Heartbreak hot and sour noodle, 傷心酸辣粉, Fok Wing Street, Shamshuipoo, Kowloon, HK

Many years ago my Taiwanese friend brought me to a "hot spicy" hot pot. I first refused so as it definitely upset my stomach, but my friend's boss somehow explained the Sichuan hot can relieve some stomach problem if the stomach tends to be "cool". It turned out it's true. Most of all, it's the only hot that made my head's hair sweat uncontrollably. I was told about this shop in Shamshuipoo for quite some time. Though they opened another branch in Dundas Street, Mongkok, I still wanna go to the first shop.

1. "mouth watering" chicken 口水鷄. It's the least hot dish among all those we ordered. The chili is quite special and aromatic. 2. the signature noodle - hot and sour noodle. Very nice, and I like the soup too. I ordered "small" hot but it's very hot to me indeed and my head sweat! The shop's waitress told me to get "baby" hot if I find it too hot. Actually I found out most others ordered "baby" hot. I wonder who orders super hot.

3. Chilled "water" squid, pork skin and stomach. Very nice and this hot is not like the other. This one with some light garlic and parsley flaour. 4. Mixed my noodle.

5. Chilled hot black fungus. Wow this one is the hottest among all though it didn't look like. I somehow like it. 6. Chilled noodle with chicken. For those who can't eat any hot, this one is a good choice and the noodle is very chilled. Nice dressing too.

7. Sichuan north chilled noodle. Under the waitress's recommendation, I tried baby hot so as to reduce a bit hot. 8. chilled bitter gourd. Not too good as it's a bit too mashy and too much garlic.

9. Chilled crystal jello. So good to have this one as they used some cane sugar as syrup. This is a good way to calm your hot meal. 10. the shop.

帝后殿, 京川滬, Queen's Palace, CRE Plaza, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Passed by this place many times but often thought it is just a place for some hip restaurant. So out of curiosity of their all-you-can-eat menu at HK$198, I got to give it a try. After I took the seat, I fount out quite many Shanghai people were sitting around and they all sound like they are regular customers. The waiters and waitresses speak proficient Mandarin. Then I asked if the restaurant was moved from somewhere else. The answer is not. It's just one year something old.

1. the table ware. 2. Hot and spicy soup. Pretty good but it's not hot (temp) enough for me.

3/4. Honey glazed Chinese ham. The chef did a very good job with this one. Golden ham is very salty. So glazing it to sweet is a matter of time and patience.

5. Chilled pork jello. Also pretty nice. 6. Drunken chicken. The sauce is impressive and the wine flavour is just at the balance.

7. sliced pork on rice roll. At average but the sauce dipping is very nice. 8. sweet and sour pork. A bit too hard and chewy.

9. stir fried egg white with shrimp. The egg white was a bit too overdone and dried out. 10. veggie with beancurt sheet. The stock is very nice to bring out the veggie sweetness.

11. picked cucumber - nicely chilled and crushed. Sauce is perfect. 12. One more drunken chicken.

13. Vegetarian goose - this one is very nice. Crispy outside and juicy inside. 14. Nice setting.

15. Oil boiling beef - a bit disappointing as the beef is too marinated 16. One more glazed golden ham.

17, stir fried eel with bean sprout. The eel is selected! The sauce is a bit heavy though. 18. Fish slices in vinegar sauce. This fish is pretty fish and nicely marinated.

19. sweet corn with chicken soup, at average. 20. Pan fried string beans. Quite good.

21. mango pomelo sweet, at average. 22. Osmanthus jello, also average.

23. mini rice dumpling in broken rice wine. 24. deep fried egg white with red bean paste. Both are average. In general, the food are pretty nice. As it's a pre-set all-you-can-eat menu, I need to try their a-la-carte to check further.

Modern China (Beijing, Sichun, Shanghai) Restaurant 金滿庭(京川滬) Times Square, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Got told by someone highly about this restaurant. I tried their restaurant in Olympic City in West Kowloon and their lotus leaf steamed rice did a magic on our very best friend who lost her appetite during her severe cancer treatment. This branch in Times Square serves the Beiing/Sichuan/Shanghai cuisine and it's on the same floor where all the high-end Chinese restaurants are (noted below).

1. This kind of deco. does attract someone who prefer something symbolic Chinese. 2. A big fish catcher on the ceiling.

3. the table ware. 4. I guess most of you should learn about this tea leaves from the classic kung fu movies. However, it became a bit bitter dry due to high heat boiling water and soaking for a long time.

5. appetizer - sauteed shrimp in light soy sauce. Pretty good. 6. Siu Lon Bao HK$68 - pretty good and the wrap is very thin.

7. Shan Dong Shred chicken HK$68 for half portion - the chicken itself is pretty good but the sauce is not so. Should be with more raw garlic. 8. Stir fried eel (HK$88) - a big big disappointment. See how soft the yellow leek is! When I saw it placed on the table, I immediately told "har... the chef did a big mistake! I told the waiter that it's wrongly cooked though I didn't get a taste! Yellow leek shouldn't be stir fried for over 10-20 seconds! The nice fragrance of yellow leek would go away! What a waste! Another big mistake is the overwhelming dark soy sauce. Though Shanghai cuisine is used with a lot of dark soy sauce, it shouldn't be that much. I asked for 2 big bowls of hot water to rinse that out. Then about the eel, I can't tell it's eel, as it's tasteles but just with dark soy sauce. The traditional way of this dish is to have the eel with some slight cornstarch coating and go for quick oil boiling and stir fried with chopped garlic and bean sprouts with dark soy sauce with sesame oil/sugar...etc. The yellow leek should be put at the final step at the heat being turned off.

9. The disappointment went on. This one is what they called big Ba Choy soaked in shark fin's soup - HK$68. First of all, it's not big Ba Choy. It'd be called Hok Dou 學抖(sorry my mac can't find the last word without the "hand" part). Second mistake is they cook this nice Hok Dou for a long time and that it lost the sweetness. Third mistake is they didn't cut out the root stem rotten part which made the dish a bit rotten smelly. Fourth mistake is the fin's skirt wasn't done in a right way. They should boil that fin's skirt in ginger/wine water for taking out the smelly part. 10. papaya, water chestnut and aloe vera sweet HK$25. The water chestnut should be cooked a bit to go with the papaya and aloe vera smooth texture.

11. My most favourite Shanghai dessert, mini rice dumpling in osmanthus wined broken rice HK$25, but it's hard to find a right one. This one is at average and I don't like they put sesame paste inside the mini rice dumpling. Supposed this one is to taste the nice balance of osmanthus and wined broken rice. 12. See how many people are waiting outside the shop. Some people eat the environment rather than the food, or under some influence from food critics.

13. BTW, this restaurant's Kwun Tong branch is getting back their name. I had a business lunch over there lately but couldn't take photos as that was a business lunch. Glad that they had one branch coming back. The original one in TST should be paid for a visit. 14. So these 2 high end Chinese restaurants are on the same floor, supposed this Modern China should be on the same level but I don't find it so.