side dishes

On top of all those sides, we also get a spicy tofu soup and rice. The soup came out bubbling hot and was a touch on the spicy side. But again, full of flavour. Not a bad soup (especially if you like chili stuff).

Tofu soup

Now onto what we actually ordered. Hubby's bossam was quite nice. The boiled pork had a good layering of meat and fat and skin. It was served with kimchi and devoured happily by hubby. The pork wasn't as tender as it was at Jangdory but it was tasty all the same. My Jokbal (caramelised pork hoof) was also delectable. Smooth and silky due to the fat and the caramelised skin, and full of porky flavour. Mmm...

Bossam meal - $12

Jokbal - $12

For $12, I think we both got more than we bargained for. Definately a place to return to for a cheap and happy meal :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 7/10
Ambiance - 8/10
Value for money - 9/10
Overall - 31/40

Tobawo
Rowe Street
Eastwood
NSW 2122

Ta Fong - Flemington

Hunting for a quick lunch in Flemington, we found ourselves eating none other than Pho. We entered Ta Fong, which is a Chinese and Vietnamese Restaurant as it seemed reasonably packed with people. It had quite an extensive menu... but out of the entire menu, I ordered my usual - beef ball and beef tripe noodle soup (as I really like it), and my hubby ordered the special beef noodle soup (as he panicked and didn't know what to order) LOL :)

Anyway, both phos came it. It was yummy :) The soup was sweeter than a lot of other broths but tasty and delicious anyway. The noodles were perfect and soaked up the soup well (whilst not being too soggy) and my beef ball and beef tripe were good! I think my hubby enjoyed his noodles too!

beef ball beef tripe pho

special beef pho

Not a bad Viet/Chinese place. Soup's sweeter than normal - but sweet suits me :)

Ratings:
Food - 8.5/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 7.5/10
Overall - 29/40

Ta Fong
128 Henley Road
Homebush West (Flemington)
NSW 2140
Tel: (02) 9746 5486

Pho Toan Thang - Flemington

Living where we're living gives us good close access to cheap yummy pho in Flemington. We've been to a few places for pho but one of our favourite is Pho Toan Thang which is situated in the little covered corridor.

Pho Toan Thang

My favourite pho is what I always order from this place (beef ball pho) and on this occasion, my hubby ordered the beef special (with the lot - rare beef, beef ball, beef brisket, beef tripe, beef tendon). The pho here is quite yummy. The soup is clear and tasty and luckily not filled with MSG. The beef balls are sometimes cut thinner than half... but also sometimes cut in half (depends on your luck). The noodles are deliciousness and when you add your own mix of condiments in, it's the perfect lunch or snack :)

"beef special", and "beef ball pho"

Not a bad place - price is also very reasonable. Hence, we've been here multiple times :)

Ratings:
Food - 8/10
Service - 6.5/10
Ambiance - 6.5/10
Value for money - 8/10
Overall - 29/40

Pho Toan Thang
95 The Crescent Shop 9
Flemington,
NSW 2140
Tel: (02) 9764 3687

Hawker style food - Singapore

We were in Singapore for the F1 but subsidiary to super fast cars going around and around on an amazing night-time city race track, I was looking forward to delicious cheap hawker style food.

One of hawker centers we went to last time was the Maxwell Center. The beauty of this hawker center is that it's 24hrs - meaning that it is still opening when we're starving for dinner at 10pm. I also love how hawker centers can make you full whilst allowing for change from $5.

Not every store was open at this time, but there was enough for us to have a good feed. My partner opted for mixed rice noodles with fresh hand-made fish balls. It was an interesting selection for my partner as he's normally not into noodles nor fish balls - but I enjoyed it muchly :)

mixed rice noodles with hand made fishballs

I opted for congee. Though plain-looking in the photo, it was actually a preserved egg and pork congee (all the ingredients were in the bottom). The congee itself was cooked really well - smooth, dense and yum.

congee with preserved duck egg and pork

On the way to Maxwell Center, our taxi driver told us that of another awesome eating hangout - a whole strip of satay skewers at Lau Pa Sat. Walking there from Maxwell Center, we were met with smokiness in the air and lots of meats spinning round and round. However, be careful of the store owners pulling you into their stalls - hold your ground and decide which satay store you want to eat at (although they all sell roughly the same thing).

After considering our options, we went for a small meal deal of 20+ skewers - chicken, veal/lamb, and prawn. Looking around us, we could see many happy customers devouring one skewer after another. The meat was really tasty and tender and the satay sauce was really peanutty (which is awesome :P). These particular skewers were nicely peppered and slightly more chilli than your average satayed meat.

skewers at Lau Pa Sat

Aftermath

Much to my hubby's happiness, skewers are found pretty much everywhere in Singapore - including food courts of department stores lining Orchard Street. The one I particularly like is Takashimaya - a Japanese department store under which my hubby found delicious Jap-style skewers :)

Yakiniku at Takoshimaya food court

In the midst of F1 practice on Saturday night, we were hungry and extremely delighted to find that Glutton's Bay (another hawker store strip) was within the zones where we were permitted entry. Glutton's Bay is said to be priced a little higher than other hawker centers due to it's location and the fact that the makansutra people gathered some of the best seafood hawker people and gathered them here. But really - $10 for an awesomely yummy and huge oyster omelet with lots of fat juicy plump oysters? I'm not complaining :) Oh, and of course - sugarcane lemon juice to try and wash down the greasiness.

Oyster omelet

One of our local Singaporean friends took us to his local hideout - Beach Road Prawn Mee Eating House. It's amazing. It's pretty much an isolated hawker store in the middle of no-where in a place with no MRT and yet, tons and tons of super luxury cars are parked outside. Everyone was here to eat awesome Prawn Mee. The prawn was massive and fresh and tasty. The noodles were cooked just right and the soup base was spectacular! Bathed in prawn essence and other amazing ingredients - it was a super delicious prawn noodle soup. Our friend claimed that it was the best prawn mee in the country. We washed this down with barley water which was refreshing and nice.

Barley water

Prawn mee

Another Hawker center we visited was the one in Chinatown (not Chinatown food street which opens after 5pm, but the massive one on level one upstairs). We sampled a variety of food here - clay pot rice (which was really yum and authentically cooked for over 20 mins), these weird sweet and savoury crispy dumpling cups, and these soft steamed rice cakes with these mincey, preserved vege stuff on it. What blew us away, however, was fresh lime juice. Fresh lime juice!!! It was sour, yeh - but so so so refreshingly good :) Make sure you chose the store with heaps of limes. There's some imitations around which makes the juice more sweet than sour.

epically awesome lime juice

clay pot rice

singaporean treats

My hubby couldn't keep his eyes of the satay skewers - hence he got 5 chicken, 5 beef, and 5 lamb skewers which were all super tender, tasty and satayed. Again - super cheap :)

satay skewers

As I was doing my rounds of this huge hawker center, I noticed a massive long line. The rule is - when you see a line at a hawker center, line up. Doesn't matter if you don't know what you're lining up for, line up for it first anyway. Turns out, it was for soya sauce chicken with stir noodles. Couldn't resist and thankfully so. It was sooooo appetising! The noodles were soft but not overly so and the chicken was so smooth and tender and soysauce tasting - pretty damn amazing. Where are the stores like this in Sydney???

soy sauce chicken with noodles

I love hawker center food. Delicious. Varietied. Cheap. Make sure you choose one that looks relatively clean! They also display cleanliness ratings on their shop front (most of the time at least) so check that out :)