Have you ever been to Hong Kong? Here’s three must-try Hong Kong neighbourhoods
While travel to Hong Kong might be off the cards for the moment, this discovery of its dishes, flavours, ingredients, and chefs is sure to convince you to put it top of your travel hit list as soon as borders open.
Hong Kong’s vibrant neighbourhoods each have their own unique culinary DNA, from working class districts in Kowloon to the historic heart of Hong Kong Island. Whether it’s fine dining or street food, affordable Michelin-starred restaurants or hole-in-the-wall noodle joints, the truth is that it’s very difficult to go wrong wherever your fork or chopsticks take you.
Sham Shui Po
Sham Shui Po may not feature on many must-visit lists for visitors to Hong Kong, but it should. Tucked in north-western Kowloon, this is a traditional, diverse, and largely working-class neighbourhood which features some of the city’s best value eats. Arguably the most famous is Tim Ho Wan, the dim sum specialists now with branches in Melbourne and Perth whose name translates as ‘add good fortune’.
This was their second Hong Kong restaurant and their selection of more than 20 dim sum are just as delicious and reasonably priced as at the original – and also still hold a Michelin star.
Must-orders start with their rightly famous cha siu bao or barbecue pork buns, where sweet and sticky pork is crowned by a decadent crispy dome. Likewise, shrimp dumplings with transparent casings or, for the more adventurous, gelatinous chicken feet or vermicelli rolls with pig’s liver. You can eat your fill and still have some to go for around AUD$20.
A fifteen-minute walk takes you to Kwan Kee, another famed spot thanks to their unique way of making ‘bouncing’ or jook sing bamboo noodles. Their springy texture comes from an ancient technique where a chef bounces his body up and down on a bamboo pole to flatten the dough. The noodles are made from duck eggs, giving them a distinctive taste and all-important mouthfeel, especially when dusted with umami-rich dried shrimp roe.
Wan Chai
Across the water to Wan Chai, a famed entertainment and nightlife district with another exciting food scene to leave you spoilt for choice. One line that is again well worth the wait comes outside Kam’s Roast Goose, a local joint also given the nod by the Michelin inspectors. That’s thanks to their brilliant siu mei or roast meats, another Cantonese classic, which beckon in diners thanks to glistening slabs of pork, goose and duck hanging in the kitchen window.
Once you nab a table, try their preserved egg with ginger that definitely wakens the palate and then hit the meat. Goose is in their name for a reason so start there but also don’t miss the mix of five spice, honey, hoisin and more which gives the roast pork an amazing mahogany sheen. Plan to spend about AUD$15 for a generous helping of soya chicken up to AUD$140 for a whole roast suckling pig.
Another nod to Hong Kong’s reputation as ‘Asia’s culinary capital’ comes a few streets away where an Israeli chef serves up sensational meats of his own at Mr Brown, a self-styled ‘smokehouse’. Asher Goldstein is also responsible for the hugely-popular Middle Eastern eatery Francis around the corner, but at Mr. Brown the grill is the hero for dishes like lamb neck with eggplant and green tomato salsa or his brilliant 12-hour smoked brisket with peppercorn and pickled onion.
Vegetarians are well entertained too with plates like grilled eggplant with miso tahini and chilli. A cracking cocktail selection and average bill of around AUD$60 per person keeps diners coming back for more.
Central
Finally, to the historic cultural and business heart of Central where, despite some of the world’s priciest real estate, great value plates are still to be had. First stop, another local Cantonese institution in the form of Mak’s Noodles, again bestowed with a Michelin star. Beloved for generations and with famous fans including Anthony Bourdain, it’s the wonton noodles to beat them all that ensure it is bustling night and day.
In the 1920s, Mak Woon-chi was a wonton master in Guangzhou on the Chinese mainland and one of his sons brought his famous dishes to Central in the early ‘60s. Now in a compact space on Wellington Street, order two dishes to get the full experience – neither are huge portions, but at barely AUD$7 a bowl, they’re still incredible value for Michelin-level dishes.
The broth for the wonton noodles is made from slow-cooked pork bones, fish and dried shrimp, while the slippery dumpling skins wrap sweet and plump prawns with just enough bite. Then the beef tendon and brisket noodles are also definitely worth trying as the mouthfeel of the meat, the intensity of the broth and the textural contrast with the noodles works beautifully.
Finally to another spot in Central, Gough’s on Gough which unsurprisingly sits on Gough Street. Although it hasn’t been awarded by Michelin, it’s regularly talked about in those terms thanks to Chef Cary Docherty’s impeccable take on British and European cuisine, served in one of the city’s most stylish dining rooms.
Lunch in particular is a steal, with three courses running just AUD$37 for plates like smoked anchovies on toast with capers and parsley, followed by pork belly with sauerkraut and morteau sausage, before rounding off your Hong Kong culinary journey with custard tart and cherries.
