The Fish Shack

The Fish Shack (Petrie Place, off Bunda St. (02) 6248 5885) is a new fish and chips place located where the former Phat Duck was. The tiny place has simple 'marine' inspired decorations and most of its seatings are located outdoors. Although it was still winter last week, the sun was generously out and enjoying lunch al fresco became possible. We arrived just a bit before lunch time to make sure we got a table to enjoy our meals. The Fish Shack only serves fish of the day to ensure that their 'fish-meals' taste the freshest as possible. On this particular visit, the fish of the day was Blue eye cod. 

HK: Australia Dairy Company (澳洲牛奶公司)

Australia Dairy Company is a popular Hong Kong style cafe in Hong Kong, it is the kind of place where you'd expect a long queue before going in. The cafe is quite busy and crammed; consider yourself lucky if you don't end up sharing a table with someone you don't know. The pace at Australia Dairy Company is fast: you order, eat, pay and leave...all in about 20 minutes or so. It's not the type of place where you can sit down, chat and relax or else you will start getting 'the stares'. Why Australia Dairy Company? Honestly, I have no idea. It has nothing 'Australian' about it in terms of the decor and food...perhaps the milk they use?

Ona Coffee House

Although i am not a coffee drinker myself, I love going coffee houses. I love everything about them: the environment, the people, the aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans, the laboratory-like tools used in certain coffee and the smell of freshly prepared food.

At the moment i stepped into Ona Coffee House (68 Wollongong Street, Fsywick (02) 6162 3320), i loved it. The place's decor is simple but it has a few stand-outs such as the lovely clock with Roman numbers, the barista-to-be room, the display of fresh artisan bread by Brasserie Bread and the various awards that Ona has won (including one for latte art). If you are a coffee aficionado, you should try their siphon, pour over filter or cold drip from 'The Brewery' selection.

HK: Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong (公和荳品廠）

Tofu pudding ( 豆腐花) is one of my favourite Chinese desserts made of very soft tofu which can be served hot or cold. While in Hong Kong this time, i had a mission to find an awesome place that served tofu pudding. After some 'research', i was directed to Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong in Sham Sui Po. This little tofu place still retains the essence of the old style Hong Kong eateries with folding tables, round wooden stools and large fans all around. It even has a large ceramic dragon-embossed pot where the tofu pudding is made and subsequently scooped out into smaller bowls.

Kong Wo sells all things made of soy beans such as soy milk, tofu pudding fried tofu and stuffed beancurd. Since it was hot, i ordered a bowl of cold tofu pudding (HKD7) and a cup of soy milk (HKD4). The soy milk was delicious and not overly sweet - perfect for the hot weather; the tofu pudding had a nice silky texture (hot version is even silkier) and was slightly sweetened. You can always add the 'yellow sugar' that is readily available if you prefer the tofu pudding to be sweeter. 

Overall, i enjoyed my dessert time at Kong Wo and will certainly be coming back. Delicious soy milk and silken tofu pudding definitely made my day! Apart from being a healthy and inexpensive dessert (both items added up to HKD11 which is only around AUD1.5!), i got to 'experience' an old style Hong Kong eatery!

Kong Wo Dou Bun Chong
G/F, 118 Pei Ho Street, Sham Sui Po
Kowloon, Hong Kong
tel: (852) 2386 6871

HK: Ovenhouse Deluxe

Sorry for the lack of updates but now that i am back in the capital, there will be more blog posts. I've been away for close to 5 weeks in the land of awesome shopping and eating, Hong Kong (especially now that Australian dollar is so strong!)! It's good to be back and enjoy the not-so-hectic pace that Canberra has to offer but not so keen on the freezing weather though =P

Anyways, here is my first Hong Kong blog post for 2011.
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We found Ovenhouse Deluxe purely by accident as we were walking around Tsim Sha Tsui. It mainly does cakes, breads and cookies for take-away because it doesn't have many seats in it (8 seats max., i think). It also has quite a vast collection of wines from what i saw. Ovenhouse has a simple and classy decor which gives it a bit of a high-end feel. The cakes are placed neatly behind the cake counters and the cookies are nicely packed in bags. There is a small section at the end of the counter where you can sample their cookies. On this visit, we tried the two cakes that looked the most appealing to us: Lady Peach and Charcoal.

Lady Peach is a sponge cake filled with white peach mousse and white peach champagne coulis in between. The name definitely suits the cake's pretty appearance and it was the 'looks' that sold it for me. Taste-wise it was a bit weak on the peach flavour and the mousse felt a bit 'hard' (probably had a bit too much gelatine).