HK: Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Specialty Shop

- Visit Tim Ho Wan.

Ticked.

There i was (with my lovely auntie and grandma) waiting outside Tim Ho Wan along with another 30 or so people on a hot and humid Saturday in Hong Kong. Docket 173 seemed to take forever to be called although the lady at the tiny counter did tell us to come back after an hour or so. Acting in disbelief, i refused to leave hoping that somehow we wouldn't have to wait that long to be seated. I was wrong, we ended up waiting an hour and a half to be seated in a minuscule table for two (yes, the three of us).

Why all the fuss?

If you are not aware, Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum Specialty Shop (Shop 8, Taui Yuen Mansion Phase 2, 2-20 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok) has been awarded a Michelin Star and it is the World's Cheapest Michelin Starred restaurant. The shop is humbly decorated with a few Chinese calligraphy writings hanging on the wooden walls and a few awards that the restaurant has won. The shop is tiny and only fits 20 people comfortably but on the day that i went, there were a total of 30 people in there. Our table was so small that i barely had space to take photos and eat - my chopsticks would literally touch the wall as i ate. Was it worth it though?

We got a few dishes including the must-order Crispy Honey BBQ Pork Buns, Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow), Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumplings (Siew Mai),  Liver Rice Rolls, BBQ Pork Rice Rolls, Mango Pudding and 杞子桂花糕 (Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly). I didn't manage to take photos of all the dim sums as they were arriving too quickly and we had to finished them quick to make room in our tiny table.

I really liked the Crispy Honey BBQ Pork Buns. They came out pipping hot and the thin layer of sweet buttery topping was perfectly crisp. The Honey BBQ Pork filling was delicious and the three of us just loved the buns. Highly recommended.

The Shrimp dumplings were a bit of a disappoinment as the skin wasn't as thin as i was expecting but the shrimp filling was still good and fresh. The Siew Mai was alright but not outstanding.

We also ordered the Liver Rice Rolls and BBQ Pork Rice Rolls. The rice flour sheets were thin and soft but  unfortunately there wasn't much filling in the rolls. It was the first time that i 've had liver filling rice rolls and i have to say that it was interesting (okay) but i still preferred the BBQ Pork rice rolls, which was lovely.

Liver Rice Rolls

As a sweet treat we ordered the Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly and the Mango Pudding. The Mango Pudding was too sweet for me and it didn't have a nice and smooth texture. On the other hand, i S-I-M-P-L-Y loved the Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly because they had the perfect level of sweetness and were deliciously refreshing. This is probably the best Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly that i've ever had (we ended up ordering 2 more servings to take-away) - please let me know if there is another place with awesome Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly too!

All the dim sums from Tim Ho Wan range from HKD12 - 20 (AUD1.71 - 2.85) and that is a bargain for a Michelin Starred Restaurant. As a whole, the quality of the dim sums are good with some being more outstanding than others. I highly recommend ordering the Crispy Honey BBQ Pork Buns, BBQ Pork Rice Rolls (or Liver Rice Rolls for a change) and the Goji Berries Osmanthus Jelly. I would definitely go back for more of those buns and also to try other dim sums. Was it worth it? For me, yes...despite the wait and the crammed table, we all ended up enjoying some delicious and cheap dim sums!

HK: One Dim Sum

What will a HK trip be without having yum cha?

There are so many places to go for yum cha that you can scratch your head for a good half an hour, just to decide where to go. I wanted to go to Tim Ho Wan - the 1 Michelin star yum cha place - but since it was packed (and granny didn't want to wait) we ended up in One Dim Sum (Shop 1 & 2, G/F, Kenwood Mansion, 15 Playing Field Road, Prince Edward). This place is presumably on par with Tim Ho Wan, according to a recent magazine review.

One Dim Sum (一點心) is a very small and humbly decorated place, so if you don't get there early enough, expect to wait for a while.

We ordered quite a few dim sums and it didn't take long for them to arrive. In no time, we see ourselves eating at an increased pace to make sure that our tiny table could still hold all the dim sums that kept coming. Pretty hectic!

One Dim Sum offers traditional dim sums and here below is what we ordered.
Shrimp Har Gow: Can't go to a yum cha place without ordering this! The skin of the har gow was thin and the prawn filling tasted fresh and juicy.

Beef balls with beancurd skin: i normally don’t order this dish because the taste of coriander is so strong that overpowers the whole dish. Since mom likes this dish, we ended up ordering it anyways. To my surprise, i adored this dish! The balance of beef and coriander flavours were good and the beef balls were very juicy. They usually serve it with worcestershire sauce. I recommend it =)

Steamed Rice Rolls with BBQ Pork and Cha Leung (Yau Tiu wrapped with steamed rice rolls): The ‘skin’ wasn’t really smooth as i expected but the BBQ filling was yummy. The Yau Tiu in the Cha Leung tasted good but it wasn’t very crispy!

Steamed Rice Rolls with BBQ Pork

Cha Leung

TeoChew Dumplings: I never really liked this particular type of dumpling; it's more to do with the texture of the dumpling skin. Since there were only 3 of them, i didn’t eat it. Here is a photo of it (nonetheless):

Deep fried beancurd parcel: the parcels were crispy and golden and the filling was made nicely. Worth trying if you like deep-fried dim sums.

Baked Char Siu Bao (BBQ Pork Bun): Although the buns were missing the honey glaze on the outside, they still tasted lovely. The BBQ pork filling was nice and saucy, definitely worth a try! Tip: If you are used to the white steamed BBQ pork buns, give this a try!

Pork Ribs and Chicken Feet Rice: I am not a fan of chicken feet but the pork ribs and the rice were superb! The ribs were very nice and juicy (especially with the small soft bones in it!) and the rice tasted awesome after i drizzled the 'special' soya sauce that came with the dish. I really liked this dish and recommend it as well!

Boiled Choy Sum with Soya Sauce: as usual, i love vegetables! yum~

Egg Shatters (蛋散): what a funny name, this is!
Egg shatters 'is a Cantonese dim sum dessert that is made from a dough of eggs, flour, sugar, and lard. The dough is rolled out flat, cut into strips, then twisted and deep fried. Malt syrup (or sometimes honey) is drizzled over the cooled finished product, which is sometimes also sprinkled with coconut flakes.' – this is an little explanation about egg shatters taken from here. These egg shatters were made well and tasted good – it was light, crunchy yet still soft and sweet with a distinct taste of eggs. The honey and the mixture of crushed peanuts & sesame seeds drizzled on it complimented the egg shatters really well.

The last dish to come was the Malaysian Steamed Cake. It was a medium round cake cut into 6 pieces; the cake was super soft, springy and not too sweet *thumbs up for that! Due to my unprofessionalism, we finished the cake before i could take a photo of it! =P

Overall we had a very satisfying lunch and most dishes are worth trying. The best thing? Most dishes are just around the HK$15-20 mark (~AU$2.20-3) which is also considered inexpensive for Hong Kong yum cha standards. It's definitely worth coming back...maybe after i pay a visit to Tin Ho Wan?

GC Special: Ming Palace Seafood Restaurant

I was in Gold Coast for the weekend and on Sunday, i went to a Yum Cha Place called Ming Palace Chinese Seafood Restaurant (shop 21, Victoria Square, Victoria Avenue, Broadbeach). It was one in the afternoon and the place was literally packed with people and with dim sum trolleys coming and going. So whenever we got a chance, we would just stock the whole table with steamed dim sums like har gaw (prawn dumplings), chee cheong fun, siu mai (pork and prawn dumplings), pork ribs, steamed beef meatballs, etc...I think i was so hungry that my dim sum photos didn't turn out good (thus no photo of dim sums)...but hey, the photo of a stack bamboo steamers didn't turn out blur.

On top of the all the dim sums that we had, we also ordered Gong Chow Ngau Hor (aka Beef Hor Fun or Beef Kway Teow) and Ying Yang Fried Rice. I think i enjoyed these dishes a lot more because they had wok hei (镬气) that i love in Chinese food, something that most chinese restaurants in Canberra lack. For those who don't know what i am going on about, i did a little search on wikipedia and here is their explanation for wok hei:

'Wok hei is the flavour, tastes, and the 'essence' imparted by a hot wok on food during stir-frying. To impart wok hei, the food must be cooked in a wok over high flame while being stirred and tossed quickly. It is particularly important for Chinese dishes requiring high heat for fragrance such as the Beef Hor Fun.'

Gong Chaw Ngao Hor

Ying Yang Fried Rice (craving for more now!)

The Scholar Chinese Restaurant - Yum Cha

Can't believe that i've returned to the restaurant within a week! However, it was for Yum Cha this time. It was nicely organized by a friend who knew one of the bosses and we ended up getting heaps of food (at least i thought it was heaps!). It started out with quite a few fried dishes such as the salt & pepper squid tentacles, deep-fried white bait, chinese raddish cake, deep-fried prawns. I kinda liked the salt & pepper squid because they were tasty and crispy...as if they were just outta the deep-fryer!

We,then, started getting a loads and loads of steamed dim sums such as dumplings, siu mai (chinese steamed pork and prawn dumplings), pork ribs and cheong fun (rice noodle rolls). There were so many dumplings served in bamboo steamers, and due to their resemblance...i've only uploaded a few photos of them. I liked the cheong fun wrapped around the yau tiu but for some reason one dish's yau tiu was crispier than the other =P

Siu Mai & 'dumplings'

Traditional steamed Pork Ribs

Egg Tarts, Rice Noodle Rolls, Rice Noodle Rolled around Yau Tiu

Random shot of a soya sauce and fresh chillies that i kinda liked =P Looks faaancy, huh?

Chinese Coconut Slice for dessert!