Hong Kong Eat-a-thon

No amount of walking up and down Hong Kong's steep hills is going to wear off the calories from this lot...

This city knows how to eat.  I too know how to eat.  I just don't know how to stop...

Some of the hightlights of my 3 day trip, as follows:

Perfect prawn wantons in this soup at Mak Man Kee in Jordan, Kowloon (not to be confused with Mak An Kee noodle shop, though you might, mightn't you?)

Super light, delicate wanton wrapper, with a mega prawn lurking inside:

This man was a dynamo:

Then head out of the noodle shop and turn right, walk two shops down, and get involved in a whole world of awesome egg based treats here:

These were the best ever scrambled eggs - perfectly buttery and salty on pillowy toasted white bread -

Followed by a light bowl of very sugary eggy custard.  Eggs are protein you know.

Then hop back on the Star Ferry (bargain, around 20p) at 8pm, just in time to watch the light show on the water.

The next day we had lunch at The Chairman.  It'd had rave reviews - I'd say it was a good 7 out of 10.

The highlights were these delicious little prawn cakes

And this terrific wolfberry ice cream.

What is a wolfberry?  A goji, by another name.  Normally I find goji berries taste like shit, but not in the form of ice cream they don't.

Then drinks on the roof at Wooloomooloo in Wan Chai at dusk.

It's a great rooftop bar, not busy at all around 5pm, and the perfect place to get pissed while you watch the city's lights come on.

Then on to my favourite meal of the trip, at Yardbird.  Scrap that, my favourite meal of the year, hands down.

Pretty much every dish was phenomenal, but my top three were these great balls of corn:

Extraordinary Brussels sprouts with maple syrup, soy and garlic - would convert even the most hardcore anti-brassica into a believer.

These extraordinary cauliflower fritters:

Divine sticky, sweet, crunchy exterior with a perfect interior with a slight bite, but silky nonetheless, and with a subtle heat from kimchee, though with no overpowering kimchee flavour:

You know a restaurant is doing something right when they can transform sprouts, corn and cauliflower into the most exciting, memorable dishes you've eaten in forever.

Which is not to say that the meat dishes weren't all that.  They were.  All that and more.  Particularly the Scotch eggs with tonkatsu and kewpie mayo, which we ordered a portion of, had one bite, then ordered more of immediately:

Happy days.

And then terrific egg fried rice with deep fried chicken bits

Cute beer, how could you not love him?

Also less cute, more deadly sake

And then on to Feather Boa for very deadly dacquiris, with glasses covered in cocoa, which lull you into a false sense of security that you're actually drinking a dessert, not getting hammered.

Still hungry?  Didn't think so, but that's not going to stop me.

Famous for its beef noodle soup.  Ask for lean brisket or you'll get a bowl of fat, not that there's anything wrong with a bowl of fat if the mood is right.

And then on to the ridiculous Landmark mall, which is full of people who think £700+ is an acceptable price for a pair of shoes.

For a little pear and caramel cake at Robuchon's cake shop.  The only thing you'll find in this mall for less than a fiver - in fact the only thing you'll find here for less than about £20k.

And finally off to Chilli Fagara for bowls of beer.  Yes, bowls.  I'm drinking all my booze in bowls from now on:

And Szechuan prawns as big as your head:

You may think I ate everything in Hong Kong - it looks that way, doesn't it?  But I didn't get round to eating this:

The middle one.  Bacon creme anglaise.  Why is there not more bacon custard in my life?

Oh.  I did eat one more thing - popcorn.  I'm usually ambivalent, but seriously, this Chicago mix, courtesy of Garrett Popcorn in the IFC mall - half cheese flavour, half caramel crisp.

Who knew, I mean really?