Gone Crazy on Street Food

Street food culture is pretty much a mainstay in Tainan's daily life, especially at one of the dozen night markets around town which operates from dusk til late. Locals even had a widely circulated mnemonic to remember which markets are open on any given day of the week. 

All Snake Menu

Some friends and we met up in Shum Shui Po for the snake dinner menu at one of the specialty restaurants in the neighborhood - the same group went for another snake meal only a month ago so consider this a sequel to that. Sher Wong Yip (Snake King Yip) is one of the handful shops remained in Hong Kong fully licensed to handle and sell live snakes. During winter months I often dropped by for a comforting bowl of snake soup and sometimes a bowl of sticky rice, another of their signature dish. But this is only my first time trying the more elaborate menu with 10 different courses, most of them cooked using snakes.

Street Food Detour

We did venture out of the hotel to hunt for street food a couple of times in a big group whilst in Kuala Lumpur last month. Those certainly were one of the highlights of our trip - it's almost like we never felt hungry at any given moment in those few days as we literally ate non-stop.

The Right Time

From the onset Hop Sze Restaurant in Sai Wan Ho looks just like any neighborhood eatery serving home-style Cantonese dishes, but one got the hint this one stands out in this old and worn district, either by a quick glance at their menu with a separate section filled with extravagant ingredients, or by the fine wines on display in the cabinet or brought in by their customers.

Late Late Dinner

We made our displeasure known to the staff when we finally got our table some 30 minutes later than what we have originally booked for, an inexcusable mistake any restaurant could make no matter how good the food was, or how many times they said sorry for, or how many rounds of drinks they offered to compensate with. Not to mention we already made accommodations by taking a late seating (9pm) for our big group but turned out we weren’t seated until half past, and it was another 20 minutes before the first dish of the tasting menu arrived.

Late Night Spicy Hotpot

We kept saying we wanted to eat something light after attending a social event at the Central Harborfront, but we ended up having a long late dinner at a new restaurant in Causeway Bay specializing in Taiwanese spicy hotpot. I found Spicy Spirit on the Eatigo app just as I was searching for somewhere to eat and I remembered some friends were raving about the place earlier. That’s why we ended up making a last-minute booking and showed up at their door 10 minutes later.

Street Food Fest

A whirlwind visit to Macau brought me and some other friends to Studio City to check out the Michelin Guide Street Food Festival over the Golden Week long weekend. Normally I wouldn’t fancy such a long day-trip commute for only dishes at a few food stalls, but with the line-up included restaurants and chefs from all across Asia and a few starred establishment, I figure it’s still worthwhile - just think of it like those pop-up restaurant/guest chef event, just that this time these were street food stalls.

Not So Little Anymore

We went on an impromptu dinner date on a Monday evening at Chef May Chow’s Little Bao at its new branch at Causeway Bay (their flagship restaurant, I was told). They have been hosting their friends and families for trials before they officially opened later this month, and we were glad they considered us as such so we could get a sneak preview of the new venue and the new menu before the crowd sets in to this ever popular joint.

Hot spring getaway in the summer

Seems like it’s a silly idea to go on a hot spring holiday in the middle of summer when it’s 30-degree plus out there in Taiwan, but it is what it is - let's just say it's not exactly my idea. The hot spring resort town of Beitou turned out to be much closer to the city than I thought – in fact technically it’s still within Taipei city limit and is easily reachable by MRT, their metro train system. While many opted for a day trip to Beitou from Taipei, we decided to stay there on our first night of our vacation at one of the newer resort hotels built in the mountains, with a car arranged as we landed in late morning which took us into Beitou right on time for check-in at the resort.

The Presidential Bun Cha

The staff at Bun Cha Huong Lien seems to be a little puzzled when I attempted to order from their a la carte menu as if no tourist has ever done that these days, but after 5 seconds of attempting to pronounce Nem Cua Be (fried crab roll), I gave up and said the magic words – “Combo Obama, please”. Yup, that’s the place in Hanoi made famous by the former US President’s visit with his foodie friend AB a few years ago.

Pho Expedition

“Customer for Pho? Please come in”

I didn’t discover this "secret" pho place by accident – though I wish I did or at least could get away by saying that (that would have been more dramatic, isn't it?) – but rather, an article at Saveur pointed me to this pho stall at an upstairs apartment inside a run-down building in Hanoi’s Old Quarter. I was able to find the place easily, thanks to the article with detailed directions and pictures of the street signs, and arrived at the right time too, between 3-7:30pm as that’s the only time the place was open for business.

Chaoshan Beef Hotpot

We thought about just stay in for dinner nearby for a completely lazy vacation but at the end decided to go out to eat in the city center of Shenzhen. I was curious about the ever-popular Chao-shan Beef Hotpot scene in town so we hopped on a taxi and head towards one specialist restaurant called Fu He Cheng. We may have well passed the season for winter hotpot with temperature now in mid-20s but the place was still packed when we arrived slightly after 8pm.

Mohinga and Noodles

Ask any local what’s the must-try dish in Myanmar and you would probably hear Mohinga mentioned more than once. Many considered this the national dish of the country and the breakfast of choice for most people. First time I tried Mohinga was at a restaurant called Feel near the embassy row where I went for breakfast on the second day. I made a leisurely scroll over after my morning visit of Shwedagon Pagoda on my way back to the hotel, and it’s almost impossible to miss the place once you reach the block where the restaurant was located. By 8am the place was packed with people with an interesting mix of locals and expats, some presumably working in the embassies next door on the same street.

Taichung Street Food Part 2: Markets Day and Night

"The Sixth Market" in Taichung is a farmer's market/food hall located inside an upscale shopping mall in the city center - so named because the other public food markets in Taichung was named by the number system from first to fifth.

Taichung Street Food Part 1: Local Breakfast

“Nei Rong Wai Dai?” (For here or to go?) is the phrase I heard most often as I was wandering through the morning markets in Taichung looking for something to eat. A quick 15-minute walk from my hotel I reached The Second Market, one of the traditional wet markets in the city famous for its cooked food stalls.

Chicken Two Ways

If Ramen and Motsunabe were the Top 2 dishes best representative of Fukuoka, Yakitori is perhaps a close third. There’s no lack of choices for top Yakitori, or chicken skewers, restaurant in the city, my only problem was the lack of time to try them all. This time I happened to stumble across one near to my ryokan specializing in grilled chicken skin.

Slurp-Worthy: Kagoshima Edition

To any ramen lovers, Kyushu is heaven for the region was known to be the birthplace of the Japanese noodle bowl and there’s no lack of shops – big or small – offering the bowl of hearty, comforting, high-quality noodles in soup served in a variety of condiments and styles. While the Hakata-style ramen, one rooted from Fukuoka in the north, was the more prevalent styles, partly thanks to a few popular chains opening up branches across Japan and overseas, there were others offering something different, like those in Kagoshima, the prefecture in south of Kyushu.

Slurp-Worthy: Fukuoka Edition

Of course whilst in Kyushu one has to stick in a ramen meal or two, as that is the very dish the region is perhaps most famous for. At home we are lucky to have a few famous Kyushu-based ramen shops setting up branches overseas over the last few years, but still, one never beat the bowls served in Kyushu, particularly Fukuoka which was considered to be the epicenter of ramen cuisine. And I was glad to have a couple that has not yet made their way to Hong Kong.

Motsunabe for One

I have been craving for motsunabe since I planned for the Kyushu trip a few months ago. This Kyushu specialty hotpot with beef or pork tripes and intestines was the perfect comfort food in the cold winter, combining the rich and fatty offals with an equally rich and steaming broth served in the traditional nabe pot. We had a great one during our last outing to Fukuoka a couple of years ago, and I intended to do the same this time with the weather more suitable for this kind of food.

Reminiscent of Yester-year

I felt like going back to the college days when I walked into Morty's Deli in Wanchai with the familiar American diner décor and 90's and 00's music playing in the background. I walked by the restaurant a few times before but this is only my first visit - this time at the invitation of the restaurant and their PR team.