Monday, January 26, 2009

Lan Fong Yuen 蘭芳園 (HK style) tea restaurant

Again, I would try to avoid to trust what the others say "this is the best in town" from the general public. This restaurant has been so popular because of some stars went there. However, I hope those people treat stars are just normal people like any of us. It's not necessary to label things with any figure or entity. Just like those talk of the town - Michelin star rating. :)

1. the restaurant is in the food market near the Central Escalator. 2. When I first looked at this interesting combination. That ketchup color cornstarch sauce is called the shop's secret recipe "BBQ sauce". There are some scallion, onion, bell pepper...etc. I had a slight taste of it. It used some very heavy cornstarch to thicken it. Then the taste is nothing new - I believe any Michelin no-star housewives can do it, or even better than it. Another thing I really find it offensive is that people often use the Japanese renowned instant noodle 出前一丁 for dry noodle or fried noodle. Furthermore, that pork-like meat looks apparently it's not defrost in a proper way. I don't mind such a fast food shop defrosting frozen meat in this way but at least they should pan fried it a bit more to make it more aromatic. Think of boiling frozen meat with no taste - what do you think of such a meat-like stuff? Look at that cabbage - doesn't it look like a left over? What scared me the most is that there is some crushed ginger/scallion which is commonly used for going with eating steamed chicken. Imagine this goes with a sweet sour taste sauce on the side - extra ordinary fusion food. By the way, everything is about at a warmth of 40 degree celsius. For such a popular restaurant with such a massive customers flow, how can it be just slightly warm? I really hate food at this temperature. Well, this interesting dish with a drink is HK$37! Any similar restaurants may just charge HK$22-26 for this portion of fast food A, B, of C meal. Then they put the table and chairs like I found myself being in a kindergarten. I need to shrink my bones and muscles to take the meal. If you go there, you may wish to take a training course from a Beijing experienced "shrinking bone master" (縮骨功). A table with a diameter of 2.5 feet was seated with 8 people! There may be 1.5 feet distance among each table. Dear the owner of this restaurant, even any farm chicken owner wouldn't treat their chicken like that! Sorry if I am too blunt but frankly speaking they shouldn't put so many tables in the shop even if there are too many customers. Furthermore, if they can't cope with such a massive flow of customers, they shouldn't prepare the food at such a large quantity before the peak time. I certainly believe this shop was once pretty good. However, what they are doing now would just destroy their name. I may be wrong because some people would just follow what it is the talk of town. If they haven't been there, people would think they are out-dated. We have been already under stress from every aspect of life, why don't those people take a moment of being themselves. We are given good by our Creator and we should treasure food and make food "beautiful" to appreciate what our Creator give us.

3. this could be the most awlful omelette I have ever tried. It's about 30 degree celsius. They used some very cheap eggs - no taste of egg! $37 is somewhat over-priced for this eating environment and food level. 4. This so-called secret recipe pork chop bun really amazed me how they cooked pork chop. The pork chop was so oily and my taste buds don't get it as pork.

5. Ice milk tea - I think this can be something more of a restaurant standard. Well, it's not outstanding but just of a standard. 6. Hot milk tea.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I heard this is the best HK Style Cafe in HK.
And they have the "silk stocking milk tea" right.
From,
SS

in the sea said...

Yes, I heard of the same. However, nowadays there are quite a number of restaurant making some awesome "silk stocking milk tea". BTW, for those English speaking persons, this "silk stoking" doesn't mean they really use the silk stocking. Just they use a cotton filtering bag which looks like silk stocking.

My father once told me this kind of "milk tea" used "Pur Er (普洱)" tea leaves and Ceylon tea leaves. I recalled he once made this to us. Though it didn;'t taste the same, that's the only tea he made for me. So I am so glad that he has "honoured" me to make the last soup he got before he left. The Father made tea for the Son and the Son made soup for the Father.

Anonymous said...

ur blog is slower than mine in loading time, and i try to figure out why!

now there is one possibility

my setting is 25 posts in one page, and yours is much much more right?

maybe if u lower the post per page it may help the blog load faster, and maybe the right side of ur pic work normal too (not sure if it can be of help)

:) TC

in the sea said...

ok, no problem. I also need to change some other settings to make it easier. I just keep on writing and writing like my diary without polishing the blog... Sorry sorry.. :)

cath said...

this place is so overrated :(( The food is awful. The service is even worse. And they claim themselves to be HK's most famous milk tea??? What a lie... Sigh...

in the sea said...

Thanks Cath for the note. I have the same sigh after I tried their food.