Sun Cheong Ming noodle shop 新昌明食店, Happy Valley, Hong Kong

I believe Happy Valley is a bit similar to Shaukiwan. Those family business street stalls have become a shop because they inherit what their elder generations' recipe and cooking. Was told this shop also ran as a street stall back 30-40 years ago but then set up their business in a shop. At the peak time, lots of clients waited in long line outside the shop. When I was told Stars AAA and BBB...etc. came here, I was a bit frightened indeed as I had had quite some horrible experiences from those comments "oh, AAA or BBB often came here. You should try...". Don't mean I am criticising stars don't know about good food, but it's the shop sometimes get spoiled and lost their principles and just run their business in a massive production due to a large customers flow. However, this shop is one of my stubborn exceptions. Very impressive!

1. Iced almond milk - they used the "Gold Mountain" almond powder and it's the best among all the almond powder. You may not be able to buy it in supermarket as it's only as a supply to local tea restaurant like Black/White condensed milk in the local restaurant. Fortunately, I was able to get one can 5 years ago from Ming Tak Tea Restaurant in Landau Street Wanchai as after I chatted with the shop owner about almond milk. 2. Choy sum in "Chuu Hou" beef brisket sauce (柱候). Wow the "Chuu Hou" sauce is excellent, and it's not very salty, just to a right level and strong aroma of "Chuu Hou". The thoughtful part is that they gave you a small bite of beef brisket. It's really good!

3. nostalgic deep fried squid in spicy salt 椒鹽魷魚鬚 - I am really surprised to see this in the year 2009. It should have been lost for a long time, at least more than 30 years. This is the original HK style fishing village style deep fried squid - remember I once mentioned about a Thai restaurant in Pranburi beach next to Aleenta as in http://whispalms.blogspot.com/2009/07/aint-it-my-illusion-or-am-i-missing-my.html . The current common deep fried squid with flour batter coating is a heavy adaptation. By the way, this one is just to a perfect salty level. 4. Fish ball/fresh beef noodle - I seldom take HK style noodle but I love it. Why - the heavy alkaline in the egg noodle just upset my stomach pretty much. However, if the shop is said to be good, I need to try something (looks simple) difficult. This one really surprised me! Very chewy but not much alkaline. This is simply because the difficult part of the noodle pressing - very time consuming and repeating and repeating. Then the fish balls/slices are awesome. They must hand stir the fish patty with some salty water little by little. Can't mix the salty water all at once as it will lose out the sticky chewy texture. So this is a difficult way and what we call 工夫&心機。At last, the best fish ball is made of 3 different fishes, 鮫魚 (kind of a Mackerel but sweeter and more aromatic and gives a nice tangy texture), 門鱔 (a specie of eel and it gives a sticky chewy texture and so sweet; best to be steamed with soaked dried tangerine peel with black bean paste though) & 九棍 (this one is only used by local fishermen and it has a very special flavour like orange peel - hard to describe, but it has to be very fresh; otherwise it would be very mashy. BTW, it's the favourite fish of my passed twin cats White and Yellow.)

5. Lo Shui Chicken wings - the chef marinated the chicken wings a bit before braising it in Lo Shui (Chinese stock with some herbs and soy sauce); so this way the frozen smell would be off set. It's very tasty but not that salty. I really like the way they adjust the salty level while leaving the room for the original taste. Highly recommended. 6. So a good noodle soup should be with some exotic chili sauce. My try is a certificate to round up all the nice food and the wonderful soup base of this beef/fish ball soup. So I cleaned up everything! Must go there again and try their beef brisket and others.
7. The shop is on the 3rd street up from the tramway.