Sunday 20 June 2010

Noodle Frenzy

It's impossible to go to Hong Kong and not eat your body weight in noodles. Frankly, I'd be seriously disappointed if I didn't do so. A favourite of mine is ngau lam ho fun, or beef brisket soup noodles, the wide flat rice ones. I was encouraged to visit Kau Kee for a decent version; at 7pm on a Saturday night, they had sadly run out of ho fun. Vermicelli noodles made a good enough substitute. The beef was tender, strands falling apart and the curry soup broth rich and oily. Pieces of beef tendon gave a good squidgy texture contrast. For roughly £4 with a milk tea it was terribly good value.

Kau Kee

G/F, 21 Gough Street
Central



This particular noodle place was located right opposite our hotel in Western, on Centre Street. I don't have the exact address (I'm guessing it's 6 - 14 by the sign above) but it was newly opened. We popped in for breakfast. The menu is dedicated to noodle soups; pork, beef or fish. Our waitress told us they were famous for the pork, so I elected to have ho fun with pork lung, heart, tongue and intestine (no liver please), topped with some seaweed. The broth was light, the meats giving a great textures of chewiness with the slippery ho fun. A fine breakfast. A side portion of crispy fish skin was really moreish; the pieces crackled in the soup to soften slightly. Squid balls, fish cake and fish won ton were equally excellent; great, bouncy textures. Since returning I've found my bowl of muesli, eaten al desko, to be a tear-inducing bump back to reality when compared with this.

We had this dish a couple of times, it's quite common. Cold shredded chicken atop cold rice noodles in a peanut sauce. Cooling, creamy and light.

More beef, this time at Mak's Noodle. Tendon and brisket again, the brisket with some excellent prawn wontons. Silky skins and packed full of the seafood, they seemed a touch incongruous with the beef but still went well together. We also ordered a dish of noodles sprinkled with prawn roe; served with a little bowl of soup to moisten it, it was so tasty. Very prawny and the noodles were wonderfully springy and elastic. It was a messy business eating it all - in fact, all noodle soups are, and I came back with a suitcase full of soup-splattered clothes.

Mak's Noodle

G/F, 77 Wellington Street,
Lan Kwai Fong,
Central

17 comments:

Sarah (Scotian_girl) said...

All of the noodle dishes look slurpingly delicious and I totally agree with you about their breakfast superiority compared to muesli. Did you get to the place that does truffle cheung fun btw?

Mr Noodles said...

I'm really loving your HK posts and this is fantastic noodle porn. In particular, I like the look of the fish cake, squid balls, and fish wonton noodle soup from the joint with the Chinese name.

BTW - the Chinese name of this noodle joint translates as "Chiu Chow People Noodle Shop".

Helen said...

Muesli? Jesus H, Mabs. My sympathies.

PlumLeaf 李葉 said...

Those noodle dishes are mouth-wateringly tempting! I'm a ho-fun fan too - but I say looking at the wontons with the springy noodles is good enough for me!

Did yuo manage to try any joong (rice dumplings) whilst in HK? The Dragon Boat Festival was Weds 16 June.

Su-Lin said...

I know what you mean about missing the food in Asia. The stuff here just isn't up to it, is it? :( The beef noodle soup in the first picture looks gorgeous!

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

Cor. I have oodles of noodle envy. Particularly liking the look/sound of the chicken, noodles, and peanut sauce breakfast combo. Blissful.

The Little Welsh said...

DEEP FRIED FISH SKIN!!!! i LOVE deep fried dish skin SO MUCH!! Can't find it anywhere in London :(

Hollow Legs said...

Sarah - Thanks! No, we didn't get to unfortunately. Too many meals, not enough days...

Mr Noodles - Oh brilliant, thanks for that. Pleased to hear you're enjoying them.

Helen - I know, right? Grim stuff.

Plum Leaf - we left the day before the festival. Managed some stuffed rice balls though.

Su-Lin - No, nothing really compares :( Thanks!

Forkful - we didn't actually have that one for breakfast, but it was indeed a fine dish.

The Little Welsh - me too! I love it so. I wish I'd brought some back with me.

Joshua said...

I'm still not over Asian breakfasts and I've been home for 7 months. In the last week I've turned to instant noodles and kebab rolls (not together) at my desk to try and recreate them a bit.

Wild Boar said...

I wanna go back to HK for another eating trip :-(

Miss Mary said...

Suddenly my fish pie supper has lost all it's appeal... these look DELICIOUS!

Jessica said...

Mmmm. I quite agree with your summary of the importance of noodles. I survived my freshman year entirely on a diet of noodles and Tab! lol

jessyburke88@gmail.com

S said...

ooo, i love all these noodle dishes. i particularly like the one with cold chicken and a peanut sauce. Lizzie- what about drinks- what were you having with all this lovely food? would adore to know. x shayma

Dan said...

Very jealous of your Hong Kong trip, I love noodles, this looks awesome.

Unknown said...

I randomly went to another restaurant on Gough Street on my first day in HK as my hotel was at the end of the street (where it hits aberdeen road)...

HK is small...

PS keep these coming, I need the help. My language skills SUCK.

Hengki Budi Prasetyo said...

I like noodle very much. Liz, do you ever hear about pangsit chicken noodle? This noodle is populair in my country.

BigfriendlyJames said...

Kau Kee was excellent! Thank you for good advice.
Travelling to Lamma Island tomorrow. Looking very much forward.